Monkey See, Monkey Do
It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely. Judges 1:28 NASB
Completely – What happens when God’s people don’t finish the job? The book of Judges answers that question with a very dismal and discouraging portrait of incomplete performance. From beginning to end, the stories in Judges slip invariably downhill into moral and spiritual apostasy, bringing Israel to a point of near extinction. But we don’t have to read much further than the first chapter to know the outcome. It can be found in the ambiguity in this single Hebrew verb, yarash.
The verb has a range of potential translations: “to take possession of, dispossess, inherit, occupy, seize,” and “impoverish.” Did you notice that depending on the context the verb can be either positive or negative? Notice also that the determination of the verb is a function of the subject. Hartley comments, “In Israel’s history the root takes on its double force, to inherit and to dispossess, in relationship to the covenant.”[1] In Judges this verb serves as a telling reminder that Israel hasn’t progressed much since Egypt. They simply switch roles, from victim to oppressor, from subject to object. In other words, since they don’t fulfill the command of YHVH to take complete possession of the land, they learn to accommodate. They integrate with the Canaanites, but not as equals. With their superior military force, they do to the Canaanites what was done to them. They become the new Pharaoh, inflicting forced labor on those they conquer. Quid pro Quo, but with the wrong population. As my historian friend used to opine, “When people don’t know what to do, they do what they know.” Israel knew all about slavery. Now it was their turn. Or so they thought.
But this isn’t what God had in mind. In fact, more than once God reminds His people that they were once slaves and for that reason alone they are never to act in the way of their former captivity. That lesson seems lost on Israel. Once Joshua leaves the scene, they deteriorate into the kind of society that they decried before the Lord. Incomplete doesn’t mean “imperfect but acceptable.” Incomplete means disgraceful, in the bifurcated sense of the word. When we don’t finish what God starts, we disgrace everything about the effort. We remove whatever it was that God intended and demonstrate our penchant to return to the vomit of the past.
Barry G. Webb makes the notable comment, “. . . evil is something far too deep to be eliminated by the simple punishment of this or that particular act or person. It so corrupts the nature of men and women and their whole way of life that nothing and no one is exempt from it, and only wholesale destruction can remove it. In short, ‘evil is irremediable,’ that is why radical root-and-branch judgment is necessary.”[2]
Topical Index: Judges 1:28, yarash, dispossess, seize, slavery, evil, incomplete
[1] Hartley, J. E. (1999). 920 יָרַשׁ. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.
[2] Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges (NICOT), p. 64.
Hurting people hurt people.
To face evil done to us and deal with it once and for all is the only way to not do it ourselves. We learn by experience; therefore, evil done TO us will become evil done BY us unless we forgive. This is because we automatically worship (fear) what overpowers us. We will automatically subscribe to the gods of our conquerors by that fear, and serve them out of that fear.
Don’t believe you would do that? The child that was hit in anger will ‘learn’ that angry hitting is love: angry hitting will be the new normal (definition of love) for that child UNLESS and until he or she faces the fact that angry hitting is not love. At that point, you have to quit being afraid of (serving) anger, and stand up to it, but the only way to do that is to forgive it. How do you forgive it? You have to quit believing that it is righteous (right). The victim must learn to quit agreeing with the abuser that they have a ‘right’ to abuse, for that agreement is the only way that the abuser has power over the victim. Part of forgiveness is where you quit agreeing that the abuse is love, or, righteousness, and thus break the power of the abuse over you. You have to admit that abuser was wrong (unloving), for forgiveness implies wrongdoing. Part of unforgiveness is agreeing that, given the opportunity, you would do it (the abuse) yourself.
The Children had learned to fear the gods of Egypt, thus leaving them vulnerable to abuse. They should have packed up and left the first time their kids brought home the neighbors’ daughters and religious practices. Instead, they subscribed to (agreed with the ‘righteousness of) the culture and so became sitting ducks for being oppressed BY that culture. (Yes, we are doing this, too. Look for oppression coming right up, folks.)
The Children did not deal with the trauma of Egypt even after they left it. Even though the fathers died without dealing with it, they passed down the problem to their progeny. The progeny did not “stand and confess the sins of their fathers” (bitterness and shame regarding that slavery as well as the complicitness with the religion and culture) so they became the problem at the first opportunity (which the reign of Solomon only amplified).
The problem did not go away until after the Babylonian captivity, wherein the Children, again, experienced slavery; but this time they knew what to do. This time they took responsibility for slavery AND its effects. This time they stood and confessed (took responsibility for) the sins of their ancestors and “put away the strange wives” and refused to do business with the wily Sanballat. They had learned separation from the problem.
Wasn’t this was the original instruction, commandment of YHWH?
“However, only from the cities of these peoples, which Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance, you MUST NOT LET ANYTHING THAT BREATHES LIVE. YOU MUST UTTERLY DESTROY THEM—the Hittites , the Amorites , the Canaanites , the Perizzites , the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as Adonai your God has commanded you. [Deu 20:16-17]
Yet in Judges it says, “….but they did not DRIVE THEM OUT COMPLETELY”.
Why the difference?
It seems that in the recording of their own history there was even failure to remember what YHWH commanded them to do or else there was failure to COMPLETELY report what they failed to do. And this is the book of JUDGES, and Israel’s judges were supposed to judge according to YHWH’s torah commandments. Well, maybe it’s because the writer was too influenced by the judges and not the prophets. Therefore, I doubt it was Samuel who was responsible for writing this book. I’m thinking he would have gotten it right. Haha.
“When people don’t know what to do, they do what they know”? But they DID know what to do, right? At least they were TOLD what to do. Maybe this is more the case: When people question and don’t obey the commandments of YHWH, they do what they know, or they do what’s right in their own eyes, often trying even trying a new thing. Not that slavery was a new thing but just that we do see that sometimes when we question and don’t obey His commandments, His voice, we just lean on our own understanding, which we are instructed in the B’rit Hadasha (N.T.) not to do, and we just make something up, try something new. We can be so clever, can’t we. Enamored by our own intellect and creativity, our own good heartedness and good works, our own righteousness and earnest, hard work. Certainly it’s not always wrong or bad or disobedient, unless it goes against His clear commandments and instructions and voice, or is a cover up of not obeying Him in other ways.. I’ve seen this in my own life and also witnessed this a lot in the Christian church. That’s what happens when “the Law has been done away with”. But, if it’s contrary to His word, it’s still just sin, right? No matter how good we think our ideas are. And them come the consequences.
In this case, it seems Israel’s motivation was likely more out of unbelief, fear, revenge, and/or greed. Why didn’t they obey? Why didn’t they AT LEAST drive them out completely? But more importantly, why didn’t they utterly destroy them? Was it an attempt to be merciful even as YHWH is merciful? I doubt it.
“In short, ‘evil is irremediable,’ that is why radical root-and-branch judgment is necessary.”
How are WE to PRACTICALLY deal with things in such a way? Certainly there is a spiritual action we are to take, and that is difficult enough to understand how to make application, isn’t it?
“And if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away! It is better for you that one part of your body should be destroyed, than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away! It is better for you that one part of your body should be destroyed, than that your whole body go into Gehenna.” [Mat 5:29-30]
“For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. So also continually COUNT YOURSELF DEAD TO SIN (CRUCIFIED WITH MESSIAH) and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.” [Rom 6:10-11]
I do know that, in context, this is a national issue and I do have question how to apply such radical action, but also how do we apply it rightly on an individual, personal level.