Judges 1 - Victory and yet not winning!

Click to read Judges 1

Synopsis

Joshua did not appoint a successor. As such, after his death, there was a leadership vacuum. While the Promised Land was already in Israel's hand, more was to be done to drive out the Canaanites remaining in the territory allotted to each tribe. God had instructed right from the beginning that ALL the Canaanites were to be driven out. He had one good reason; the religi0n practiced by the Canaanites was an abomination to Him. They had to be punished for their sins and Israel must be protected from their influence.

Some tribes were more successful than others. The weaker ones were sidetracked by fear, tiredness and their own interests and they drifted into disobedience. Instead of driving the Canaanites out, they took the easy way by co-existing with them, making them forced laborers. This disobedient act caused the Israelites to eventually be influenced by their paganism. Inter-marrying them caused Israel to sin against God.

Maj0r verses

V6 - 7 - Cutting off the thumbs and big toes of Adoni-bezek served several purposes, that was, to humiliate him and to render him ineffective in battle (he cannot hold a sword and he cannot balance himself). It was also serving him with his own medicine. But that did not served God's purpose. God wanted all the enemies to be killed so that the land was purged of all its sinful inhabitant. Yet the Israelites did otherwise.

Question - Why do you think that the Israelites disobeyed God in this act?
(I hope that you will contribute by posting your discussion as a comment to this post. To do this, scroll down all the way and click the "Comments" link.)

V17, 21-36 - Many tribes did not carry out God's instruction to purge the land of the evil inhabitants. Instead, they compromised and lived with them. While Israel was punished for their unbelief and had to wander for almost 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, God had wanted the Canaanites to be punished for their sins too. Israel was to be the instrument of His punishment and yet they did not complete the task. While they were the chosen race, God did not play favorites with them. Eventually, they had to be punished for their disobedience and sins too.

What I learnt - There may be many reasons why the Israelites did not obey God to carry out His instruction. They may seemed valid to the people, but none of them actually were. In similar ways, we may offer excuses for our own disobedience. While God loves us and have forgiven all our sins, we still have to face the consequences if we go on sinning. There is no compromise to obedience. As our human efforts are weak, let's call upon the Lord to give us His strength to overcome and to obey Him. We need to genuinely ask for God's help to break away from all sins.

Up next ...

Judges 2 will be up on 21 May. I will also post my answer to the question on this same chapter by next week.