Judges Chapter 2 Part Three (Verse 7-13)

3. (Judges 2:7-10) The new generation in Israel
The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

From verses 6-10, we have essentially a repeat of Joshua chapter 24. The editor of this book of Judges was obviously trying to make a link between the time of Joshua and the time of the Judges. It is explained that after the covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem, whereby all agreed to continue to abide in the Mosaic Covenant, Joshua dismissed the people to go home to what was now their own land, given as a gift from God. It is stated that Joshua and his staff were obedient followers of the LORD God. Thus, Joshua lived to the ripe old age of 110 years. He was given the privilege of being buried on his own property, in the Promised Land, in close proximity to his ancestors.

The servant of the LORD: This is a deeply meaningful title for Joshua. It is applied only to great men of God such as Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5), David (Psalm 18:1, title) and the courageous prophets (2 Kings 9:7).

These verses end with a phrase we have heard so many times up to this point when it is written that the entire generation (the second generation of Exodus) "was gathered to his ancestors". Here we have that phrase described how it was for the Hebrew people looking upon death; it was with a foundation of Ancestor Worship in mind. They would go to their graves and some essence of them would commune in some unknown way with their ancestors. Of course, this was only possible (in their minds) because those ancestors (mainly the Patriarchs) were buried in the same place (Canaan) and thus were not separated by spiritual or territorial boundaries.

There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD: We are told there is a new generation who arose after Joshua, one that did not know the LORD or know the work He had done on Israel's behalf. We are only talking about the passing of ONE generation after Joshua died. ONE GENERATION!!! In only a couple decades the mixing with the Canaanites had so perverted the Israelites that they were quite familiar with Baal and Ashtoreth, but they know almost nothing about God. To say that they did not know of what God had done for them does not mean they were ignorant and uninformed. It means that they rendered it as irrelevant to their lives. They had no gratitude to those who came before them and fought to give them the life they now took for granted. Syncretism had made the God of Israel barely a second thought for them.

Every time we have Veteran's Day or Memorial Day and I see those proud and wrinkled men (and how very few of them that still remain), handing out poppies or flag pins in malls or on street corners. Some of them wear parts of their well-worn uniforms or perhaps service medals from WWII. I watch as younger men and women pass them by without a glance. A generation of people who have no idea what war really is, or what sacrifice really is. People who have no concept (or interest) that millions gave their lives for the good and free life they now live. I listen to them as they naively pontificate about how THIS time in our modern and progressive era, unlink all the other time in history, THIS time instead of fighting wars we will be able to have civilized talks with our enemies--who will do almost anything to destroy us. With the right words from the right men, our enemies will fold before us. THIS time if we appease them just a little bit more, if we can just understand their side of it Bettie, they will be satisfied and not bother us any more.

I cringe as I listen to the news and our political representatives who tell us that the current state of mankind is now unlike any other. We are so inherently good and our knowledge so great, we can come together in world peace if we determine to do so. We are told Allah just wants the same things, and we are to label no one as evil (even a vicious terrorist who openly speaks of his desire to lay Israel waste, to rule the world and kill all who resist the will of his god Allah). If we speak about any evil, we are labeled as being hateful, unintelligent and counterproductive to the greater good. After all, who is so arrogant as to be the one who thinks he can identify a line between evil and good?

This prevalent and popular mindset has developed a mete 60 years after 100 million people died either as victims or from fighting to save the world from the greatest evil we have known up to this point in mankind's history. But now, after only six decades, it all counts as meaningless history only revelant for old people and recorded in dusty history books. So it ought to be awfully easy for us to identify with what is being described in the second chapter of the Book of Judges whereby in a remarkably short time the conquest of Canaan and the God who freed Israel from Egypt have become old news to the very people who benefited the most from it.


B. A summary of Israel's history during the time of the Judges

1. (Judges 2:11-13) Israel falls into idolatry
Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals, and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the LORD to anger. So they forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

The sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: After the death of Joshua, Israel falls hard into idolatry. It is strange that anyone would want to trade a personal, real, living God for a false god that is the figment of man's imagination. Yet, there is something within man that is afraid of the exact God we need. We would rather serve a god of our own creation than the real, living God whom we cannot control. The gods we create are the gods wanted by our sinful desires.

And served the Baals: The Canaanite idol Baal was an attractive rival to God because he was thought to be the god over the weather and nature for the Canaanites. He was essentially the god of agricultural success. In an agricultural society, people served Baal because they wanted good weather for abundant crops and flocks. One might say that the bottom line with Baal was the "the bottom line". He was effectively the god of personal wealth.

The word "Baal" means husband, owner or lord (like landlord). Therefore, when Israel worshipped the Canaanite god Baal, they entertained the idea of having another owner or husband.

And they forsook the LORD: Verse 12 is one of the saddest verses in the Book of Judges...and just maybe the whole Bible. There is no hiding the truth. By worshipping other gods, Israel abandoned God. As we will see in coming chapters, Israel did not think they had abandoned God. Most of them still had a place in their worship for Him. However, it was not their main focus. God was more of an afterthought or even just a ritualistic practice. Most worshipped some combination of the Baals and God. But this, Israel would have insisted that they had NOT abandoned God. But, their standard of what abandonment amounts to does not matter. What matters is the LORD'S standard that He will use as a measure. Most of Israel did not measure up to God's standard. I wonder if we measure up to His standard?

The gods who surrounded Israel went by many different names. Most of the gods had the same name, but they were just translated into the local language. "Canaanite god" was just a general term meaning the gods of the various tribes and nations who lived within the borders of the former land of Canaan. Baal became Hada in Syria to the north. Dagon was Philistine for El in the south and west. Astarte was Sidonian for Ashtoreth in the northeast. Eostre was Anglo-Saxon for Ashtoreth, and Easter was English for Ashtoreth. Mot was the Assyrian god of the underworld, and Yam was the same as Neptune, the god of the sea. On and on it goes, but all those names of the gods were of the same Mystery Babylon pantheon of gods that arose from Nimrod's era.

(Side note: Ashtoreth was thought to be the goddess of sex, love and fertility. She was usually honored when folks practice ritualistic sex with a priestess or temple prostitute.)

What was God's reaction? He became angry. The words to "follow other gods" were more literal than we typically think. In those days, and still in many cultures, a god image would be held and carried by the priests, servants or king who served that god. A procession of followers and worshippers would march in procession behind it. A parade of sorts was held to honor that god as they took his image to or from his/her temple. When he Bible speak about following other gods, it brought a very vivid and real picture to the minds of those who wrote and read these verses. Perhaps a more modern illustration is of an evil Pied Piper who enchants all those who pay attention to him and leads them (much to their surprise) off a cliff and into destruction.

One biblical illustration with God is to describe it as a marriage relationship between a husband and wife. It would be wrong for a wife (or husband) to add many lovers to the marriage, claiming that a person could simply love them all. A husband or wife was a righteous claim on the exclusive affection of their spouse. God has a righteous claim on our exclusive worship.

The LORD created marriage to give us a visible, tangible and physical way of practicing and acting out the kind of relationship (with all its benefits, obligations and challenges) that He has with His followers. He sees Israel (and all of His Believers) in the context of a wife to Him. He wants us to see Him in the context of a husband to us. Thus, when a spouse is unfaithful in a marriage, it is said (even in our secular courts of civil law) that the marriage has been legally abandoned. Even if the couple has not separated and even if the unfaithful spouse did not have in his/her mind to legally terminate the marriage or to marry another person, the level of unfaithfulness crossed over at some point. The bond was broken.

One of the most graphic depictions of this concept of the marriage relationship between God and His followers is contained in the book of Hosea. We will not read all of it, but I do want for us to read the short first chapter as it helps us to understand the LORD'S attitude towards those who break faith with (and abandon) Him.

READ HOSEA CHAPTER ONE

Whoring is a word often used in the Bible for a spouse breaking faith in a marriage relationship. It is virtually a synonym for idolatry when it pertains to man's broken relationship with God. When this faith-breaking reaches some tipping point that only the LORD determines, then he springs into action with the result expressed in the Hosea's three children: Yizre'el (God sows catastrophe); Lo-Ruchamah (God will no longer have pity) and Lo-Ammi (His followers will become not-my-people (and He will become not-their-god)).

It will always be for mankind that our viewpoint is irrelevant when contrasted with God's. It does not matter if we consider ourselves moral people or a good person or saved and secured for eternity. God's definition of all things is what we must adhere to or we are deluding ourselves. It is much easier and more comfortable for us to ignore the commandments of Torah where God defines sin, holiness, righteousness and purity and instead believe that with our salvation we will somehow simply "know" what these definitions are. Without scriptural investigation in the Torah, we will then solely rely on the so-called goodness of our own hearts. We will more often than not rely on religious doctrines and traditions to determine our beliefs and explain what is proper behavior. When we walk down this dangerous but wide road, we will also find ourselves in the exact same position as this new generation of Israelites who (as verse 10 says), "knew neither the LORD of the work He had done for Israel." Israel chose to willingly be ignorant. Therefore, they blindly went about their lives confident that they were in a good standing with the Almighty, when in His eyes, they were rebellious and unfaithful. The wife (Israel) in the marriage had committed adultery against her husband (God).