First, he reminds them of what God has done for them since rescuing their ancestors from Egypt. He ends by declaring his love and obedience, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!" The Israelites are not to be outdone - they give their own speech ending with "We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” Joshua counters with a final statement declaring how serious this is to God - lest they have forgotten, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
Joshua sends the people to their own inheritance of the land and dies at the age of 110. They ask God, "who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites" and the Lord answers, "Judah is to go." Pretty much from this point forward - it all goes downhill. God has instructed them that when they fight to take over the land - He will be with with them - it will be Him through the Holy Spirit that will claim their victory. BUT . . . they are to wipe out EVERY SINGLE inhabitant from the land. Of course, we all gasp and ask, "what about the children? what about the women? what about the young boys? Surely God doesn't mean them too???" Well, that's exactly what the Israelites thought . . . and did! They left many behind from the warring tribes when they "did not drive out the inhabitants." They were willing to cohabit with the world's most wicked people that lived at that time. They thought they knew better than God - their obedience was incomplete.
The author asks us to examine our own lives - an area where we have assumed that grace permits us to settle for something less than full obedience to what God has clearly commanded - an area where we have settled into something less than God has commanded - an area of "tolerance" - "live and let live" - "everyone is entitled to live their life the way they want to live it" - an area where we think the message from God in the Bible is archaic, doesn't apply to today, "God surely wasn't talking about how people live in the 21st century!!!" - "we're different, we have it all figured out" - we know better than God!!!
So . . . who did they leave behind that were so wicked? Do you remember the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and the wicked sexual acts they performed? It continued and included people who sacrificed their young daughters to appease their gods; people who went to the temples of Baal and had sex with temple prostitutes for the purpose of showing Baal what they wanted it to do with their cattle in order to breed calves, to do to their wives so they would have children - there were many acts of deviant behavior - behavior that was not acceptable to God. God's "chosen" people were to be people "set apart" from the rest. Therefore, "acting like the rest" is not what God expects from His followers - then . . . or today!
If you continue reading in the book of Judges you will see a common theme emerge with every judge God puts in place . . .
1) God tells them what to do through that judge (commands/instructions)
2) They do what they want to do (disobedience)
3) God steps away from them for what they did (punishment)
4) They cry out to God and even though they didn't truly repent He hears them and rescues them (mercy)
5) God is with them in their battles (victory)
6) God provides them with peace (rest)
7) Repeat . . .
As we read and discussed this on Monday night, we scratched our head and said . . . "why didn't God just tell them to go cry to the gods they were worshiping? Why come back and cry to him?" Hmmm - could the same be asked of us? What / who are the gods we worship? Money, power, money, prestige, money, authority, etc. What if God abandoned us when we came crying back to him??? Something to think about, eh?
The author tells us that this is not an example for us to follow but to understand who follows . . . we need a hero to save us from 1) our incomplete obedience, our ignorance, our idolatry, our enemies, our increasing corruption, our inadequate repentance. We cannot have a "God on my terms" nor be like the people in those days where "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" AND say that we "follow God's Word." He is explicit about what He wants for His people - it's not a Chinese menu . . . "I'll take one from column A, two from column B and I don't like column C at all so I won't take any of His messages there."
The lessons we learn from the people then and from ourselves now is that we do need a hero - one outside of ourselves. Jesus is the only hero worth holding out for. HE will deliver us from our enemies of wickedness and idolatry. HE will make us right before God's eyes. HE will save us. We just have to let HIM!