Idol worship / Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett, via Wikimedia Commons

Judges 2 opens with a statement that the angel of the Lord went from Gilgal to Bokim. Throughout the book of Joshua, Gilgal served as Israel’s headquarters, the location of the tent of meeting. Think of it! God had to follow his people to a place of woe because they no longer followed him.

The story of Judges represents a recurring theme of the apparent victory of sin and rebellion that made it necessary for Jesus to come and die.

The book of Joshua describes an almost unbroken string of victories as God worked to drive the Canaanites out of the land he assigned to his chosen people. The book of Judges opens with descriptions of how, while Joshua still lived, the various tribes preferred to collect tribute from the Canaanites and subject them to forced labor than to drive them out.

We can summarize the parts of Mosaic law that we find strangest as, “Do not live like the Canaanites.” God ordered Israel to drive them out because he did not want the Canaanites to corrupt them.

Nowadays, thoughtless people accuse Joshua of genocide. In fact it was capital punishment for their crimes against humanity. Their sin was complete such that nothing of their society was worth preserving. Because of Israel’s failure, or rather, refusal to destroy them, Canaanite practices continued to pollute the land.

The generation that left Egypt died in the wilderness for their unbelief. The generation that entered the Promised Land neglected to teach their children the ways of the Lord or testify to what he had done. Therefore, the next generation served the Baals and suffered the consequences.

The place of hypocritical weeping

So in Judges 2, God swore that he would never break his covenant with them, but they had broken it. Therefore, he announced that he would no longer drive the Canaanites out. That illustrates the statement I have often heard, that without God, I can’t; without me, God won’t. His grace is free in the sense we can’t buy it or earn it, but costly in the sense that it requires us to be active partners in fulfilling its promises.

How did the people respond to this news? They did not repent and renew their commitment to the covenant. Instead, they wept some, named the place Bokim (which means weeping), offered a sacrifice, and then went on about their business.

God wanted them to repent. Instead, they settled for religion. Cattle died. Condemned Canaanites did not. Generations of Israelites died prematurely from the corruption of Canaanite practices.

How todays world has headed in the same direction

Child offered to the Canaanite god Molech to be burned alive / Source unknown

Baal worship included harlotry and child sacrifice, but its corruption went deeper than that. As described in Ezekiel 16:49-50, Canaanites were wealthy and proud. They lived in ease, neglected the poor and needy, and committed abominations. Their ways have a painful similarity to the level of violence, licentiousness, and oppression in our own society.

Once, the church spoke out against sin and people as a whole tried to live godly lives. Not many years ago, a soft drink company adopted the slogan “sinfully delicious.”  How could society tolerate those ads if it hadn’t already elevated sin to something desirable and started to view virtue with suspicion?

Within my memory, people were ashamed if they got caught having a one-night stand. Now some people even brag on social media how many sex partners they have in a single day. Virgins more likely suffer social ostracism than the promiscuous.

Harlotry doesn’t refer only to sex for pay. It also encompasses using sex to sell beer or deodorant or web domain registration services.

Abortion obviously parallels Canaanite child sacrifice, but it’s not the only manifestation of Satan’s war on children. We subject them advertisements for junk food and other harmful products. Mass media and social media swamp them with entertainment that desensitizes them to violence or gives predators access to them. We can no longer let children go outside and play without supervision, and even the privacy of their bedrooms has become dangerous.

Statistically, the church doesn’t differ from the rest of society in its toleration and practice of Canaanite-like sins. Christian organizations that stand against socially accepted wickedness get demonized in the media.

And what do we do about the violence, sickness, mental anguish, and lack of freedom that results? We weep. We complain. We get angry and even violent with each other. But we don’t repent and turn to God. We live in Bokim because we’re too proud to return to Gilgal.

The choice we still have

When Israel compromised with the Canaanites, God withdrew his support. What began with Israel subjecting them to forced labor evolved into falling victim to Canaanite oppression. But whenever Israel cried out to God, he rescued them.

The pattern of sin, oppression, and undeserved rescue continued for about 800 years until the armies of Assyria and Babylon accomplished Israel’s mission of wiping out the last vestiges of Canaanite society. Then God’s tough love had a good effect. Israel returned from captivity and never fell into idolatry and other Canaanite ways again.

How can we today expect God to be any more tolerant of our rebellion against him?

I don’t know if God has or will abandon American society and the American church as he did Israel. I do know that Jesus will return with vengeance and rid the world of sin. It will be a violent and unpleasant experience, a baptism of fire accompanied by terror. Jesus said so in Matthew 24 among other scriptures.

In the promised new Heaven and new Earth, everyone will wonder why they ever found sin so attractive. In the meantime, we can deliberately choose to live God’s way and not the world’s.