Breaking The Cycle Of Sin Series

Let’s go back to an important statement found in Genesis 15:16: “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” God had given Abraham the promise of a people and the promise of a place in Genesis 12. John Ortberg points out that during Abraham’s time the Amorite culture was defiled but God was still going to offer mercy to the people of Canaan. Later on, once God’s people go into the area of the Amorites, their sin will reach its full measure and God will judge them accordingly. God is merciful and is offering them a way out as we saw in Joshua 2 when Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, repents and comes to faith in God. However the Canaanite people in general refuse to repent and their sin finally reaches its full measure during the time of Joshua and Judges.

Leviticus 18 catalogs the depths of their depravity which included sacrificing children to a god named Molech. The Israelites were given a warning in Deuteronomy 18:9-13: “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.”

God not only wanted the crooked Canaanites judged, He wanted them removed because of the evil influence they would have on the Israelites if they were allowed to stay in the land. Exodus 23:23-24: “My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.” And verse 33 tells us why they were to kill the Canaanites: “Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”

There was no way the people of Israel could worship the one true God and also bow before the Canaanite gods. It’s impossible for someone to be monotheistic and polytheistic at the same time. An example of this evil influence is found in Numbers 25:1-3: “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.” Commentator G. Campbell Morgan summarized it this way: “God is perpetually at war with sin, and that is the whole explanation of the extermination of the Canaanites.”

With that as background, let’s come back to Judges 1. The tribe of Judah is selected to take the lead, which is interesting because it’s out of the tribe of Judah that Jesus eventually comes. In verse 3 we see that Judah teams up with the tribe of Simeon and they conquer some of the Cannanites. Drop down to verse 20 where we read that Caleb, whose name means “wholehearted,” drove away “three sons of Anak” from Hebron. This was no easy task because the sons of Anak were the Nephilim, the “giants in the land” that had caused the spies from Numbers 13 to say that they couldn’t take the land. It was only Caleb and Joshua who believed that God could do it. And now, over 40 years later, Caleb is able to conquer these giants!