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In Order. You Own Faith

March 30, 2017. Judges 1-2

 

Joshua dies. Now what? Time to keep moving on, but instead of having a single leader to guide the entire nation of Israel, they are now functioning as individual tribes within their land allotments. Now each tribe has the task of settling the land that they have been given. Chapter 1, shows some great cooperation between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon.

 

1:3 The leaders of the tribe of Judah, however, asked help from the tribe of Simeon. “Join us in clearing out the people living in the territory allotted to us,” they said, “and then we will help you conquer yours.” So the army of Simeon went with the army of Judah. 4 And the Lord helped them defeat the Canaanites and Perizzites… 

 

The Lord had been with them as the nation moved into the Promised Land as a whole, and now He was with them as the national army was disbanded and they were settling in as individual tribes.

 

2:6 When Joshua finally disbanded the armies of Israel, the tribes moved into their new territories and took possession of the land. 

 

God promised that He would never break the covenant that He had made with Israel. But in chapter 2 the people had broken the contract with God.

 

2:1 “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I promised to your ancestors, and I said that I would never break my covenant with you, if you, on your part, would make no peace treaties with the people living in this land; I told you to destroy their heathen altars. Why have you not obeyed? And now since you have broken the contract, it is no longer in effect, and I no longer promise to destroy the nations living in your land; rather, they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.”

 

There is a simple yet very powerful lesson for us all in these two chapters. Godly leadership can lead you and set a wonderful example for you, but in the end, you are responsible for keeping God’s Word in your own allotment, territory, home, marriage and family. When Joshua died, chapter 2 verse 7 describes him as “the man of God”. The godliness of your pastor, your grandmother or other example and leader in your life, is not your godliness.  Each person and each generation must make their own choice to live godly or to live a life of compromise. 

 

2:10 But finally all that generation died; and the next generation did not worship Jehovah as their God and did not care about the mighty miracles he had done for Israel. 11 They did many things that the Lord had expressly forbidden, including the worshiping of heathen gods.

 

What will be your choice today?