Our whole life is none other than God's grace. There is nothing in our life if it weren't for God's grace. If we understand this, then the logical consequence of this thought will make our life attitude that is always grateful and surrender to God in everything.
If we look at the history of Israel in the first verse of Judges, it says that Israel entered the age after Joshua died, the time when the Israelites lost a leader. Israel, which used to have extraordinary leaders like Moses who was used by God to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, then Joshua, who was the assistant of Moses, continued the leadership of Moses, whom God used extraordinarily also led Israel into the promised land, namely Canaan, but now Joshua does not have successor who can lead Israel.
If we want to think for a moment, what happens today if a country does not have a leader / president / king? in our days perhaps that country will be chaotic because it has no direction, or maybe a lot of commotion will occur within the country, or simply disarray, etc Here God wanted to teach the Israelites to surrender completely to God. Here Israel was in a situation where they had to fully believe and surrender to God, especially because they lived in the midst of the Canaanites, a nation which was an abomination in God's eyes.
In chapter 1 we see Israel asking the Lord (Israel seeks the Lord): "Which of us must advance against the Canaanites to fight against them?" This was the right thing to do, and God answered them in the second cut that the tribe of Judah should go forward. When the Israelites sought God, the Lord was with and led them, as is written in Luke 11: 9 "... Ask, it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you." and Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and they will be added to you."
Another point that often happen in the Bible is that when God is leading us into something, often God wants us to also work on it - not because God cant miraculously make it happen, but because God is training us to trust Him through our hardship or work.
Judah then invited Simeon to go to war together, and God gave them the Canaanites and Perizzites. Again as above, we see here God's inclusion and God's leading in our lives is certain, but it doesn't mean smooth. God was able to hand over Canaan to Israel without having Israel go to war, but here God ordered Israel to fight. Our life is always a spiritual warfare, and when we obey God, we are actually fighting against this world. In every act of those who love God, the world will actually hate God's people (Matthew 5: 10-12). Israel's war with Canaan was a battle against wickedness and iniquity, a battle against evil (the seed of evil / serpent's seed).
However, if we continue to trace it, the focus of the Israelites has begun to change (starting from verse 19). Their views are confused by outer things or by what their eyes can see or their own desires. In verse 19 it says that "... they (the tribe of Judah) could not drive out the people from the plains because these people had chariots of iron. What's the problem here? Is it true that their because of their iron chariot, then Judah can't win? actually here the tribe of Judah began to not fully put their trust in God - YAHWEH who has led them to this day. They are afraid to see the enemy's military strength and rely less on God, that is why they cannot drive / expel the enemy. The tribe of Judah was able to defeat enemies in the hills, but was afraid when fighting against enemies in the valley. As with our lives, we often only trust God halfway. We believe in God in situations where the atmosphere, the situation is comfortable, but when we are in the valley of darkness, or when we see things seems not possible we often rely too much on ourselves so that we don't see God, we are less dependent on God at times.
Verse 21, the Jebusites were not driven away by the tribe of Benjamin. Here, we know that the war was won by the tribe of Benjamin, but they did not expel the Jebusites, they let the Jebusites live with them. They violated God's commandments, they preferred to make peace with the Jebusites than to be reconciled with God, obeying God's commands. How about us? We may prefer to make peace with sin, to make peace with people who give wrong teachings than we rebuke them, maybe because we are afraid of hurting that person's feelings, or some other reason, but we don't see that what we do hurt God's feelings.
Furthermore, the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Naphtali also did not expel their enemies, instead they preferred to employ their enemies for their benefit. They did not drive out their enemies so that they can force them to pay tribute to them. In other words, they prefer wealth, profit, and comfort over obeying God's commands. They prefer their own way rather than to obey God's will, because they think their way is better. This is where the they failed.
The question for us now is "How do we live our life" For the Israelites in Judges 1, they were living their life according to what they see best. They were satisfied with a much lesser satisfaction compare to what God wanted them to have.
The Israelites didn't say they abandoned God, no, they basically chose to get the little gratification, the gratification they wanted. Likewise with our life, when we are quite satisfied with lowly things, or things that are far from what God wants the best for us, then we actually reject God. Once we satisfy ourselves with less than God's best for us, we will never be what God wants us to be; and at the root of it when we live according to what is right in our own eyes (which is the summary of Judges), we are actually not living by faith meaning we do not trust God fully.
In conclusion to this passage, God decided to not drive the Canaanites before them, letting them to be thorns and snare in Israelites' life. I recalled an occasion where my 3 years old son was playing puzzle which at that time I sit beside trying to help him a little bit. His response was to reject me by asking me to go away and he said he can do it himself. He was kind of stubborn at that time, and I decided to let him alone, and I walk away "fulfilling" what He asked me that is not to help him and go away. I did this because I know he will fail and he will soon realise of his inability to do the puzzle - and that's right, soon after I heard his steps approaching me, and he said "Daddy, come.." and I said to him "why?". and he responded "I need help - I cant do it". This is I think what God did to Israel, God did that not because He doesnt care anymore or He gets tired keeping His covenant - but instead He is faithful and wise in His way. God knows what Israel really need (to obey and trust Him) but if they choose the otherwise, God let them taste how miserable life is without God so that God can save them.
Our God is a God who will always keeps His covenant regardless of our failure and in His wisdom He has his way to save us from our inability to overcome sin by our own strength.
Praise God,
Paul
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