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[Judges 1]
1After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" 2The LORD said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand." 3And Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you." So Simeon went with him. 4Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. 5They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7And Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. 9And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. 10And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
11From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. 12And Caleb said, "He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife." 13And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 14When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you want?" 15She said to him, "Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water." And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people. 17And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called Hormah. 18Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. 19And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron. 20And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. 21But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
22The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them. 23And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) 24And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, "Please show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you." 25And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. 26And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day.
27Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. 28When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.
29And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
30Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor.
31Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, 32so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out.
33Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
34The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. 35The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. 36And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.
[Judges 2]
1Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you." 4As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the LORD.
The story of the book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua. Joshua had led Israel's conquest of Canaan, but the conquest was not total. Much territory remained to be taken from the nations, and the death notice at the beginning of the book raises a serious question: How would Israel do in the land without a charismatic leader like Joshua or Moses? Everything depended on whether Israel had heard and processed the words of Moses' Torah. As the story goes, they had not, and Israel went from bad to worse, looking more and more like the nations that they had come to destroy as God's judgment tool.
Actually, the opening verses warrant hopeful anticipation for the reader. At first, Judah and Simeon do what Moses had told Israel to do, namely execute divine judgment on the Canaanites whose time had come. This impression literally evaporates in the second half of the chapter. References to Israel's failure in obeying God's Word of Holy War accumulate.
Holy War required that Israel would act as God's agent of judgment on the Canaanite nations. In light of their divine calling, the notices regarding their failure to dislodge the Canaanites are freighted with theological implications. God had warned Israel in the words of Num. 33:55: "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land…, then…those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides…" (cf. Judg. 2:3).
So this first chapter conveys the idea of gradual deterioration in strength and resolve: Israel runs out of breath. The seeds of disobedience begin to grow, and the web of transgression and failure is spun. Accordingly, Israel is slowly drawn into deeper rebellion and entanglements with Canaanite culture and religion. What starts as a decent beginning, spirals downwards into disaster, with Canaanites living side by side with Israelite tribes who have lost their identity as God's people. In this sense, Judges 1 is a preview of the theme of the book, namely Israel's moral and spiritual degeneration. The judges themselves lead the way in this movement, as they become increasingly flawed characters from Othniel to Samson.
The days of Holy War are over. Today, the lines are not drawn at a national level, and as disciples of Jesus we are not called to kill off our enemies. Christians do not even live in a separate country all by themselves anymore, and our goal is not the creation of yet another theocratic kingdom modeled after ancient Israel. But even though times have changed, God's war with the world has always been spiritual, even in times when there were physical manifestations of this warfare. Therefore, the warning of the book of Judges remains. Discernment and vigilance are requirements in our interaction with the world outside, its values, its culture, and its gods. Just as Israel was its own worst enemy, so are we. We do not become "Canaanized" by our culture because we have no choice, but because we want to be.
Do not underestimate the power of this world's idols, whether they be money, possessions, retirement plans, sex, entertainment, or power. They will lead to the destruction of your soul if you let them. But bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). This is a conquest of hearts for Christ.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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