Transitioning from Joshua to Judges we move from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. If Joshua is a book of success; Judges is a book of failure. Israel fails militarily and morally to accomplish all God demands of them. You need read no further than chapter 1 to learn of their abject failure. It reads like a bad refrain: Judah could not drive out the people who were living in the valley (1: 19)…. [T]he Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites (1: 21)…. Manasseh failed (1: 27).... Ephraim failed (1: 29)…. Zebulun failed (1: 30)…. Asher failed (1: 31)…. Naphtali did not drive out (1: 33)…. The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country (1: 34).
Granted, God had said He would not drive the pagans from the land all at once (Deut. 7: 22) but He did expect His people to continue waging war. In Judges a spiritual and military pacifism settles in on God’s people and they become reluctant to engage the enemy. God had warned His people: But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become thorns in your eyes and in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you will live. And what I had planned to do to them, I will do to you” (Num. 33: 55).
Since Canaan represents the life of victory for God’s people, the warring nations represent the sins which wage war against the Christian. Dear friends, I urge you…to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you (literally “against the soul”) (1 Pet. 2: 11). Christians are not to wait for the flesh with its myriad sins to mount an assault. We are to take the battle to them and by the Spirit … put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8: 13).
What a lot of Christians attempt to do could best be described as “quality control.” For many no real effort is made to eliminate sin in the life; all that is expected is just to keep it at some acceptable level, i.e. “quality control.” We don’t want our sins to embarrass us or those close to us nor do we want them to jeopardize our pursuit of happiness. The thought, however, that we should remove sin from the life seems foreign. It was not foreign to King David who prayed, Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way (Ps. 139: 23 – 24).
While we acknowledge we will never be sinless in this life we must be at pains to sin less each day of our life. Sins left alone never remain alone. As Israel painfully learned their enemies did not peacefully coexist with them. The sin in your life and mine will not peacefully coexist either. It will multiply and molest us. It must be eliminated at all costs. Pacifism is not an option in the ongoing war against sin.