Once again God’s people did evil in His sight, so the Lord strengthened Eglon of Moab against Israel because of their wickedness. Israel was not sold over by the Lord this time, but they were smitten by Moab; and Jericho, the city of palm trees, was occupied by the enemy. Why was Israel doing evil once again? Had they not learned their lesson? Perhaps Israel thought that there would be no danger of oppression from an old enemy whom they had already conquered and considered to be weak. But it was soon clear that they were not as weak as they thought. The same truth holds true for our lives; we must be on guard as old sinful habits have a way of luring up on us again if we are not careful.
The nation of Israel knew better than to go off into sinful living; God had already slapped their hand once for their disobedience, and here He slapped again a little harder. The Biblical principle that applies here is this: as the intensity of sin increases, the intensity of judgment increases. As Hosea had written: they sow the wind and reap whirlwind.
When not properly dealt with, our sin will have the tendency to get worse, becoming even more powerful and taking more control of our lives. Reuben, Gad and half tribe of Manasseh failed to thwart the attack from Moab, Ammon and the Amalekites; then their failure and defeat affected the other tribes. Likewise, our sinful failures affect others too. Our influence is for good or for bad whether we like it or not.
