crushed and defeated...

Judges 2: 14 This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. 15 Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress. 16 Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers.

when we do wrong intentionally... and God punishes us or allows circumstances to come against us.. while we can feel sorry for ourselves if we want to... we still realize that we are reaping the consequences of our actions...

but what about when we are valiantly trying to do God's will and God's way and we are still attacked from many sides.. our mind gets tired.. our spirit feels deflated.. we are feeling defeated.. and we don't even know why we are going through it...

there is not much that we can do when we are following God's path and still being defeated... but because we know God's word.. and we have lived through defeat in the past.. we can know that God will still rescue us when He gets ready.. it may take a longer time than we want.. but some time.. He will come and rescue us...

saul attacked david for many years.. over what? because he was loved by the people and anointed by God... nothing david did.. david continued to do right by God and by saul both.. yet saul chased him to kill him relentlessly... but eventually.. from his own sin and wrong doing.. saul was defeated by someone else and david finally rose as king..

this didn't mean that david never struggled again.. his own son tried to destroy him...

so what is the moral of the story? I guess it would be that not all days will be good.. not all days will be bad.. we can do the right thing and the wrong thing still result.. but all we can know is that trouble will not last always... eventually things will become right again.. our spirit will lift.. and somewhere.. not too far down the road.. more trouble will await.. but that too will be temporary... because when He gets ready.. God will still rescue us again...