[Biblemat] S:> Why Israel Failed: They Did Not Fully Conquer the Land

Tue Feb 27 21:27:16 CST 2007

http://www.deusvitae.com/faith/outlines/index.html

                   Why Israel Failed:
         They Did Not Fully Conquer the Land

I. Introduction
   A. Recognition of Israel's failure
      1. Israel in the flesh, overall, a failure
      2. They did not keep their obligation in the covenant
      3. God first punished them, exiled them, and then entirely 
         destroyed their religious system in 70CE 
         (cf. Matthew 24:1-36)
      4. Parable of the Vineyard shows what happens 
         (Matthew 21:33-44, Mark 12:1-11)-- original occupants 
         (Israel) removed, new inhabitants (Christians) enter
      5. Failure of Israel due to many reasons together-- perhaps a 
         few failures could be endured, but the combination caused 
         downfall
      6. Nevertheless, we can learn from each instance of failure
   B. 1 Corinthians 10:6
      1. Failure of Israel is designed to be a lesson for us
      2. We must learn so that we may not fall into the same 
         temptations!
   C. Israel's first failure, as we saw, was that Egypt never left 
      them
      1. Always desired to turn back
      2. Whole generation perished!
   D. Let us continue to consider reasons why Israel failed and avoid 
      these difficulties

II. Not Fully Conquering the Land
   A. God fully expected the Israelites to conquer the whole land and 
      to spare no one
      1. Deuteronomy 7:1-2
      2. No covenant is to be made at all with them!
      3. Deuteronomy 11:23-25
   B. We gain the idea that God did this to preserve His people, 
      honor His promise to the Patriarchs
      1. Deuteronomy 7:3-5
      2. Deuteronomy 20:16-18
   C. It was therefore entirely in Israel's best interest to conquer 
      the whole land!
      1. No competition
      2. The best of everything
      3. No other competing religions
   D. Nevertheless, they did not conquer the land entirely
   E. First stumbling block: the unintentional sin with Gibeon 
      (Joshua 9)
      1. Israel to not make any covenant with the nations
      2. Gibeon deceives Israel into thinking that they are a 
         far-away land (vv. 3-13)
      3. Israel did not consult God, and made the covenant 
         (vv. 14-15)
      4. Now they have to honor their agreement; the land will not 
         be entirely conquered (vv. 19-21)
   F. Afterward, impetus not there for full conquering
   G. Especially after Joshua's death, people do not conquer the land
      1. Judges 1:21, 27-36
      2. Israel seemed content to enslave the Canaanites!
   H. Why?
      1. We could think of many reasons
      2. "Compassion"
      3. Convenience
      4. Opportunity to gain a resource
      5. These reasons, however, do not take into account the 
         consequences!
   I. Consequences of not conquering the entire land
      1. Judges 2:1-4: nations left as a snare and temptation for 
         Israel
      2. Judges 2:10-12: the next generation forsook the LORD and 
         worshiped the gods of their neighbors
      3. This idolatry continued, rather unabated, until the exile 
         many hundreds of years later
   J. While the sins of the generation that left Egypt could have 
      been overcome by the next generations, the sin of this 
      generation snowballed until the Exile
      1. The generation that conquered the land could have a fresh 
         start
      2. While they served the LORD, they did not fully conquer the 
         land and allowed for future generations to be tempted
      3. Israel did not succeed in resisting the temptation!

III. Lessons from Israel
   A. We recognize differences in covenant
      1. We are not expected to destroy all non-Christian neighbors; 
         quite the contrary (Matthew 5:39-47)!
      2. We need to love our neighbors and be lights to them 
         (Matthew 5:13-16)
   B. We do, however, have to walk a fine line of balance
      1. Living in the world (1 Corinthians 5:10)...
      2. ...but not being of it (Romans 12:2, 1 John 2:15-17)
   C. We can learn from Israel's example!
      1. Consider 1 Corinthians 15:33
      2. Just as Israel needed to remove those nations that would 
         tempt them to sin, if we have some persons in our lives who 
         unduly tempt us to sin, we might do very well in removing 
         them from our lives if we are able!
      3. How many have fallen away because they got involved in a 
         bad group of friends?  A boyfriend/girlfriend who was a bad 
         influence?  Excessively worldly co-workers?
      4. It may require a purge if we are going to be saved!
   D. We can also learn from the sources of the failure
      1. The Israelites made a rash covenant without consulting God
      2. How often do we enter into decisions in life without 
         consulting God?
      3. We can always pray and study and gain wisdom, and thus make 
         good decisions (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 2 Timothy 2:15, 
         James 1:5-6)
      4. How many poor decisions could be avoided!
   E. Consider possible reasons of Israel
      1. As Israel saw an opportunity for resource gain, found it 
         more convenient to enslave than to conquer, and perhaps 
         felt "compassion" for the people...
      2. ...do we sometimes put ourselves in spiritual danger because 
         we could get more money, that it is easier to slightly 
         compromise God's way than to do it fully, or we have 
         misguided compassion for sin?
      3. Let us have the mind of Christ in these matters 
         (1 Corinthians 2:16)!
   F. In terms of the church and our own individual lives, we can 
      also learn from this
   G. Israel stopped looking toward God but looked toward their 
      neighbors!
      1. Within one generation, Israel "forgot the LORD" and 
         worshiped the gods of the nations
      2. How often do we see people today in terms of themselves or 
         in the work of the church no longer looking to God and 
         His Word but see what the denominations are doing?
      3. How many times do people decide to provide new ideas not 
         based in reflective study of God's Word but based on the 
         recent trend in the world?
      4. While things are not inherently wrong because denominations 
         do them, we should always take care that we are keeping 
         focused on God and not on everyone else!

IV. Conclusion
   A. Another failure of Israel was that they did not conquer the 
      land
      1. They had the opportunity to establish an environment 
         conducive to following God and maintaining the land
      2. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they did not do so
      3. Instead, they opened themselves up for temptation, and 
         future generations stumbled
   B. We can learn much from this example
      1. If we have constant sources of temptation in life, could 
         we perhaps get away from them and create a more conducive 
         environment for serving God?
      2. Do we sometimes rashly make decisions when we should 
         really first consult God?
      3. Do we sometimes compromise God's way just a little bit 
         because it makes life a little easier?
      4. Do we spend less time looking toward God and look instead 
         to what others around us are doing, to our own detriment?
   C. Let us consider these things, and let us ourselves be fully 
      conquered by Christ (cf. Galatians 2:20)!
   D. Invitation/songbook

Ethan R. Longhenry/ disciple_of_iesus at hotmail.com
Evangelist, church of Christ in Norwalk, Ohio
 (http://www.norwalkchurch.org)
Website: http://www.deusvitae.com
AIM: Deus Vitae / ICQ#: 28317056
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Yahoo! Messenger ID: discipuliiesus

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