Israel’s enemies were used by God to accomplish two purposes (Judges 3:1-2). First, to test the faithfulness of the next generation. Second, to teach them warfare. We desire to protect the next generation from all things hard. We should protect them from what is evil and immoral. Sometimes we need to allow some hard things to test them and to mature them. Other times they need to learn warfare—how to deal with hard things—because real life is full of hard things. Sometimes God wants to fight our battles; sometimes God wants to equip us to fight our battles.
Adrian Timmons 