Title: The Failed Conquest Analyzed
Text: Book of JudgesIntroduction
There was a continuing conquest in the land of Canaan in the time of Joshua. However, right after Joshua’s death was a period of generational transition. And today, we will see how Israel failed their conquest because of their failures due to disobedience to the Lord. We will see 5 failures of Israel that put their mission at stake.
The 5 Sins of Israel
1.They did not drive out the inhabitants of Canaan (Judges 1:27-36) what we see here in this passage is the first disobedience that Israel made. Deuteronomy 7:24 24He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. God’s command was to wipe out everyone in the land of Canaan, and not making a covenant with them; Exodus 23:32 32Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Instead of driving out the inhabitants of Canaan, they pressed the Canaanites to forced labor. Instead of driving them out, they agreed to allow the Canaanites to dwell in the land as long as they will be under tribute.
The Lord never liked this action. And because of this, the Lord said to them in Judges 2:3; 3Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you. Here we see the consequences of what they’ve done. It’s not God’s will that Canaanites will continue to live in their land, but God permitted it to teach Israel.
2.They committed idolatry (Judges 2:11-12) this passage speaks to us that a new generation has risen up and they do not know the Lord of their forefathers. Perhaps they have heard of Him, but because they did not know Him, they followed the ways of their surroundings. We can learn one thing here. It is important to teach our children in their young age about God. If you will not be teaching them, they might be lead to sins like this when they grow up. I still remember some people I met, I do not know them, and it was my first time to meet them. One said that he is a Christian, but when I asked him about his belief, he was not sure of what he believes. And his life was a mess.
Another one that I met was 7th Day Adventist who married a Muslim young lady. I really do not know how he figured out to marry a Muslim that for all we know, 7th Day Adventists are “law driven” people. And marrying a non 7th Day Adventist is ok with them. One clue enlightened me of this, is that his parents was never serious of teaching him about the things that they have in the church. Dear parents, if you will not introduce Christ our Lord now, you might be too late tomorrow. Push them to love Christ more than anything, or else, they will love the world more than Christ.
3.They intermarried with the wicked Canaanites (Judges 3:5-6) 5The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The younger generations married people who were idolaters. They married people who do not know Yahweh. And what did they expect? They became idolaters themselves.
We can actually see here another series of consequences and sins. First, they live with the Canaanites. Then they intermarry with the people who do not know God, and they themselves became idolaters. Now they became idolaters, they now produced a new generation who do not know God.
For example we have a believer who married a non-believer. They had children. Both of the parents who intermarry are “pious” to their beliefs. The question is, where will their children go for a church? Don’t tell me the believer can bring his children to church, because I really doubt that. More than 90% of those people who intermarry with a non-believer were not able to bring their children to church thus, producing a non-believer offspring.
This is not a new issue brothers and sisters. It was an ancient issue, but until now, people never learned. More and more Christians still pursue to have a non-believing girlfriends and boyfriends. WARNING: Don’t miss your life just because of this one decision that you know is wrong, yet you go for it. Don’t waste your life.
4.They would not listen to their judges (Judges 2:17). Let’s picture this case. The Lord gave them judges to guide them. Now the “judge” here is some what similar to what we have in our days. They are the guardians of the law, or the law executor. But the judge before was also different in a way that they possess a “divine charisma”, that they were called “charismatic leaders”. The Hebrew word for “judge” is “shofet” which has a close meaning with the “ruler”. Judges are also known to be the “covenant mediator”.
During this time, Israel doesn’t have a king, but judges. And these judges were the “rulers” of Israel during the period of Joshua’s’ death and up to time of King Saul, the first king of Israel. They were the leaders of the “Tribal Confederacy”. When we say “confederacy” it means a union of political organizations. We must remember that Israelites were divided into tribes and each tribe has their own leaders, but they have a confederate organization with the whole of Israel whose rulers has known to be the “judges”.
This “divine charisma” that we mentioned earlier is the possession of “spiritual power”, God’s anointing of a leader of Israel like that of Gideon (Judges 6:34-35). But despite of God’s anointing, Israel would not listen to their judges. They are hard headed people. Maybe because they have not experience the Lord as their forefathers experienced in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Joshua, but the fact was, they were really hard headed people.
Even in our days, how many people who do not listen to their pastor? There are even churches who petitioned their pastor to vacate the church charging him to be too personal in his sermons and preaching? Many people never liked to be reminded of the things that they were doing to be wrong. Instead of accepting reminders, they tend to fall away from God and from the church, charging the pastor to be too personal.
It is exactly the same as what we have here. Israelites refused to listen from their spiritual leader. Instead of listening, they continued with their ways, until God’s wrath was poured in them.
5.They turn away from God after the death of their judge (Judges 2:19) 19But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. In our point 3, the people did not listen to their judge. They have acquaintances of God in terms of teachings; they have heard about Yahweh but did not listen. In this point, not only that they did not listen, they also turned their back away from God.
Not listening is still connected to the Lord but only they did not listen. Like a child who was commanded by his father and did not listen, the child was disciplined by his father. Now in this part, it’s like a prodigal son who turned his back from his father and went away to experience pleasure. This happened when their judge died.
Putting this in our context, sometimes, the pastor have not yet died but only went for a short vacation and his members already abandoned the ways of God. Instead of standing firm in God’s word, they turned their backs anyway, “no one will see me”. Brothers and sisters, don’t ever turn your backs to God even if I am gone.
Conclusion
The continuing conquest to Canaan is almost the same as what we are doing now. We have our campaign in conquering Ormoc through the gospel of Christ. But this campaign will never be successful we have these five sins. God said to us, conquer Ormoc and do all your best that Jesus will be made known to Ormoc. But we have not shared the gospel of Christ to even a single NON-BELIEVER friend. That’s disobedience.
If we are compromising with the non-believers either by idolatry or by making a covenant with them, that’s idolatry. I don’t mean that you will not befriend with them, but compromising with them is a different thing. You can befriend them without compromising. But I tell you now young people, having relationship with a non-believer is already a compromise and making a covenant with them and this can be a cause of our failure as a church to evangelize Ormoc. If we think that it is really love, I believe that you must learn first to love God more than you love your non-Christian “friend”. You owe your eternal “life” to your God and not to your friend. Don’t compromise.
How about disobedience to spiritual leaders? Brothers and sisters, sometimes we tend to be disobedient to our spiritual leaders because we have some hurts. This I want you to know, your pastor or pastors will never intend to put you in harms way unless he is not the “anointed one” in your church. That is why getting a pastor is more than just hiring; you will have to pray that God will give you a leader who can lead. If in the future, I will be gone from this church, pray hard first that God will give you a pastor who will love you. Pray that God will give you an anointed one and be obedient to what the Lord speaks through your pastor.
And finally, do not ever turn your backs away from God. Forget your seatmates if he did not exemplify a good Christian life. But never ever, turn your backs from God. We already have learned that God hates apostasy.
Do not jeopardize our mission.
