Judges 1:20-36

     The Central Idea of the Text is that Israel—as a nation—failed to obey God and drive out the inhabitants of the land.

     Caleb initially obeyed the Lord and drove out the sons of Anak, who had previously intimidated the sons of Israel (Num. 13:30-33).  He did by faith what all Israel should have done.  Israel—for the most part—operated from fear rather than faith, and this led to policies of appeasement with those who should have been driven out.  Their decisions of toleration sowed the seeds of their future destruction because they allowed themselves to be exposed to the religious and ethical values of people who were opposed to the Lord. 

     The Canaanite culture was marked by a pantheon of deities—El, Baal (son of El), Dagon, Anath, Astarte, and Ashera—to whom the Canaanites offered human sacrifice and engaged in sexual fertility rights with temple prostitutes.  Israel became influenced and corrupted by the depraved Canaanite culture for centuries to come (see Deut. 18:10; 2 Kings 17:16-17; 21:1-7). 

     God’s policy was that Israel was to destroy all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan (Deut. 7:1-5), offering negotiations of peace only with cities outside the land (Deut. 20:10-18).  God was in no way cruel by demanding the destruction of the Canaanites.  In fact, the Lord had been very patient with their extreme wickedness (Gen. 15:16; 2 Pet. 3:9), and the time had come for justice to prevail.  Israel failed to execute God’s will, and let the inhabitants of the land remain.  God rebukes them for their disobedience (Judg. 2:1-5).  “This series of tribal defeats was the first indication that Israel was no longer walking by faith and trusting God to give them victory”^[1]

     God’s policy for the Christian today is to be a light in the world (Acts 13:47; Eph. 5:6-10) and to love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-45; Rom. 12:20; 1 Pet. 3:9).  The Christian today is defeated to the degree that he is friendly toward the world and allows himself to be influenced by the surrounding pagan culture.  The fact is, “bad associations corrupt good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33).  The Christian is to be in the world, but not of the world.  We are to love those who are lost, but never be accepting of worldly values (1 John 2:15-17).  Faith sees things in their proper place, from the divine perspective, from the light of eternity (2 Cor. 4:17; Rom. 8:18; 1 Pet. 1:3-7; 4:13).  Fear often magnifies situations and makes them appear larger than they really are.  May we all grow and learn to please God with a life of faith (Prov. 3:5-6; Heb. 11:16).

 

^[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Available, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1994), 13.