Angelic Conflict part 189: Human history (the judges) – Jud 2; 1Co 6:18; 10:14; 2Ti 2:22; Rom 13:14; Eph 4:22-24; Gen 9:25-27.

The last admonitions of Joshua [Jos 24], and the solemn renewal of the covenant with Jehovah failed to produce all the effect intended. That generation, indeed, never suffered idolatry to become predominant, but still they were very negligent with respect to the expulsion of the Canaanites. Only a few tribes made war upon them, and even they were soon weary of the contest. They spared their dangerous and corrupting neighbors, and, contrary to express statute, were satisfied with making them tributary [slaves and those who paid taxes].

God asks us to expel certain systems from our soul and if we refuse then we will find ourselves in bondage to dangerous and corrupt thinking.

We do this through the power of doctrine and Holy Spirit influence.

1Co 6:18

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

1Co 10:14

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

2Ti 2:22

Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

The flesh or OSN has areas of weakness and areas of strength. The strength is depraved and therefore unacceptable to God.

Many think they are being good by making various human intellects; hobbies such as sports, culture, arts; endeavors such as health, promotion, politics, financial security; desires such as social life, family life, marriage, approbation, cleaning up the world; their number one. But if these things keep a person away from God and His word they become evil and a function of the strength of the OSN. We have all been given a conscience from which we know ourselves and that conscience automatically makes a priority list in the soul, even from a very early age.

Rom 13:14

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

This means that when the temptation is upon me from the flesh that I turn to doctrine and trust in its deliverance and hope in its prosperity for it is the very mind of Christ.

It's one thing to stop a mental attitude sin, but what thoughts are you going to replace it with? These thoughts must be divine and so from the word of God.

Eph 4:22-24

that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

The old self can be like a chameleon that changes its colors to suit its environment. Many become fooled into taking off the old man and putting him right back on in a different color. They take off the weakness of the flesh only to replace it with a strength from the flesh, oscillating from one degeneracy to another. The flesh, in all forms, is cursed and cannot give life.

As the flesh is cursed as well as the world system in which all flesh resides, so was Canaan, the descendant of Ham, who is also the father of the Egyptians. They were cursed and the execution of this judgment came later, in the perfect timing of God.

Canaan is cursed and its judgment is upon it. The sons of Shem are about to enter the land of Ham and subdue it.

Gen 9:25 "Cursed be Canaan;

A servant of servants

He shall be to his brothers."

Gen 9:26 He also said,

"Blessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant.

The Exodus at Kadesh-Barnea are the execution of this judgment and there are many of them that are too afraid to exact it and take their birthright under the Abrahamic Covenant.

Gen 9:27 "May God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be his servant."

If it weren’t for Moses we would have no idea where we came from.

Satan's tactics are centered on keeping the Christian man's spiritual life poor and his witness nullified. Though victorious in conquering the land their lives in the land soon became poor in quality.

The attacks from the flesh are for the purpose of reaching into the center of the man's will.

1Pe 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

Gal 5:17

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The attacks from the world are for the purpose of turning us aside from first so that second things and even fifty second things become first.

In other words, the most important things in life become what you eat or wear or look like or your family life, job, marriage, social life, etc. If the temporal or worldly things dominate our thinking than the eternal things will take second place.

Mar 7:14-15

"Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

What we output is a result of what we prioritize or what we are passionate about. The word of God that is alive and powerful will critique those priorities and passions.

The attacks of the devil are directed toward our pride and self-sufficiency.

Pro 8:13

"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;

Pride and arrogance and the evil way,

And the perverted mouth, I hate.

The attacks of the devil are again directed downward to our will, for if our pride can be exalted so that we think that we are self-sufficient, it goes without saying that we will look to self for the plan of life and the orders of command instead of resting in quiet faith looking to the will of God.

Jud 2:1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you,

At Gilgal the angel of the Lord appears to Joshua after they had circumcised themselves and entered into the covenant with the Lord and the Lord announced to him the destruction of Jericho. This was the beginning of a successful conquest.

Now the angel of the Lord goes from there to Bochim, a word meaning "weepers" in order to announce something very different than victory because they broke the covenant by not doing what God has commanded them to do and so, as per usual, they became emotional weepers.

Jud 2:2 and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done?

This is after Joshua and after they have conquered the land. Joshua admonished the leaders at Shechem to obey the covenant laws and not to worship idols, and to obey the command of the Lord to remove the remaining inhabitants who were idol worshippers. So the leaders went home and told their people to do this and they did not. In many cases the Israelites were able to make the Canaanites slaves or tax-payers and this suited their desires, but was still against God's command.

Jud 2:3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you [remaining small pockets of Canaanites and Philistines]; but they shall become as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"

The discipline, as it is always intended, is designed to turn the curse into a blessing by changing their hearts and making them strong in the grace of God. As God said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, so fight the good fight of faith.

Jud 2:4 And it came about when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

They seem to do this so often. They get emotional and weep the bitter tears of their failure to do God's will, but then they do not change their thinking.

Emotion is empty. Thinking divine viewpoint with the influence of the HS is life and power.

The great influence of God the Holy Spirit while the believer humbly thinks with doctrine gives him capacity for life, love, and happiness no matter what his circumstances are.

Jud 2:5 So they named that place Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

They even became connected with them by unlawful marriages, and then it was no longer easy for them to exterminate or banish the near relatives of their own families. The Hebrews thus rendered the execution of so severe a law in a manner impossible, and wove for themselves the web in which they were afterward entangled on and off for 400 years. Their Canaanite-ish relatives invited them to their festivals, where not only lascivious songs were sung in honor of the gods, but fornication and unnatural lusts were indulged in as part of the divine service.

Canaanite debaucheries, then consecrated by the religious customs of all nations, were gratifying to the sensual appetites and they worshipped like the neighboring nations.

They were called out of Egypt to be separate from all nations as God's first client nation, His people, and His new racial species, and they substituted one religion for the one they were set free from. Be careful of idols. We can work to smash one idol and then so easily substitute another one. The word of God is our only protection from this.

The subjects of Jehovah too readily submitted themselves to such deities, so highly honored by his in-laws, and worshipped in all the neighboring nations.

1Co 15:33

Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."