You see a little overlap from Joshua in the first part of Judges. You get to review Caleb's daughter marrying Othniel again. Isreal fights the remaining Canaanites, and the tribe of Judah leads out. Note all the tribes that did not completely conquer their land. God had told them to completely destroy the occupants of the land so that they would not be tempted by foreign idols/gods.
Joshua 23:12
But if you turn away and ally youselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, they you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you."
OK-don't you think God is being pretty specific here?
Easy for me to say since I have the Bible to see how this is all going to turn out. Have I ever ignored God's direction? Call me CONVICTED....I surely am glad that God can use flawed people.
I just wonder how a whole generation can NOT know the Lord? This shows what a huge thing it is to teach your children and your spiritual children if you don't have children. We all have a responsibility to make sure people that come into contact with us, know God. Thank God for the Holy Spirit that helps us....the Canaanite religious system looked like it was a whole lot more fun...it was probably easier and if you have a tendency to sin, here was some serious temptation. This ticked the Lord off, as you can imagine, and He sends an angel to tell the people that God was no longer going to drive out the enemies of the people......a test for the people of Isreal to see if they would keep the Lord's commands.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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i am with you....how could ALL these people....after all that has been done...not know God and not know the blessings and consequences ?
ReplyDeleteOk...here goes one of my dumb conused moments....just want to make sure I am on track....Joshua and people reached promised land and Joshua divided the land among different leaders ......is that right....then Joshua dies.....so the people finally reach the land they have been headed to all this time....and after Joshua dies....basically they do not have a strong leader and start misbehaving and not following Gods'commandments like they ahve been told.....so they are about to have hard times.... am I right at this point?
next question....Who is Judah? Is he one of the people of Israel? He is a leader, right? And why did he fight against Jerusalem...i thought Jerusalem was the land of one the the Isreal people ..one of the followers of God? Just got myself confused.....So many names and people and places I get lost....
Your paragraph number one is right on!
ReplyDeleteJudah is one of Jacob's sons. All of Jacob's sons (and Joseph's two sons) are the twelve tribes of Isreal.....He is definitely a leader of a tribe, the biggest one (he got a big inheritance because he would have traded positions with Benjamin the youngest child, when Joseph kept him as "bait").....Now Isreal had the pagan people of the land in Jerusalem while they entered the Promised Land. It will be a major religious center, but not yet. The pagans had to be conquered and driven out first.