Our scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Judges, beginning with the first verse of the first chapter and going through the fifth verse of the second.
After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” Judah said to Simeon, his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him.
Then Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek. They found Adonai Bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adonai Bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. Adonai Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
The men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Afterwards, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negev, and in the lowland. Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba, and they defeated Shishai and Ahiman and Talmai from that province.
The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath Sefer, and Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath Sefer and captures it, I will give him Aksa, my daughter, for a wife.” Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, for a wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Give to me a blessing, since you have set me in the land of the Negev. Give me also springs of water.”
Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’s father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negev, near Arad, and they went and settled with the people. Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction; so the name of the city was called Hormah.
Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. And the Lord 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. Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak.
The people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. The house of Joseph scouted out Bethel; now the name of the city was formerly Luz. The spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.”
He showed them the way into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. The man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz; that is its name to this day. Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshan and its villages, or of Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in the land.
When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely. Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalal; so the Canaanites lived among them but became subject to forced labor.
Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Alab, or of Ahib, or of Helba, or of Aphik, or of Rahab; so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh or the inhabitants of Bethanath; so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and of Bethanath became subject to forced labor for them.
The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim from Selah and upward.
Now the angel of the Lord 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? So now I say, ‘I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’”
As soon as the angel of the Lord 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 the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
Lord, you have given us your word. You tell us of our history as your people. Help us to learn from the past, to follow you where others have not. Help us to focus upon what your word says and means for us, coming from what it meant for the people who first heard it. Help us to believe and trust your word, and keep us faithful and obedient to you and all that you require. So in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
So the whole beginning of Judges can be rather difficult to follow, and many scholars and interpreters, myself included, have to do some mental gymnastics and deep wrestling with the text to follow the sense of it.
Here’s a broad outline for us to start: First, the first two verses of the book establish the temporal context for the book as a whole—after the death of Joshua. Then everything afterward, from verse 3 until partway into chapter 3, serves as a preamble or an overture to all of the different judges’ narratives.
Next, in this preamble, we have a recounting of events previously recorded in the book of Joshua, victories that happened during Joshua’s time leading the Israelites. There are two separate campaigns described here, one being led by a coalition of tribes led by Judah, including Simeon and possibly Benjamin, with the second force comprising all the other tribes being led by the tribe of Joseph, which is often used as shorthand for the tribe of Ephraim.
We have in this preamble the singular failure of Judah in driving out the inhabitants of the plain; this is being highlighted, connecting us back to Joshua chapter 11:22 where it says, “There was none of the Anakim left in the land of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.” As verse 18 here informs us, although Judah had victories against those cities, it also suggests that they were unable to fully control that territory.
We also find some apparent but reconcilable differences between the two accounts concerning Jerusalem in that day when Joshua, back in the book of Joshua, says, “But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out,” so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. But here in Judges, we see that the forces of Judah attacked Jerusalem, sacking the city.
Since it was not located in their allotted territory, the responsibility for securing it and claiming the land fell to the tribe of Benjamin. We also learned details about the capture of Bethel by the forces of Joseph and then comes a litany of all the people’s failures at driving out the Canaanites, including their willingness to accommodate their continued presence in the land by subjecting them to forced labor.
We next have the appearance of the angel of the Lord in chapter 2, who condemns the people for their unwillingness to completely obey God’s command and covenant, pronouncing judgment against them for failing to purify the land of the Canaanite people’s wickedness. Then Joshua dies and is buried, and finally, the preamble closes with the Israelites’ faithlessness continuing after Joshua, and the stage is set for the following conflicts and the dramatic tales.
But this morning, we’re going to look at three important elements found in this first part and their long-term implications: first, the moral requirements and need of the Canaanite conquest; second, the initial fracture of Israel’s unity as God’s chosen people, which will lead to their future division and the eventual collapse of the Davidic kingdom; and third, the divine judgment pronounced against Israel for their disobedience to the Lord’s covenant and their moral failure by allowing the wickedness of the Canaanites to remain in the land.
First, the author of Judges reminds us of the need for the conquest, the moral reason for the entire haram, the ban, the anathema, which is the wickedness of the Canaanites. Although the Israelites were brought into Canaan because the Lord promised it to them through their ancestor Abraham, God also used them as agents of His judgment and wrath against the wickedness of the Canaanite peoples.
Back in Genesis 15, where the Lord first established His covenant with Abraham after promising him they would possess the land, God told him that his descendants would first be slaves, then be rescued by His power before they received the land, “because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Then, after Moses brought God’s people to Mount Sinai, they again received the Lord’s promise of the land, but this time with the added command for what they were to do when they got there, saying, “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.”
All of their altars and idols were to be destroyed and the land thereby purified of their wickedness.
Now, far beyond the simple fact of their false religions and idolatry, the Canaanites justly deserved condemnation because their lives were consumed with practices abominable to the Lord: child sacrifice, divination, fortune telling, sorcery and necromancy, incest, and other forms of depravity, all manner of sexual immorality, homosexuality, and bestiality. All these things defiled the land and made it unclean, so the Israelite conquest was to be the Lord’s judgment against the Canaanites.
Now God also purposed that His chosen people establish justice in the land, His chosen land, to dwell there as the Lord’s holy and righteous people and to prepare a place for Him to dwell upon, upon His chosen hill of Mount Zion, for God’s glory alone. Israel was charged to purify the land and take it for their own and live differently from the earlier inhabitants. Leviticus says, “So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them; I am the Lord your God.”
Unfortunately, only some of Israel upheld this purpose. Judah took up God’s mandate for justice in the case of Adonai Bezek and Jerusalem. When the forces of Judah and Simeon defeated him, they gave him justice according to the law, removing his thumbs and large toes just as he had done to his defeated foes. The punishment was just, which he even confessed, declaring, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.”
Then we’re told of Judah’s victory over Jerusalem, where they put everyone to the sword and burned it with fire. They purified it, faithfully devoting it to destruction for its residents’ wickedness. But although Judah won that battle, Benjamin failed by not driving out the Jebusites.
Secondly, we observe here, through the lens of Israel’s future history and hindsight, the first cracks in the foundation of God’s people’s earthly kingdom. Joseph, the eldest son of Rachel, was given the leadership responsibilities of Israel’s firstborn son since Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son by his first wife Leah, slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, defiling his father’s bed and losing his right. Because Reuben’s two younger brothers, Simeon and Levi, also lost their rights of priority for their vengeful slaughter of the city of Shechem in retribution for the rape of their sister Dinah, Judah, Leah’s fourth son, was elevated and declared to be the ultimate ruler of Israel’s family by the prophetic decree of Jacob in Genesis 49, where he says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
So an underlying but surely unspoken rivalry grew between the tribes of Judah and Ephraim for authority and primacy among the tribes of Israel. Their place as the top two tribes was on full display when the only two people who believed that the Lord would give them victory after scouting out the promised land were Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb from the tribe of Judah. These were the same two men, the only two men who survived from the time of the Egyptian exodus, to lead the Israelite tribes into Canaan during the conquest.
Joshua was the de facto leader of the Israelites as the Lord’s chosen successor to Moses, but we also see that Caleb was also a significant leader in Israel and a successful war chieftain in his own right.
So, the two Israelite coalitions in these two separate campaigns, one to the south and one to the north, highlight the lack of unity between the tribes, the lack of a singular identity as Israel, and it foreshadows the future division of the Israelites that would come in the days of Rehoboam, when the Davidic kingdom was divided, when the kingship of the northern tribes was given to Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, as David’s descendants retained the territories of Judah, including the absorbed and assimilated tribal lands of Simeon and the territory of Benjamin.
Now during these campaigns, the southern tribes remained faithful to the Lord, obeying God and conquering their allotted territories, while the northern tribes were not faithful to God’s command, for they allowed their enemies to remain in the land. The northern tribes did claim control over the territory but not in the way that God had decreed. Ephraim’s victory over Bethel contrasts against Judah’s victory over Jerusalem. Judah purified the city in their victory, whereas Ephraim captured Bethel through deceit and subterfuge. They merely moved in and replaced its inhabitants, intentionally allowing some to escape and re-establish themselves elsewhere.
So, the seed of Israel’s future failure to be a holy people, a light to the Gentiles, a nation of priests interceding with the Lord for the world, was planted from the very beginning here in the promised land. The Israelites were never united under one single human leader after Moses until David was crowned king the second time at Hebron. Yet even during the golden age of David’s reign, God’s people were not united; there was still division, rebellion, and strife among the people, and even within the king’s own household.
Then, under David’s son Solomon, adversaries and enemies of Israel’s king were strengthened and emboldened against them because of the sins of Israel and her king. Temporal peace and unity in Israel has never been realized in human history because it’s only found in the kingship of the Messiah, the servant of the Lord, David’s greatest son, and his Lord Jesus Christ.
Truly, God’s people need a king to judge us, to go out before us and fight our battles, and to unite us as His elect people. During and before the time of the judges, the Lord was their king, even if they did not always acknowledge Him as such.
So when Israel demanded a human king, they rejected the Lord as their absolute sovereign. Later on in history, Israel continues to hope in the line of David that a righteous king would come to lead them and establish justice for God’s people. This hope emphasized their confidence in human flesh rather than dependence on God.
So the incarnation of God the Son was the union of the human king which Israel wanted and the divine sovereign we needed in the singular person of Jesus. It was necessary for God to take on human flesh to unite these two natures so that all of the elect would be united as one people, repairing all of our divisions and restoring us to communion with Him—God the Son and the Son of David united in one person, uniting the throne of heaven with the throne of David, one king to sovereignly rule over God’s people and all creation.
It is necessary for our redemption that Jesus Christ is not only the king of the Jews but also the Lord of creation. Only God, the King, has the power to pardon and forgive sin, just as we give our governors the authority to pardon or grant clemency to felons. How much more grace and mercy can the Lord God give?
Jesus Christ is the sovereign God-man, the Lord of heaven and earth, and while many will deny His authority throughout their lives, when the final judgment comes, no one will be able to refuse their obedience because then every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He alone is their Lord and the Lord.
So you see, the beginning of Judges demonstrates our need for unity under one sovereign, and it emphasizes our need for unity as God’s people. We believe that Jesus unites us, repairing and restoring our human relationships to the cross. From Galatians 3:28, where Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
And Jesus’s prayer for us in John 17, where He prays, “I do not ask for these only but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Jesus prays that we, His people, would be united just as God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit are one, that we would become united in and with them. Every believing Christian is united with every other believing Christian in Christ, just as every Christian is united in Christ. So, by our faith in Jesus Christ alone, God’s people are united as one people under a united sovereign.
All this ancient history shows us the Israelites’ need and our need for Jesus to be our redeemer and sovereign king, to be the one who unites us and makes us whole, our Prince of Peace, the Prince of Shalom.
Thirdly, as the book of Judges recounts the conquest of the land, it emphasizes the Israelites’ failure to faithfully conquer the entire land. Rather than completing the conquest as commanded, they often disobeyed God and settled for second best. They did not get to enjoy the peace, prosperity, or security that they were promised if they faithfully kept the Lord’s covenant because instead of keeping God’s covenant, they covenanted with His enemies. They compromised their duty to holiness and their obligation to purity as His holy nation and His kingdom of priests.
They failed God and were satisfied in their failure until He judged them. Joshua covenanted with the men of Gibeon who, although they sinned by intentionally deceiving the Israelites, Joshua failed by not inquiring of the Lord before he made a treaty with them. Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, letting them live with them in Jerusalem. Ephraim allowed the remaining Canaanites to live among them in Gezer. Manasseh allowed the Canaanites to dwell in their own cities. Asher chose to go and dwell with the Canaanites. Zebulun subjected the remaining Canaanites to forced labor. Naphtali chose to go dwell among the Canaanites and subjected them to labor. Judah could not drive the Canaanite inhabitants out of the coastal plain, and Dan was not able to drive the Amorites from their allotted territory but were instead driven back into the hill country of Ephraim, allowing their cousins to force some of the Amorites into service.
See, the promised land was supposed to be cleansed of the sin, wickedness, and unrighteousness of the pagan Canaanites. But the Israelites did not do their priestly duty. The land was not purified because not only were the Canaanites allowed to remain there, they were allowed to thrive. Therefore, Israel suffered God’s judgment as the Canaanite idols and all of their abominable practices became snares to the Israelites.
Moses warned them, “You shall make no covenant with them or of their gods; they shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” Yet that is exactly what they did. The Lord sent His angel to judge them, saying, “But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this that you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
Since Israel did not obey God and remove the Canaanites, He punished them by allowing the Canaanites to remain with them. The Lord gave them up; He gave them over to their sin and allowed them to suffer the consequence of their sinfulness. They either allowed the Canaanites to live with them, or the Israelites went and lived with the Canaanites. They did not separate themselves, and so they became corrupted by the pagans.
Blending together through their tolerance, they allowed the cancer of Canaan’s wickedness to become embedded within the fabric of Israel’s society and culture so that they fell into the same sinful pattern again and again. Although the southern tribes did not compromise with the inhabitants of the land, they still became infected by them through their relationships with the other tribes of Israel.
This was the judgment of God against them; He gave the people what they wanted, what they asked for, and then He allowed them to suffer the consequences.
Unfortunately, we still continue to suffer the effect of that judgment, and we will until Christ returns. Sin destroys; it infects, corrupts, and then permeates everything and everyone it contacts. That’s what we mean by total depravity. Everyone suffers because of sin, because of our own sins and because of other people’s sins. Through our union with Christ, we Christians share in our sufferings now so that one day we will share in our rejoicing when we’re raised up in glory.
So what does this all mean for us as God’s people, the church? What lessons should we be learning from these ancient Israelites?
First, although we do not live in the promised land of Canaan and we are instead looking forward to a future, a future promised land of the new earth, we’re still under the moral imperative to purify and cleanse ourselves and our surroundings. While the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates and sanctifies us, we’re still obligated to cooperate with Him in the process of our sanctification.
We are charged to be holy because our Father in heaven is holy. The way we live matters; the things we watch and the things we do matter to God. We’re not to be like the pagans around us; we are not to join them in the abominable things they do. Because of your trust in Christ, are you now living a holy and righteous life as far as you’re able, or do you choose to persist in and indulge your flesh and sinful nature?
We all can be doing better in this regard, including myself. Trust and obey Jesus Christ; trust in Him for your salvation, your justification, and then lovingly obey Him because of what He has done for you. Learn to love and obey His holy law, following Him in faith.
Second, do not let yourself be divided from your fellow believers. Rest in our union with Christ and with each one of us. We have far more in common than we often realize. Do not let trivialities or pettiness or other false assumptions keep you separated from your brothers and sisters in Christ.
We have a king who emptied himself and took on our human nature so that we could become more like Him and better like Him; a king who was cut off from the land of the living so that we shall enjoy eternal life. He has united us, God’s elect, to Himself and our heavenly Father so that we will forever enjoy His peace, purity, and unity.
Third, beware of where, when, and how you compromise. It’s true that compromise helps people to get along in life. Nobody can or should always get everything they want or always get their way. But we cannot ever compromise on the things that really matter, especially things that matter eternally. When it comes to the essential things of God, any compromise with the world for the sake of tolerance, love, or social justice is a compromise with Satan and disobedience to Christ.
Be aware of who you surround yourself with. Do you allow the modern Canaanites to live among you, or do you choose to go and live among the Canaanites? We can’t escape them out there in the world around us because until Jesus returns, the church resides captive in wicked Babylon, within her boundaries yet still set apart.
Just consider your relationships with them. We have to live with, interact with, and share Jesus with all the many non-believers around us. We cannot isolate ourselves from everyone outside of the church. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and just ignore the wickedness going on in the world. We must do all that we are able to love our neighbor and so share Jesus with them, trusting that He will do a good work with them and bring all whom He calls into His elect Israel.
We are called by God to be His holy people, and that is how we must be. So let us heed the warnings of our past history. Let us avoid repeating the mistakes of the past because we’ll surely make plenty of our own. Let us weep for the sins of our forebears as well as our own and praise the Lord for His grace and mercy in sending us the Savior we need to cleanse us, unite us, and give us justice. Amen.