Judges 1:1-2:5

[0:00] So, we're in Judges chapter 1, and my aim this morning is to get down to verse 5 of chapter 2, all being well.! So, why don't we have a word of prayer, and then we'll get into it.

[0:14] Lord, thank you for your words. Thank you, Lord God, for this morning and for a chance to just come together to hear from you. Lord, it's just awesome that the eternal God of the universe has written us a message.

[0:29] And not only have you given us a written message, you've given us your Holy Spirit by whom we can understand it and receive it into our hearts. So, Lord, we ask and pray that he would be moving in our midst today, that you would help me to rightly present your word, Lord.

[0:48] And I pray, God, that he would also help us to apply it, Lord, because we want to be changed. We want for you to change us in response to your word. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

[1:02] So, last week we took a session to review the last chapter of Joshua, and we spend a little bit of time summaries in the whole book.

[1:13] In that last chapter really is a summary where Joshua reviews the miracles that God has done for and within the nation of Israel.

[1:25] You know, he speaks about the amazing blessings that they've been the beneficiaries of. And then he gave them that challenge. And effectively it comes down to God is all or nothing.

[1:38] That's why he says, you can't serve God. And his point being, you need to be very, very clear on the commitment that you're signing up for here. If you're really going to come into God's land and be God's people, this is an all or nothing thing.

[1:54] And then, of course, we read of the death of Joshua. But as I think I said last week, actually, we're going to read of the death of Joshua again in Judges.

[2:05] And so that helps. The point at this stage is only that the narrative and the chronology of the narrative can be a little tricky. I did come to somewhat of a conclusion on how the narrative works.

[2:22] So I'll share that for what it's worth as we go. So in terms of an outline of the book of Judges then, as we stand on the threshold, it divides into three sections.

[2:37] You have a prologue, which is obviously from verse 1 all the way down to verse 6 of chapter 3, by my reckoning.

[2:49] And then from 3.7 on, you then have the meat of the book, which is a look at a series of Judges in varying degrees of detail.

[3:00] Sometimes we've got a chapter or two or more on the judge. Other times we've just got a verse. So that's the bulk all the way down to verse 31 of chapter 16. And you then have, for the last few chapters, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, you have an epilogue.

[3:18] And it's really just two awful narratives, two awful stories. And frankly, they're hard to read. They're hard reading.

[3:31] And read them we shall in a few weeks' time. Now, our prologue, which is where we are today, it divides into two distinct units, at least by my reckoning it does anyway.

[3:47] And today we're going to cover the first of those, which takes us down to chapter 2, verse 5. And then chapter 2, verse 6 through 3.6 will be for next week. And then what you see at a high level for Judges, as I think we all know this, is you just see a gradual mold kind.

[4:08] A people who don't start off that well, to be perfectly honest, and they just get worse from there. At the end of Joshua, I think it's the last verse.

[4:22] No, it's not. It is verse 31 of chapter 24 of Joshua. It says that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua and had known the deeds of the Lord which he had done in Israel.

[4:41] And what is implicit in that is that they stopped serving the Lord once that generation had gone by and large. And as I said, the reality is we are seeing the genesis of those failures even today in the first few chapters.

[5:00] And so I think that the overtone of the book then is how Israel, and I would argue by extension, mankind in general, is prone to wander. And without a continuous ongoing commitment to the Lord, to serve the Lord, we are all drifting.

[5:19] We are all drifting to sin. That is what we do. And in that sin, there is a withdrawal of the Lord's blessings, what we see in Judges. Now, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, and he said this.

[5:35] He said, Now these things happened to them, Israel, as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages have come. And I thought about spending a bit of time in 1 Corinthians 10, and then I realized, no, that will blow the whole morning if we do that.

[5:53] But what Paul is doing in that chapter is he is applying Old Testament history to New Testament saints and urging them to flee idolatry, resist temptation.

[6:09] Okay, a couple of other comments before we jump into the text. The first one is, what is right and wrong? Because the author of the book of Judges, whom, I don't know, it's uncertain who the author is, by the way, most assume it's Samuel.

[6:28] But I think it's pretty clear to me that it is a compilation of different accounts. But the author and the editors of Judges don't tend to say, this thing was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[6:42] The thing that so-and-so did was displeasing to God. Doesn't say it. And so what you get is a record of what happened. So, for example, we'll read today, they're going to cut off the thumbs of the king.

[6:56] And then later on we're going to read about Ehud stabbing Eglon with a foot-long sword that goes in and doesn't come out. It's great. We're going to read about Jael.

[7:08] Bang! With a tenpe, right? Through the temple of Sisera. And then we're going to read of Gideon and he will whip the men of Sukkoth with thorns. And nowhere does the narrator say this was a bad thing or this was a good thing.

[7:22] You're left to infer it based on what? Based on the Torah and the law of God and the instructions they've been given. So we have to do a little bit of thinking as we go.

[7:37] In fact, actually, there's a refrain we'll read in Judges several times, particularly towards the end, which is this. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

[7:48] Now, is it right or wrong to do the thing that's right in your own eyes? Because I think today the secular world would probably think, what's wrong with that? You know, what clearer statement of personal liberty and freedom could there be than to do what is right in your own eyes?

[8:08] Of course we know that's wrong. But my point is it's not implicit. Sorry, it's not directly stated. It's only implied. The author gives no clear indication of morality and the author expects us to keep in mind the law of Moses and the instructions that God has given through Joshua.

[8:26] So there's that one. And then next note I'd like to make is, what is a judge even? What is that? What is a judge? You might think the answer is obvious, but it isn't.

[8:37] The Hebrew word Shofat is not a judge in the way that we think of it. It's not like, you know, someone whose role is purely to administer justice and decide right and wrong.

[8:52] Actually, the ancients didn't tend to split their leadership into different sections like, you know, administration, executive, judicial and so forth. They didn't have that same split that we have in our modern society.

[9:04] And we really should think of the word Shofat, judges, or judge, as leader, chieftain, governor, all of those things.

[9:18] I mean, even leading warrior, captain, if you like. So all of those things, general. Now, if you, I can't, we did read Judges 24, didn't we?

[9:31] Joshua 24 last time. If you recall right at the beginning, it said that Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and their judges.

[9:43] Shofatim, same word in plural form. So judges already existed and the existence of Judges isn't limited to the book of Judges.

[9:54] For example, Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 18.5. We'll read about him. I don't think that's quite the right verse, actually. I didn't fix that. There is a verse where Jehoshaphat is seen appointing Judges into the fortified cities of Judah.

[10:11] Sorry, I don't have the verse for that. So, but you get the point, right? Judges is not limited to this season. It is a concept of general leader and it is throughout the book of the Old Testament.

[10:26] However, Acts 13.20, Paul makes, you know, just in passing, he remarks that God gave them judges until Samuel. So in Paul's mind, this was a particular period in which judges were specifically prominent.

[10:40] And of course, the book of Ruth itself describes as taking place in the days of the judging of the judges, which I always thought was a great way of putting it. So, the book of judges carries that title as a representative of this period of time, but they are generally around in my point.

[11:02] Now, a word on the chronology of judges. Because creating a timeline for this book is very difficult. The narrator does frequently insert little durations.

[11:17] Such and such thing happened for X years. But there aren't really very many anchor points to actually anchor into a period of history. There is one in Judges 11 that we'll get to, but it's almost definitely a rounded number.

[11:33] I think it's just like something hundred years. So it's almost certainly a rounded figure. And then, so the best thing that you have is, in 1 Kings 6 verse 1, is where, well, let me read it.

[11:47] It says, Now it came about in the 480th year, after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, that is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.

[12:02] So this is a real milestone. Now, building Solomon's temple, first foundation stone laid, that was 480 years after the Exodus. Okay, great.

[12:14] How much time, how much do I have to fit into that 480 years? Well, the answer is, of course, the wilderness wanderings, the whole of the period of Judges, and then you've got Samuel, Saul, David.

[12:26] 480 years is all of that. Now, as I said, there are some little durations that are inserted in the text. I went ahead and added them all up so you don't have to.

[12:38] The answer is 370 years. However, you quickly realise that if Judges is 370 years long, then you don't have enough time for 40 years of wilderness wandering, plus reign of Saul, plus reign of David, plus Samuel.

[12:56] So, you can't fit everything in. Now, that is basically all I want to say about that, because you can spend a lifetime on this.

[13:06] I have seen people put together wonderful chronologies, and God bless them for doing that. I really lost interest. I think the only thing to really take away is, I think it does lead some credibility to the theory that the Judges that we read about are actually regional.

[13:30] If you look up at the screen on this map, it gives you an indication, when it loads eventually, of the different places that the Judges reign.

[13:41] So, again, I don't need to look at them in too much detail, but you can see De Beir here, that's where Othniel was. Samson is here. Deborah is a little bit further north.

[13:52] And so on and so on. So, there's Gideon way up here in the north as well. So, the point is, the Judges had an area in which they were from, an area that they delivered. And so, many suspect and assume that a lot of these events could have been happening simultaneously, or at least overlapping.

[14:13] I'm not sold on it, to be honest, because the book of Judges clearly says that they judged Israel, not Zebulun or Judah. But then you're left with a problem, how do you fit everything in?

[14:25] Like I say, at that point, my eyes glazed over. Paul said to Titus in chapter 3, verse 9, Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and stories and disputes about the law, for they are useless and worthless. And I think he's right.

[14:36] You know, you can spend too long on these things. So, anyway, if you're interested, you might go away and look at that. Right, that's enough of that. Let's look at the text now. Judges chapter 1, verse 1.

[14:51] Now, it came about, after the death of Joshua, that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?

[15:03] The Lord said, Judah shall go up, behold, I have handed the land over to him. Then Judah said to his brother Simeon, Go up with me into the territory allotted to me, and let's fight the Canaanites.

[15:14] And I, in turn, will go with you into the territory allotted to you. So, Simeon went with him. Judah went up, and the Lord handed over to them the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated 10,000 men at Bezek.

[15:29] They found Adonai Bezek in Bezek. Makes sense. And they fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adonai Bezek fled. And they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

[15:44] And Adonai Bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me. So they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

[15:59] So, Judah and Simeon. Why did they go together? It kind of makes sense. Again, if I refer you back to the screen. Simeon's territory is in Judah.

[16:12] Hence the scribbly coloring in there. So it made sense for them to go together for that reason. So they start, well, seeking the Lord. How do we go?

[16:24] Now, Judah is under the leadership of... Pop quiz time. Who's the leader of Judah? The answer is Caleb. Caleb is the leader of Judah. He was the man, of course, of the tribe of Judah who represented his tribe in the spying out of Kiriath-Jerim.

[16:43] Numbers 34, verse 18 to 19 says... So this is Joshua speaking. He says, You shall take one leader of each tribe to assign the land as an inheritance.

[16:54] These are the names of the men of the tribe of Judah. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. Caleb, the leader of the tribe of Judah. He's 85 years young at this point.

[17:07] With all the same strength and vigor, at least according to him, that he had when the people turned back at Keospania 45 years ago.

[17:21] So... And by the way, if you wanted to... If you have some kind of distrust of these maps from Logos, you can check it out in Joshua 19, verse 1-9, and you'll see how the land breaks down.

[17:34] But I checked it. It's right. Okay. Oh, so Bezek. Adonai Bezek. Adonai, of course, meaning Lord. I think we know that. So it just means the Lord of Bezek.

[17:44] Bezek is... Meaning is uncertain. Location is uncertain. So I can't really say much more about that. You'll note that Bezek isn't on this map, because I don't know where it is.

[17:58] Two, there are a couple of suggestions, but they're all just really speculation, to be honest. So... So... What we read is Judah mutilating the Lord of Bezek, as he has done, so it was done to him.

[18:19] Why would he do such a thing? Well, the answer is... It is... It's kind of like what they do to Samson. They blind him, and they basically make him into a joke.

[18:30] That's the idea. If you cut off the thumbs of a warrior, he cannot hold a sword anymore. He can't fire a bone anymore.

[18:41] And if you cut off the big toes, you really can't move very fast. No more running. So it is about crippling and... No balance. Yeah, no balance. Yeah, exactly.

[18:52] No dancing anymore either. So, yeah, it makes them into a cripple. It makes them into a joke. It is a humiliation. Now, where in the Scripture did they command the mutilation of their enemies?

[19:10] Oh, wait, nowhere. I don't think this was the right thing for them to do. This is not what the Lord prescribed. If you remember what God has said, he said, look, I am giving you this land, and one of the reasons you're going up there is to execute my divine wrath against the inhabitants.

[19:36] In fact, if you remember all the way back, I can't remember the reference now, but he says to Abraham, there's going to be 400X years, the sin of the Amorites isn't yet complete. There's this whole building up of their sin until it gets to the point where God's like, right, you're going in there to destroy them.

[19:54] Deuteronomy 20, verses 16 to 18. In the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive.

[20:09] Instead, you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you so that they will not teach you to do all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, by which you would sin against the Lord your God.

[20:28] That is the command. And that is also the model and the practice of Joshua. Joshua 10, verse 40 to 41, for example, so Joshua struck all the lands and the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings.

[20:46] He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. So, wrong, bad.

[20:59] Why did they keep him alive? I don't know. I don't know what the thinking was, to be honest. But it did get me to thinking about how, you know, for us, I think that the nations are like the strongholds of sin in our lives.

[21:15] That's kind of the model. And the aim for the Christian is to defeat sin in our lives. It is to destroy it, to remove it. Do we sometimes think that we can keep a little bit of sin in our lives?

[21:31] Oh, I've got that under control. I've cut off its thumb, so to speak. It can't possibly get hold of me anymore. I think this is the beginning of compromise. I think we can keep control over this.

[21:43] It's fine. No problem here. I think that is a slight application of us seeing in what they've done. Well, verse 7 tells us that Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and their big toast cuttle used to gather up scraps under my table, as I had done, so God has repaid me.

[22:01] This is, as far as he's concerned, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's just that they have been put under instructions to wipe them out. Yeah. It is interesting that Adonai Bezek sees it as divine justice.

[22:17] I think I don't see it the same way as he did, to be honest. I think, you know, it is certainly true, scripturally speaking, that you will reap what you sow.

[22:29] So, you know, maybe there's an element of that, but in the end, this is disobedience on behalf of Yeah, but they're struggling with this reconciliation or do we obey the instruction to wipe these people out or do we obey the an eye for an eye for a tooth for a tooth?

[22:42] It's that struggle that we all have between determining which instruction is the superior and that needs to be followed. Anyway, then take a slightly carry on.

[22:56] So, let's read on anyway. So, we've got down this far as verse 8. So, we're reading on about the tribe of Judah, which is under, as I said, the leadership of Caleb. So, then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

[23:15] Afterwards, the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the lowland. So, Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron.

[23:26] The name of Hebron was previously Kiriath Arba. And they struck Shishai, Ahimon, and Hamai. Now, then from there, they went against the inhabitants of Debir.

[23:37] The name of Debir was previously Kiriath Sepha. And Caleb said, Now, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it.

[23:53] And so, he gave him his daughter, Ahasar, as a wife. Then it happens that when she came to him, she incited him to ask her father for a field. Then later, she dismounted from her donkey and Caleb said to her, What do you want?

[24:07] She said to him, Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me springs of water also. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

[24:22] Now, the descendants of the Canaanites, Moses' father-in-law, went up from the city of Palms with the sons of Judah to the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad.

[24:34] And they went and lived with the people. And then Judah went with his brother Simeon and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.

[24:46] And Judah took Gaza with his territory, Ashkelon with its territory, Ekron with its territory. Now, the Lord was with Judah and they took possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots.

[25:00] Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses promised, and he drove out from there the three sons of Alec. Now, I read all that as one chunk.

[25:11] And I think that we're actually reading an amalgamation of a couple of accounts here. So if you look at verse 10, it says how Judah went against the Canaanites in Hebron and they struck these three guys, Shishai, Hyman, and Talmai.

[25:30] And then verse 20, now we're talking about Caleb, who is the leader of Judah, going to Hebron, oh, Hebron again, and drove out the three sons of Anak, which is the same three names we read in verse 10.

[25:44] And I know that's the case because actually all of this is a retelling of Joshua chapter 15, including the story there of Ahsa and Othniel. So, yeah, interesting that they are, the way it's been covered like that.

[26:00] But again, I think what we need to be cognizant of is that some of what we're reading is after Joshua died, and some of what we're reading is actually a retelling of what we've already seen that the people of Judah do.

[26:15] Now, but I do want to talk a little bit about how we apply this. Caleb is consistently portrayed as a strong, capable, but more importantly, a godly man and a godly leader.

[26:33] If we took the time to read Joshua 14, then we would see him actually requesting a tough lad. I want the hill country. I want, it may be the Lord will help me drive them out.

[26:46] He says, give me the fortified cities of the Anakim. Let that be my inheritance, he says. I think Caleb understood that life in God's plan is not easy.

[27:07] I don't think it's meant to be easy. God doesn't call us to an easy life, he calls us to an empowered life. Jesus says that his yoke, his burden's easy and his yoke is light, perhaps early on, I forget which.

[27:21] That isn't to say that he calls us to a life of hammocks and pina coladas. What it means is that it is true to the extent that we're in his will and working in his strength.

[27:35] Not an easy life, but an empowered life. And I think that's what Caleb understood. I write down here, if it was easy, everyone would do it. Now what about this challenge concerning Kiriath Sefer then?

[27:50] I think this is an extension of the same thing. I think that this is Caleb trying to find the next generation of godly leadership.

[28:02] How is it that a person is going to have victory over the strongholds of the Anakim? Well, that person will have victory because they are a godly person the Lord is with. And I think Caleb is seeking a godly leader.

[28:15] He's seeking a godly husband for his daughter. And the man who can go up against his city and be victorious is a man who is committed to following the Lord God.

[28:29] And then we read about, of course, as well, Caleb's provision for her. The Negev is, it means south. So we're talking about, well, south.

[28:40] Down here somewhere. In fact, there's Hebron. You can see it on the map. But it's generally most of this is actually quite wilderness. Wildnessy. It's desert. And I am reliably informed that even to this day, the land of Hebron is still watered by springs.

[28:59] So, there you go. For what that's worth. So, anyway, the point is, the application here is Caleb, as a godly man and leader, is raising up the next generation as well as providing for his daughter.

[29:15] Now, the other thing I've not mentioned, actually. I can't remember my notes. Yes, iron chariots.

[29:26] I wonder if anyone here thinks that God is defeated by iron chariots.

[29:37] Let's just pick it up again. Where were we? As I'm getting a little bit lost in my notes. Yes, there it was in verse 19.

[29:49] The Lord was with Judah and they took possession of the hill country, but they couldn't drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. Do we think that the Lord was daunted by the iron chariots of the Canaanites?

[30:06] No, I don't think the Lord had a problem with those chariots. In fact, actually, we've seen the Lord just wash away the chariots of Egypt.

[30:20] Gone. Joshua and Joshua 17 talks about the hill country and the iron chariots. It's like verse 18. You shall drive out the Canaanites even though they have iron chariots and though they are strong.

[30:34] Why? Because they have God. God isn't worried about those. The iron chariots are not the reason that Judah didn't take possession of the valley.

[30:45] The reason is... Well, I think there's actually two possible reasons. One is because they're failed to walk by faith and they are instead walking by fear. And the other possibility is something that we'll get to in chapter 3 where in chapter 3 we're going to read about how the Lord was deliberately leaving some nations.

[31:07] In fact, the verse says, These are the nations which the Lord lived to test Israel. Actually, the previous verse, The Lord allowed these nations to remain, not driving out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand.

[31:20] Joshua. So there is a deliberate sense in which the Lord is allowing the nations because he wants to keep them around to test Israel going towards.

[31:32] So one of those two reasons. Psalm 20 verse 7 says, Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord.

[31:46] Yes. I suppose you could put it the other way. Some fear chariots and horses. As a note in passing, I don't have a lot to say about it. We also read about the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law.

[32:00] Moses' father-in-law, of course, was Jethro. And we did see, so Moses stayed with him for 40 years, years ago now, of course.

[32:11] And then we read about how he came out with Moses' wife in Exodus 18. And it seems that the descendants of this man ended up just remaining attached with Israel and dwelling with them.

[32:27] So, now let's read on. We've got as far as verse 20, I think. So we're on verse 21. So we start to read now of some of the various failures of other tribes.

[32:42] So, but the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. And so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

[32:55] Likewise, the house of Joseph went up against Bethel and the Lord was with them. The house of Joseph had men spy out Bethel. The name of the city previously was Luz. And the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, please show us the entrance to the city and we'll treat you kindly.

[33:11] So he showed them the entrance to the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and his family go free. Then the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz, which is its name to this day.

[33:27] Wonderful. So, now, what can we say about these places? So Jerusalem, well, hang on, that was already captured as part of Judah's activity.

[33:38] We've just read it in verse 8. The sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword. So, how can it possibly be that the Benjaminites didn't drive out the Jebusites?

[33:50] How, indeed? Just in case you're wondering, it's Jerusalem finds itself right on the border with Benjamin and Judah. And, and I think, if memory serves from the tribal allotments, it is technically in Benjamin.

[34:06] So, I think the Judahites would just give them a freebie there when they, when they sacked it and burned it out. yeah. So, the Benjaminites were supposed to take it and keep it and dwell within. And, and, well, they didn't.

[34:21] They just didn't. And then Bethel, Bethel was already captured, or Lewis says, was already captured during Joshua's campaign. In Joshua 8, verse 17, where it says, there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel.

[34:40] Remember the taking of Ai. And, they'd all gone and they left and said, yeah, so they all got destroyed. Um, so, it seems to me, that, what we've just read in those five verses, six verses, is, a failure to fully receive, victories that had already been won on their behalf.

[35:04] Joshua had already, uh, won Bethel for Benjamin. There it is. Jerusalem, Jebus was already sacked by Jesus.

[35:15] Judah, and they just, didn't, didn't appropriate the victory. Um, what also I thought was interesting was how, the, the, the people make a deal, with, um, with this man, uh, who's then allowed to go free, and just goes and creates another looks.

[35:39] You know, and I found, you know, and it is in the nation of the Hittites, but, you know, I don't think, and the narrator, again, doesn't tell us was it right or wrong for them to do that. Was it right or wrong for them to make a deal with this guy? Um, I don't, obviously there's some similarities with Rahab from Jericho, but, obviously, the striking difference is, Rahab was a woman of faith.

[35:58] Um, I know that you are the people of God. I know that God has given you this land. She believed it. People of faith. A lady, she was a woman of faith. Um, and in fact, she's even in the hall of faith, in Hebrews 11, verse 31.

[36:12] Um, this particular guy from Luz, he's not in the hall of faith. Um, in fact, there's no evidence in the text at all, that he was doing anything other than saving his own skin, or betraying his own city.

[36:26] Um, so, but again, it's all inference, because we don't know. Now she doesn't tell us. Um, but again, I'm, I'm saying in that story, uh, that there is a need for sin to be defeated, not controlled.

[36:46] Honestly, Luz doesn't show up again in scripture, so maybe it isn't a big deal. Um, but, you know, what we've seen, what we've seen in this, these six verses is, a failure to fully appropriate the victory that had been won on their behalf.

[37:01] Um, and we could talk about how Jesus has won a victory in our behalf. So, let's read on.

[37:15] Anyway, we will finish this. Verse 27, but Manasseh did not take possession of Bethsheim and its villages, or Ta'anath and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Iblium and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages.

[37:36] So, the Canaanites persisted in living in this land, and it came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

[37:49] And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Ketron, or the inhabitants of Nahalal, Nahalal.

[38:05] So, the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Ahzib, Hilber, Aphek, or of Rehob.

[38:22] So, the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth Anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, and Beth Anath, became forced labor for them.

[38:45] Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley. Yet the Amorites persisted in living on Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and Sha'albim, but when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor.

[39:05] The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabim, from Selah, and upwards. Wow. That's quite a lot, huh?

[39:18] So, this map here, if you're interested, shows you the extent of the land they actually took. The green being the land taken, the, not green, being the land not taken.

[39:31] So, they say, is that the land that was promised, that's not been taken, or is that the... Yeah, yeah, it's not a brilliant map, actually, because not all this land was. So if you go back to the, if I just replay, you said this one again. Tribal distribution is that.

[39:43] So it was, all of this land should be theirs. Okay, so that, that, that's what's been promised, because I know they didn't take the full extent of it. Yeah, and, that, is what they've actually taken.

[39:55] So, I don't know, maybe, maybe it's, 60% perhaps, at this stage. Um, so, not, not brilliant. So, yeah, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, I think we just read a bunch of those places.

[40:09] So, a whole bunch of places, not fully taken. I think, every tribe, I didn't, I didn't do this analysis actually, but I think every tribe has at least some area that's not been properly captured.

[40:22] But what I think is, is notable here, is that, we didn't read, that the tribes were too weak, to finish the work. At this point, it seems to me, that they're choosing not to, or that they're just, they're just not doing it.

[40:37] Manasseh, it says he did not, by whom he could not. Rather than completing the task assigned to them by Joshua, and by extension, God, they decided to profit from, and use the Canaanites.

[40:52] We can get them to chop our wood. We can get them to do our laundry. We can get them to till our ground. Why would we kill them? Using the Canaanites.

[41:07] And actually, I don't know if you picked up on this as we read through, but there's a shift as we go. It speaks about how the Canaanites are forced labor, and it says how the Canaanites lived among them, verse 29.

[41:24] But as we go down, it flips. And all of a sudden, we're reading of Naphtali, living among the Canaanites, in verse 33. And then verse 34, by that point, the Amorites have forced the sons of Dan up into the hill country, and not letting them come into the valley.

[41:42] So, there is a gradual decline here, that the author has put in for us. And also, I think you can observe how, there's clearly a view to the future here as well, because he says how, when the power of Joseph came strong, this is what happened.

[41:58] So, the author is looking ahead into how things play out. So, I think there is compromise, there is a failure, not on the account of weakness, but on the account of choosing to allow sin to stick around.

[42:19] Well, what does the Lord have to say about this? Five verses from Judges 2. Now, before we read this, though, I wanted to make one powerful, I think this is key.

[42:34] Jude chapter, no, Jude chapter five isn't a thing. Jude verse five says this. In NASB, it says, now I want to remind you, though you know everything, once and for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

[42:55] Thanks, Jude. Jude is saying, the Lord saved a people out of Egypt. Big deal. But if you look at that, if you look at it in your Bible, Jude five, then what you'll find is there's a little footnote on Lord, and there's a little one there, and it says in the footnote, two early manuscripts read, Jesus.

[43:16] Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt. And they are early manuscripts. Well, look, I won't draw this out. The fact is, ESV, New Living Translation, Net Bible, which is very good, Christian Standard Bible, Lexham English Bible, all modern translations, with the notable exception of NASB, have now put that as Jesus, saved a people out of Exodus.

[43:44] Out of Egypt, sorry. Jesus is the Lord of the Exodus, according to Jude. And actually, I mean, the Net Bible has some good analysis as to why Jesus is almost, is most likely to be the original there, based around how clearly the scribes were not comfortable with writing Jesus was the Lord of the Exodus.

[44:08] And so they substituted with various things, including the Lord, God, God, the one that says God, Christ. So the variety of manuscripts, plus the fact that the oldest two are Jesus, give very strong evidence that this is Jesus Christ, the second person of Trinity, was the God of the Exodus.

[44:27] He was the voice of the burning verse. He was the pillar of the crown of fire. He was the rock that followed them. And he is the angel of the Lord who came from Gilgal to Bohe.

[44:39] Right. That's that. This is Jesus speaking. Oh, I have to say that. So, the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bohe, and he said, I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers.

[44:59] And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And as for you, you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. You shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed me.

[45:09] What is this thing that you have done? Therefore, I also said, I will not drive them out from you, but they will become like thorns in your sight. Now, when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people raised their voices and wept.

[45:25] So, they named that place Bohim, and there they sacrificed to the Lord. Sad times. So, wow, the angel of the Lord.

[45:39] So, Gilgal, of course, well, of course, Gilgal is the first place to which they came after they crossed the Jordan. I think this map should make that clear.

[45:53] Yes, it's missed out the fact that they camped in Gilgal, but yeah, that's the first place they went when they came over here. They camped in Gilgal, and that's where they sent the spies from, into Jericho.

[46:03] So, the first place that they came to in the Promised Land, Joshua 4.19, if you want to take a note. Bohim is unknown. It isn't, it was not mentioned previously, it is not mentioned subsequently, it is only here.

[46:20] It means weeping, aptly named. So, whatever. Now, just a quick note here.

[46:35] I said it when I introduced today that I think that we've got two prologues. I think I said that. There's one prologue consisting of two units, and this is where the first unit ends.

[46:47] Because the next, the very next verse that we're going to read is when Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel each went to his inheritance to possess the land. Now, did Joshua, if you read that as directly after this episode in Judges 2 and the ends of the Lord's Rebuke, then, hang on, Joshua's still around?

[47:10] After all of this and all these failures? I don't think it is. I think what's happening here is there's one unit that talks about what happened directly after the death of Joshua, which we've just read, that includes some prior activities that we've read in the book of Joshua, such as Caleb, and then that ends with the sad story of their decline and then the angel of the Lord's saying, what are you guys doing?

[47:32] Then, new unit begins, another viewpoint, if you like, introduced in the book of Judges, when Joshua dismissed, this is what the people did and that's what we're going to read next week.

[47:43] And it's a more of a, it's a more general overview of what we're going to read next week that Ray will very skillfully take us through, won't you, Ray? No pressure.

[47:57] No pressure. But yeah, what happens in next one is we've really seen the author drawing out that cycle of sin, oppression, supplication, deligrants, and then sin again.

[48:14] So that's what we've seen drawn out very clearly next week, so that's why I didn't really get too much into it today, because it's next week's study. But let's talk about this rebuke then of Jesus. So he says to them, I promise I would never break my covenant, but you have failed to carry out my command, to carry out my judgment on these nations.

[48:35] You didn't listen to my voice. You didn't listen to my voice. It is no good for me or you or anyone to hear the voice of God and then not do it.

[48:50] Hear and do. I was reminded of this parable, Jesus speaking to the chief priests and elders in Matthew 21, reading from verse 28. Jesus says, he says, but what do you think?

[49:02] A man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard. But he replied, I do not want to. Yet afterwards he regretted it and went.

[49:14] And the man came to his second son and said the same thing and he replied, I will, sir. And yet he did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father? They said, the first.

[49:26] Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him and you seeing this did not even have second thoughts afterwards so as to believe him.

[49:44] Hearing without doing ain't no good. And I think, you know, Jesus saying here, I will never make, I will never break my covenant with you.

[49:57] Of course he didn't. He will never break his covenant. There was a very, I was going to say, there's a footnote in the covenant. There really wasn't a footnote. Actually, I think it was the bulk of the covenant is if you do these things, if you are disobedient, if you are idolatrous, if you are worshipping these idols, then this is what my covenant is going to say.

[50:18] This is what's going to happen. Jesus is true to his covenant. So, let's wrap up there because I think that the, I think the application for us in what we've read today in the book of John Jesus is to think on what is it that the Lord God is calling us to do?

[50:38] What is he calling you to do? We see that we've seen some failures on the part of various tribes where they are either doing what seems right to them, hey, let's do what this guy has done to others.

[50:54] No, no, no, they need to do what God has said. We've seen Caleb who saw the need to raise up the next generation of leaders, which he did. That is what God had called him to do when he did it.

[51:08] We've seen a failure, we've seen fear, in the face of iron chariots. The iron chariots are scary, but only if you've taken your eyes off of the Lord. There are hard things in our lives, but they are only hard to the extent that we've taken our eyes off of the Lord.

[51:26] So what is the Lord saying to us? What's he saying to me? The Lord has nothing to say casually or idly. He's got good works for us to do. He saved us for a purpose as we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

[51:39] What does it mean to obey the Lord today? And I think if there is a sin in our lives that the Lord is working on, we ought not to think that we can just get it to a place of submission and now it's under control.

[51:58] I think that the Lord is calling us to eradicate sin. our challenge is, and our exhortation is to fully repent and not just to simply get it under control.

[52:10] We are to carry out the Lord's purpose in our lives under his strength with faith in him. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord God, that you are a mighty God and I thank you that you are the God of the impossible and even though there are hard things that we may face and we do face, Lord, teach us to keep our eyes on you because with a right perspective of who you are and what you are able to do, all things are possible to God.

[52:40] I thank you then, Lord, that all things fall into place. Lord, teach us to keep our eyes on you, I pray. Teach us, I pray, to have a healthy, well, hatred for sin.

[52:53] Help us to have a healthy desire for it to be eradicated, not just controlled. And I pray, Lord God, that by your Holy Spirit, you would enable and empower us to do these things.

[53:04] Thank you for your word to us this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.