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Why judges?

Can you imagine having to stand in the heat of the day, while the body responds with rivers of sweat, or the chill of night working by the light of a flickering torch, beating on a rock? Joshua did. He wrote a copy of the law, every word of the law on those stones (Joshua 8:32) while the Children of Israel stood by. All the important people, the elders and the judges on this side and all the regular people like you and me on that side; half in front of Mount Ebal and the other half in front of Mount Gerizim. The mountains were Bald and Rocky respectively. Not only did the Children of Israel stand by while Joshua carved the Law upon the stones, but they also stood while Joshua read the entire Law to them: all the words of the Law, both the blessing and the curse. And it all began with

יהוה קרא משׁה...

YWHW called unto Moses ...

Or rather, YWHW called unto Moses…

Every one of us has at one time or another put the blame of our own doing upon someone else, whether as a child, a teen, or an adult, we’ve all done it. Satan has a way of setting up situations and temptations that can suck us under like a riptide sucks a swimmer beneath the surface of the sea. But, Satan doesn’t push our head under water. It is by choice we ignore the Rip Tide warning sign written in large red print with a flag waving mightily in the wind. It is by choice we wade into the water and swim to that particular point where currents can reach speeds of two to four miles per hour away from shore. Even the strongest swimmer can’t compete against currents that strong. But strong swimmers usually act smarter than diving into dangerous waters.

Satan will take a legitimate desire given by God and use it in an evil way to kill, steal and destroy. But, we cannot blame sin on Satan. God is faithful and warns us before our feet are wet. He won’t ever let us get into dangerous waters without those warnings, and He won’t let us be tempted more than we can withstand if we allow Him to protect us, and if we listen to the warnings.

Achan was the only one who yielded to temptation out of the 603,550 Israelite men old enough to go to war and win the Promised Land. He took a robe and a pile of silver and a wedge of gold. He lusted after them and took them. But, could he flaunt them? Spend them? Wear them in front of his brothers? No. He had to dig a hole and bury them in his tent. What good did taking them do him?

Greed often does that. A child sees something he wants and swipes it off the shelf stuffing it in his pocket to be played with later, in the dark. In the dark because he knows he did wrong in taking the thing. Achan knew he did wrong in taking the things, but he allowed the whole of Israel to be shamed in front of a tiny little town with less than 6,000 people in it. These fighting men, led by Joshua who’s name brought terror to all those in the land, were put on the run. Nor did Achan speak up when Joshua dropped to his knees begging the LORD to tell him why He brought them to the Promised Land only to be destroyed by a tiny little Canaanite hamlet.

At least the man “fessed up” when confronted. But, how shameful for all the assembly to suffer the consequences of the sin of one man. Sin begins with temptation, but being tempted is not sin. Yielding to temptation is the sin. God made an example of Achan to the whole of His chosen people. We see a confession of a man that knows there isn’t anyway to wiggle out of what he’d done, mainly because God Himself led Joshua to the only one who had disobeyed.

Achan looked at the Babylonian robe. Found it to be beautiful. Thought about how it would look on himself or perhaps how it would bring him glory if he placed it on the shoulders of his wife. Then, after thinking about it, made the deliberate decision to take it along with the silver and gold. All to satisfy his own greed, and what did it get him?

Here, we see a discipline that we’d never see today. All his family, wife and daughters and sons along with all the cattle and donkeys, tent and trappings, and even those things he had stolen were forced into the Valley of Achor. He and all his family were stoned and set on fire.

Was that a bit too harsh? After all his family did not take the things. Yet, everyone had heard the order not to take anything, nor to let anyone live, to show no mercy. Surely, Joshua asked the question before they left Jericho, “Has anyone taken anything from this place?”

God warned against those people and those things that would lead Israel down that road to idolatry. He made sure they understood how dangerous those things would be to the well being of His children. Achan’s family heard the order. Achan’s family also knew of the theft because he buried the stuff in the middle of his tent. They said nothing about it, taking part in the deception.

One has to wonder if Joshua was thinking of this when he carved out the Law on the stone’s face. Or was he praying for all of Israel to faithfully serve the LORD? It must have weighed heavily on his heart.

I find it so telling that the Law was etched indelibly upon the face of stone, and God had called their hearts hard as stone, Ezekiel 3:7 But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to Me, for all the house of Israel are strong of forehead and hard of heart.

When temptation beckons, the heart can become hard as stone shushing the conscious resulting in a detour that can lead to the Valley of Achor. We endure trials, but God is faithful and will always provide the way of escape. We can’t escape trouble, but we absolutely will escape temptation.

However, yielding to temptation starts wearing a groove in the heart that makes taking the escape much harder. Making a habit is not as hard as breaking a habit. Yielding to temptation can become much easier than resisting temptation unless the will is exerted and the desire to resist is greater than the desire to yield.

Second Peter 2:5 tells us that God knows how to deliver the godly from temptation. The key word is godly. How do we even recognize sin for what it is?

In the Old Testament, (Proverbs) God told them to write His command upon their heart. But, in the New Testament… Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected in perpetuity the ones being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit witnesses to us also. For after having said before, 16 "This is the covenant which I will covenant to them after those days, says the Lord: Giving My Laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds;" 17 also He adds, "I will not at all remember their sins and their lawlessness."

Covenant agreements

Land promised to Abraham’s descendants:

Genesis 15:18 On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the giants, 21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

Their obedience must be, 1. Careful: Observe to do. 2. Universal: To do all the commandments, Deu_8:1. And, 3. From a good principle, with a regard to God as the Lord, and their God, and particularly with a holy fear of him (Deu_8:6), from a reverence of his majesty, a submission to his authority, and a dread of his wrath. To engage them to this obedience, besides the great advantages of it, which he sets before them (that they should live and multiply, and all should be well with them, Deu_8:1).

Yet, the Children of Israel broke the covenant while Moses was still on the Mountain. They had heard God speak the 10 Commands, but while Moses was still up there, they told Aaron to make them a god to worship attributing the work of the one, true God to a golden calf fashioned by human hands.

Then they believed the spies frightened by the giants of the land rather than leaning on their most powerful protector God Himself.

Joshua was a great leader and commander of warfare because he was obedient to all that God said to do. That was Joshua’s crowning glory: his obedience. Not even the father of Anak stood against his onslaught. And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities (Joshua 11:21).

But we see in the first chapter of Judges that the Israelites were lax in obedience to God’s decree that they were to drive out the inhabitants of their land. Only the Gibeonites, through trickery, contracted to stay in the land with the Israelites. The other peoples’ hearts were hardened against Israel.

First, the failure of the Israelites to believe God regardless of the giants in the land was met head on when they defeated the sons of Anak, but then they failed miserably when they did not chase down the Canaanites that had iron chariots.

If God could tumble walls 12 feet thick, fell giants nearly 13 feet tall, then what was holding Him back from defeating iron chariots or all the other peoples of the land?

The stubborn disobedience of the Israelites and nothing else.

Judges 2:21 I also from now on will not dispossess any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; 22 so that by them I may test Israel, whether they are keeping the way of Jehovah, to go in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.

This was God’s solution to a very perverse people. This is what started the cycle of discontent that Israel suffered for many years. The history of the judges spells out what kind of terrible whirlpool Christians can get caught in when we disobey.

"Voice of Inspiration" from Andy Castro

Psalms 91:13