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While I am preparing for She Speaks, I thought we would take a “field trip” back through some old posts for the next few weeks.  I decided to repost our series on the book of Judges because this book is so eerily applicable to our day.   I pray this “mini-series” will be an encouragement and challenge to you as we walk through this fascinating book together!

If you have never read through the book of Judges, or haven’t done so in a while, this book will probably surprise you. Nay, shock you. If someone decided to make a movie based on Judges, I’m pretty sure none of us would go see it. The stories in this book go from bad to worse to horrifying.

So, this brings up a question: Why is this in the Bible to begin with? If you haven’t read these Bible study posts from the beginning, I encourage you to take a minute to read “So Why do we Have the Bible?“. Remember that narratives in Scripture are not given to us to be moral guides, IE: “Samson slept with a prostitute, so it must be OK.” Clearly, this violates the rest of Scripture. It’s actually hard to find a story in Judges that doesn’t violate the clear commands in the rest of Scripture!

To figure out what is happening in this book, we need to look back at the end of Joshua. In You Can’t Add God to Your Pantheon, we looked at the people’s response, or lack thereof, to Joshua’s final plea to abandon the foreign gods among them and commit themselves to serving God alone. They were very enthusiastic about serving God, but seemed to be missing a major piece: throw out the foreign gods! Right there they have set themselves up for major spiritual failure which is vividly illustrated in the book of Judges.

There is another element of Joshua’s address that we need to look at, as well. Remember that as they enter the land, the entire army of Israel has wiped out the major coalitions of Canaanites, but as each tribe entered their own territories allotted to them by God they were to finish “mop up” operations and completely wipe out the Canaanites.

First, read Joshua 23:5-13. The people had been told to drive the people out of the land. Why? The Canaanite culture was wicked and polytheistic. The Israelites’ possession of the land was more than just God giving the land to His people; He was also wiping out a stronghold of sin and idolatry. Joshua clearly warned them what would happen if they failed to do this and had association with the people of Canaan:

“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you. (Joshua 23:12-13)

Now, quickly scan through Judges chapter 1:

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.

But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labor. Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.

Judges 1:19-21, 27-35

The mop-up operations were a giant failure. Why do you think they couldn’t drive the Canaanites out?  Do you think God had commanded them to do something impossible… or did this display a lack of faith?

Tomorrow we’ll discuss more… and give a better understanding of what we’ll be looking for through the book of Judges.