A correction and a deeper dive

“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”  –Joshua 24:23 (NIV)
 
I made a mistake in last week’s post. When I introduced the book of Judges, I said, “The children of Israel were poised to enter the Land of Promise.” By the time of the events recorded in Judges, the Israelites had already entered Canaan. In fact, with God’s help under Joshua’s leadership, they had rendered the nations they were to dispossess militarily impotent. A better description of the scene at the beginning of Judges would be, “The children of Israel were poised to fully possess the Land of Promise.”
 
That said, my error prompted re-examination of that message and deeper contemplation of the situation the Israelites found themselves in, raising a new question: “What happened?” The table was set. With the heritage, instruction, and blessings they enjoyed, how did God’s chosen people go so far off the rails? I believe a combination of laziness and arrogance led to disobedience that allowed for the normalization of perverse and ungodly behaviors.
 
God welcomed foreigners who wanted to claim Him as their God and attach themselves to the nation of Israel. Once the nation was established, He would allow for territorial growth through displacement and/or forced servitude. But the explicit command for these Israelites who were inheriting this, the originally allocated “Promised Land”, was to destroy the people, the cities, the idols, and the culture of the seven tribes who were living there at the time. This was divine judgment on the people of Canaan. More importantly, it would be a needed safeguard over the heart of His people.
 
God drove some of the Canaanite people out of the land ahead of the Israelites. He gave Joshua’s forces decisive victories over the remaining fortified cities. But He intentionally left a remnant to test the faithfulness of Israel, train them to defend themselves, and to keep the wild beasts at bay until their population grew large enough to occupy the entire region. Unfortunately, they failed to complete the assignment.
 
God’s people abandoned their dependence on Him and stopped seeking His guidance. Acting in their own strength and human wisdom, obedience to the commandment to completely destroy the seven nations was hard. So they gave up. They then grew comfortably enmeshed in the deplorable cultural and religious practices of the Canaanites. They occasionally threw in some worship of the True God, but it was often twisted to near unrecognizability.
 
While Israel’s disobedience occurred on a macro- level, it raised some hard questions for me at the micro- level. Are there enemy settlements I have allowed to remain in my life? How are those pockets of resistance hindering my transformation into Christ-likeness? Have I become comfortable with my partial obedience because full obedience would just be too hard? Have I gotten to some point of blessing and sat down to rest before the task was complete, robbing myself of the full blessing?
 
Jesus came on a rescue mission to purchase forgiveness and eternal life on our behalf. But He wants more than that; He wants relationship. He offers new life with a new heart and a new mind, new desires and new purpose. Why would I be willing to settle for anything less than His best for me?
 
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  –John 15:4 (ESV)