Under Gods Command
Judges 1:1-3 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?” The LORD answered, “Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.” Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them.
The people of Israel had finally entered and taken control of the land promised to their ancestors (Genesis 12:7; Exodus 3:16,17) Through God’s strength, the Israelites had conquered many enemies and overcome many difficulties, but their work was not yet finished. They had effectively met many political and military challenges, but facing spiritual challenges was more difficult. The unholy but attractive lifestyle of the Canaanites proved more dangerous than their military might, The Israelites gave in to the pressure and compromised their faith. If we attempt to meet life’s challenges with human effort alone, we will find the pressures and temptations around us to great to resist.
Soon after Joshua died, Israel began to lose its firm grip on the land. Although Joshua was a great commander, the people missed his spiritual leadership even more than his military skill, for he had kept the people focused on God and his purposes. Joshua had been the obvious successor to Moses, but there was no obvious successor to Joshua. During this crisis of leadership, Israel had to learn the no matter how powerful and wise the current leader was, their real leader was God. We often focus our hope and confidence on some influential leader, falling to realize that in reality it is God who is in command. Acknowledge God as your commander in chief, and avoid the temptation of relying too heavily on human leaders, regardless of their spiritual wisdom.
The Canaanites were all the people who lived in Canaan (the promised land). One reason Canaan was so difficult to conquer was that each city had to be defeated individually. There was no single king who could surrender the entire country into the hands of the Israelites.
Canaan’s greatest threat to Israel was not its army, but its religion. Canaanite religion idealized evil traits; cruelty in war, sexual immorality, selfish greed, and materialism. It was a “me first, anything goes” society. Obviously, the religions of Israel and Canaan could not coexist.
When the Israelites first entered the promised land (Joshua 1-12), they united as one army to crush the inhabitants until they were too weak to retaliate. Then, after the land was divided among the 12 tribes, each tribe was responsible for driving out the remaining enemy from its own territory, The book of Judges tells of their failure to do this.
Some tribes were more successful than others. Under Joshua, they all began strong, but soon fear, weariness, lack of discipline, or pursuit of their own interest sidetracked most. As a result, their faith began to fade away, and “everyone did as he saw fit” In order for our faith to survive, it must be practiced day by day. It must penetrate every aspect of our lives. Beware of starting out strong and then getting sidetracked from your real purpose-loving God and living for him.
Under Gods command 