At the end of Exodus, the Israelites left Sinai and headed to the banks of the Jordan, where they prepared to cross over to the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the land of Canaan. They had the tabernacle, so God was traveling with them, but they chose to take the path of caution. They sent a committee of twelve men to cross the river to spy out the Canaanites.
When they crossed the river, they discovered that the Canaanites were taller and better at war than the Israelites. Ten of the committee came back and voted not to proceed. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, voted to cross the river. The ten faithless spies influenced the rest of Israel. God’s nation decided to not trust His plan. They chose to walk away in fear rather than attempt to take the land He had promised to give them.
Because of their faithlessness, God made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until all the faithless generation had passed away. Moses continued pastoring the people during this time. When he died, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites. He finally led the nation over the river and into the land of Canaan somewhere between 1405-1400 BC.
Under Joshua’s leadership, the Israelites drove the Canaanites almost completely out of the land. Before Joshua died in 1380 BC, he told them,
“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.” (Joshua 23:6-8 NIV)
Joshua knew that living among the Canaanites would be full of temptations for the Israelites. These were the same people who were rescued from slavery, given food and water by God directly for 40 years in the desert, and still immediately started carrying idols with them. Their hearts were prone to wander, and their default setting was rebellion instead of surrender. He knew, though that if they could set aside their fear and lean into God, they could live in the Promised Land with all of His blessings.
“Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel” (Joshua 24:31 NIV). However, in the very next book, we read: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10 NIV). Once the generation that had directly experienced God died, the Israelites were quick to forsake God. They turned to the gods of the Canaanites and worshipped them. God’s people had abandoned Him, after all He had done for them, as soon as it was convenient.
The time of the Book of Judges is dark. It lasts 330 years, and is the story of Israel turning away from God again and again, despite the leadership of a faithful few. A lot of these stories are not the ones that we teach to children; they are too bloody, violent, and grotesque.
The Book of Judges shows us how we become like whatever we worship. What you worship is whatever you give your heart to most, your soul to most, and your energy to most. When the Israelites worshipped those other gods, they became like those other gods. They practiced immorality and violence. They didn’t care how you treated people. They didn’t value justice or mercy. The Book of Judges ends with this commentary: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 21:25 NIV). In those days, sin became the culture.
However, every time hope seemed to be lost during that time, God would send a deliverer to rescue His people. These deliverers, or judges, became the heroes of the story and helped turn the people’s heart back to God for a season. Even in the darkness of those days, God always sent hope, a flicker of light into the darkness.
This is what we celebrate at Christmas. God sent us a Savior into a dark world of violence and oppression. The deliverers in the Book of Judges were just a small picture of what would happen when God sent the Messiah. Because of Christmas, Christ followers can look to a future when Jesus will once again enter into a world of brokenness to make all things right forever.
