Judges
2:7-23.Pressing Upstream in a Downstream World
Judges
2:7-23.
American Journal of Biblical Theology
April 22, 2007
Copyright © 2007, J.W. Carter Scripture quotes
from KJV
Have you ever felt like the whole world seems to become more evil every day? Those of us who are old enough to remember the mid 20th century and its "Father Knows Best" culture have little difficulty describing the contrast between western culture of fifty years ago and that of today. Most would say that they have witnessed a world that is slipping deeper and deeper into a culture of godlessness, a culture that is becoming more and more desensitized to and accepting of evil. When we witness the violence and hatred that so characterizes the world we may think that matters cannot get worse. However, when we take a cursory look at human history, we find that we seem to be stuck in a cycle that takes us from the bottom of the pit back to somewhat conservative culture, only to slide back into the pit again. One only needs to spend a few minutes studying thirteenth and fourteenth European history to learn of a time that was dramatically worse than that of today.
Where has the church been during these times of cultural degradation apostasy? Actually, western history will show that the church has led its cultures into violence and hatred with many of the greatest atrocities against mankind in all history perpetrated by those who do so in the "name of God."
The direction of cultural change is like the current of a rushing river, a force that carries with it everything in its path that it overcomes. Such social decline is like a river that is flowing on a long and winding pathway as it falls through yet lower and lower altitudes. All of its people are swept up in its current and can make choices as to how they will respond to it. Most people are unaware of the current and simply flow along together, accepting whatever comes their way. Some may choose to reject society's direction and try to get out of the river entirely, living the life of a hermit.
Those who claim the name of Christ are to live above the evil of this world, and rather than follow the world in its ever-declining spiral downward, Christians are to set an example of integrity in word and in deed. Yet, taking a stand for the faith seems to become more difficult with every passing year. The world places pressure on the church to conform to its humanist and relativistic agenda. For the most part, the church has surrendered much of its integrity in an attempt to be like and be accepted by the world. It is these that are swept downstream by the current. Taking a stand for Christian integrity necessitates repentance: turning around and making the effort to travel upstream, against the current, accepting all of the consequences of such a decision. When traveling against the current, one is battered both by the waves and by the debris that is caught up in them. One who is working against the current stands out.
It is easier to just go with the flow, and the consequences of doing so are dramatic. When we choose to live like the world we compromise our witness and fail to fully experience the benefits of God's purpose in our lives. This godless and pagan world answers to no ultimate standard, and to follow the world is to surrender the ultimate standard of God's purposes. It is easy for the people of God to do this. We see an example of this in the history of ancient Israel following the death of Joshua when the nation found itself swept away by the pagan, world culture. It did not take long for this to happen.
So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel. 8Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
This is the point at which Joshua comes to the end of his life. He has been leading the Hebrews in Canaan for about 25 years, leading them to follow the Lord in their worship and adherence to the Law with mixed success. Israel demonstrated times of obedience and disobedience, experiencing the blessings and consequences of those decisions. Unfortunately, there did not appear to be many who shared Joshua's love for the Lord. From the time that he died to the point that Saul was anointed King, the Hebrews entered what is considered to be the dark ages of the Jewish faith. Lacking a firm commitment to the LORD, the people who God had called out to Himself fell in to cycles of apostasy and repentance, taking two steps back and one step forward as they allowed themselves to be swept up by the current of popular culture.
This period can be summarized in a single verse, repeated twice in the Book of Judges, 17:6 and 21:25.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6).
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25).
Israel fell into a cyclical pattern that is not unlike what we may deal with today as we struggle against the current. We allow ourselves to go with the flow and then find ourselves facing the consequences of our choices. We then turn to the LORD in repentance, seeking forgiveness and finding restoration only to find ourselves compromising our commitment again soon afterward. The cycle continues.
When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
What happened to the people following the death of Joshua? The people did not have enough commitment to the LORD to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of that faith. Unlike Joshua, who loved the Lord and demonstrated that faith in his life and leadership, there were few others who shared that faith. At this time in Jewish history, there was no other leader of the people who, like Joshua, was a spirit-led believer. What would happen to a nation if the Spirit of God was not in the hearts of its people? The nation would have no purpose or direction other than to go with the flow of this pagan world with its pagan gods. There would be no reason for the people to go against the flow.
It is a given that God has created us in His image, as spiritual beings, separated from the rest of created life as we know it. As such all mankind has always sought the answers to spiritual questions, and in doing so placed himself in subjection to some authority. This is what happened when the Hebrews no longer followed God.
First, without a central government, the Hebrew tribes started to develop fierce rivalries that often bred jealousy and hatred. They centralized themselves, often fighting with each other. Second, they failed to be obedient to God's command to act as His instrument in carrying out the destruction of all of the people of Canaan as a judgment on their apostasy. Finally, they began to assimilate into the Canaan culture, intermarrying and accepting their religious practices.
God stated to Abraham how the people of Canaan would become apostate, and his ancestors would not take the land until their evil was sufficient for their destruction. This is a testimony to the amount of evil we are seeing here.
The Hebrews forgot the LORD and turned to the pagan Baalim and Ashtaroths. The Canaanites were polytheistic, attributing everything they could not define or understand to one mythical god or another. The most pervasively evil of these were the Baalim and Ashtaroth. These were the fertility gods and goddesses of ancient Canaan. Baal was masculine; Ashtaroth was feminine. Ashtaroth is a plural form, as is Baalim, thus they represented numerous gods.
"Ashtaroth was worshipped under the names of Ishtar and Anath in ancient Babylon, Astarte in Phoenicia. According to ancient mythology, Baal was slain by a bitter foe, Mot, the lord of Death. Anath searched for and found Baal's body. She offered numerous sacrifices and succeeded in restoring Baal to life. Baal then arose from the dead and reigned over Mot. Anath was both Baal's sister and his lover. These became Baal and Ashtaroth who were worshipped as nature gods.
The worship of Baal and Ashtaroth had a strong appeal to the Israelites. They viewed the riotous worship of these gods as assuring the productivity of their flocks, herds, and fields, and the birth of a large number of children in their families. Riotous drinking and sexual immorality accompanied the festival days of worship. The idea was that sexual involvement with a temple prostitute would prompt Baal and Ashtaroth to do the same, ensuring fertility in every realm. Worship of Baal and Ashtaroth also involved human sacrifice. Such an act expressed the worshiper's devotion and elicited their god's favor." (Lee, J.W. , (1994), The Adult Teacher V41 No. 1, SSB: Nashville TN.)
The actions of the people was not without consequences.
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.
What happens when a child of God turns away from Him to follow the ways of this world? This is not unlike a young child who chooses to disobey a wise and loving father, rejecting his guidance and following the ways of the other children who are receiving no such instruction. The wise and loving father must respond to this behavior in a way that will bring the child to an understanding of the consequences of their disobedience.
God's righteousness and holiness demands that he judge the unrepentant sinner. How did God exact that judgment? God had promised His hand of protection over them as long as they were obedient to Him. When they disobeyed, they stepped away from that hand of protection and exposed themselves to the consequences of their own foolishness. God allowed them to be robbed, sold into slavery, and they were unable to defeat their enemies in battle without God's help. The phrase "Whenever Israel went out to fight", could also be rendered, "wherever Israel went". When Israel stood for Baal and Asherah, God stood against them in all that they did. What would you think about having God working against everything that you do? That is a bit of a scary concept.
Yet, even a loving father knows the limitations of discipline. When we find ourselves in disobedience to the LORD, we will experience the consequences of that apostasy. However, God's plan is not that we be destroyed by our sins, but that He would provide a means by which we could be delivered from them, turning back to the LORD in faith. Even when we give up on the LORD and start drifting in this downstream world, God's hand is always there to help us repent and turn back upstream.
Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
The KJV renders the word "Then" as "Nevertheless", actually in the Hebrew it is a simple conjunction, like "and". The idea is that God's grace was demonstrated that even while the Hebrews were steeped in sin, God's love reached through and provided them with a way out. This has been God's method of redemption from creation. Recall Paul's statement in Romans:
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).
When people are in distress, God may seem indifferent or distant. This is not one of God's attributes. God always provides a way out for all people. It was not until Jesus' resurrection from death on the Cross of Calvary was God's redemptive plan so graphically illustrated. Jesus was and is the ultimate judge, and as the judges of the Israelites saved them out of the hands of the worldly raiders, Jesus as God's supreme Judge saves people out of the hands of the ultimate raider, Sin and Death personified in the being of Satan.
Most of the judges were men, though women were also raised up, Deborah being a notable example. Samson is probably the most well known judge. A judge was not one who sat on a bench wearing a robe. He was the spiritual and military leader who had the LORD's blessing and, usually, His Spirit. However, it was often the case that the judge would also turn from God and suffer consequences of that action. We cannot place our trust in human leadership, but in the LORD alone.
Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands.
What was the people's response to the judges that the LORD raised up? Though they would initially follow them in order to be saved from their immediate stress, they would not listen with the intent of obedience. What is the downstream world's response to the Gospel of Christ, the One Judge that has come to free them from the bondage of sin? They reject God, His plan and His purpose, and follow after other gods, having no intent of obeying the One True LORD. What is the response of the Jewish nation today to the Gospel? They also reject it, placing their identity in the ancient law that none have any real intent to fully obey.
The Hebrews are accused here of prostituting themselves. This should be a supreme insult to them. This refers to prostitution and adultery. This attitude was graphically followed in the manner of worship of the Baalim and Ashtaroth, when their worship practices took place "under the trees" or "under the Ashtaroth pole," each statement representing both a physical location and a metaphor for the most ungodly of practices. To worship "under the trees" was to be completely swept up by the downward current of this evil world.
And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
The place of the judge is repeated here. Note also how the task of the judge was simply a type of the supreme judge, Christ. As long as a judge lived, God intervened on the behalf of his children, saving them out the hands of their enemies. As the supreme judge, Jesus also saves us from the hands of the enemy. What would have happened if Jesus died on the Cross, never to be raised again? The apostles and disciples would have gone back to their apostasy, and God's purpose of redemption would have never been fully known. Instead, Jesus was raised from the dead, showing all the true eternity of life. What does this mean in the context of what we can learn from the Judges? Jesus delivers us from sin, and will continue to do so until the "end of the age" when He returns and the apocalypse unfolds. Unlike the Judges who died, taking their Spirit-led leadership with them, Jesus will never die, and His spiritual leadership through the power of the Holy Spirit will never end.
Still, those who reject God through the Judges, and those who reject God through Christ are judged themselves by God. What is his judgment for them?
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. 20Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, 21I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.”
The LORD's command to Joshua was to drive out all of the nations in the Promised Land, but we find in the first few chapters of this book that Joshua and the twelve tribes of Israel failed to do this. They drove out only those who lived in the cities that met their immediate needs, and in many of these they did not drive out the people but instead made slaves of them. This disobedience created a situation where Israel was immersed in the pagan cultures of these nations, much like Christianity is immersed in a wicked world today. The temptation to go with the flow of popular culture was as real then as it is today.
What function did the Canaanite nations serve in the hands of God during these "dark ages"? They were used of God to test Israel and to turn them to the Lord when the consequences of their sin would cause them to cry out.
What similar function does Satan serve in the hands of God during our current age? He is also used of God to test people and turn them to the Lord.
Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
We may criticize Joshua, Caleb, and the twelve tribes of Israel for failing in their task of driving out the Canaanites, particularly in light of the consequences of apostasy and violence that continued even until today. However, we must never forget that God is the Sovereign Lord, and He is free from the limits of our time and both sees and interacts with all that takes place for all ages. He knew that Joshua and Caleb would not be able to complete the task, as God had never intended them to do. Had God wanted to completely annihilate the Canaanites he could have done so easily in a "Sodom and Gomorrah" type incident. God has a purpose in placing His children in a downstream world.
Instead of pointing fingers at Joshua and Caleb, we can instead, take a good look at what took place during the dark ages of the judges and we will see that we are living in a very similar age today. God still saves people who place their faith in Him. Since Christ came, lived and died, and arose, God's commitment, or covenant with us is sealed. Since Christ will never die we will never be turned back to the hands of the spoiler once we have been saved. We are sealed by His Holy Spirit.
However, those who follow God in true faith are a tiny minority of this world. The world is still in a dark age. The world is still like a river that is flowing to ever lower altitudes, dragging with it all who get swept up by its current. Christians are called to faith, and faith is characterized by action: action that is focused in an upstream direction, focused on a higher call. We may be reminded of Paul's testimony when he wrote:
Phil. 3:13-14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Summary
• God demands exclusive loyalty from people who serve Him. This world has no such loyalty and to follow the world is to drift away from Him.
• In a pluralistic society such as the one in which we live we should be aware of the many false gods, religions and cults. To identify them we must first know our own faith.
• We need to be committed to the biblical standard of marriage and moral values. This commitment is in direct conflict with the world, as is everything which is of God.
• Our present choices may have far reaching circumstances. We can examine our current choices and measure them with the standard of God's Word and His purpose for our lives.
• God will not leave His people without committed leaders to help them in time of need. Don't try to do this alone. Pray for one another and help one another in a spirit of forgiveness and unconditional love.
• We need to reaffirm our commitment and allegiance to God as a means of countering the constant downstream current of an unbelieving world that serves false gods.
Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11:30)." Turning away from the direction of this pagan, downstream world does not have to be a difficult task. It is difficult only when we hold tight to the things of this world. Let go of those things that are dragging you downstream and hold fast to the LORD as He empowers us to live above this world as we are focused on the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.