The Permanent Unholy

Synopsis     Judges 2:19-3:6     6/4/2018

The pattern of behavior for the Israelites was to repent in the time of a righteous judge, but to fall away from God after the righteous judge died.

The author notes that God left the peoples of Canaan in place for two reasons. First, because the Israelites consistently broke faith with God in violating the covenant. Second, having a remnant of the nations remain in the land caused subsequent Israelite generations to learn warfare. Both of these constituted a “testing”. So, even after the initial conquest of the Promised Land, there remained a remnant of Philistines, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

The author also observed how the Israelites began to give their daughters in marriage to the young men of the nations they were meant to displace. And vice versa, they began taking the daughters of those people as wives for their sons.

The Permanent Unholy

There’s that expression that people like to say: You don’t just marry a woman, you marry her entire family. The same is true, of course, for women – they end up marrying the family of their partner.

This was the problem identified in scripture. The giving and taking of daughters in marriage brought the Israelites exposure to the very system of gods that destined the Canaanites to destruction.

 

It’s not solely about marriage, it’s about becoming entangled in a culture that is at odds with God’s core values. We live in a plural culture that embraces a panoply of fraudulent values. When I accept the notion that truth is relative, I have tied myself to something that can’t work in an authentic community. Or when I accept that good and right are merely a matter of personal preference, I have married myself to an idea that limits the potential that God built into my life.

There is Creation. There is a God of Creation. The God of Creation is Purposeful. I have Purpose. I have Potential. I will live out my Potential or fail.

“Do not be yoked with those who are different, with unbelievers.^* For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?” 2 Cor 6:14