OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 10

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 10

LIFE AFTER JOSHUA

Psalm 107:6 Then they cried unto IAUE in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

The faithfulness of many believers today is connected to the faithfulness of some central leader or powerful spiritual figure.  Should that person fail or pass away, they no longer have someone to follow.  Their own relationship with IAUE is not secured on the basis of their own faith and obedience. This is not faith in IAUE.  It is faith in one who has faith in IAUE. Unfortunately, this is how the book of Joshua ends.  The following book of Judges will demonstrate the consequences of this.

JUDGES: (Shophetim)

Judges 1:1  And it came to be, after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked IAUE, saying, “Who of us should go up first against the Canaanites to fight against them?”

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The book of Judges begins immediately with the death of Joshua and with the logical question:  Who should succeed Joshua as their leader?

It is much easier to follow a designated leader than it is to make mature decisions for yourself.  For seventy years, the children of Israel had followed two powerful leaders, two men whose lives bore the unmistakable and miraculous evidences that IAUE was with them.  Now, Joshua was dead.  What would the people do?

If you will recall, they followed Joshua under the condition that IAUE had to be with him as He had been with Moses.  IAUE parted the Jordan River to prove that He was with Joshua as He had been with Moses.  As a result, the people followed Joshua as they had followed Moses.  Who, now, would be such a leader?  Who among their ranks had IAUE's support and endorsement in this manner?

We are told in the last chapter of Joshua (Joshua), as we are told in the second chapter of Judges, that "...the people served IAUE all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of IAUE, which He had done for Israel." (Judges 2:7).  Those elders lead the people in the ways of IAUE for approximately another thirty to forty years; but there had been no one to stand before the people in the spirit and power of IAUE like unto Moses or Joshua all those years.  As a result, a grave mistake had been made among the people during these years.

The children of Israel, without the benefit of Joshua's leadership, continued to possess the lands of their tribal inheritances (as recorded in Judges 1); but they did not obey IAUE's command to utterly destroy the nations before them.  Instead, they allowed the Canaanites to dwell among them, making covenants of peace with them.  Instead of killing them, they were permitted to live under forced labor to the Hebrews.  This disobedience brought about a curse on the Hebrews.

Judges 2:1  And the angel of IAUE came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you:
2  and ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall break down their altars. But ye have not hearkened unto my voice: why have ye done this?
3  Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their mighty ones shall be a snare unto you.

Eventually, the elders who knew Joshua died out of the land.

Judges 2:10  ...and another generation arose after them who did not know IAUE nor the work which He had done for Israel.
11  Then the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of IAUE, and served the Baals.
12  and forsook IAUE Elohim of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods of the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them, and provoked IAUE.

13 And they forsook IAUE, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

You will recall that the book of Leviticus (which set forth the laws and statutes, commandments and ordinances for the children of Israel to obey) was given with the intent of removing the influences of Egypt from the hearts of the Hebrews.  The problem, however, was that the children of Israel were content for their leadership to have a relationship with IAUE; but as a people, they never developed for themselves a heart for IAUE. 

Because the Hebrews began to run after the false gods of the nations which they had refused to destroy, IAUE withdrew his protection from them.

Judges 2:14  And the anger of IAUE was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of IAUE was against them for evil, as IAUE had said, and as IAUE had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

Joshua was a book of victory and conquest.  It catalogued the mighty works of IAUE working through the leadership of Joshua, and a people who were confident in IAUE's help in battle.  Judges is a book of failure and moral decline.  It is a record of the perpetual self-degradations of the Hebrews, contrasted with the persistent faithfulness of IAUE to secure a faithful remnant among the descendants of His friend Abraham.

Judges 2:16 Nevertheless IAUE raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Judges 3 begins with an explanation that IAUE used the nations that the Hebrews failed to destroy out of the land to “prove them” to see if they would obey His commandments. Of course, the Hebrew behaved exactly as Moses had declared would happen if they did not destroy the nations before them out of the land.

Judge 3:5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:

6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of IAUE, and forgot IAUE their Elohim, and served Baalim and the groves.

This sets the stage for a repetitious pattern for the next 300+ years.

1.    The Israelites experience a time of blessing and prosperity.  They honor the law of IAUE.

2.    They begin to follow after the gods of the nations about them and forsake IAUE.

3.    They begin to be oppressed by the heathen nations around them.

4.    They cry out to IAUE for deliverance from their enemies and their oppression.

5.    IAUE sends a deliverer (a judge) who vanquishes their enemy.

This cycle then repeats itself over and over and over again.  (See Psalm 107).

Though Judges records a dismal period in the history of the children of Israel, it also includes some of the most exciting interventions of IAUE into the lives of His people.  In Judges, we have the well-known stories of Samson and of Gideon; and lesser relayed stories of other judges.

In all, recorded in the book of Judges there were 14 judges who were of eight different tribes in Israel.

Othniel of Judah - 40 years

Ehud of Benjamin - 80 years

Shamgar – 1 year

Deborah, and Barak of Naphtali - 40 years

Gideon of Manasseh - 40 years

Abimelech (son of Gideon) of Manasseh - 3 years

Tola of Issachar – 23 years

Jair of Manasseh – 22 years

Jephtha of Manasseh – 6 years

Ibzan of Judah – 7 years

Elon of Zebulun – 10 years

Abdon of Ephriam – 8 years

Samson of Dan – 20 years

During the period of Ehud’s rule as judge is the historical record of the Book of Ruth.  The nation of Moab had oppressed Israel for 18 years when Ehud rose up and killed Eglon, King of Moab, and lead a charge against Moab winning a mighty victory and deliverance for Israel.  It was during the 80 years of Ehud’s rule during a time of famine that Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, moved to Moab in order to find food.  Their two sons married Moabite women while there.  Eventually, Naomi’s husband and both sons died.  Upon learning that the famine was over in Israel, she ventured to return home; but only Ruth, her daughter-in-law, would go with her.  Her other daughter-in-law, Orpah, remained in Moab.  The book of Ruth unfolds the amazing story of how IAUE lead Naomi back home; and how her daughter-in-law, Ruth came to be married to Boaz, thus becoming the great grandmother of David the King.

By the end of the historical record of the book of Judges, the Hebrews had spent nearly the same amount of time OUT of Egypt as their forefathers had spent IN Egypt.  Instead of becoming and remaining a peculiar and separate people on the earth, the people of IAUE, they had become desirous of being just like the nations that they had refused to drive out from their lands.

Two more judges ruled in Israel after this book concludes.  We will pick up with them next.

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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