Subjugation v. Eradication
Chapter two begins with a sad
statement. It begins with the reality of
what I said yesterday: subjugation is not the same as eradication. When a person goes about eradication they are
saying “You can become like me or become nothing.” When that same person is going about
subjugation they are saying “You can be how you are, just don’t interfere with
me.”
Do you see the difference? Quite literally, there is no room for a
covenant in the process of eradication and there is room for plenty of unholy
covenanting is the process of subjugation.
Verse 2 is very telling in Judges 2.
“You shall make no covenants with the inhabitants of the land.”
Now, pay attention here. God isn’t saying the inhabitants aren’t welcome
to convert to Judaism. Of course any who
truly converted would be welcomed and embraced!
But when the Hebrew people allow the “strongest” of the Canaanites to
continue to exist in the land, they are essentially making a covenant with them
by allowing them to live against God’s wishes!
The Hebrew people are saying to them, “We’ll stop fighting against you
so long as you meet these ‘non-conversion’ expectations.” That is a covenant!
Am I Any Different?
Again, we are no different. God wants our heart, mind, and soul. God doesn’t want just the part that is easy
to conquer. God doesn’t want us to outwardly
appear as though we have converted yet secretly and inwardly there are dark
places within us that we allow to exist because they are too hard to root
out! That’s not what God wants! God want all of us.
Quite literally, God wants us to
approach our own body, soul, and mind with a “convert or perish” mentality. That’s why Galatians 2:19-20 is so important
spiritually. Depending on how your Bible
numbers the verses, Paul says in either verse 19 or verse 20: “I have been
crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.”
Please
note that I have taken this story about Hebrew people killing Canaanites and
made it apply to each of us killing the Canaanite within us. I think that is an important spiritual
component. Until someone receives a
direct charge from God – as did Moses and Joshua – I think we should be
primarily concerned with our own spirituality than with ‘killing the
Canaanites’ outside of ourselves – as God directed the Hebrew people to
do. The focus should first and foremost
be internally directed until God says otherwise. Who am I to judge another person’s sinfulness
while there is plenty of sin to root out within me! This goes back to the old “log in the eye”
saying that Jesus gives to us in Matthew 7:1-5.
Consequence of Compromise
And
what is the consequence of compromise with the Canaanites? Judges 2:3 tells us that they shall become a
thorn in the side and their ‘gods’ shall ensnare the Hebrew people. The entire rest of the Old Testament is
devoted to telling us exactly how this plays out over the following 500 or so
years.
Is
it any different with us? When we
compromise within ourselves and let our humanity reign over our spirituality,
is it not always a thorn in our side?
When we let our humanity rear its ugly head and quit being spiritual
around other people do we not ensnare them, too?
Effect of Leadership Upon a Generation
Then
Joshua dies and another sad statement is made.
After Joshua and his generation die, a new generation arises who don’t
know the Lord. Do you know why this is
so sad? Because it is true. You can absolutely have a family where the parents
absolutely love the Lord with their whole heart yet whose kids grow up and
choose self-mongerism over following God.
This happens quite frequently, actually.
The sad truth about humanity is that it is far easier for a generation
to fall out-of-faith than it is for a generation to fall into faith! I’m not saying revivals don’t happen –
certainly they do! But it is far easier to
slide into human self-mongering than to slide the other way.
What
is sad about this line of thinking is that it casts a true light upon the
motivation of the earlier time. When Joshua
dies and the people fall away, what does that tell us about their motivation
for obedience when Joshua was alive?
Were they doing it because they really wanted to be obedient or because
their leader made them act a certain way?
Can we not say the same thing about children when they become
adults? When a child becomes an adult
and falls out of faith, what does that say about the motivation for any
spirituality within them while the child was under the parent?
We
can usually tell a good bit about ourselves by how we act when we are actually
in charge. When I am my own spiritual
leader and enforcer, how do I act? Do I
remain faithful in walking with my Lord or do I slip back into the world and
ignore my God? Am I really following God
because my faith is true within me or because I have people above me enforcing that
faith within me?
The Time of the Judges
The
end of the chapter brings us into the time of the judges. What I find sad is that the Bible is clear
that the people followed the judge because the judge provided good leadership,
but they weren’t in it to follow God.
Judges 2:17-19 say as much. These
verses only serve to reinforce what I just said about the peoples’ action after
Joshua died.
Is
that not true today in the church? How
many times has a pastor come into a church and brought with them a sense of
life and hopefulness only to have the people follow the energy the pastor brings
and not actually follow the Lord? People
will follow a new pastor because of the energy they bring; but many if not most
of those people are not really following the Lord but rather following the
energy the pastor brings. They aren’t
changing their life and turning to the Lord.
They aren’t growing closer to God.
They’re just enjoying the newness that the pastor has brought to the
church. They aren’t in love with God,
they are in love with getting to know someone new.
Soon
the energy fades and conflict arises.
The people who had been following just for the energy find themselves
unchanged and back in their old ways of lethargy, argumentative behavior, complaining,
struggling over power and control, or whatever other kind of behavior. These are all signs that the people aren’t
really interested in following the judge ( or in modern contexts, pastor) that
God has put into their midst. They are
really just interested in riding the energy while it lasts and while it is fun only
to get back to who they really are inside once the energy fades.
If
that’s what happened among the Hebrew people, why should we be any different? Has humanity changed since then? Have we evolved into a different being? No, certainly humanity still suffers from the
same problems. It should not surprise us
that the same problems that existed among the unspiritual back then still exist
among the unspiritual now. It is
truth. The only way to avoid falling
into the trap of humanity is to actually change – and the only way to actually
change is to become spiritual beings instead of fleshly beings. But that is a very rare thing indeed. But it is my prayer for me and you today.
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