Joshua 4:1-3 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord….And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan….And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
Sin – Misery – Prayer – Deliverance. The people’s pattern of behavior repeats itself again after Judge Ehud died. They did evil in the sight of the Lord; though not specified, the evil was probably idolatry and seeking after pagan gods (demons). Sin against the First Commandment leads to evil against all the Commandments. And once again the sin caused misery: the Lord sold them into the hand of the Canaanites and they were oppressed by the enemy.
It is sometimes easy to see the connection between our sin and its consequences, but it needs to be explicitly revealed that the suffering caused by sin is the Lord’s doing (“the Lord sold them…”). Our spiritual enemies have permission to afflict the soul during times of unfaithfulness. Luther calls Satan God’s devil. The Lord will discipline us for our good. And it worked: Israel turned to God in prayer and cried unto the Lord. Then God raised up Deborah and Barack, He discomfited the enemy, and He had another woman, Jael, kill Sisera the captain of the enemy army. And they were delivered from evil, from both their own evil and from their enemies’ evil.
And our God promises to do the same for us when we experience hardship and oppression. But our response to the misery is to repent of sin, remember mercy, cry unto the Lord in prayer, and receive deliverance from our Deliverer. Whatever the difficulty we find ourself in we may pray: “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me [Psalm 50:15].” This is how a Christian spends the days of his life: sinning and suffering, calling and crying, thanking and praising. Praise God!