Thought for the Week

Sometimes we say, “If there was only one commandment from God, life would be easier.” Well, that is not the case. But, there was one commandment God had given that was important but Israel ignored it. God told them to drive out or destroy the inhabitants of the Land. This was not done. It became the undoing of Israel. The former inhabitants were evil. They were like the people in Noah’s day. “…the wickedness of men was very great…every imagination and thought of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) In the face of this surrounding evil, it was too great a challenge for Israel to live for God. The pressure of these evil examples outweighed their desire to serve God. Again, we are afflicted with the desire to use our own thoughts to decide whether the former inhabitants should be allowed to stay or not. But we are not wise enough to make that decision. I would illustrate: Suppose you had a piece of moldy bread or cheese in your refrigerator. You want to keep it. Will you be able to? Not unless you remove the mold. If you do not remove the mold, it will spread. It is not a case of it could spread, or it might spread, it will spread. It is just a matter of time and the whole piece will be moldy. Evil is like that. If it is not destroyed, it will spread. Judges 1:27ff illustrates. “…Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants…” What follows is classic. “…they put them to service and made them pay tribute, but they did not completely drive them out.” We also note at least five other tribes did the same. It led to downfall. Evil surrounded Israel. The progression was, they observed it, they condoned it, they were involved in it, they were overwhelmed by it. Now this we can learn: If we do not destroy evil, it will have the same effect on us. Israel was called to be the people God would use to lead others to God. But it turned out other people led Israel away from God. Now we know that Israel was a nation but within that nation there were the tribal groups and there was a level of independence among them. They did not have a king to unite them. As I said, “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” So the continuing cycle unfolds among the people. God blessed them and made them prosperous. They began to do/be evil. God brought some form of punishment upon them. They cried out to God for mercy. God delivered them. In this Book, God used a number of individuals. Their influence was somewhat limited. They did not influence the whole nation. So the cycle of blessing-evil-repentance-deliverance was ongoing throughout Israel. Learn something here: God is faithful to the promises he made to Abraham. God is ready to hear and respond to cries of repentance. God hates evil. He knows its awful consequences. God loves people and knows they will suffer when they engage in evil. God provides help when people seek it. But that seeking must be genuine and insistent. It is only when people hate evil as much as God does, that deliverance is possible. God’s command, “Put evil away from you,” must be desperately desired. We can not assume God will simply overlook evil. He can not. He will not. We can learn this from observation of Israel or we can learn it on our own, the hard way. Watch and learn.

Scriptures to Read

Judges 1:27-36

Judges 2:1-4

Judges 2:6-14

Judges 2:15-19

Galatians 6:1-10

Judges 3:1-6

Judges 3:7-11