“You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you” (Joshua 23:3-5).

The devotional last week related how God precisely allotted as a personal inheritance to the Israelites all the land between the Jordan and Mediterranean Sea. God himself drove out the inhabitants so that the Israelites could take possession of the Promised Land. But now what? What are the Israelites to do? Just because they have been given this land does not mean that they do not have responsibility. The precedent was set in the Garden of Eden. God planted the garden, and he created and placed Adam and Eve in it, and God gave them two responsibilities: 1. To increase and multiply (I don’t think I need to explain that one), and 2. To work the garden and take care of it.

Now that the Israelites are settled in the Promised Land, they also continue to have some responsibilities:

1. Remember.
2. Take possession.

Sadly, what we see in the book of Judges is their utter failure to do either:

1. They did not remember. “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).
2. They did not take possession. “The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods” (Judges 2:5-6).

Do you see parallels between then and now? I certainly do. God called the Israelites to be holy, set apart, based on their religion, their worship of the one true God. And Peter reiterates this calling in the New Testament.

• “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2).
• “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 20:7).
• “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” (Leviticus 20:26).
• “…Since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:16).

Instead, the Israelites slowly assimilated into the surrounding culture until they were intermarried and you could not even tell them apart from the non-Israelites. We in our own day and age have a fervent desire to fit in, to belong, so we compromise. And we rationalize about our compromising. And before long, no one can tell a Christian from a non-Christian. And worse, Christianity is “put-down” because it does look like the surrounding culture. I am guilty.

As believers, we know what to do. We must steep ourselves in the Word of God so that we remember all the good things that God has done for us. We must steep ourselves in the Word of God so that we know what true wisdom is and how we should obey. We must pray to the Holy Spirit to strengthen us. We must confess our sins and repent. Confession is not repentance. True repentance is turning away from our sin and back to God.

The real story of Judges, and of our time, is the love of God, the patience of God. It is true that his patience will one day end. In Judges, we see that “In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them” (Judges 2:14). In the book of Romans, we see Paul preaching “The wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth,” and many times he refers to God “giving them over to their sinful desires” (Romans 1:18:32).

But when you really stop to think about this, we must wonder with awe why he has not taken this action already. Why, when we read all the stories of unfaithfulness, didn’t God just take them out and start all over. Why hasn’t he given up on us? In Deuteronomy, he promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Why have we not experienced the curse? In fact, why did he even tell us all these stories about failures?

It is because in God’s gracious love for us, he desires to keep his promises to us. He wants to save us from our sins. He gives us ample warnings. And He, in his ultimate grace and mercy, constructed a way to uphold His righteous justice along with his unending grace by giving us his son Jesus to serve as the perfect role model of obedience, then to serve as the final perfect sacrifice for all our sins, and finally then to show us eternal life through his resurrection.

One of the ways God shows his great love for us is through his patience. Let us not overlook this great gift. Let us not delay. “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whole land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

In Christ,

Judy

P.S.: If you would like to talk more about any of these devotions or matters that concern you, please stop by my office, or call or text me at 615-804-3453 to arrange a time, and I will be happy to speak with you.