The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/judges/1.htm

After a short chronological detour to the end of the Book of Judges, we now return to Chapter 1 to continue our study. As I’ve said before, the children of Israel were indeed fruitful and multiplied greatly, and sin had increased dramatically as well. God had set judges over the children of Israel, much as Moses and Joshua had served as judges.

After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel continued their efforts to drive out the Canaanites so they could take possession of the land they inherited from God. Scripture doesn’t mention who is now leading the children, but Caleb’s name is mentioned, and considering he was a servant to Joshua, it is likely he has taken over as the leader. But keep in mind, there is no mention that Caleb was “annointed” making him in charge, and since we have entered into a time period in which God had to appoint judges, it is possible that no one was in charge. The tribes, by now, had separated into their respective territories, so it may have been a joint effort between the tribes. There is scripture in which the Israelites asked God for guidance, and He told them He would be with them and instructed Judah to go to war first. Judah then made a pact with the the tribe of Simeon that, if Simeon helped Judah, Judah was return the favor it battling wars in Simeon’s territory.

Some tivia: the word “Kirjath” as it is found in scripture means “city” or “town” and can be found preceeding many of the locations talked about in the Bible. For example, “Kirjath Sepher” would be translated as “City of Sepher”, and “Kirjath Arba” would be “City of Arba”.

Also, this chapter talks about the city of Hebron, one of the four “Holy Cities” recognized by the Jews, Christians, and even Islam. And this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Hebron; that is where Abraham settled after being called by God to come to the land of Canaan from his home in southern Persia (modern day Iraq).

As you can see when you read this chapter, there are more problems. God instructed the children of Israel to “drive out” the Canaanites, but you will see that many of the tribes failed to do so. Why?

Scripture isn’t clear, but I suspect that they’ve either lost faith, or they have started making friends with the Canaanites as God warned them against. It doesn’t take long of hanging around with the wrong people that you start to pick up their bad habits. As they say, “when in Rome, do like the Romans”; and now that the children of Israel have entered the land of Canaan, they are susceptible to start acting like the pagans, and not only are they susceptible, they already have.

So their failure to drive all of the Canaanites out of the land will come back to haunt them.

How many times have we lost even a little bit of faith, and we faced obstacles in life. How many times have we refused to do something that we thought was too hard or beyond our capabilities, forgetting that “with God, all things are possible”?How many times have we started to associate with non-Christians, and instead of our behavior rubbing off on them, it works just the opposite?

I don’t suggest you stay away from non-Christians; Jesus ate with the sinners, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes. Just the opposite, I have a friend who participates in a street ministry targeting the homeless and the addicted, and they are quite successful at spreading the Gospel. But they also have to be extremely self-disciplined to avoid following their ways.

And as God feared (actually He knew what was going to happen), the children of Israel failed to drive everyone out of the land, and they eventually started to worship idols, intermarry with the pagans, and drift away from God.

It happens so easily. God made two perfect people, Adam and Eve, and before they even produced their first child, Satan had tempted them to sin and they ate of the forbidden fruit.

I’m sure they were sorrowful for their digression and began to bring Cain and Abel up righteously, but that didn’t last long and Cain killed his own brother.

God taught Abraham how to be righteous, but even he lost faith in God and had a child out of wedlock with an Egyptian maid, setting the stage for the children of Ishmael to war with the children of Isaac. And Abraham had raised them right, but it didn’t take long before Esau lost faith and sold his birthright to Jacob. And the list goes on and on; Joseph’s brothers turning against him, Esau marrying a Canaanite woman out of spite for Jacob, Noah becoming a drunk and cursing his grandson Canaan, Moses getting angry and striking the rock.

To be a good Christian, a good follower of Christ, takes a lot of self-discipline and faith. You must remind yourself constantly that your behavior needs to be a “light unto others”. Like a meme I saw this week, “non-believers don’t look at God, they look at you”. That is why it is so important that we keep on track with God. I own a lot of Christian tee shirts, and at one time, I felt I wore them to share my faith. Then I found myself starting to sin, but my own shirt caught my eye, and I was convicted; I found the shirt was more of a reminder for me to be as faithful to God as possible more than it was a faith-share.

I saw another meme just today, “Sin is like a credit card; enjoy now, pay later”. You don’t want to pay later, trust me. Stay on course, keep God at the forefront of your life every day, all day. These pagans that tempted the children of Israel were working for Satan, probably unknowingly, but they were still pawns of Satan as he worked to draw the children of Israel away from God.

Resist.

Sorry for the rambling…most of the time I read a chapter of the bible, then I sit down and write down my thoughts, which are not organized at all.

God bless you all.