The Conquest Continues South

. You're following along and your Bibles are in judges. Chapter one. You know, we talked last time about this. Uh, three examples of leadership that we find in judges from an absentee leadership, of the priests to the assertive leadership of Judah to the bad example of leadership and Adonai bezek we come now to. The rest of the conquest, you could call it, and if I had to title it, I would call it the conquest of compromise, which I think will make sense as we go further, but it will help, I think, a little bit if you want to have the map out in front of you on the back. And again, I apologize for the the poor quality there, but. Hopefully you'll be able to track just generally speaking, that big BLOB in the middle is the Dead Sea. If you go a little bit to the West. You should be able to see oh man. It looks even worse here, so I apologize, but the blur, if you at the top of the. Dead Sea and. You just go dead. W you see Jerusalem. Kind of. So that will be a a good reference point. OK. So if you want to write that a little bit more legibly, I apologize. The first one that printed kind of looked OK, but maybe the rest of. Them just looked. Is terrible, but this will, as we'll see as we'll see really just in the whole rest of the book of judges. We're going to see the beginning of a cycle of compromise here, even as they are. Uhm, conquering the land, even as the Lord is with them, we'll see this recurring pattern and this habit to not go all the way and. And I think. One of the. Examples I think of just by way of introduction of how this looks or plays out on an individual's life. So we're going to see it play out on a. National scale, but. What can happen oftentimes in our own life is, as a Christian, you can live from mountain top high to mountain top high. If you've ever heard that phrase before. If you grew up in the church, the idea was that you kind of. You know, would go to a retreat, go up to the mountains and have some kind of spiritual experience there. You would throw all your cassette tapes or CD's of, you know, death metal or whatever, and you'd recommit your life to the Lord. And then you come back down. The mountain and you'd be riding a high of. Enthusiasm for the Lord. But it would start to drain you being back down amongst your everyday life and you would have to go to another retreat to get that kind of fervency and pass. And again, and if you ever met people like that, or maybe you or something like that, you would your Christian life was essentially just riding these moments and these highs where your faith really didn't get invigorated unless you were in the middle of some kind of experience or retreat. That's kind of what you're going to see in the book of judges, whereas there's not going to be a literal mountaintop experience a lot of times, but there will be these spurts of passion fervency for the Lord. Oftentimes when the judges have conquered the enemies and so on. And then there'll be complacency and they. People being the lowlands and the lulls of faith until they fall into sin and then they need another salvation, another mountaintop moment. And I think that that roughly characterizes the pattern of judges and sometimes our own Christian life. Well, how do we avoid that? I hope by the end of. This message tonight we'll have at least a few pointers and tips to keep us from riding that kind of compromise. A conquest of compromise in our own lives. We're just really living from. From conquest to conquest. Rather than having a spiritual life that is steady. And consistent, but let's go back to the time of judges. Let's remind ourselves again, Orient ourselves to a time and a context where the the Jewish people who have been chosen by God. Have entered into this promised land that he had given to Abraham and their forefathers and now as they go out and try to complete the conquests, they're going to be faced with a few different successes and a few different trials begin in verse 8 of. Charges the man of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it, and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Now you might be a little confused. Like they're destroying Jerusalem. Isn't that their capital? Well, this is actually hundreds of years before Jerusalem. Will become the capital of the nation of Israel at the time that Israel came into the land, the city was actually called Jeevas. And the people. Who dwelt there were Jebusites, and these Jebusites, which are not named explicitly here, but we'll see them again and again. Actually, these Jebusites proved to be very difficult to remove. Back if you. Go just a couple of verses later in Judges 121. It says that the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. And this is one of those first hints that despite having what seems like a success, you know they captured the city they struck you with the edge of the sword. They set the city on fire. That's language of conquest. Yet it wasn't a full conquest yet. It wasn't a total spiritual revival. You could say, such that it carried them through such that it actually eliminated. The threat of the Jebusites rising up again by the time we hit judges 1911, the Jebusites are in fully in control once again of Jerusalem. And they would continue to be a thorn in Israel side for some 350 to 400 years later. It's only at the time of David that they are successfully and finally driven out. And if you want to, you can look at second Samuel Chapter 5 versus 5 through 8 for that story. But it's not till well after even David is anointed king that Jerusalem is finally conquered and then will become. The capital. This is, I think, a microcosm of what happens. So Jerusalem, the capital, constantly fought over. They never quite wipe out the people. That's a little microcosm of what we see in the book of judges, where the Israelites not fully wiping out the kenites from the land, will end up. Constantly recycling them in this recurring battle with the people of the land and wrestling with the nations and them rising up. So what we see in Jerusalem happening here, it's a bigger picture of judges and guess what? It's a bigger picture of the Old Testament and even when there are kings. They're going to go through similar. Their cycles, and again, in fact, it's almost, uh, kind of a microcosm of our own lives. I mean, how many times have you wrestled with or battled the same sins? So oftentimes commentators, do you point out that parallel that we often also find that same cycle of wrestling with the same sins? Feeling very discouraged when we don't conquer them again. By the end of today, hopefully we'll find some encouragements, but in any case, we see that pattern even here with the City of Jerusalem verse 9. We go from the mountaintops and Jerusalem was on a mountain to the lowlands, and afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the Hill Country in the Negeb, and in the long run. So if you look at your map and you go South from Jerusalem, you'll see Negeb NE. EB, which refers to that area, and if it's a topographical map, withdrew some somewhat at the pinnacle, everything comes down from there, so they're down at the South and the Negev. It's fairly flat, fairly low. Literally, Negev means dry land and. They get less than 8 inches of rain a year, but it can also mean it comes to mean if you refer to the Negev, just the South of the promised land. So even though it literally means the dry land because it's associated with the South portion of the land, it is called sometimes when they just want to refer to the southern area. Called the Negev. Now it's a wilderness. Harsh conditions, oftentimes in the Bible, it's described as an inhospitable, undesirable land. Really not until later in history when they can cultivate it and bring water in, does it have any real. Significance or desirability? The Canaanites in the Negev and the lone end. Were actually wiped out. Already by Joshua and Joshua 10:40 you don't have to turn there. But in Joshua 1040, here's what it says Joshua struck the whole land, the Hill Country. So that's the hills there, north of the Negev and the Negev. And the lowland and the slopes in all their kings, he left nothing remaining but devoted to destruction. All of that breathed, just as Yahweh God of Israel, commanded. They left nothing breathing but here they are. And there's definitely things breathing there. What happened? Well, again, there's part of a reoccurring spiritual theme here that while they wiped out the Canaanites in one area totally. They didn't wipe out the Canaanites in all the area. Remember, the whole land was to be purged of Canaanites, but because they did it sort of piece meal, they wiped them out in this area. Well, what happens when there's a? Right. Other Canaanites, other people in the area just filled that. See if you don't conquer the whole land, if you don't remove all of the Canaanites. If you left even a few pockets, they were simply going to fill in any areas where they were wiped out. It's a human history thing. It's not just what happens here. But that's this human history. Unless you take very much more extreme measures which, uhm, people do, we'll even see that in the Bible, in Kings and chronicles and things in any case. Again, if you were to make a parallel to spiritual life, a Christian life, there is that problem where you might have great success in one area of sin and feel that you've conquered it. You know, you, you don't lie anymore or whatever it is, and then you find that in the space or in the hyper focus of maybe not lying. The other. Questions came in and you started wrestling with other issues or other relationships. You were so focused on one area and so excited as we should be, anytime we have victory over sin, we forget that we are beset by sin on all sides. And we need. To be looking at the whole package of sin, it's not to. To be discouraged that when you've conquered 1 area of sin, this actually happens a lot in counseling is someone will come in with one sin and you'll help them with that. But right on the heels of it will be another sin or that sin will seem to shift. Kiss to another area. You know you. You start dealing with insecurity when they're coming in with problems of dealing with stress or worry, and then you start to get into insecurity and they start to get into a person's feeling about themselves. And it just keeps shifting well. So it is that. While they had great victory in one area of the promised land without a total victory, it was somewhat short lived. And in the vacuum, something else came in as Jesus made an analogy. If you cast out a demon but you're not replacing it with the spirit, then you'll get seven more demons in the place of 1. Just that same idea. It's a spiritual truth. So that's what happened here in Israel, and they go from then the mountaintops of Jerusalem to the lowlands of the Negev. They go from the lowlands now in verse 10 to the low lifes. All right. And this is a section actually that is recapitulating and that's just a fancy way of saying retelling the story that we see in Joshua 14 and 15 of the victory over Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai and judo went against the Canaanites. Lived in Hebron and Hebron. If you look at your map, it's uhm, where you see the word Judah? OK, it's just above that ohh boy. I'm so sorry about this map, but that is that dot is Hebron and then you see another word below that that that word is kiriat Arba. OK, so hopefully that pins you down where you are. So this is like a little like a little mountain top in that area where these three men sheshai and ahiman and Talmai lived now. You have already heard of these people, not just in Joshua, where and again, Joshua 1415. Talk about this conquest of this area, particularly related to Caleb, but we have heard about them even as far back as numbers. 1322. Do you remember when the 12 spies? Run out as they were wandering or not wandering as they're going to the promised land. Israel sent out 12 spies to spy out the land and they came to a place called Kiryat Arba, or, as it would later be known, Hebron, and they saw Giants, right? They're called the anakim. And these Shi, these three men, sheshai, ahiman and talmai, or probably the heads or chiefs of these anakim. And they were big. They were larger than than normal folks. It seemed like, so ironically, their low lives. But they're tall Statured and Caleb and Josh were the only ones who saw those men. They're in Hebron and said we can take them. We should not be afraid of them. Of course, the other 10 spies said no, no. And there's no way they're too big. They're too mighty. And because of that, that's why they were cursed to wander in the desert for 40 years now. That's why also that this land is allotted to Caleb because Caleb is the one who saw this land and said we can absolutely conquer this because the Lord is. With us. And so that's who these three sons are sons of Anok. And these men again are the judges says that Caleb was the one who captured it. Was given to Caleb as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three. Sons of Anarchy. But you. Look at verse 10 and it says judo went against the Canaanites and they defeated. Well, what does that mean? Is the contradiction? Caleb was obviously part of the the party or the group that went and. And drove out these three men. But it's not like he did it by himself. It's not like he. And it's not like these three men just represent three men. They represent armies, right? They represent very large groups of men, and it's not that Caleb came in and he destroyed three, you know, generals and all of their army by himself. Caleb led. These men led the men of Judah. Into battle against these three men and their armies, and he fought alongside or directed at least the battle. And he is the one that is attributed the victory, along with the help of the fighting men of the tribe of Judah. So from the mountaintops of Jerusalem to the lowlands of the Negev, to the low lifes of the anakim, we now focus in on Caleb. And that's where the narrative kind of gets more personal. Starting in verse 11. Now there there they went against the. Inhabitants of the beer and if you look on your map, debeer is the little dot that's below the word Judah. So Hebron is. Above it, the bears below it, that kind of areas and Caleb's area of conquest and below that you can see the word curiosity fear. Or I don't know if it's in quotes. It's too fuzzy to tell, but that's Dave here. There the name of Debeer was formerly Kiriat Sefer, and Caleb said he who attacks Kiriat Sefer and captures it. I will give him aksa. My daughter for a. Wife Nathaniel, the son of Kenaz. Caleb's younger brother captured it. And he gave him aksa, his daughter for a wife, and she came to him. She urged him to ask her father for a field, and she dismounted from her donkey and Caleb said to her, what do you want? She said to him, give me a blessing since you have sent me in the land of the nagib. Give me also springs of water and Caleb gave her the upper springs and. The lower spring. So let's untangle this a little bit. First of all, there's three characters here, right? We have Caleb again, the famous Joshua and Caleb. He has been. He's now much older, but he is there, conquering along with the tribe of Judah. Especially this is now his allotment, his portion, his inheritance. And as he comes to. He or curious affair he sees a challenge and an opportunity. So he is looking to marry off his daughter. All right, now it doesn't say anything about ages. I know as soon as we. Start talking about like you're. Giving away your daughters a trophy to us in our 21st century minds it just, you know, might sound a little odd, yeah. Yeah, we'll get, we'll, we'll. We'll get there in just a second. Yeah. Yeah. So that might even sound a little bit more odd to our 21st century minds. But but we have from Caleb, we have Aksai, his daughter and then we have another man by the name of O'Neil the son. Of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, meaning that this could be either Caleb's son or. Caleb's nephew. Right. It's the son of his brother. Does that make sense? So in Leviticus, right it is wrong to marry your sister. It's very clear. Leviticus 2017 is against Mosaic Law, so it is likely a cousin, right? Or we're not exactly sure of the family tree. But it's a. Relation and we'll get to that in just a second. But it's not that he's marrying like a sister. All right, so we know that for. Sure. OK. So. Atheneo, who is author NEO and why does the text suddenly focus on him? Well, we don't know it yet, or we do, because read read through judges. But Artnell is actually going to be the first Judge of Israel, and so the text is focusing kind of on his origin story here. It's giving a little preview of this man, and he is a man that proved himself. And Caleb, who is a mighty man who is someone we respect because of what we've read in numbers and all the way up until now. I mean, Caleb is one of the he's up there with Joshua, frankly, just a matter of God's own choice. Why Joshua over Caleb? I mean, because he seems just as good a man. So he's a good man. And for him, for O'Neill, the first judge to come from Caleb. It speaks well of both Caleb and Othniel. So the Texas focusing focusing on him as well, the word or the name O'Neil can mean God is powerful or line of guard line of God. I'm not sure exactly what. But either way it's. A strong name for a strong man. Again, this whole scene is actually being recapitulated or retold from Joshua 15, but it's significant enough to repeat in judges because, again, artnell is going to be the first judge now coming to this story. Caleb is offering his daughter as a prize for whoever conquers. Cheerios affair or they? Here and of course, again, this might rub us the wrong way a little bit, because it seems like he's viewing his his child as property. You know his his young woman that he's just kind of, you know, not giving her choice about her destiny. And and that seems to rub us the wrong way. Now, to be fair, it's not like the text says. Any commentary? About whether this is good or bad or this is the way all marriages should be handled, you know, every every dad needs to set up a challenge and only someone who can, you know, conquer, you know, this giant or something or accomplishes some task. Can marry my daughter. It's not setting up any kind of pattern for how we should live. Of our lives. OK, so the narrator and the text doesn't give any commentary. Ohm about whether this is something you should do shouldn't do this. Something they did back then. This is something we should do now. Nothing like that. We have to understand that there is some cultural aspects to this in terms of a father's control over a daughter's hand in marriage. That's not just the Bible. It's like most civilizations for much of human history. He said it was the father who had that prerogative over. Over the daughter's hand in marriage and it was something seen as a precious thing to a father to give away his daughter offering, you know dowries and things like that demonstrated. This is something that the father had a say in and had a duty towards. You could even say, but in a broader sense it's been the. Says for many civilizations throughout history, even now. To use marriage and children as political tools, you've got tribes that do that, and you have dynasties and kingdoms that do that. Even now, where marriages are forms of political alliance and, you know, children are political tools, so it's not again, it's not saying this is right or wrong or otherwise. So to use children as kind of a political. That's not just something that you find in the Bible. That's human history. Whether that's good or bad, right or wrong, it doesn't say here. But that is a fact that's happened a lot, so this is something that Caleb is doing. I will say that by implication that Caleb is a righteous and just man. Text never really ever criticize. Him either in in numbers or Joshua, or judges that his decision here is not something that he's doing selfishly or to hurt his daughter, or that's malicious in any way, so that I think we can say for sure whether you agree with it or not. There's no motivations here that are, I don't think, sinful. We can say. Again, oatmeal is Caleb's likely Caleb's nephew, and this was a relative. But again, without a clear family tree, it's hard to say exactly how close relation was, but marrying a cousin or more distant relative was not an unusual practice, both for the Israelites. Or, again, many nations and civilizations throughout history. That's something that was not an uncommon. Back this because it's kind of like, you know, you know what you're getting because this is someone that's in the family part of the tribe. And so marrying someone else that's somewhat related was kind of a safe thing to do in terms of compatibility and other things. Again, we might think that's unusual for our day and age, but that was certainly not. Unusual for them, so there's not like you don't read this and say, oh, this is immoral or wrong just because we're not used to that we're not supposed to lay that kind of judgment on here or on to the text. So the Bible is not trying to. Say this is good or bad, it's just something that happened at the time. Does that kind of answer your question right? In any case. Aksas seems to understand the role that she's playing. She may not even be opposed to the situation since she is marrying a man of might and courage. By virtue of meeting this challenge. That was associated with her. You know, her hand being given in marriage. So at the. Least she's assured that she'll be taking care of both because of Caleb standing and his blessing from the Lord, right, but also because she's marrying A conquering hero who is. You know who's victorious in battle and will receive some portion of this conquest, so it's not like she's just marrying. Like a hobo. That happened to win this battle, or that she's not going to taken care of or have her needs. In it. And the only thing that she is concerned about is, and this is fair, what's happening here is she's essentially asking. Uhm, when she urges him that is off Neil to ask her father for a field. Really. What's happening is she's asking for O'neil's permission to go to dad and say. You know, I I thank you for marrying me off to this fine gentleman, but the beer is like a dirt patch. It's dusty and it's hot and it's sort of in the middle. Of nowhere can we receive part of your allotment that has springs. Totally understandable. Apparently O'Neill thought that was a reasonable request for her to make of her father, and Caleb did too. Gave her the upper springs and the lower springs, meaning he set up his son-in-law and his daughter for success and to dwell. In a well provisioned land, there's nothing here again, that's uhm, like evil, malicious, ill intended. There's nothing here except Caleb wanting to reward a mighty man with something very precious to him. She seems to be OK with it. And they are. Going to live in a nice part of town. All right. So, uh again, some of that might rub us the wrong way, but I started thinking about. This you know. We might be uncomfortable with how this marriage is was made, but to be honest, like our contemporary ideas about how to find and keep a spy spouse, really that good right now, when you, when you think of it, is it really that successful or or praiser? Now this is not like a major theme or application. This is just me reading it. And of course when I read it. Oh man, I can't imagine doing this. I can't imagine like telling people this is how you should do it either. And again the. Text is not saying that, but then I started thinking, you know, like right now like. What's the current mantra? You live with? A boyfriend or girlfriend? You know, to test out whether marriage will work. We know that that doesn't necessarily produce stronger or more long lasting marriages. In fact, it seems like people don't get married when they do that and the children live or grow up in, in an environment where there's no commitment. Between the husband and wife, if you have talked to any young person. About the current trends in dating and social, really, it's not social media, it's social engineering. You know that the whole scene is pretty terrible and the status of marriage is a whole in our culture has just been tanking. So it just got me thinking like, sit. You could sit here and judge a 21st century and. Sit here and judge this. Here, but who are we to judge it when we are doing awful and terrible when it comes to how we process and think through marriage? So just something to think about. You know, again maybe you guys are not like that, but maybe watching on YouTube or something and thinking this, this just totally rubs me the wrong way this is. Backwards right for society? Well, I don't know. Maybe there's a lot of things backwards about how we view marriage and how people find each other now. So just something to think about before we judge it anyway. Caleb again, someone that the Bible routinely commends, though. And So what? We can at least say is that whatever he did, he did it to provide. For his wife to care for her, to care for his son-in-law. And there's this worse things that you could criticize a man for than trying to make sure the person that is marrying his daughter. Her can take care of her and is successful and driven. And of course, how do you win battles? At the time of Josh and judges, by being faithful to the Lords of the presumption is that NEO wasn't just heroic in terms of his strength or military might, but that he was a faithful man just as Caleb was. So it's just worse things than than your. You're very faithful, father. Saying, you know, I know that the man who will help me conquer the city is a worthy man. So anyway, that's enough about that. I don't want to. Take too much about that. So we get this zeroing in here in the first chapter. Judges on off Neil because he's going to be set up as the first judge. So that's why that is in. There and it's again a recapitulation. Russia, 14 and 15 now going back then to this continuing conquest in the South. In verse 16 we have the descendants of the Kenai. Moses father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negev near Arad, and he went and settled with the people. And Judah went with Simon and his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zeff, faith and devoted it to destruction. So the name. Of the city was. Called Hormah, Judah also captured Gaza with his territory and Ashkelon, with his territory and Hebron with its territory. So here we have the kenites joining the fight. If you remember the father-in-law of Moses was Jethro, who was not a Jewish man, but Zipporah. His wife was actually from where Jericho is. The City of Palms, likely Jericho. If you look at the Dead Sea and just go straight up, you see it there, Jericho and then City of Palms question Mark. Would have been from somewhere around there and they came down. If you notice, a rod is just. If you look at the Dead Sea, sort of the lower quarter of it and you go West, you see a rod there just below the word wilderness. So they came from north of the Dead Sea. They came down following the the wilderness area there to the West of the Dead Sea, and they came to IRAD and, Uhm, they helped in the conquest and the fighting there. And they settled with the people. Not a whole lot to say about Jethro, except that he was a godly man who was not necessarily a part of the Israelites, and the promised people, but you get a little glimpse here that despite not being an Israelite, he is still incorporated into the promise of God. And can live in the promised land. By faith. And there's maybe a little bit. Of a call, not a call back, but. A call forward. To Gentiles, though not children physically, biologically of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being able to come into the family of God. Nevertheless, through Christ and our unity of. You know, being in one body through Jesus, as we've been talking about in Ephesians so. We come to then this conquest of this area. Judah went with Simeon, his brother. If you remember, Simeon was a weaker brother and they definitely needed Judah's help. Simeon eventually gets incorporated into Judah, but together they defeated the Kenites who inhabited Zafar, and you can see there. Zapote, which is right under the word negeb on your map. And they devoted to destruction. And so the name of the city hormat, if you remember this concept of harem in the book of Joshua. This was this concept that God said that there really almost every city was to be devoted to destruction, that the people in it were to be. Wiped out they were gods. God had sovereignty, judged them, and decreed that their time was up. God's patience, which is long, is not eternal, and that he calls into a. About people who are not willing to repent, and so he had made a judgment on the people of the promised land. All those Canaanites and Hivites and all the other sites and the Israelites were to come be an instrument of God's wrath. And remove them from. The land to kill them, to drive them out because they had rejected any and every opportunity to. Here you have a success story, just like you had a success. Story there in. What was it called? What am I thinking of? Well, there's didn't. We just talk about it. Oh my goodness. Am I? Huh, alright, I'm. I'm I might. Be confusing it. So in any case. They drive out all. The people there in that land. Oh, no. The little lands, right? Joshua said he took out every one of the low lands. Right. OK, I'm not going crazy. OK, so in the same way, right, they took everyone out of the lowlands. So there were spots like here in Horma or the path where they did wipe everyone out the way that they were supposed to. But again, we're going to see that they didn't do a complete and. Total job everywhere. Uhm, nevertheless, and in fact, what we're seeing here and then Judah also captured Gaza with his territory. Those are all on the coast. So if you go all the way to the Mediterranean Sea on the left, so the left of the word philistines, you have Gaza Ashkelon, Ashdod. So they went and swept around from Zafar. And then went up the coast and they drove the people out there. We have already seen cracks and weaknesses in their faith. You see successes, but you also see cracks. And we see that in the next verses. So even with the success. That they met. And even with this statement here in verse 19, and Yahweh was with Judah, Yahweh was with them. He wasn't opposed to them. He was right there backing their successes. Notice what? It says next. He took possession of the Hill Country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants. Of the plane. Because they had Chariots of iron. Here we start to see. Some of the compromise in the conquest now we've already seen cracks of it, but essentially here in these last verses up to 26, we're going to see maybe more, three more, three more specific ways that we see. An incomplete conquest. The conquest of compromise and the first one we see is here that they did not drive out the inhabitants of the plane, and that plane is that whole area between the mountains and the coast. You can see it's very flat there. They got the coast people, but not the people in between. Because they had Chariots of iron now. I have never faced down a trade of iron before, so I am not speaking as a as an expert, so I've never had to face down someone in in a chariot with horses bearing down on me like Ben Hur. I imagine it would be terrifying. I might cower at the sight of that. But should that have stopped the Israelites? Not at all. Why is this an excuse when you have promises like this back in Deuteronomy before they even entered the promised land you have in Deuteronomy 20 verse one. When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and Chariots and an army larger than your. Then you shall not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and notice the phrase here, Yahweh. Was with them. Could they have taken out the plain people with their iron shirts? Yes, because you don't have to fear because Yahweh. Is with you. And that is something I think just. It strikes close. To home and the Christian, the Lord is with you. But then we still sometimes fail to do what the Lord commands. Yeah, both can be true. It's a very real statement here. I know it's, you know, just a. Little bit tucked away. But they had no reason to fear. In fact, there's other places in Joshua where it's clear they could defeat their foes, no matter how. They could have had nukes, right? They could have had tactical nukes, they could have tanks, they could have spy planes. And the Israelites could have sticks and rocks. But if Yahweh is. With them, could they have defeated the? Enemy absolutely right? Absolutely. So this says something about their faith and not their equipment, that despite Yahweh being with them y'all say I I'm here. They could not exercise faith in Yahoo. In order to conquer, of course, we. See that a lot. In the Bible, it's not just here. Even the psalmist kind of calls back to some of these moments. Psalm 20, verse 7. Some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God. This almus is remembering. That the point is not to trust and the equipment not to, not to fear for what the other enemy has if they don't have Yahweh, they have nothing. If we have Yahweh, we have everything. Isaiah 31 one. Very similar woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in Chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but do not look to the holy one of Israel or consult yawing. Judah may not have even tried. They might have just seen the iron Chariots and they knew Yahweh was with them, but they said, do we really need the planes? I mean, do we, you know, this is nice and. All it's a. Little bit cooler than there in the Negev, but. Do we really need? Maybe they suffered an actual defeat, but either way they didn't have the faith. To conquering this is where you see again those cracks of trust in the Lord in the face of strong opposition. The Israelites were faithless. How do we avoid the same pitfalls? We look at. Life and our situations and circumstances. How do we avoid having the same kind of fear well? Is God stronger than whatever it is that you're facing? Is he bigger than it? Now, if he is, if he's not, then you have a very small God and I, you know, I pity you. And I would. Encourage you to read the Bible and see the vision of a very grand and powerful and strong sovereign Lord. But I know even practically we can say all those things we can sing about them and pray about them, but we can feel like God is not. I mean, yes, he was there for the Israelites at times, or he was there for the early. Church, but you just. Feel like I don't know. I maybe he's not there for me. I've I I've, I've. I'm too scared to trust in the Lord. I think that's fair. I think God has a lot of grace for that. And I'll say this then. In the face of strong opposition, Israelites were faithless. You know what God is looking. Mustard seed size. Faith right? He says. If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain move from here. To there and it'll jump. What does that tell you about what God is expecting as far as our faith production does? He think that. Like by using that analogy, and by the fact that there's not a lot of mountains leaping around, what does that tell you? It tells you that we have a hard time even manufacturing a very little bit of faith, right? So I look at this and I I know it. It can seem like if only you know they lacked having this heaping, helping, huge faith. But I was saying, even if you can muster up a. Mustard size. See the faith. He can work with that. That's that's a great comfort to say. God, he's not looking for me to strike down Goliath. He's just looking for the smallest little ray of faith that I can OfferUp truly in my heart. I think there's something nice about realizing. Not as a realistic expectation of how much faith we can produce. You just need to produce a little true faith, I think. God can work with. That I think God can move with that. I think God can conquer nations and armies with just a little bit of faith that's going to Jesus. Just need a faith mustard seed, of course is a. Very tiny seed. If we can just muster up that little. Bit of faith. God can do wonders, so this isn't about having this huge ginormous. Just having the littlest bit and see God do wonders. Some of the the ways that we see again these cracks in the the armor of their faith, verse 20. And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses said, had said, and he drove out from it. The three sons of. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. Again, we already mentioned and talked about how this the Jebusites became this perpetual. The problem and this persistent opposition and uhm, we can derive a lesson here again in the face of persistent opposition, so in. The face of strong. We just need to produce. Even the littlest bit of faith. In the face of persistent opposition, we need to avoid rising and falling by again our mountaintop experiences. But be willing to have an everyday faith. If opposition is persistent, then faith must be consistent, which means. You don't have to equate faith with these grand victories, but instead. To be content with consistency, you don't. It doesn't need to be your. Your quiet times don't always need to be. You know this emotional, profound affair. But just to do it every day. I think the devil is more scared of consistency in small ways of putting even 1 foot in front of the other than he is of some you know. Powerful preacher who can draw huge crowds than who we might consider great in the Kingdom of heaven. What does Jesus say for me? Gotta be the least of all servant of all. I think Satan is more is more terrified of someone who can consistently just pun one little step of faith 1 foot. In front of the others and you get the sense that the Benjamin Knights. What does it say there? Is that the Jebusites lived with the people Benjamin Druss. With this day? They just. We're content to live together with the people that they were supposed to to drive out rather than even though they're a small tribe. Just be persistent and pushing them out of the land they could have. Done it, even if it's a little by little. It doesn't have to be some big dramatic battle, but if they would just been consistent and persistent and pushing them out, maybe it would have taken 354 hundred years. For them to overcome. Lastly, we have this account in verses 22 and on of the spies at Luz, the House of Joseph also went up against Bethel and Yahweh was with them and the House of Joseph scouted out Bethel, now the name of the city was formerly loves and spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him. Hey, please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. And he showed them the way into the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go and the man went. To the land. Of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day. Well, again, we get the emphasis that Yahweh was with them. So this is again a scenario where God is right there. But this is not a win. The situation here is not a win. It sounds like or begins on the surface of it to be something like the situation with rehab at Jericho. Remember, the spies went to Jericho. The meat rehab raises. I heard about you guys. I know that you're on God's side. Please spare me and my family. I'll help you. Right. So he helps them escape. And then when they come into conquer Jericho, the walls fall down. But what section is standing? The section that rehab and his family are. God spares them and rehab actually becomes a part of. The Israelite community, and he's even in the genealogy of Jesus himself. Now this seems exactly. The same there's a man that's coming out of the city and. They make the same deal with him. They promise to spare him and pans out more or less the same way. Well, why is this a sign of weakness of their faith? Why is this another compromise in their conquest? Well, the difference is between the man and rehab. When she met the spies. She very much acknowledged that God the real God. Was with them. And her plea was based on wanting to receive mercy not from the Israelites. But from God. She saw the divine in those armies coming up. She knew that the destruction was judgment and that caused her to want to worship. What is this man who isn't even given a name due? Right after he has spared the destruction of the city of Las, which on your on your map there it's. Ohh boy. I I had it, I had it mapped out on, you know, when I could actually read it on my computer. But I think it's. It's I know where it is, so if you go from. The top of the Dead Sea and you go West and NA little bit. You see Jerusalem, right? You just go north a little bit and you see Bethel Lust. Right there, OK. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So pretty close to Jerusalem, but Bethel was now Bethel means House of God. It's going to be named that later. But at this time it's named Luz. And what does this man do? As soon as he is given? The amnesty from the Israelites. He goes to another Pagan nation. And he's got a great idea. I'm going to start a city named. That's the difference. This was no rehab. This was not a man driven by a desire to worship. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is not a man who is terrified in seeing the Israelites as an instrument of God's divine judgment, and therefore he needed to repent him and his family, but rather he was just trying to spare his own life. And the Israelites. Rather than choosing someone. Who? Well, you could. Go both ways, either in how they were conquering. It was clear this is just another army. See, Rehab did not think this is just another army back at those. You got armies, nations coming in all the time, right? It just it's a warlike culture back then. That's what they did. It was a normal, you know, Tuesday night to have some king come in with his army and conquer your city. So that happened all the time. What Rahab saw in the Israelites was something divine, something that pointed her to God. What this man showed, or what this man saw, apparently when he saw this conquering army was just another conquering army that was offering him. You know to to not be killed when they came in and conquered. That's one angle that shows weakness or the other explanation is simply that the Israelites, rather than choosing someone who would be a spy for them, who really believed in Yahweh, they just chose some guy rather than having any discernment or distinction about it. Either way, this represents again a compromise because. You conquered one city that you're supposed to wipe out, but the one guy in his family that. You let go. Created another city. That would. You know you didn't replace or you didn't. Uhm, you didn't come out in that positive right before conquering the land, because all it did was squirrel away to a more actually heavily defended area. And produce another city full of pagans. This is a compromise. It's a whole idea of a little leaven escaping became a whole another loaf someplace else. Now here. It's really subtle, I know, but sometimes we're not faced with direct opposition like the Jebusites or like. There in the Hill Country or I'm sorry. The plain country with the iron Chariots. Sometimes it's just the decision to compromise or to find a cheap and easy shortcut. Uhm, that defines our compromise and our own faith, not direct opposition. But our opposition is actually the temptation to become pragmatic Christians to be halfway Christians, to do things a churchy way, when that makes sense. But when it's more convenient to do it, the secular. OK, just to choose that. But of course, we need to remember that when we compromise with. The little bit that's allowed to survive often blooms into more and worsens that Jesus is sovereign and Lord not just of some part of our life, but our whole life that we cannot compromise with with Satan. It's like having a bug problem or a rat problem or Gopher problem problem which we've had all of those here at the church have not have. I've had those in my house. Where nothing short of complete and radical eradication can truly. Fix it. And in a way, the gospel is the proclamation that our sin problem is that strong, that persistent, that that. Tempting for compromise? And in our human effort, we just can't take care of all the sin that besets us, just like the Israelites here could not conquer the whole land. That's why we need a total complete. All of our sins taken away at once, and that is the message of the gospel that Jesus. Took all of our sins past present, future on the cross with them, was crucified. He took that record of of sin and our debt owed to God and he canceled them on the cross. And that that is ours by grace through faith. And now we have the ability to conquer sin, even as we have a promise that one day. Through the gospel we have. Hope of being sinless completely. And part of the process of us growing in that in that holiness and that conquering of the sin is our ability to look at these texts and Old Testament and learn about God and learn about ourselves. And by the grace of God and the power of God overcome where they failed to see the consequences of. Compromise to see. That all we need is a little bit. Of faith and we can. And conquer anything that is thrown away that we can and we should be content with an everyday faith. Just putting 1 foot in front of the other and persistent. Opposition towards sin in a persistent welcoming. Of the sava. These are things we can learn here and This is why God calls us to the book of judges. Is that now that we have the spirit of God, and now that we have the gospel, we can read this and see the follies, and we can actually grow and not make the same mistakes. But if we do, to have an assurance that our sins have been forgiven. That we can continue to have faith because it's all been paid for already. So this is how judges again draws us back to the gospel. And of course, if you are a Christian here today, hopefully something there speaks to you about your faith and your growth. If you're not a Christian, maybe you see the pattern of sitting in your own life. You're trying to kick a bad habit. You know that you're doing something that's leading you. To destruction well. Gospel offers freedom. The Gospel gospel offers not not only a. A cleansing of your debt. But also the promise and the hope of being called Children of God, that you can have an eternity spent with him forever and ever, without ever dealing with the presence of sin, as the Israelites had to deal with. If you have any questions about that, I would love to talk to you tonight about that or whenever you have a moment. But please do reach out. And let us know cause. We'd love to share with. You about Jesus, Heavenly Father, thank you. Again, for your faithfulness, you are good when we are not, and even here as we see some of the compromise and weaknesses and failings of Israelites who are we to cast the first stone without looking at our own hearts and realizing there but for the grace of God, go lying, realizing that if it wasn't for the gospel, I would have no hope. Lord, but thank you that you are faithful even to the Israelites at this time, and you're going to prove that over and over again, and you'll prove that to each one of us, over and over again, until faith has made sight. And for that, we are eternally grateful as well. We pray you would bless our rest of our evening together, breasts, the food and our conversations and fellowship around the table. May you be glorified. In our lives, in Jesus name we pray.