Category Archives: Judges
An Undesired Solution
“And he gathered to himself the Sons of Ammon and Amalek and they went and struck down Israel and dispossessed the City of Palms. Thus, the Sons of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.”
(Judges 3:13-14)
We tend to have short memories. We want everything in an instant and to move on to the next thing. The notion of being disciplined for 18 years seems like a lifetime for most of us. The notion of having to wait 18 years for a deliverer seems to us to be interminable. And recognize, too, much like today, during that 18 years, the people would have looked to this leader or that leader to lead them out of their servitude. There would have been some “political strategists” who would have advocated blending their society more with that of the Moabites and others who would have been chanting, “Let’s make Israel great again.”
The reality, though, deliverance does not come from politics or from political parties who jockey for power. Deliverance comes from God. That is an important lesson to learn for all of us today who sometimes get caught up in the frenzy of political promises. It is also a lesson to remember within the church as local congregations often look to their pastors to “fix” all of the problems and bring growth. But the role of our governors is to be ministers of God to bring terror to evil-doers (Romans 13:1-4), to punish wrongdoing and praise those who do good (1 Peter 2:14). It is the role of the pastor to train and equip the church to do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). The solution to the problems in America today are the same solutions as were the solutions in ancient Israel…repent of your sin, do justice, love God’s mercies, and walk humbly with your God. Yet, much like was the case with Adam and Eve, people today and during the day of the Judges, never want to look to self, but always seek to place the blame on another.
Thus, Moab and their allies move into national Israel and even take back the City of Palms, better known to us as Jericho (Deuteronomy 34:3). And, following the defeat, find themselves under Moab’s yoke. I wonder, will the Christian church today realize their sin before they find themselves under the yoke of a pagan federal government? Maybe we already are and are just too blind to see it.
God Raises up Moab!
“And the sons of Israel continued to do the Evil in the eyes of Yahweh, thus Yahweh strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, for they had done the Evil in the eyes of Yahweh.”
(Judges 3:12)
Thus, despite the deliverance brought about through Othniel, a warning to the people about their lack of obedience. Despite the 40 years of rest given by God through Othniel; the people still chose to pursue their wicked desires and thus, after the death of Othniel, there arose a new threat. This is not because God is sadistic, but because his people refused to learn from his warnings.
Thus, we find Eglon, the king of Moab, being strengthened by God. Eglon’s name means “calf” or “cow” and here we enter into one of my favorite accounts in the book of Judges. The passage is filled with plays on words and subtle humor and one can easily envision this account being told around campfires to the great entertainment of all who were present. What is more important than the meaning of the “Fat Cow’s” name, is the significance that it is God who raised up even this enemy of Israel into prominence. God is sovereign over even the wicked oppressors.
Sometimes people wonder as to why, if God raised them up, he is so harsh in his judgment upon them. Yet, we must remember that while God is empowering them to do what they did, they are still doing what they most want to do and are thus responsible for their actions. Thus, God empowers them to bring punishment on his people, but will ultimately judge them for raising their fists against God’s own.
And so, we enter the second cycle of sin. As an aside, note that this is the only account in Judges where Moab rises up in prominence against Israel. This leads me to suppose that it is here that the book of Ruth fits into the chronology of Judges. We do not know for sure, but it is a suggestion.
The Cost of Silence
“And the Spirit of Yahweh was upon him and he judged Israel. And he went into battle and Yahweh gave into his hand, Cushan Rishathayim. And the land was peaceful for 40 years. And Othniel, son of Qenaz died.”
(Judges 3:10-11)
Isn’t it interesting that in this first cycle, the paradigm against which all of the others will fall short, that the peace which God gave to the people lasted the equivalent of one generation. Often when we read this, we focus on the life of the judge — while he was alive the people followed the commands of God, but when he died, the people fell back into their old sins. And it is proper to make that connection, as we often observe in the Bible and in history, the godliness (or lack thereof) of a nation’s leader affects the godliness of the people for good or for ill.
While that is true, may we not stop there because the responsibility to hand down the matters of faith from one generation to the next does not lie with the national leaders. It lies in the family. In particular, it lies with the father, the spiritual head of the households. And if the fathers are silent about the things of faith, the commands of God, and the works of God in history, then the next generation will drift away.
We are seeing the effects of this in America today. In the 1950s, people bought into the lie that spiritual things were private things and not to be talked about in the public sector. Many of the children of that era followed that practice and thus the grandchildren of that era began growing up in a world where godliness became a more or less optional matter (or embraced the notion that one could find spirituality in a variety of places. Today, the culture has almost entirely rejected the authority of God over life in the social square, and the people, much like what we will find here after Othniel’s death, have fallen into idolatry.
So, what is the solution? The solution is not Christian politicians. The solution is not laws that reflect Christian values. The reality is that politicians and laws are impotent when it comes to transforming our culture; at best, having Christian politicians and laws is only a byproduct of getting the more significant problem squared away properly. What is the most significant thing to do? We need to teach our kids the word of God and we need to model obedience to that word in our families. We need to train our children to refute the nonsense that is being taught in the broader and more secular culture and that means we need to teach ourselves not only what is taught but also how to refute it. Wen need to engage the culture with Truth and not be silent, for as we read the book of Judges, we will be confronted over and over again with the cost of that silence.
Help Us Repent and Love You in Deed
“And so the nose of Yahweh burned toward Israel and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathayim, king of Aram Naharayim. And the Sons of Israel served Cushan Rishathayim for eight years. The Sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh and Yahweh raised up a deliverer for Israel who delivered them — Othniel, the son of Qenaz, who was the younger brother of Caleb.”
(Judges 3:8-9)
We now move from matters that are introductory into the actual history of the people during the era of the judges. The first enemy comes from Mesopotamia (the interpretation of MˆyårShÅn — Naharayim from the LXX), to the northeast. The people are oppressed by him for a period of eight years and then they cry out to the Lord and he raises up a deliverer (some translations — “a savior” — same word), who happens to be someone we have already met from the original conquest (see Judges 1:13): Othniel, Caleb’s brother.
This first cycle of sin will serve as a model or paradigm as to what a Judge should be and do and how the people are to respond. The reality is that the people will continue this cycle of sin and the Judges will not ever reach as high as did Othniel before them. This is the best it gets in what becomes a dark time.
What should strike us is the duration of time that God permitted the people to suffer for their sins before he raised up Othniel. To us, eight years must seem like an eternity. Yet, in an eternal perspective, particularly in comparison to the seriousness of the people’s sins, the permission that God gave to Cushan Rishathayim to oppress his people is comparatively short and extraordinarily gracious. Remember, it is Hell that we deserve…it is Hell that we always deserve, yet God shows himself eternally gracious.
What must not be missed regarding these cycles of sin and deliverance is that we (the church) have changed little. We cry out for a deliverer but are all too often unwilling to repent of that sin which placed us under God’s hand of judgment. We neither hate our sin nor view our sin as seriously as God views our sin. And what shall we say for ourselves? Perhaps we should plead to God, “help us to repent and love you in deed as well as word.”
The Idol of Self
“And the Sons of Israel did The Evil in the eyes of Yahweh: they forgot Yahweh their God. Thus, they served the Ba’als and the Ashtoroth.”
(Judges 3:7)
We have already seen the language that refers to “The Evil,” earlier in the text of Judges, so we understand that the people are not simply doing any old evil thing, but they are doing “The Evil Thing,” which, as we discussed before, normally ties in with idolatry. This verse is worded in such a way that it permits us to narrow the discussion of the evil thing even further, for the evil thing here is “forgetting” Yahweh their God. And what then is the result of this forgetting? Idolatry.
But what does it mean to “forget” God? Is it the same thing as when we forget a fact or a figure or forget to bring home something from the grocery store? One could argue that forgetting includes just that, but when the scriptures speak about forgetting God, it means so much more. Forgetting God is reflected in the way we live our lives. We may remember the things of God, perhaps taught to us when we were children and in Sunday School, but if we do not live our lives in submission to the God we know and even claim as our own, then we are guilty of forgetting. With this in mind, there are many professing Christians (even in our churches!) who have effectively “forgotten” Yahweh because the knowledge of Yahweh has no effect on their lives. In our modern sense, they may not bow before Ba’al or Asherah, but they bow to another, arguably more insidious, idol: self.
When people pursue the idol of self — when church bodies pursue the idol of self — virtually all things become permissible and often those things that the Bible permits, these things become impermissible. The first is a tendency toward antinomianism, the latter is a tendency toward legalism — both are sin. On the one end, churches in America have embraced a model of worship that is built on entertainment and not on thoughtful, Biblical worship. The man becomes the center of the stage and the gathering becomes an event. Theology takes a back seat to passion.
On the other end, we find a pervasive legalism when it comes to pet objections — things that become sin to the church, though they are not sins before God. Some denominations have taken a strong stand against ever drinking an alcoholic drink. While the Bible clearly condemns drunkenness, Jesus was known to spend time with people who enjoyed drinking and even turned water into wine at a wedding. Paul even instructs Timothy to take some wine with his meals as a remedy for his stomach ailments. Other denominations ban gambling, yet where in the scriptures is gambling condemned? Does not God ordain wherever the dice fall (Proverbs 16:33)? Did not Peter choose Mathias through a form of gambling? Certainly abuse of gambling would fall into the realm of theft from one’s own family, but responsible gambling as a form of entertainment surely cannot be condemned Biblically.
In both cases, what often happens is that some sins are condemned unequivocally while others are ignored. It is true that homosexual behavior is condemned in scripture, yet how many church leaders openly condemn homosexual behavior as immoral while ignoring the immorality of heterosexual behavior outside of marriage? Or how many speak of the first, pay lip-service to the second, and then ignore auto-erotica as immoral? Yet are not all sin before God? Isn’t any sexuality outside of that which honors the spouse in the marriage bed immoral? Shouldn’t all be equally condemned from the pulpit? When one makes an idol of self and forgets Yahweh, this happens.
Perhaps the most dangerous side-effect of forgetting Yahweh is the neglect of His word. Pet passages of scripture are upheld, but not the whole. Again, if we are to claim to be Christians, we must be whole-Bible Christians. And so, we could fairly say that much of the church in America has forgotten Yahweh, their God and turned toward idols. That means it is time to repent.
Intermarriage
“And the Sons of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hives, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to themselves to be wives and their daughters they gave to their sons; and they served their gods.”
(Judges 3:5-6)
And we are still doing the same today. How often our sons and daughters come to us with stars in their eyes because some young woman or man has won their hearts. And what of our response as parents? “Is he respectful?” “Does he have a good job?” “What are her plans for children?” “Does she come from a good family?” Yet, how often, as parents, we fail to ask the single-most important question: “Tell me, is he a born-again Christian?”
In America, we are a nation whose great strength has been augmented by the fact that most of us have the blood of many different cultures running through our veins. My own heritage, for example, is predominantly German with a healthy dose of Italian and English thrown in for good measure. Yet, whether you are Indian (Native American or from India), African, German, Mexican, Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Philippino, or Aborigine in your heritage (or any combination thereof), it is a wonderful thing to blend our cultures, families, and traditions — there is only one race after all (and that is human). But the first question that must be asked regardless of one’s ethnic background, is whether or not the person is Christian.
Even in the Old Testament we find Boaz taking Ruth (a Moabitess) as his wife and Salmon took Rahab (a Canaanite woman) as his wife…but in both cases, the women had converted to faith before they were married to God’s people. Some will argue for what they call, “missionary marriages,” but most of the time, when intermarriages (of faith) take place, the result is no different than what the Israelites experienced. Paganism thrives and true faith wanes in the families. I cannot think of any grief that is greater for the Christian than to see your children or grandchildren depart from the faith of Christ.
We Need to be Reminded
“The five Lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Chivites who dwell in Mount Lebanon — from Mount Ba’al-Chermon as far as Lebo-Chamath. They were for the training of Israel to know whether they would obey the commands of Yahweh which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
(Judges 3:3-4)
To us, this repetition might seem redundant. To others, they may justify the repetition due to the ancient world being predominantly an oral culture. Yet, let us also not lose sight of the fact that these words are also recorded for us…we who need the reminder that God expects and even demands obedience from us. He expects that we be obedient to His commands that have been handed down through the generations.
The reality is that our corporate memories are as short as these ancient Israelites. It is kind of sad, isn’t it? As a result, the Israelites are surrounded by pagans and live with pagans in their midst. As a result, the church in America today is also surrounded by pagans and we have pagans again in our midst. How little times change because how little the sinful heart of man changes. Thus, we need the same reminders.
Fabian Tactics in the Church
“These are the peoples which Yahweh caused to remain settled to train Israel by them — all those who did not know all the wars of Canaan. It was only in order that the descendants of the Sons of Israel should know, to teach them war — only those present who did not know.”
(Judges 3:1-2)
Many of our English translations will render hAsÎn (nasah) as “test,” though, in context, it seems like, “to train,” is perhaps the better rendering. Because the people had sinned with idols and disobedience, God is leaving these pagans in the land to train the people in war. But why would God do such a thing? Why not remove the people from the land (indeed, God will do that several centuries down the road)? Why not bring the people peace and woo them while they are free from the shadow of war (certainly, that would be the mindset of the health-wealth movement). No, God trains us through the most difficult experiences we face. God teaches us reliance when we face insurmountable obstacles. God teaches us obedience most often as we are given a taste of what the path of disobedience brings.
Thus, this “testing”, this “training” was never meant to be a pleasant thing, nor is God trying to raise up a warrior nation. God is the warrior of Israel (Deuteronomy 20:4), the victories do not come from the might of Israel’s warriors. God will prove that over and over again. They don’t need to learn war to become warriors; they need to learn war because war is awful and grievous to the heart. The people need to learn that wars take place because of human sin, not for human glory.
The question that we must ask ourselves is, “Will we learn?” In other words, will our own commitment to idolatry keep us from obedience? Will we learn the lessons from hardship and persecution to walk in faith and not by worldly-sight? Paganism is in our midst; how will we respond? Will we engage the pagan world with the Gospel? The promises to the church exist in the context of the church marching in battle (the gates of Hell will not prevail), not to a church that seeks to fight a defensive war — defensive campaigns are losing campaigns anyhow, ask Quintus Fabius Maximus if you doubt that. Fabian tactics delay and frustrate the enemy, but they do not win wars. Sadly, the church has largely practiced such tactics for a generation, all the while losing ground in the culture.
So, what is our solution? We follow the lead of Scipio (and more importantly, the Apostle Paul) and take the battle to the enemy. We tear down every argument that stands against the knowledge of God in our community, in our school systems, in our collegiate environments, and yes, even in our churches (too many churches have compromised so much of the Scriptures that their witness is not effective and hardly even can be considered Christian). We evangelize. And we intentionally disciple with the aim of a church body that both knows the Word and practices the Word in obedience. We create an environment where even the non-Christian benefits from the presence of Truth in their midst. We train, train, train ourselves and our children, we read good books and we utilize good resources so that every Christian Culture Warrior that is sent out is equipped for the battle. We learn the lessons of war so that we and future generations will walk in obedience.
In Whose Ways?
“So the nose of Yahweh burned against Israel and he said, ‘Because this nation transgressed the covenant which I commanded to their fathers and did not listen to my voice, I will not continue to dispossess mankind from before them — from the nations which Joshua left at death — for the purpose of training Israel by them; whether they are keeping by the way of Yahweh to walk in them just as their fathers did…or not.’ Thus Yahweh left these nations, lest they be dispossessed quickly, and did not give them into the hand of Joshua.”
(Judges 2:20-23)
As we begin to wind down the summary of the book of Judges, once again we find the refrain that God was angry with the people because they stubbornly would not walk in his ways. Of course, we might wonder why the text repeats this language over and over — yet, we ought not wonder, for is this not the same crisis that plagued Israel through Biblical history and that still plagues the church today? How frequently we choose to walk in our own ways or the ways of the world around us instead of walking in the ways of God.
The punishment is that God will no longer dispossess the nations. This language we have seen as well, though there is a nuance here that ought to be mentioned. Instead of saying, “I will no longer dispossess the nations…” as many translations will render, the Hebrew text reads, “I will no longer disposes man…” The nuance is small, but it communicates the enormity of the judgment — God will no longer remove any human obstacle from their midst. And the purpose of this — to see whether they will walk in the ways of their forefathers…in the ways of God. How often God places obstacles in our way to teach us reliance upon him. He does this in the lives of individuals and in the lives of churches as well. We so often strive to do our own thing and God is constantly calling us back to do His will. The question remains, “In whose ways will we walk?”
Impudent Ways
“And so, Yahweh raised up Judges for them and Yahweh was with the Judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the Judge, for Yahweh was grieved by their groaning caused by those who oppressed them and crowded them out. But at the death of the Judge, they returned and behaved corruptly (in contrast to their fathers) and went after other gods to serve them and bow before them. They did not abandon their deeds or their impudent ways.”
(Judges 2:18-19)
In some senses, there seems little to say about these verses, though they speak volumes about the nature of man and about the character of God. The reality is that, like the people of Israel, apart from a savior, we are helpless to do anything but to fall into sin. The good news is that unlike the Judges of old, which came and delivered for a season, Jesus promises never to leave nor to forsake us.
Even so, God often allows oppressors to enter into our midst to teach us reliance on Him and not on our own strength. Even as I have often told my children with respect to challenges they face in life, it is typically those things that are difficult that God uses to grow us and to mature us the most greatly.
Moving from the personal to the level of Christ’s church, these verses also highlight the importance that a church have both godly leaders and a godly pastor. For when the leadership of the church fades, the people will pursue sin. History is marked by numerous examples of churches and even whole denominations that have drifted into sin because their leaders have not been vigilant to govern the church according to the Scriptures. And once these institutions fall into apostasy, the people will rarely abandon their wicked deeds or their impudent ways.
Hearing the Word and Reforming
“But they did not hear their judges, for they prostituted themselves after other gods and prostrated themselves before them. They quickly turned aside from the path which their fathers had walked; hearing the commandments of Yahweh, they did not so do.”
(Judges 2:17)
God sent Judges to deliver the people but the people refused to listen to the Judges. In the translation above, I rendered the Hebrew word oAmDv (shama) as “hear” to make it stand out from the text. In Hebrew, this word carries not only the connotations of listening to someone, but also the idea that you will act in obedience to what is being said. It is not enough to simply listen to what the Judge had to say, but the people were expected to demonstrate that they had listened by their actions…they hear and then respond in obedience.
The sad thing is just how little things have changed over the years and the generations. We might be tempted to critique the people by saying, “when will they get with the program?” Yet, before we say such things, we must first look at the church in America and in Europe and in other places as well. For we do little better than these ancient Israelites. How often Christians hear the word preached and then go away from the sermon living life exactly as they have done so for years. How many Christians enter church on Sunday and simply feign attention while the sermon is being preached, having absolutely no intention of learning about God, being challenged in terms of the application of the text, or of living a life to the glory of God, but instead daydream about the rest of the events of the day during the sermon, politely passing the time until the service is through. How often do preachers even, fail to teach the whole council of God because they do not like what its implications are for their own lives?
Friends, things have changed very little. And we even have the advantage of hindsight, the fully revealed and written down Scriptures of God which explain in detail that which God demands of his own, and we know the end of all things is judgment for those who do not love Jesus. We also know that true love for God is demonstrated in our obedience, and thus, much of the evangelical church today still stands self-condemned whether they will admit to it or not. The church has prostrated themselves before idols of their own making: buildings, programs, human reputations and traditions, wealth, ideologies, leisure, pleasure, and power. And in some cases the idols are still crafted by the hands of men out of silver and gold — they are just given names like “Saints” or “Virgin Mary” or “Eucharist.” Prostrating to these things, though given “sanctified” names, is just as idolatrous, just as much a prostituting oneself, as it was with the Ba’als and the Ashtoroth of the day of the Judges.
May we learn from the error of these Israelites. May we learn from the error of our forebears in the Christian church (remembering that over time nearly every denominational body has drifted toward or into liberalism and apostasy). But more importantly, may we demonstrate that we have learned by the way we reform our lives and by the way we work to reform our churches. And don’t content yourself with simply working to slow the decline or maintain a compromised position; labor to lead a church or your life toward repentance and growing in your obedience to our Almighty God and his design for the Biblical Church.
Judges; A Messianic Warning
“And Yahweh raised up Judges. And they saved them from the hand of their looters.”
(Judges 2:16)
The role of the Judge is one that clearly is designed to prefigure Christ. They are redeemers of the people from their adversaries. They are signs of God’s grace, given that the people are in the hands of their adversaries because of their sins. They are signs to the people that God will not leave or forsake them, despite their sin. They are often prophets in their role, they often offer sacrifices as the priests do, and they certainly have a kingly function as they rally the armies (or are a one-man army) against the enemies of God’s people. Thus, they fulfill to a limited extent the role of Mediator, which again we find Jesus fulfilling in an ultimate sense.
As we arrive at this verse, though, we also enter into a summary of the whole book of Judges (we have moved from looking back to looking forward). The sad thing is that this cycle of sin is not unlike the cycle that Christians today, Churches today, and even nations today find themselves falling into. Yet, we must be aware that God also gives the warning to the church that he will remove their lamp stand from its place if they persist in their sin. Judges is far more than a history book. It is Messianic as it points toward Christ. It tells us of the long-suffering of God towards his covenant people. But it also stands as a warning to us today lest we turn to idols of our own making.
Yahweh’s Burning Nostrils
“Thus they forsook Yahweh and they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. And the nose of Yahweh burned toward Israel and he gave them into the hand of plunderers and they plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their enemies that surrounded them and they were not able to stand in the presence of their enemies. In all of their going outs, the hand of Yahweh brought to them disaster, just as Yahweh had repeatedly warned — just as Yahweh swore to them. And they were constrained greatly.”
(Judges 2:13-15)
As a kid, I remember watching the old Buggs Bunny cartoons and one of the more vivid images that I remember is that of an angry bull bearing down on Buggs the Matador. To illustrate the rage of the bull, the cartoonists gave us what is almost a universal image for anger — steam would puff from the bull’s nostrils. This is also how the Biblical language portrays anger, but in this case, it is not an angry bull that is bearing down on Israel, it is an angry God whose nostrils are burning.
God demonstrates his anger toward his people by removing his hand of protection (the plunderers come) and by constraining them in the land by allowing their enemies to oppress them. Remember, the Promised Land as described by God to Abraham was much larger than the people ended up receiving (see Genesis 15:18-21). Here we are told why: the people forsook their God, the one, true, and mighty God who had delivered them. God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14) and he will tolerate no compromise to his true worship. Again, what a condemnation that is to much of worship today that loosely falls under the guise of “Christianity.” Woe to those who would worship by the ways of men rather than in the Spirit and Truth which God commands in his Word.
Notice too the language of God’s “repeated warning.” The verbal construction (Piel) indicates that this is a repeated and emphasized action. Indeed, God has repeatedly warned his people that while he will bless obedience, he will bring punishment against disobedience. And further, woe to those who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). And oh, how this is a message that the Church in our nation needs to be reminded of today.
Churches Forsaking God
“And they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods, after the gods of the peoples which surrounded them and they bowed to them. And Yahweh was provoked to anger”
(Judges 2:12)
Do you know what it means to forsake something or someone? It means to make a decision to abandon something, to leave it behind intentionally and to renounce your relationship to or connection with that which you have forsaken. The bottom line is that when you forsake someone, they become as if they are dead to you with no grave-marker for remembrance. When you think this through, it ought to give you chills when you think of the people of God doing just that with the God of the heavens who has revealed his power through many works.
May I suggest, though, that anytime God’s people choose to compromise the Word of God, then they are guilty of the same thing. God has revealed himself in his word that we might know him, but oh how quickly entire churches back away from what God has plainly revealed about himself in favor of pleasing the culture and the “itching ears” of those who are listening. When churches reframe God in their own image, then they are just as guilty of forsaking God as these Israelites were. And in turn, their modern apostasy angers God no less than the apostasy of the Jews.
Recognize too, that this is not just a matter of our own personal devotion. What we believe about God is reflected in our witness about God to a fallen world. They are intertwined and inseparable. The Israelites understood this to the degree that they believed that their central creed (Deuteronomy 6:4) was their essential witness to the world. Yet, when we bear false witness against God, we essentially take God’s name in vain (notice that a traditional rabbinic practice is to divide the 10 Commandments in half — five and five — and show parallels between one and six, two and seven, three and eight, etc…). One might be angered if someone committed false witness against them; God pours out his wrath justly for doing so. The Heidelberg Catechism says of the Third Commandment that it is this sin with which God is most angry (Question 100).
The Evil
“And the Sons of Israel did the Evil in the eyes of Yahweh; they served the Baals.”
(Judges 2:11)
In most of our English translations, this verse is translated in an unfortunate way. The English Standard version uses the phrase: “what was evil” and the World English Bible translates it as “that which was evil.” The King James Version, along with the New International Version and the New American Standard Version simply leave it as “did evil.” Young’s Literal Translation, as is often the case, comes closer when it reads: “did the evil thing.”
Translating the Hebrew literally, you simply have the word oårDh (ha’ra), or “the Evil” with Evil being understood as a substantive noun, not as an adjective. This construct is used 7 times in the book of Judges (2:11, 3:7, 3:12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1), but is also found through much of the Old Testament. Often, it refers to idolatry, as it does here, but not always.
Numbers 32:13 uses the phrase to refer to the people’s not trusting God in the wilderness and Deuteronomy 19:19-20 uses the phrase to refer to lying and conspiracy. In Deuteronomy 21:21 it refers to a rebellious son and in Deuteronomy 22:21,24 it refers to an immoral daughter and an adulteress respectively. Deuteronomy 24:7 uses the term to refer to the act of taking a Jew as a slave or selling a fellow Jew into slavery and in 1 Samuel 15:19 “the Evil” is the failure of Saul to kill Agag, king of the Amalekites. In a similar way, David’s adultery and the murder of Uriah is referred to as “the Evil” in 2 Samuel 12:9 and in Psalm 51:4 (verse 6 in the Hebrew text). Even Haman is referred to as “the Evil” in Esther 7:6 and Nehemiah 13:17 applies the term to profaning the Sabbath.
Probably the most profound use of this construction can be found in Deuteronomy 30:15, where the text reads:
“See that I have put before you this day the Life and the Good and the Death and the Evil.”
What follows is a warning that obedience brings “the good” and life and disobedience brings “the evil” and death. What a remarkable reminder of truth for us that nothing good comes from our disobedience…it only brings evil and death.
Thus, as a generation rose up that did not remember and treasure the word and the things of God, then the people fell into “the Evil” and thus they fell into death. When we just read “evil things” we recognize that they are doing something that they ought not, but I don’t think that most of our English translations put as much emphasis on the phrase as the Hebrew text places upon it. And we should, especially if we desire to let these words warn us in our present context, for we have (as a society) largely fallen into “the Evil” and need to repent.
Forgetting the things of God
“And so all of that generation were gathered to their fathers, but following them arose another generation which did not know Yahweh and also the works which he had done in Israel.”
(Judges 2:10)
The Historian, Will Durant, is famously quoted as saying, “From barbarism to civilization takes a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.” In principle, with many things, it takes a lot longer to build than to tear down, and when the fathers do not think it significant enough to pass down their faith and the knowledge of God to their children; society will crumble.
This verse marks the end of the summary overlap between the end of Joshua and the beginning of Judges. Joshua and the generation that remembers the mighty works of God based on firsthand experience passes away. And in passing away, their witness is lost because their children have not been instructed in the things of God. Remember, that while the written word is available at this point in history (Moses penned the Torah), it is not widely distributed as every scroll must be copied by hand still, and thus people would have only had access to parts themselves and only to the whole through the Levites in their midst.
One might be tempted to think that such access to the scriptures would be enough to preserve the history of God’s work in Israel, but if we use our own nation as an example, it is not hard to see how the people would fall away and forget the things of God. In today’s world, we have access to information and writings that is unprecedented in history. There are more books in print and out-of-print books can be acquired in electronic format from free libraries. We know what our American founding fathers thought about and wrote about. But as accessible as these documents are, we do not read them. We tend to be content to learn only as much as we need to get by. In fact, as much access as we have to the written word today, fewer and fewer Americans read, or if they do, they read only short snippets and not whole works.
Further, the riches of the Word of God, as expounded by the saints of the past, is more accessible than ever, yet a broad swath of the church is spiritually and intellectually illiterate, satisfying itself with a feel-good theology that has froth and foam, but no depth of substance. One of the effects of the Fall of Adam is that the things we most need to know, we struggle the most to dig into. Yet, when we fail to dig, when we fail to study the Scriptures deeply, that which has been built and established crumbles because the people walk and wander astray. And if you seek a testimony about the truth of that statement, look at America today…look at the errors that are being taught about history today…look at the errors that are being taught about God today. Look at the foolishness that passes as Christian orthodoxy today. And then we will see the truth of this statement in Judges as well as Durant’s observation.
We will also see the importance of correcting that error…a task that is as pressing today as it was back in the days following Joshua’s death.
Burial or Cremation
“And they buried him within the borders of his inheritance, in Timnath-Cheres, in the mountains of Ephriam — on the north side of mount Ga’ash.”
(Judges 2:9)
In a day and age where the practice of cremation has become both commonplace and acceptable, it is important to be reminded of the Biblical practice of burying the body in the ground or in a cave, leaving it there intact. While burning bodies was a common practice in pagan societies, it was never introduced to the Christian world until the 1800s. In England, cremation was not legalized until 1902, largely as a result of the influence of a self-professed Druid named William Price. While American Indians had practice cremation of the dead in America for generations, the first European to be cremated in the United States was the Baron de Palm, Joseph Henry Louis Charles, who was a member of the cultic universalist group known as the Theosophical Society. When the society originally sought to cremate the body there was such an uproar by the townspeople that the cremation had to be relocated from New York to Western Pennsylvania.
Today, nearly 40 percent of bodies are cremated according to one source that I read; clearly opinions have changed. Certainly, when Jesus returns, he is quite capable of resurrecting a body from their cremated remains, just as he is able to resurrect a body that had no remains to speak of (for example, soldiers killed in bomb blasts in war). The real question is what are you communicating to the world when you incorporate historically pagan practices into the Christian life?
The Biblical practice is clearly that of preserving the body in the ground in the anticipation of a resurrection to glory (for the believer) and destruction (for the unbeliever). As a pastor, I often use the language of “keeping the body in trust” when I speak to people about burial in our church’s cemetery. Every headstone out in that graveyard serves as a reminder to the world of our anticipation of a resurrection and we look forward to that day when our Lord will return and all those graves will be emptied.
So, as we look back to Joshua’s death, we are reminded of our Biblical heritage. My prayer is that everything we do in both life and in death is done for the glory of God and with the hopes of communicating the Gospel to those who are watching you. I believe that one of the reasons that Christianity is in a more or less visible decline in the west is because Christians have oftentimes not offered a consistent and Biblical witness by life and action and have oftentimes been too quick to incorporate pagan practices into their Christian worldview…let’s not travel down that road any further than we have. And, where God gives us influence, let’s use that influence to change the road we have been on and place us on the road that honors God through his Son, Christ Jesus.
And He Died…
“And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died; a son of a hundred and ten years.”
(Judges 2:8)
As humans we are tempted to think ourselves immortal and to cling to the things of this earth with clenched fists. Yet, this earth is passing away and our immortality is often not how we imagine it to be. Indeed, we will live forever and resurrected bodies are promised to all — though those who are not born-again believers in Jesus Christ will be resurrected to eternal torment. How we have our lives upside down, though, clinging to that which cannot last and neglecting that which does. And then again, even that tendency is a result of the fall and our sin.
Thus the theme, “and he died,” is pronounced through the scriptures and is one that yet haunts us today. Too many people die way too young and many more, though they grow old, suffer maladies which do not permit them to live like they would like. And that reality, as grim as it is, is designed to point us back to Christ, for in Him is the only solution to death and the grief that accompanies death. For in Christ is life and life eternal…and not eternal life in this frail and fallen world, either. We are promised eternal life in a remade heavens and earth that will be free from the devastation of the Fall. For that we wait in hope, but for now, we grow old and die as a reminder to those who follow us of mankind’s sad state.
“We do not want you to be without knowledge, brethren, regarding those who sleep, in order that you may not grieve as others do, even as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and arose, in the same way God, through Jesus, will bring those who have fallen asleep to himself.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
Personal Holiness of Church Leaders
“And when Joshua sent the people off, the Sons of Israel each went to his own inheritance to possess the land. And the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all of the days of the Elders who lived days beyond Joshua, who had seen all of the great works that Yahweh had done in Israel.”
(Judges 2:6-7)
One of the themes that often puzzles people about the Bible is how often the spirituality of the body’s leadership is reflected in the spirituality (or lack thereof) of the people. Why don’t we see a body of god-fearing people when you have a bad king? Why do the people honor God when there is a revival in the life of the king?
The 19th century Scottish preacher, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, used to say, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” What he understood is that people normally follow the lead of their shepherd. And whether we see that in the Elders and Kings of Israel or the pastors and councils of churches, the pattern remains unchanged through history. Even in civil life in America, our healthiest times as a nation (when it came to spiritual matters) have always been when we have had godly leaders.
On a more local level, this trend should send a clear message to all of us who serve as ministers of the Gospel and in church leadership. How are we maintaining our souls? Are we being diligent to make our calling and election more sure (2 Peter 1:10)? It is too easy to get caught up in the busyness of the week and of the responsibilities to prepare church budgets and to set in place church guidelines; we need to be reminded to make this our greatest task — how will we care for our souls? For if we do not care for our own souls, how will we care for the souls of others?
And thus, history echoes the lesson we are learning in these verses. And, if we do not want that history repeated in our churches or in our communities, we need to encourage those who shepherd us to feed their souls as well as our own. That takes time, but in the scope of eternity, it is a worthwhile investment.
Repentance
“As soon as the Angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the Sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept. And the name of the place is called Bokiym. They sacrificed there to Yahweh.”
(Judges 2:4-5)
As bad as Israel will become in this book, they are not there yet. Despite their failures and sin, they respond in exactly the way a believer should respond to the recognition of sin. Sadly, God has to confront them as a people, but holy grief and sorrow is their response. In fact, the Hebrew word which we translate as “voice” is singular to indicate the people lifting their voices and weeping as one body.
Here is also an example of corporate sin being addressed. When it comes to individual sin, we are called to grief and repentance just the same, but typically this does not take place in the assembly. Yet, when there is corporate sin — a church has been guilty of harboring a given sin, then it is proper to address that sin as a body, weeping and grieving over the path the body has taken. We even see this language applied to the nation of Israel (2 Chronicles 7:14).
The real question with sin, though, is what we do after we repent. We may grieve and we may weep, but if there is no change in our lives then our repentance is not a repentance in faith. Certainly we will stumble again into sin…we may even stumble into the same sin a second time. The real question is whether we strive to put that (and every other) sin to death and strive towards a life marked by righteousness. Sadly, as we look ahead to the rest of the book of Judges, we find repentance, but rarely for more than a generation (if that.). How sad it is to see, but lest we become arrogant, we should note that our own generation has not fared much better in the life of the Christian church. Apart from the decline of faith in our culture, there is a decline in faith amongst both denominations and individual churches as well. Indeed, it is time that we repent (corporately) of those things we have tolerated that dishonor our Savior and then seek to carve out lives that are marked by Truth and righteousness.
The Cult of the Selfie-Stick
“And also, I say that I will not continually drive them out from before you, but they will be at your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.”
(Judges 2:3)
And thus, the warning given in Numbers 33:55-56 comes to pass. Barbs in the eyes, thorns in the side, and trouble — this is indeed the result of compromising with sin. Thus, while the word “thorn” is not present in the actual text, it is inferred from the context. Interestingly, the Greek translation of this text inserts the word sunoch/ (sunoche), which literally means “distress” or “anguish,” but is also the term that Paul chooses in 2 Corinthians 2:4 when he speaks regarding his distress over the people of Corinth who had been abandoning his teachings. How these faithful parents must distress the idolatry that will be enticing their children.
This statement is hauntingly relevant to us today as well. The snares are all around us — the gods of money, reputation, vanity, recreation, entertainment, etc… — and while as believing adults, we are discerning enough to recognize the dangers, those snares are dragging our children down faster than we are willing to admit. Even whole church movements have fallen prey to the trap that the time of worship is to be a time of entertainment and that church growth is about who can put on the best show. And indeed, that is not at all what church worship is to be about. Worship is about giving honor to God for who he is and for what he has done — not about giving honor to man for man’s creativity and cleverness. Worship is about sitting under the instruction of God’s Word and prayerfully seeking to apply that instruction to one’s own life. Worship is not a matter of feeling good about oneself; it is a matter of recognizing that we have a long way to go until we arrive at perfection — something that won’t be completed until we are in God’s presence eternally. Worship is about a communal gathering of God’s people and publicly pronouncing that God is the sovereign king over our land, not political parties and special interest groups.
But because we have allowed the gods of vanity and self to inundate our society, we have created the cult of the selfie-stick. And until people are made to realize the emptiness of vanity, there is no going back. But, do we really want to go back? Do we really want to go back to the world that preceded the selfie-stick? I would challenge that we don’t because sinful hearts are always drawn to anything that elevates self — just as a moth is drawn to a flame. What we want is to push through — to demonstrate to the world that the selfie simply leaves one hollow and empty and there is nothing compelling about it. Instead, what is compelling is the Lord of Hosts who can not only fill us and satisfy our longings, but who can show us how we need to leave behind these snares that entangle and grow in Truth and Grace.
Tearing Down Idols Around Us
“And you were not to make a covenant with those who dwell in this land; its altars you shall pull down. But you have not listened to my voice; what is this that you have done?”
(Judges 2:2)
I fear that we have lived in a pluralistic society too long to really understand the fullness of this statement. Certainly, as Christians, we can understand the prohibition about making covenants with those who are pagans, but what of the language of tearing down the idols of the pagans?
Of late there has been a great deal of discussion in the news about how the Islamic State, as it conquers new regions in the Middle East, has been tearing down “cultural artifacts.” Now, certainly I am not in sympathy with the wicked Islamists who are doing such things…particularly as they slaughter innocents in the name of their false god, but I raise the question simply to point out that in their eyes, they are destroying reminders of paganism from which they hope to purge the land. Is this not exactly what the Israelites were called upon to do?
Now, we have already explored the notion of MårDj (charam — verse 17) and should remind ourselves that Joshua’s invasion of Canaan was meant as a picture of God’s final judgement in the end of days. In those days, before the coming of Christ, God used his people as a witness against the pagans of the land. In these last days, after the coming of Christ, God speaks through his Son and the Son will be the one who executes judgment upon the wicked as he subjects all things to himself. Thus, while governments are given the power of the sword to execute justice, we are not given the power of the sword to execute vengeance or to purge the culture of the wicked. This is why you do not see Christians committing the kinds of crimes that you see being committed in the name of Allah today. Indeed, our weapons of warfare, as Christians, are spiritual in nature because our true enemy is spiritual as well.
At the same time, as Christians, we are called to destroy every argument and tear down every lofty opinion that is raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:4-6). Sounds a lot like this passage, doesn’t it? In fact, when you pair this passage with Paul’s language of not being unequally yoked (2 Corinthians 6:14), we have, in essence, everything for which the people are being condemned by the Angel of Yahweh. How little times change…
Today, when we look at idols (whether they are made from stone or metal or whether they are made out of ideologies), we tend to see them as things to be preserved as cultural artifacts. And while cultural artifacts they may be, what happens when the society becomes inundated with such artifacts? And what happens when the Christian church becomes rather illiterate as to what the Bible teaches as truth and error? What happens? Sadly, the answer can be found by looking out of the window at the culture around us. Because we have not faithfully pursued truth ourselves, we have not faithfully taught that truth to our children. And because we have not faithfully taught Truth to our children, they are being seduced by the Pied Pipers of this world.
What is the result? Faith is and has been minimized. People typically see faith as that which carries them through difficult times only and they forget that while faith will carry you through difficult times, faith is meant to guide the entirety of your life and pursuits. The institutional church is treated much like a kind of club that one might participate in and Sunday worship is seen as optional if it fits into the busy schedule of athletic events and school activities that are “required” if one is going to be socially “well-rounded.” Kids are taught that their social lives, too, are more significant than their family lives. And we can go on and on. And it all stems back to the fact that we have been too lenient in the way we have handled false ideas and in the way we have taught our children the truth.
So, what shall we do? To begin with, we can do much like the people did when they received this judgment from the Angel of Yahweh…we can genuinely lament the hole we have allowed ourselves to fall into. But there is more…and it is what the people failed to do in the verses that followed in the book of Judges. They failed to repair the problem by teaching their children Truth. We know that because the next generation falls away. We need to be proactive with our kids that they know truth from error more clearly than we have ever thought possible. And to do that effectively, we who are adults, need to pursue Truth with a renewed vigor that is fueled by the grief over the wickedness of our land and the fear of our children falling repeatedly into the errors that the Israelites so quickly fell into in the book of Judges. And we can work to tear down the ideological ideals that stand against the knowledge of God — things like secular humanism, false spirituality, mysticism, situational ethics, pluralism, and the modern versions of gnosticism and sophism that have crept into the church. And in doing these things through a repentant spirit, we need too to pray that God would use us as a spiritual sledgehammer in this world to tear down the influence of those teaching error.
The Angel of Yahweh and our Worship
“The Angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bokiym. And he said, ‘I caused you to come up from Egypt and brought you to the land which I swore to your Fathers and I said, ‘I will not break my covenant with you — eternally.’’”
(Judges 2:1)
If you have been following along with me for any length of time, you are familiar with the figure of “The Angel of Yahweh.” In short, this figure is the pre-incarnate Christ, the second member of the Trinity before he took flesh to himself. If this is a new notion for you, take some time to look up the references…he shows up all over the place and he says and does some remarkable things. Hagar, for example, associates the Angel of Yahweh with God himself (Genesis 16:13). When God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the Angel of Yahweh appears and commends Abraham that he has not withheld his son from “me” (Genesis 22:12). In guiding Jacob as to which sheep to choose of Laban’s flock, the Angel of Yahweh addresses him and says, “I am the God of Bethel.” When Samson’s birth is foretold by the Angel of Yahweh, Manoah asks him his name. The Angel’s response is that the name is “Wonderful” (Judges 13:18), a name that Isaiah attributes to Christ (Isaiah 9:6). And of course, in Zechariah’s vision, the Angel of Yahweh is seen as re-clothing Joshua the High Priest (a visual reputation of the imputation of God’s righteousness). When he does so, the Angel of Yahweh states, “I have taken away your iniquity and will clothe you in righteousness” (Zechariah 3:4).
Here, we again have a statement from the Angel of Yahweh, that he is responsible for bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, a reference to Exodus 14:19. Later, in the New Testament, Jude states that it is Jesus who led the Israelites out of Egypt (Jude 5). Sometimes this language throws people off a bit because we are used to thinking of angels as created beings. In fact, a number of cults over the generations have tried to use this language to imply that Jesus was a created being — Mormonism being a modern example of those who make this error, though the ancient gnostics were quick to go in this direction as well. Yet, we must remember that the Hebrew word that we translate as angel is ךְAaVlAm (malak), which means, “messenger.” Whether this is a heavenly messenger or a human messenger is determined by context…and similarly, whether this messenger is divine is again determined by the context…in this case, given all the language about this person, it can be none other than the Eternal Son of God…prior to his incarnation.
What is significant about this observation is not only the understanding of who this figure is, but it is the recognition that the Eternal Son was not dormant during the eras of time between the creation and the incarnation. What a study of this figure will be quick to illustrate is just how active our savior has been in the deliverance of his people throughout the Old Testament accounts and then again into the New Testament account. What a gift it is that the scriptures point out the labors of our Savior throughout the ages…it is a gift that should drive us to appreciate his labors more greatly, stand in awe of his willingness to take on flesh and suffer for us, and drive us to worship him all the more. Such is the way it is and should always be when we approach the Word of our wonderful God.
Two more observations should be made of this verse. The first is the use of the hiphil stem for the majority of the verbs in this verse. In the Hebrew, the hiphil typically communicates causative force…in this case, it was God who caused the people “to go up” from Egypt and who caused the people to be “brought into” the land and further who will cause the covenant to be unbroken (at least God’s side of the covenant). It is a reminder to us that it was not by Israel’s cunning or strength that they came out of Egypt nor would it be Israel’s righteousness that causes God to remain faithful. It is God who has done these things and God who should be given the credit for doing these things. Such is the same with us…anything good in our lives or anything that we have done that is worthy of honor — all of the honor and praise should be given to God himself, for he has done these things in and through us.
Finally, we see the affirmation of the covenant — a covenant that God will preserve with his people eternally. It is a covenant that this Angel of Yahweh, God’s Son, will make good with his own blood. What a sign of grace that the one who will fulfill the covenant for a wicked and rebellious people is the one who communicates that promise to the same people. And again, that realization should drive us to worship…and to obedience.
Influencing the Culture
“Naphtali did not dispossess those who dwell in the House of Shemesh or those who dwelt in the house of Anath; and they dwelled in the midst of the Canaanites who dwelt in the land. Thus, the House of Shemesh and the House of Anath became forced labor for them. And the Emorites tormented the sons of Dan in the mountainous region, thus they did not give them the ability to come down to the lower plains. And the Emorites were prepared to dwell in the mountains of Cheres, in Ayyalon, and in Sha’albiym, but the hand of the house of Joseph was glorious and they became forced labor. And the border of the Emorites was from ascents of Aqrabiym to the cliffs and above.”
(Judges 1:33-36)
We draw the introductory history to a close…again, this is designed to overlap the end of the book of Joshua and to prepare us for the context of the book of Judges that follows. Chapter 2 will shift from looking backwards to looking forwards and in many ways will summarize Judges as a whole. But for now, we must content ourselves with once again reflecting on the consequences of a partial victory. Indeed, there are benefits that can be gained through the forced labor of the pagan peoples, but largely the presence of the idolatry of the pagans has a devastating effect on the people.
But let us pose the question, what if the people were not inclined to stumble at the paganism of the Canaanites. Instead, what if the evangelistic fervor of the people were such that it was the Canaanites that were converting to Judaism? What a different conversation we might be having. Interestingly, while I am not an advocate of slavery in any form and the American manifestation of slavery that took place several centuries ago is not anything that could be described as good, may I at least offer that many Africans, who had grown up in an Animistic religion, were converted to Christianity. We don’t typically think of forced labor and slavery as being redemptive in any way, but shall we not celebrate the thousands of souls that were saved because of this horrible practice? Might we say with Joseph, that “While you intended it for evil, God intended it for good”?
Surely some of these Canaanites that were put to forced labor converted, but mostly the Canaanite practice influenced the Israelites to fall into sin. How about those influences in your life? Are your non-Christian friends influencing you or are you influencing them? At the end of the day, are they more like you or the other way around? A vital and healthy faith ought to influence others without being influenced by the unbelief of others. Though, much like ancient Israel, that doesn’t much happen in our churches. Were that it would. May we strive for it to be so.
Nope, Not Gone Yet…
“Manasseh did not dispossess the House of Shean and its villages, or Tanak and its villages, or those who dwell in Dor and its villages, or those who dwell in Yibleam and its villages, or those who dwell in Megiddo and its villages. In this way, the Canaanites were prepared to remain in that land. And it came to pass that when Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor for they did not disposes them completely. And Ephraim did not disposes the Canaanites who dwelt in Gazer, so the Canaanites were in their midst in Gazer. Zebulon did not disposes those who dwelt in Qitron or those who dwelt in Nahalol. And thus the Canaanites dwelled in their midst but were put to faced labor. Asher did not disposes those who dwelt in Acco or Tsiydon — or of Achlab, Akzib, Chelbah, Aphiyq, and Rechob. Thus the Asherites dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites who dwelt in the land for they did not dispossess them.”
(Judges 1:27-32)
The pattern is clear. The Israelites were commanded to remove the Canaanites from the land. The Israelites were unsuccessful in doing so and thus we see this repeated chorus of Canaanites dwelling in the midst of God’s people. The author of Judges will later on explain to us the reason behind these defeats, but for now we focus on the Israelites’ repeated failure to complete the task that had been set before them.
As I reflect on these words, it strikes me that things haven’t changed very much in our world today. We try and share the Gospel in our communities, but in God’s design, we still remain with Canaanites in our midst. On one level, it is easy to point out that we as a church haven’t always been zealous at the work of taking dominion of our world and thus have fallen short of the task. We have become distracted, focusing on entertainment rather than focusing on than on the task at hand. We have become timid, fearing rejection from our friends and neighbors. We have become interested in popularity, caring that people like us more than caring that people respect us for communicating Truth with love. And we have become selfish, focusing on our wants rather than on the call to be salt and light to the world.
The failures of these Israelite tribes brought grief and hardship into their lives given the very presence of idols and sin in their midst. In the same way, we experience hardships because the the idols that we tolerate in our own land. The answer in our response, though, is not to pull back into our own isolated and sheltered communities — but to engage the world around us with the Truth of God’s word and with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we seek to do so we will indeed meet a great deal of resistance — sin entrenches itself in a community in which it is a part. At the same time, the opposition cannot stand against the might of our God. So why draw back and recoil in fear and worry about pressing the world regarding truth? Who can stand against the might of our God? None.
The Preacher's Study 