 Well, the title of our sermon this evening is the Conquest of Compromise, the Conquest of Compromise. We're in Judges chapter one verses 22 through 36 and it's our joy this evening, our privilege to come back to the book of Judges for the word of God this evening. And if you remember our context in the faithfulness to His promise, God has given the promised land of Canaan to the children of Israel under the military leadership of Joshua. As we see in Judges chapter one verse one, Joshua has since died and now the nation of Israel is tasked with dispossessing the people who currently inhabit the land and possessing the allotments of land given by promise to each of the tribes. In order to do this now, Israel is to trust the Lord, to put their faith in him and there to obey his word, taking the land by faith. The Lord would be victorious, but he would be victorious through the faith of his people. Victory will only come by faith and the power of God. Now Canaanites now who currently live in the land and all the people groups, the various people groups that fall under that generic label of Canaanites, are all under the judgment of God for their wickedness. God had placed them under a ban. The Canaanites were an abomination to God and now the nation of Israelite is the tip of the spear, so to speak. They are the instruments of the Lord's retribution against this wicked people. All those nations placed under the law of harem or destruction and by God's just, His righteous, His holy, His good decree, those nations are to be utterly destroyed for purposes which we'll see this evening. Now if you remember in your study of the Old Testament, the 12 tribes of Israel all descend from, they take their names from the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 sons of Israel as he's known. Each of the 12 tribes are given an inheritance of the land of Canaan with a couple of notable exceptions. If you check the list as you work through the land grants in the book of Joshua, the first exception that you'll find in the book of Joshua is the tribe of Levi. Now Numbers 18, the Lord had separated the Levites to himself for the work of the tabernacle and he gave the Levites in response to their work or for their work, he gave the Levites the tithe of the nation. So the Levites weren't given an inheritance with the other tribes, they were to work in the tabernacle and God gave the Levites the tithe of the nation for their work. The Lord said to Levi, I am your portion, I am your inheritance among the children of Israel. So the Levites aren't included in that list of land grants given in the land of Canaan. The second exception, if you check that list of allotments, the second exception you'll find is the tribe of Joseph. Joseph didn't have a tribe named after him. Joseph instead had two sons and tribes were named after his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And instead of seeing a land grant given to Joseph, we see a land grant allotments given to both his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph. The house of Joseph is referenced in verse 22 in our text as a synonym here specifically for Ephraim. Ephraim was the tribe that went up against Bethel, formerly Luz, Ephraim was the tribe that took it. Now the history behind this, I think is really important for our text, really important for us to consider. So let's take a look at that history back in Genesis chapter 48. Turn there with me to Genesis chapter 48. You'll see a bit of this history that leads up to this land allotment and the tribe of Ephraim going up against Bethel, formerly Luz. Genesis chapter 48, and if you remember now in Genesis 48, Jacob, or Israel, the patriarch of the 12 tribes is old, Jacob is sick and he's nearing death. And so they call for Joseph to let him know that his father is taken ill and is going to die. So Joseph at the beginning of chapter 48 takes his two sons, his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim that were born to Asenath, his Egyptian wife, and he brought these two sons, born to an Egyptian wife, to Jacob. Now the word Manasseh, the name Manasseh comes from a word meaning to forget, to forget. And because God had blessed Joseph with forgetting all the sorrow and affliction that he had faced from his family in his homeland, Joseph names his first child to forget, Manasseh. His second son named Ephraim, the word meaning fruitful. And emphasizing specifically, it could be taken future, specifically emphasizing a future fruitfulness. And we know Joseph was very fruitful in the land of Egypt. God blessed Joseph. So Joseph, in naming his second son Ephraim, praises God for the prosperity he enjoyed in Egypt, but also does so in faith, right, expecting future blessing or looking forward to future blessings from the Lord for greater blessings coming later, right? And notice, notice, in this, in Egypt, with an Egyptian wife, Joseph doesn't forget the Lord. He gives both of his sons Hebrew names, Manasseh and Ephraim are Hebrew names. Joseph also looks forward in faith, trusting the Lord for greater blessings, greater future blessings. That's the reason for his name of Ephraim meaning fruitful or future fruitfulness. All right, so then look at verse three with me, Genesis, chapter 48, verse three. So then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me where? At Luz, right? We recognize the name of that city. That's the city that comes to be known as Bethel. We see that in our text in Judges chapter one. My God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me instead to me. Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. I will make you a multitude of people and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. If you remember when that took place, right, Jacob comes to Bethel, formerly Luz. And that's where we see the account in Genesis 28 of Jacob's ladder, Jacob wrestling with God through the night and the Lord blesses him and the Lord reiterates the covenant that God made with Abraham that he reiterated with Isaac. He also reiterates with Jacob there in Bethel. And so if you take that, this land had been given to Jacob back in Genesis chapter 28, the Canaanites now in Luz are squatters. The land doesn't belong to them. The land has been given to Jacob, been given specifically to Jacob's descendants, right? God promises Jacob reiterating that Abrahamic covenant. He says to Jacob, your descendant shall be as the dust of the earth in your seed. All the families of the earth shall be blessed. God said to Jacob, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you, right? So God makes Jacob a promise. Now, Genesis 48, thinking ahead, thinking ahead to God's fulfillment of this promise, Jacob turns to his son, Joseph in verse five. And Jacob says, and now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine. As Reuben and Simeon, Reuben, the firstborn, as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. If you keep reading in Genesis 48, what you find there is an adoption ceremony. This is an old fashioned, old Testament adoption ceremony. Jacob has in mind adopting Ephraim and Manasseh. The two sons of Joseph, Jacob is going to adopt them himself and give them, Ephraim and Manasseh, an equal share of God's promised inheritance with their uncles. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? Right? The two sons of Joseph, his grandsons, not just an equal share between them, okay, between them, but also the double portion given to the firstborn that will now go to Joseph through his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. That makes you think, right? The faithfulness of God to his word. Reuben is taken out of that position. Now the firstborn portion goes to the two sons of Joseph. Manasseh was not forgotten, even though his name might suggest otherwise, and Ephraim was made abundantly fruitful. Now, all this is done in state. You think about Genesis 48 and you think about Judges chapter one. Jacob, where is Jacob when he adopts Ephraim and Manasseh? He's in exile in Egypt. Has he received the land yet? No. It's all given by promise by the word of God. So Jacob has nothing at this point. He's really got no inheritance yet to give other than the word of God's promise to him. And he's living in his as an exile in Egypt. But he has the promise of God, right? He has the promise of God. So Joseph here is trusting in the promise. His sons grow up trusting in the promise. They're standing here before Jacob trusting in the promise. And Jacob gives it by faith, trusting in the promises of God. Joseph and his sons receive it by faith, trusting in the promises of God. OK, pretty amazing, right? The promises of God are sure and steadfast. They are inviolable, unassailable. What God says is what will come to pass, right? And Jacob, Joseph, his sons believe that. And so this is all happening according to faith in what God has said. So now what happens then? What happens? Well, we see the power, the faithfulness of God in working out the promise then. God's purposes, God's plans are in accord with God's decree, God's word. And God works out the promise. The nation of Israel grows in the womb of Egypt in the iron furnace, right? God delivers them out of bondage with signs, wonders and mighty deeds. God brings them in and through the wilderness now to the promised land. The land has been conquered by faith under the leadership of Joshua. God has given it to them. All this has come to pass. All this has come to pass according to God's word. Not one word of it has failed and look at all that he has done for them. And so now standing on the precipice of possessing their allotted territory, their inheritance, they are now charged with going in and taking it. If there was ever a people, right? If there was ever a people who should trust the Lord, surely it was Ephraim, right? Of all that God had promised, all that has come to pass. Surely Ephraim should trust the Lord. So what do they do? Look at Judges chapter one, back in Judges chapter one and look at verse 22, where the house of Joseph, now specifically Ephraim, is the one that this house of Joseph is used synonymously or as an umbrella name for Ephraim here. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel and the Lord was with them. They went up by faith and the Lord was with them. So the house of Joseph sent men to spy out Bethel. The name of the city was formerly lose. So here it is now. We're talking about the land that has been promised by God. This is their promised inheritance. And all of God's word has come to pass. What's required now of Ephraim, but to go in and possess it, put the people under a ban as God has commanded, but to trust God and obey God, obey Him according to His word, dispossess the people and take possession of their inheritance. And what we see here in verse 23 is not unusual, is it? Them sending spies to Bethel or spies into lose. We see spies sent into Jericho, don't we? We saw spies sent into the Promised Land. They come back with a faithless, unbelieving, bad report. We also see spies sent into Jericho. Look at verse 24, then. So when the spies then saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, please show us the entrance of the city and we will show you mercy. Word there has said mercy, loving kindness. They obviously knew where the main entrance was. It wasn't hard to find the main entrance of the city. This was certainly a better way into the city or a secretive way into the city. Sounding even more like Jericho at this point, isn't it? Drawing some parallels between this attack on the city of Bethel and the siege of Jericho. So they send out spies. The spies meet up with an ordinary citizen of the country, not unlike Rahab in Jericho. Right? The person decides to help them in exchange for his life, in exchange for the safety of his family, not unlike Rahab and her family. So notice at the end of verse 24, though, the spies actually use covenant language with this idolatrous, hittite man from the city of Luz. They say we will show you has said we will show you mercy, loving kindness or covenant keeping mercy. This was covenant keeping language that Israel was exceedingly familiar with. Why? Because God had used it with them. My God had entered into covenant with them. They appear in verse 24. What appears to happen here is that they make a covenant with this idolatrous man who is under the ban. Interesting, we have to see what happens with that, right? But it doesn't look like it's all on the up and up. There's a problem here that begins in verse 24. Look at verse 25. So this man, he shows them the entrance to the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. It's actually sounding a little bit more like a Gibbianite treaty, doesn't it? Right? Making a treaty with the Gibbianites that they weren't authorized to make. But notice some striking differences here in verse 25. Between this man and Rahab. The promise of the spies to Rahab. You remember the story of the assault of Jericho. The promises of the spies to Rahab only follow upon Rahab's testimony of all that God had done. Only upon Rahab's acknowledgment that God alone is God of heaven and earth. Turn there with me a few pages back to Joshua chapter two. And let's look at that together, Joshua chapter two. I want us to draw a distinction here, some contrast between the assault or the siege of Jericho and this assault on the city of Bethel and this idolatrous man in verse 25. Look at Joshua chapter two. Look there beginning at verse eight. Right at verse eight, the spies came to the city, city of Jericho. Rahab greets them, listen to what is said. Now, before they lay down in verse eight, she came up to them, the spies on the roof and said to the men. I know that the Lord has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you for the Lord, your God. He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. That is a testimony of who God is from the lips of Rahab, the harlot. Right. She's acknowledging the God of heaven. Now, therefore, verse 12, I beg you, Rahab says, swear to me by the Lord. Now she's making oaths in the Lord's name since I have shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. What is she about to do? She's about to trust these men specifically. She's about to trust the Lord. So the men answered her our lives for yours. If none of you tells this business of ours and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. And she let them down by a rope through a window for her house was on the city wall, she dwelt on the wall and she said to them, get to the mountain. Let the pursuers of meet you hide there three days until the pursuers have returned afterward, you may go your way. So let's draw a contrast then between what we see with Rahab and Joshua chapter two and what we see with a man from Luz and judges chapter one. The man from Luz gives no testimony of faith. There's no testimony of faith. Rahab is in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, right? She is a living testimony of faith at this point. Rahab trusted in the kindness and mercy of God, the God of heaven and earth. This man made no such confession, right? No commitment to follow the one true and living God of Israel. Rahab, at the time that they're taking Luz, Rahab and all of her family is living in Israel with the children of Israel, right? Rahab is still with them to this very day. In fact, look at verse 26, judges chapter one, verse 26. This man, after the assault on Bethel, this man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, called its name, what? Luz. It's like whack-a-mole. You just destroy it in one place and it pops up somewhere else, right? Called its name Luz, which is its name to this very day. What we find in Judges chapter one and here specifically in verse 26 in actuality is that the mandate, the command, the word of God has been disobeyed, has been disobeyed. The man is allowed to go his way. The man is allowed to continue living as a Hittite. Rahab doesn't live any longer as a Gentile, does she? She's brought into the people of God. This man continues to live as a Hittite. The physical city of Luz was taken, but the spiritual Canaanite continues to flourish. You see, Luz just pops up in another place to plague the Israelites another day. In this Luz becomes a symbol or becomes a foreboding and ominous symbol of compromise and we see increasing compromise here, don't we? The survivor of Bezek, if you remember that from chapter one, that and I, Bezek loses his thumbs, loses his big toes, loses his kingdom, eventually loses his life. This man gets a relocation package, right? He goes off to another place, plants the city by the same name, continues living as a Hittite. What do we see here? We see compromise, we see disobedience, we see faithlessness, not a meticulous faithfulness to obey the word of God. The dark clouds of compromise are gathering, half-hearted devotion to the word of God. And listen, when you when you partially obey God, you entirely disobey God, right? The consequences, as we'll see in the history of Israel, are absolutely devastating, devastating. The consequences of their compromise are devastating. What was the word that they had disobeyed? What was the word of God to them? We've talked about that before as the law of harem or committing them to destruction. Let's look at that in context in Deuteronomy chapter seven. Let's look at the actual text. Deuteronomy chapter seven, what was the word that God had specifically given to them? Deuteronomy chapter seven, look beginning in verse one, where the Bible reads, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Gurgoshites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Parasites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations, greater and mightier than you, in other words, they're going to take that land by faith in the power of God, not on their own strength. These nations were mightier than they were. Verse two, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, who is it that delivers them? The Lord their God delivers them. When the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them, the law of harem. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. And so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. What do we see in Israel's history? We see exactly that, right? Exactly that. Exactly what the Lord says will happen is exactly what does happen. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars. Break down their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. Why? Verse six, because you are a holy people, consecrated, separated to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. They were to obey their God. Drop down to verse 12, drop down to verse 12. Then it shall come to pass. Because you listen to these judgments, what would be the blessing on their obedience? Because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers, and he will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the increase of your cattle, the offspring of your flock in the land of which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be a male or female baron among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt, which you have all known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. And also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you. Your eye shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. He says it, it'll be a snare. This has got to be done by faith. Again, these are nations mightier and greater than they are. They can't do it in their own strength, right? They can't do it in their own strength. Now think about that with me, for example, the applications in our own Christian life are myriad, aren't they? Situations that you come up against that you can't do anything about. It is outside your power, outside your wisdom, outside your ability, outside your strength to manage. What are you to do, Christian brother, Christian sister? You are to cast yourself upon God Almighty who cares for you. You're to cast yourself upon him in faith and trust him for the results. Right? We're to do this by faith. We have victory through faith. We prosper through faith. The Lord blesses through faith. What happens to them? Verse 17, if you should stay in your heart, these nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them? Listen, you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. Right? Doesn't Romans chapter nine say that God raised up Pharaoh so that his power might be shown in him, right? God shows his power, shows himself to be strong and faithful. We just need to trust him, right? We need to trust him. Verse 19, the great trials with your eyes saw the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the people of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. Who's going to win the battle? God is. What are they responsible for doing? Just obeying him in faith. Trust him. Obey him. The Lord will take care of everything else. Verse 21, you shall not be terrified of them. For the Lord your God, the great and awesome God is among you. And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will be unable to destroy them at once, let the beast of the field become too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed and he will deliver their kings into your hand and you will destroy their name from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the carved image of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, let's you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God, nor shall you bring an abomination into your house. Let's you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly deport it for it is an accursed thing. It's powerful, isn't it? God, giving them direct instruction, do this, and I will take care of everything else. Just obey me, trust me, right? Well, what happens back in Judges chapter one? God commands the Israelites to take the land and to drive out their enemies. The Israelites are obligated to obey that command, and they are to trust the Lord by faith with the results. However, it is very clear, very clear that there will be no obedience, there will be no victory. They will not drive out the inhabitants of the land, nor will they possess it apart from faith in God's promises, faith in God's word, as it is for us today. Apart from him, how much can you do? Absolutely nothing. All that you think you're doing amounts to absolutely nothing. What you think you're accomplishing is absolutely nothing. Right? All that we do that is worth anything is accomplished through faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must trust him. Apart from faith, victory will not come. Now, the enemies that they face are fearsome. They're fearsome, they're brutal, stronger than they are. It's going to take faith, and that's going to take a courageous, a strong faith. Joshua tells the people, doesn't he? Be strong and of great courage, right? It will take an unquestioning commitment to the word of God. It's not going to be easy, but it's not meant to be easy. Right? The difficulties that we face, the adversity that we face is to, as the Lord often says, test our faith. Not because he doesn't know it to be real or genuine, but because we don't know it to be real or genuine. We need to be tested. We need to trust him and learn to trust him. How do we learn to trust him by facing difficulty, by facing adversity? Paul, right in 2 Corinthians, chapter one, talks about a trial that was so burdensome, it was too burdensome for them to bear. They despaired even of life itself. And what was the purpose of that trial, Paul said there? It was so that they would learn to trust not in themselves, but in God who raises the dead, right? We need to trust the Lord. It's not going to be easy. It's meant to be a testament of faith. So where do God's people turn? When they face fearsome foes, fearsome and unbeatable foes, they turn to faith in the Lord. Hebrews describes those who through faith, listen, subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to fight the armies of the aliens. That's what they accomplished through faith, what the Lord accomplished through their faith. The children of Israel will never take the land of Canaan unless they first take God at his word. You will never take your enemies unless you first take God at his word. We see the clouds gathering, the darkness of compromise is spreading. We continue to see increasing compromise in Judges, Chapter One of Storm is coming, right? So back in Judges, Chapter One, Verse 27 now. Did Manasseh, the brother of Ephraim, did Manasseh fare any better than his brother? Look at Verse 27. However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bet-Shan and its villages, or Ta'anak and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Yubelim and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Well, of course, the Canaanites were determined to dwell in the land, weren't they? The determination of the Canaanites to live in the land was obviously greater than the determination of Manasseh to obey the word of God. Shameful, isn't it? Manasseh disobeys the mandate, outright disobedience of God's word. Verse 28. Now, it came to pass then when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites under tribute. What should they have done with the Canaanites? They should have put the Canaanites under the ban. But what do they do instead? They put the Canaanites under tribute, forced labor. But did not completely drive them out. Israel disobeyed the word of God. Seems to them at the time probably right that it makes good sense to put them under tribute. We've got all this free labor now is going to be good for our economy. We can make them work. We're going to take taxes from them. Might have made sense to the Israelites. Worldly wisdom would say, let's put them under tribute. Let's put them to work. Worldly wisdom is not God's wisdom. God's wisdom is always right, amen. And they disobey God. And the consequences of their compromise are devastating, absolutely devastating. Verse 29. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Ketron or the inhabitants of Nahalol. And so the Canaanites dwelt among them and they were put under tribute. They were not put under the ban. They were put under tribute. Verse 31. Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acho or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Aklav or of Akziv or of Helva or of Afik or Rehav. And so the Asherites, listen to this, dwelt among the Canaanites the inhabitants of the land or they did not drive them out. Now, the Asherites at this point aren't even considered now to be the inhabitants of the land. You notice that shifts in verse 32? The inhabitants of the land continue to be the Canaanites. The Asherites simply move in and live among them now. Verse 33. Nor did Nastili drive out the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh or the inhabitants of Bet Anat, but they dwelt among the Canaanites in the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh and Bet Anat were put under tribute to them. It's interesting. You think about those two names, the two names of those cities, right? Bet Shemesh means House of the Sun. Specifically means House of the Sun God. They worshiped the Sun God in Bet Shemesh. Bet Anat means House of Anat. Anat was a Canaanite fertility goddess thought to be the lover of Baal. So they worshiped the goddess Anat in the House of Anat. You can see, can't you? How the Israelites compromise now, how these idolatrous people who remain in the land become snares to the Israelites later. You know, for all those that would say, as we've talked about, in the cruelty of God to just kill these people like this, to wipe them out, right? Men, women, children, livestock, the cruelty of God. How cruel is that in the Old Testament for Israel to go in to be charged with killing all these people? How cruel you consider for a moment the absolute abhorrent and devastating consequences on God's people against God's name and in God's sight, whom they sin. The one who created us, right? The one who made us in his image and you have these walking abominations in the land that he's given to his people, sinning in the ways that they sin, making their children walk through the fire to Moloch, not only making their children walk through the fire to Moloch, but then in staring the Israelites. So the Israelites themselves, the people of God caused their children to walk through the fire to Moloch, an abominable false God, right? Abhorrent, absurd. They snare the people of God in their idolatry. And somehow it's cruel to kill those wicked people. Listen, one day judgment will come and there will be torment eternally for all those who reject the one true and living God of Israel, right? Judgment will come. This is a foreshadowing of that judgment. It's a foreshadowing of that judgment. The Israelites, though, they don't realize the far reaching consequences of their disobedience. And so often we don't either, do we? We face decisions, important decisions on a regular basis in our lives. Our responsibility, not knowing what the future holds, God doesn't tell us the future in every case, right? In our circumstances, we often don't know what the results of our decisions, what the results of our actions will be. God knows. So what are we to do as Christians, brothers, sisters? What are we to do? We're to trust the Lord. We're to put our faith and trust in Him. He knows the results. And so we entrust ourselves to Him in those important decisions in every decision of life, every decision, right? You don't know what the consequences of a compromised decision will be. Your own soul is precious. Husbands, you make a decision for your family, the soul of your wife, the soul of your children is their precious. Precious in the sight of God should be precious to you. Don't make compromises with this world and make a decision that will have consequences for them later down the road because you were foolish, right? Husbands, you're responsible for your wife. You're responsible for your family. Wives don't make compromise, foolish, sinful decisions. Why? Because the lives of your children are affected by your decisions, by what you do. Trust in the Lord, right? It's not just you. You are important. Also, consider your own soul, fear God and consider the souls of those around you. The decisions that we make have consequences. Don't compromise, don't play with sin. Trust the Lord, even when it's hard. Listen, especially when it's hard, right? Because those circumstances seem out of your control. That's when you should trust in the Lord, most of all, right? Not try to take matters into your own hands. Don't do it. Be faithful to the Lord and he will care for you, right? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and what? All these other things will come to you. The Lord knows what you need before you even ask him. We must trust the Lord. These Israelites don't realize the far reaching consequences of their decisions. It can affect them, will affect them, can affect you, may affect you for generations, right? By the time we get to the report concerning the tribe of Dan, the Amorites are driving them out of the land. Look at verse 34. So the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains for they would not allow them to come down into the valley. And the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Harris and Aijalan and in Sha'albeem. Yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute. Now, the boundary of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akraveem from Salah and upward. You notice in these verses the conquest of compromise. It's supposed to be supposed to be that the Israelites go in and possess the land. And by worldly standards, anybody who takes a sort of a general look at this sounds like at first blush, they're doing a pretty good job, right? They go in, they move in, they take the land, not perfectly. They still got Canaanites in the land, but they're taking it city by city by city. By worldly standards, it may look OK on the surface. We know far better, don't we? At the same time, the Israelites are supposed to be going in conquest, taking the land we see, not the conquest of Israel, the conquest of compromise. Verse 30, the Canaanites are living among the Israelites. Verse 32, the Israelites now living among the Canaanites. In verse 34, the Canaanites are driving the Israelites out of the land to see a progression, knowing the enemy appears to be conquered. They have them enforced labor, have them paying taxes. But what's the problem? What's the problem? The problem is that we know the history of Israel that follows. We can read our Bibles, right? These things are written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages has come. We see, don't we, the utter devastation that leads to a division in the nation. We see the destruction of their cities. We see the exile of the people of God. God had clearly revealed his word to them. They simply didn't believe him. And so they did not obey him. When it comes to difficult decisions, even listen, when it comes to easy decisions and you don't obey the Lord, when we're not meticulously faithful to his word, you can say what you want to say. You can make whatever excuse you come up with, right? It's this circumstance and this circumstance. You don't know how hard I've got it. You can make whatever excuse you want to make. The bottom line is you do not trust God. You're not putting your faith in him. You're not following him by faith. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. God is the one who is sovereign over all of your circumstances. You see our responsibility. Isn't it a glorious responsibility that we get to trust the living God, the God of the universe, the one who holds the universe in his hands. Our very lives are in his hands. We trust in him. All powerful, immutable, unchangeable, eternal, his unassailable, unenviable word is true. His promises are sure and he is the one in whom we put our trust. He will never let us down, right? He will never abandon his people. So when you make excuses, when making excuses for not obeying him, it's just because we don't believe him. We don't trust him. We haven't put our faith in him. That's simply all that it is. They didn't believe him and so they did not obey him. One commentator said this. He said, instead of reshaping the world after the image of Yahweh's will, that was the responsibility that God had given to Israel, his people. The glory of God was to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and is becoming increasingly obvious that will never happen through the physical nation of Israel, right? They are supposed to go into the world, reshape the world, the image of the world after Yahweh's will. They live in and with the world. And before long, they have taken on the characteristics of the world. Instead of making this the land of the people of God, they become like the people of the land. This not only explains why the ages of the judges turned out to be so dark, but also serves as a permanent reminder of the deadly consequences of compromise and disobedience to all who claim to be the people of God. Brothers and sisters, we cannot compromise. We cannot disobey the Lord. We must put our faith and our trust in him when he calls us to obey him. We trust him to know that that is good and right and holy and just. We should agree with it in our inner man that it is holy, just and good. And we should trust him and go out in delight in obedience to him. Why? Because it's for his glory. And whatever is for his glory is for our good. God works out all things together for the good of those who love him, love him, right? We obey him, we trust him. God gives us such good and precious promises. We have no reason to act in our own self will. We have no reason not to trust him, not to obey him. We have every reason to act in faith, trusting the Lord for his faithfulness to all that he has promised to do. We see, don't we, a picture of God's everlasting, unchangeable, inviolable faithfulness all over the pages of scripture. Do we not? And if you're in Christ, you've seen his faithfulness to you in your own life repeatedly now. Have you not? That he is true to his word. We must act. We must live in faith. Let faith then fuel your obedience to him. Faith should fuel our obedience. God's word would say, right, read your Bible, study, pray every day. Let the word of God be your delight, delight in it day and night. Isn't that what the word of God says? Worldly wisdom, worldly wisdom might say, listen, you don't have time for that. You are so busy today, you've got so many things on your to do list. Faith says, I don't have time not to. That's what faith says. That's what faith says, right? God's word says, give generously to the work of the Lord. Give generously. And God says, behold, will I not open up the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing on you, right? Isn't that what God's word says? Worldly wisdom would say, well, you can't afford to do that. How much of your income are you giving to the church? Faith says, I can't afford not to, right? That's what faith says. God's word says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Worldly wisdom might say, I can't do that right now, Lord, you know how difficult my circumstances are. I've got too many needs that need to be met. Faith says, I can't do anything but that because the Lord is the one who provides for me everything that I need. Don't compromise. Don't be faithless. Don't be unbelieving. God is gracious and merciful. His loving kindness poured out on his people who trust him, who believe in him, who love him, who obey his commands. We have every reason to trust the Lord and absolutely no rational reason not to. Amen. All praise, honor and glory to the one who is worthy, the worthy object of our faith. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we praise you, worship you, thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness, for your promises, for your word. They are precious to us. And Lord, we believe you, we trust you, we entrust ourselves to you. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. Thank you for the precious promises that you have given us in Christ. I pray that there's anyone here. Who's still living for themselves, still living in their sin. God, that you would show them how foolish it is to live for themselves. They would trust you for your covenant faithfulness, your word, the work that you have done, the person in work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself, Lord, I pray that they would look to him by faith and be saved. I pray that my brothers and sisters, me or that we together would follow you whole, heartedly by faith, that we would not compromise with worldliness, that we would not compromise with the temptations that rise up in our flesh to turn away from you, but that we would be believing, that we would be faithful, putting our faith and trust in your promises and obeying your word, knowing that that is good. And Lord, I pray that you, Spirit of God, would strengthen us to do that, that you would, in great mercy, condescend to make us walk according to your statutes and judgments and to keep them, preserve us, Lord, strengthen us for what lies ahead, grow, build, cultivate, mature our faith in you and help us, Lord. We need you apart from you. We acknowledge we can do nothing. Help us, Lord, to learn from these examples and your word and thank you for them. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.