On my first mission trip to Peru, whilst taking a bus from Lima into the countryside our team was struck by the preponderance of crosses on top of roof ridges with various adornments, but most frequently bulls. Our host and interpreter said it reflected a religious home seeking to satisfy the Christian God with a cross, but other local gods with the other objects. It saddened us to see such half-hearted worship. As we came to the end of the book of Joshua we see the nation renewing their covenant commitment to the Lord with Joshua saying, if you have chosen to worship Yahweh, “get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and offer your hearts to the Lord. (Joshua 24:23)”
The book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua. The nation, under Joshua’s leadership, had seen many victories; but there remained lands to possess, and peoples and practices to dispossess. Would they go forward with complete trust in the Lord, the one who “gave them the land”? Sadly, by the end of chapter 1 we already have our answer. Verse 19 tells us Judah “took possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the people who were living in the valley because those people had chariots.” Failures from other tribes followed as we read repeatedly, “failed to drive out”.
Something to See:
Verse 19 is striking for we read that the Lord was with Judah and enabled them to take possession, but the people were not driven out because of chariots. Does this sound like Yahweh? Were chariots a problem at the Red Sea (Ex 14) or in the conquest of the Northern Cities (Joshua 11)? David says it well: “Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses, but we take pride in the name of Yahweh our God. (Ps 20:7)” We see the seeds of half-hearted trust immediately for no sooner does the Lord say, “Judah is to go. I have handed the land over to him (Joshua 1:2)” do we see Judah turn to his brother tribe Simeon for help in their going! Obviously, co-operation isn’t a bad thing in itself, but disobeying God’s instructions is! In this case, it is a sign of half-hearted trust: “we better take along the Simeon guys just in case.” This week we will see the effects of half-hearted worship but also, thankfully, a wholehearted God!