13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said. Deuteronomy 6:13-19
Abraham and his descendants were nomads for four centuries. and now the people would bring judgment on the people of Canaan. The Canaanites were given four hundred years to change their ways and now there was to be a reckoning. The people of Israel would clear the land, holding the Canaanites to account for atrocities committed. This was a brutal age and the Canaanites were a brutal people, see Deuteronomy 12:29-31.
We have already touched on the difficult subject of warfare in the Old testament see Homeland.
What we find in the book of Judges is the people of Israel behaving in a similar way to the people of Canaan. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs (Judges 3:7)
The final line of the book of Judges reads this: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges 21:25
Once again the people of Israel were in need of deliverance.
Where are you tempted to forget God and behave like those around you?
In what ways is God calling you to obey? Are you able to pray “not my will, but yours be done”?
Today, pray “Your Kingdom Come” and look for ways to serve your King.
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