Demolition project
So be very careful to love the LORD your God. –Joshua 23:11 (NIV)
When Joshua gave his farewell address (Joshua 23 & 24), the tribes of Israel were ready to settle in their allotted homelands. Five years had passed since they crossed the Jordan. The Canaanites were thoroughly defeated, but not eliminated. Joshua called on Israel to remain true to God and finish carrying out His judgment on the pagan nations that had once thrived in the region. He repeated God’s warning that if they failed to do so, they would be tempted to trade, intermarry, and make treaties with them, eventually adopting their customs and worshiping their gods.
Of course, Israel promised to stay faithful and obedient to YHWH. Joshua was skeptical: “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; He is a jealous God…” (Joshua 24:19). He had them swear before God and one another, but his words proved prophetic. After a strong start in Judges 1:1-18, with the 85-year-old Caleb leading the charge, something happened. The Israelites lost their appetite for battle, and for obedience:
The men of Judah… were unable to drive the people from the plains… (v.19)
The Benjamites… did not drive out the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem… (v.21)
But Manasseh did not drive out the people… the Canaanites were determined to live in that land… (v.27)
Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites… the Canaanites continued to live there among them… (v.29)
Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites… these Canaanites lived among them… (v.30)
The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out… (v.32)
The Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land… (v.33)
The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country… (v.34)
Scripture names eight of the twelve tribes in their failure to close the deal. What happened? Over-reliance on their own strength? Lack of accountability to a centralized leader acting in God’s will? Whatever the case, the job proved more difficult and time-consuming than expected. Complacency crept in and Israel was no longer interested in pursuing the task of eliminating those enemy strongholds. It went from something they had every intention of doing, to something they would eventually get around to, to something they were all too happy to tolerate. The sad but predictable outcome? The “living among” resulted in a complete falling away within two generations.
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. –Judges 2:10-12 (NIV)
It’s impossible to serve God wholeheartedly unless we are willing to completely demolish the strongholds of the enemy. Do not believe the lie that you can peacefully co-exist with him; he is always looking for an opportunity to re-claim lost territory. The compromises of today become the sin of tomorrow resulting in a generation that doesn’t know God and doesn’t care to know God because they don’t believe that knowledge of God makes any difference.
I often encourage us to be “heads up, eyes open”. Today I challenge us all to examine our hearts. Invite the Holy Spirit to show us any strongholds that need to come down.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. –2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)