In Judges 1 we see the first key to the falling away of the Israelites which was mentioned in Joshua. The Israelites conquered many areas of the promised land and drove out many inhabitants. Why did some of the sons of Israel not drive out all the inhabitants of the lands of their inheritance? The people did not follow God’s command to drive out the inhabitants of the land. What stands out to me is how both Moses and Joshua told the Israelites that this would be a problem for them.
Was the problem of inhabitants of the land left dwelling among the Israelites instantly a problem? How much time passed between Joshua’s death and the failure of the people? In Judges 2 we are given the progression of events that led to the people turning away from God. In verses 1-5 the people of Israel are rebuked by the angel of the Lord. You’d think that this would rebuke by God would have been a catalyst for change in the people but it didn’t have a lasting effect. The people of Israel were faithful to God throughout Joshua’s leadership and throughout the leadership of the elders who out lived Joshua. Once the generation who knew, followed, and remembered God’s work to bring them to the promised land died the subsequent generations “did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had don for Israel.” Judges 2:10 Â Instilling a living and active faith in God to their posterity is the centeral problem of the Israelites are facing just as Moses told them. I still wonder how faith is transfered or instilled in to the lives of people. How will my faith in God be transfered into future generations?
The disobedience of the children of Israel climaxes in their turning to other gods instead of the God of their fathers. The inhabitants that were left in the midst of their cities took only two generations to corrupt the faith of the Israelites. The people turned and served Baal and Ashtaroth, among other gods of the inhabitants, and they forsook God and in doing so brought the curse down upon themselves. Throughout the disobedience of the Israelites God showed and proved His love and faithfulness by raising up judges who would turn the people back to God but upon the judges death the people would turn away again. This cycle continues until God’s anger burned against the Israelites.
Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.
Joshua 2:22,23
What is God doing by leaving the foreign nations among the Israelites? God knows the peoples hearts and they are inclined to turn away from Him. What are the foreign nations in our lives today? What is in our lives that God does not want for us but we continually turn back to?
