What does hide and seek have to do with learning obedience to God?

My dog has a favourite toy. It's plastic chicken that goes by the Spanish name of "Pollo." When Pollo was new, the toy made an awful crowing noise when squeaked. Now that he has a few puncture wounds, he is, thankfully, almost silent!

"Find Pollo" was our favourite rainy day game at our old house. When torrential rain stopped us going out for a walk, we'd play hide and seek inside the house. Maiki would wait in the kitchen while I went to hide Pollo in another part of the house. Then, when given the command, she'd rush off to sniff out the toy and bring it noisily out of hiding.

Now that we're living temporarily in a house with a huge garden, our "Find Pollo" game has risen to a new level. Scent games can tire dogs out, so it has become our pre-bedtime game. Maiki needs to sit patiently in some part of the garden while I go off to find a good hiding place for Pollo. Then, when the release cue is given, she bounds into action and the enthusiastic hunt begins.

Sniffing out the toy is the exciting part of the game for a dog. The harder part is having to sit patiently and out of sight during the couple of minutes while the toy is being hidden. It's a real test for the dog. Will she sit faithfully until given permission to search, or will she leave her "stay" to find out what is happening and get a head start on the hunt? And so this "hide and seek" game is a test of the dog's willingness to obey, her willingness to wait out of sight until given the command to move.

When it comes to Pollo, the "stay" command or the "emergency stop" is just a game. But in a different situation, it can save the dog's life - as we experienced yesterday.

I was just saying to someone last week that we almost never encounter snakes on our walks in the mountains and so I can pretty much ignore Maiki's obsession with stalking lizards in the undergrowth. Well, wouldn't you believe it.... on our morning walk yesterday, a rather large snake slithered right across our path; I almost stepped on it. Fortunately, all four dogs froze when I gave the command, without any attempt to pursue the reptile or grab hold of it. (It wasn't venomous, but could have caused some damage in a fight for freedom.) The photo above shows my four super-heroes. I was proud of each one of them. They had illustrated in a real life situation that learning to obey promptly could one day save our life.

So what does all this have to do with my Bible reading this morning in the book of Judges?

Yesterday, I wrote about how the people of Israel failed to obey God and how they allowed idolatrous, heathen peoples to continue living as their neighbours in the Promised Land. Today, in Judges 3 verses 1 - 4, we read that there were actually two reasons why God allowed peoples like the Philistines and the Amorites to continue living in the land of Canaan.

The first reason, as I'd already seen in chapter 2, was to test whether the Israelites were truly willing to obey the commands that the Lord had given to their ancestors at Mount Sinai.  Just as having to sit and wait in some corner of the garden (while Pollo gets hidden) is a test of Maiki's willingness to obey, the presence of pagan peoples in Israel tested whether the Hebrews would obey God and refuse to worship idols.

The second reason was to teach warfare to the generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle, the generations who had been born after their parents crossed the Jordan and had to fight to conquer the Promised Land.

In our own lives too, God seldom leaves us with completely plain sailing, with nothing but peace and harmony on all sides. He allows us to face some challenges in life, and it's for exactly these same two reasons.

Firstly, God wants us to learn to do spiritual warfare, so that we won't simply be passive victims when the enemy mounts an attack against us. If young David hadn't previously faced and killed the lion and the bear, he would never have had the faith and the courage to face the giant Goliath. Likewise, God allows us to face smaller battles in life so that we learn how to fight and aren't easy prey when the larger battles come along.

Secondly, like Maiki waiting obediently for permission to "find Pollo," our response to the difficulties and challenges we face allows us to demonstrate that we are making a heart choice to obey and to do things God's way. That demonstration is important to our own awareness that our allegiance to God is solid and trustworthy, but it's also an act of spiritual warfare in itself, as it is a demonstration to the enemy that we are wholly committed to trusting God... just as Job in the Bible refused to give up on God when Satan threw all kinds of trials and injustices at him.

When we're in school or university, we sit exams to prove that we have understood and mastered a subject. To get our driving licence we have to sit a test to prove that we know the rules of the road and are able to handle the car safely. Let's not be surprised that in our Christian lives there are also times that test our obedience and that teach us how to defeat the enemy.