Five factors for a fall - Judges 1:1-3:6 1) Inconsistency (knowing the right thing to do but not doing it) 2) Incredulity (lack of belief or state of non-belief) 3) Ignorance 4) Intrigue of the (godless) surrounding culture 5) Insistence to do your own thing
In the Bible, the judges were divinely appointed individuals who led and delivered Israel from their enemies.
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of YHWH , “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” (Judges 1:1)
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 Deuteronomy 20:1-4 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for YHWH your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for YHWH your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory...
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 Deuteronomy 20:16-18 But in the cities of these peoples that YHWH your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as YHWH your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against YHWH your God.
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 The Israelites “did not drive out the inhabitants...” “When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labour, but did not drive them out completely.” (Judges 1:28)
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 The Israelites “did not drive out the inhabitants...” “When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labour, but did not drive them out completely.” (Judges 1:28) Now the Angel of YHWH went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice . What is this you have done?” (Judges 2:1-2)
“Without commitment , you’ll never start, but more importantly, without consistency , you’ll never finish.” (Denzel Washington, 2017 NAACP awards)
Inconsistency - Judges 1:21, 27-33 As soon as the Angel of YHWH spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to YHWH. (Judges 2:4-5) “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10, NIV)
Incredulity After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of YHWH, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” YHWH said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” ... And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction... Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. And YHWH was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron . (Judges 1:1-2, 17-19)
Incredulity Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong. ” (Joshua 17:10)
Incredulity And when YHWH sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of YHWH your God and did not believe him or obey his voice . (Deuteronomy 9:23)
Incredulity But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing... so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works . (James 1:22-25; 2:17-18)
Ignorance - Judges 2:10 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died at the age of 110 years... And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know ( yada ) YHWH or the work that he had done for Israel . (Judges 2:8, 10)
“At that moment, God...loses all reality...Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with the forgetfulness of God.” (Deitrich Bonhoeffer, “Temptation”)
Intrigue of the (godless) surrounding culture And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of YHWH and served the Baals. And they abandoned YHWH, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods , from among the gods of the peoples who were around them , and bowed down to them . And they provoked YWHW to anger. They abandoned YHWH and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. (Judges 2:11-13)
Insistence on doing your own thing Then YHWH raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of YHWH, and they did not do so. Whenever YHWH raised up judges for them, YHWH was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For YHWH was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways . (Judges 2:16-19)
OK...what can I do?
How can we remember not to forget... - The power of the Gospel (2 Peter 1:3-11; Jude 24-25) - The Word of God (Psalm 119:105; Psalm 119:9-11) - The presence of the Spirit (John 14:26; Galatians 5) - The body of Messiah (we have each other!) (Jude 20-25)
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