Thought for the Week

We have been looking at a sort of “prologue” for the Book of Judges and have reviewed a bit of the Book of Joshua as well. I think it was good we did this because you can probably see a lot of the same things reflected in our own nation. The spies brought back a mixed report after they had traveled through the Promised Land. Everybody agreed it was a beautiful and prosperous land. We could say we have one, too. But, they did not agree on whether God could be trusted to give them possession or not. Two said He could and would help them. Ten said He wouldn’t or couldn’t and they should figure out what to do on their own and ignore God and His commands. I don’t know what the percentages are but certainly there are some in our world who believe God can be and should be trusted and obeyed. Another group says, we can and should ignore God and do what we think is best. This second idea is then really problematic because there is no unanimity in what they think is best. Let us get back to Judges 1:1 to 3:6. Under Joshua’s leadership, the Land had been claimed, perhaps conquered, but certainly not cleansed. So, the cleansing needed to happen. God was consulted, and the Tribe of Judah was chosen to begin. They did a good thing and enlisted another tribe, Simeon, to cooperate with them. It was agreed they should cleanse Judah’s tribal allotment first then cleanse Simeon’s. God honored their plan and gave them victories. Initially, they attacked a Canaanite people led by King Adoni-Bezek. He was evil, cruel, and vindictive. Israel cut off his thumbs and big toes. He acknowledged a Scriptural principle: “What I did to others has been done to me.” We leave this for a moment to see one of the faithful spies. Caleb was from the Tribe of Judah. When he spied out the Land, he brought back a glowing report and proposed they go in at once and possess The Land. He even claimed, and was granted by Moses, one of the most difficult places to inherit. It was occupied by a family of giants. In our today’s story, Caleb is 85 years old and says he is just as strong and capable to do battle as he was when he first entered the Land. Keep in mind, except for Joshua, every other man in Israel is more than 20 years younger than he. As soon as Joshua verifies Caleb’s claim to this property, Caleb proposes that any man who will aid in the capture and cleansing of this property will be allowed to marry his daughter. Some feel Caleb is backing away from the challenge. I think he is looking for a man of courage and strength for his daughter. A man named Othniel steps up. He is a nephew of Caleb’s (courage must run in the family). Caleb’s daughter enters the picture. She knows the land is of little use unless it has water. She lays claim to the water-rights and is granted two strong springs. She is showing her wisdom. I think they make a great couple. God will surely bless them. The Tribes of Judah and Simeon did pretty well at following God’s commands. Unfortunately, chapter one gives a sadder report telling us the Tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Benjamin did not purge out the nations to which they were assigned. That leaves a large contingent of evil people remaining in the Land. This will haunt Israel for centuries to come.

Scriptures to Read

Judges 1:1-7

Judges 1:8-11

Judges 1:12-15

Judges 1:16-21

Judges 1:22-30

Judges 1:31-2:5

Judges 2:6-3:6