QT 9 Jan 17, Judg 1:3-7, 34-35, Compromise is the first step of failure in a walk with God

Judges 1:3–7 (ESV) —

3 And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. 4 Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. 5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7 And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

Judges 1:34–35 (ESV) —

34 The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. 35 The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor.

NOTE: The passages above are a selected portion from a selected section of Israel's successes and failures in continuing the work of driving out the inhabitants. In story after story of chapter 1, they compromised. In the very first story, they do to a king what he used to do to his enemies, why? And while he dies in Jerusalem, a town later captured and burnt down, why did he not die at Bezek, when they captured him? In the second section, why are the Amorites put into forced labor? One might argue that the Israelites were being merciful, but God had given the people of the land, the Canaanites, 400 plus years to repent and they did not. God intended to use Israel to execute judgment against a people who refused to listen and turn from their sin. By compromising God's commands, Israel begins to fail in accomplishing its goal. God had made his help conditional on their obedience (as seen in Joshua's last charge).

For our western minds, we have difficulty with extermination of people groups. It is called genocide. God commanded this destruction for judgment against a people who had completely perverted his laws. God also destroyed the entire earth during the days of Noah because of their wickedness. We don't know fully the sin of the Canaanites and we certainly don't understand the holiness of God. Of all beings, God as the creator is the only one with the right to exterminate a people group. God is the judge of the whole earth. There is no arguing about his right to exercise judgment. He would be absolutely just if he executed that judgment on the entire earth today. So, the issue for the Israelites is not the morality of the command, it is moral, but the compromising of what God had commanded them to do.