Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Disobedience and Consequences in Judges 1 and 2

In my last post I wrote about Israel’s cyclical disobedience in the Pentateuch and God’s prophesy of how this will continue for the duration of the OT.  This pattern continues through Joshua and into the beginning of Judges when the Hebrew’s disobey God’s commands as they enter the Promised Land.  God essentially commanded each of the Hebrew tribes to enter into the Promised Land and to wipe out all of the pagan people-groups who dwelled therein.  We see in Judges chapter 1 that the houses of Judah, Simeon, and Joseph were all obedient to this command, and all were able to take the respective cities that they sacked.  But Manasseh, the Benjaminites, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and the remainder of the tribes were disobedient and did not drive out the Canaanites from their land, but instead dwelled alongside them.
As one would imagine, Yahweh was not particularly pleased to see the Hebrews disobeying His command and not trusting His power to drive out the Canaanites.  This leads us to Judges 2, in which the angel of the Lord expresses God’s anger over the situation, saying:
“I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors.  I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.  For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’  But you have not obeyed my command.  See what you have done!  So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their god shall be a snare to you.” Judges 2:1b-3 (NRSV)

To my post-modern ear it initially sounds like Yahweh is being a tad unreasonable.  But the point of this passage is that Yahweh will not resign Himself to share the hearts of His people with any other God other than Himself.  And of course, the Hebrews living among the Canaanites will inevitably lead to not only the persecution of the Hebrews, but also their turning away from God to pagan gods, as was prophesied in Deuteronomy 31.  So, as we see the Lord do in later passages, He says that He will not drive out the Canaanites, but instead He will allow them to continue to live among the Hebrews, which will eventually lead to all of the problems that occur in the duration of Judges.

The cyclical pattern of worshipping other gods, being put under the subjugation of another people, and crying out to God who delivers them in the entirety of Judges results because the Israelites were not obedient to God’s command upon entering the Promised Land.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Deuteronomy 31 as a Prophetic Warning

In Deuteronomy 31, the mood becomes quite somber as Moses approaches his death.  God makes it quite clear that Moses is not to enter the promised land because of his mistake with the rock at Meribath-kadesh.  But one major theme stood out to me, both Moses and Yahweh continually refer to the cyclical disobedience of the Israelites.  I will site a few of these here:
“Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you. For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are.  If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!” 31:26-27
“For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey… they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.  And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness, because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants.” 31: 20-21a
“Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.” 31: 16
Something I found quite interesting about this passage is that the Lord tells the Israelites ahead of time that they are going to continue in their disobedience, but he provides checks to help them when they stray.  He tells Moses to teach the Israelites a song that will serve as a witness to their ancestors that Yahweh is the God of Israel when they inevitably stray away.  Likewise, Moses instructs the Israelites to place the book of the law near the ark of the covenant as another witness against their iniquity when they stray away from Yahweh. 
In this single chapter, we are provided a basic outline of the things that will take place in the remainder of the Old Testament cannon.  From Joshua and Judges, to the monarchy, to the exile and time of the prophets, the pattern of Israel’s history is that of “prostituting themselves” to other gods, coming upon great woe and trouble, and then being reminded of their true allegiance toward and worship of Yahweh.  In the course of the Old Testament, we see the law, songs, and prophets/judges serve as the “witnesses” against the iniquity of the people that eventually draw Israel back to the correct worship of the Lord.  In this one chapter, we can look back and see the wandering and complaining of the Israelites in the wilderness serve as a warning and foreboding of what the Israelites will continue to do for thousands of years.  Yet we also see that God remains patient and faithful, providing mechanisms to remind the Israelites of His goodness towards them.