Head Scratcher — Ehud - Friday
Today’s Verse
Judges 3:30
So Moab was conquered by Israel that day, and there was peace in the land for eighty years. (NLT)
Growing up, my siblings and I would often venture over to my neighbor's yard to pick blackberries. I didn’t even like the taste of blackberries, but it was so fun to rummage through the bushes searching for the ripest berries in the bunch. While my neighbors grew blackberries, my mom tried her hand at growing some tomatoes. I remember watching my mom tend to her tomato plants, pulling weeds, and getting excited when some tomatoes began to sprout from the branches.
And I can tell you this… I was far more interested in picking my neighbor’s pre-grown blackberries than I was in watching my mom’s tomatoes take weeks on end to grow. The blackberries felt more worth it to my child self, because there seemed to be no waiting process. I got to show up, take what I wanted, and leave.
I think we do this as adults, only not with physical fruits. Instead, we do it with the fruits of the Spirit.
We read about the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. There, Paul implores followers of Jesus to let the Holy Spirit guide their lives, for “the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Sometimes I think we’d rather approach God and ask Him to just give us a dose of joy, peace, or kindness, just as my kid self would rather have gone and picked blackberries from my neighbor’s yard than wait for the tomatoes. We wish we could pick the pre-grown fruits of the Spirit we want or need in the moment. And while I do believe God can provide us with a supernatural peace and joy, I think the fruits of the Spirit are more like my mom’s tomato plants; they take time to grow and flourish within us.
Just look at the Israelites in our passage of scripture today. They got to experience peace in their land for eighty years, but that peace did not come suddenly or randomly. For before the eighty years of peace, the Israelites endured eighteen years of slavery.
Eighteen years of pain and suffering. Eighteen years of captivity and servitude. Eighteen years that likely felt like eighteen hundred years. Because don’t all challenging seasons of life feel as if they’re never-ending? That was what the Israelites were enduring. A seemingly never-ending season of stress, sorrow, frustration, and hopelessness.
And yet, once they called out to God for help, and once God sent Ehud to rescue the Israelites, and once Ehud killed king Eglon, and once Ehud called on the Israelites to help him fight the remaining Moabites, and once the Israelites were finally free, they got to experience a peace that lasted for eighty years. Talk about never-ending.
The Israelites called out to God for His help, and God answered their cries; however, it took a little bit of time. The peace the Israelites were desperate for had to grow and bloom before they could enjoy it for eighty years. Eighty years that likely made the eighteen years of slavery seem like a blink of an eye.
God can and will grow the fruits of the Spirit within you, but we need to allow Him to grow them in His time. It may feel excruciatingly long now, but the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that He will grow in you will last you a lifetime.
REFLECTION
Thank God for producing the fruits of the Spirit that He has produced within you already. Ask God to continue producing those good fruits within you in His timing.