Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2, Quarter 1, Lesson 4
In this lesson, David Capoccia looks at the end of Joshua’s conquest campaign and Israel’s descent into idolatry. How did God’s people so quickly turn away from Him? It began with small compromises and culminated in a full embrace of pagan gods and worship practices, including child sacrifice. David Capoccia explains how Christians must take note of just how dangerous it is to let stumbling blocks remain in their lives.
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
well good morning try now new mic today so give us a little bit of time to get that straight but welcome back to Sunday school let’s begin looking again today at the theme of obedience and disobedience that’s the theme of the second year the first quarter the second year at answers Bible curriculum we’ve been going through the book of Joshua but now we’re going to go into the book of Judges so far this quarter we’ve seen lots of encouraging obedience but today things take a turn the title for today’s class is Israel disobeys God in our last class we looked at the Battle of Jericho let’s review a little bit why was the city of Jericho such a difficult strategic problem what did we learn about Jericho yeah Roy okay so it was I yeah it was right in the path of Israelites going into Canaan so that was part of the problem yeah George that’s right it had two large walls in a slope in between so assaulting the city was suicide but what else made it difficult to take over if you couldn’t salt it assaulted you’d probably want to see jit but that wall probably wasn’t going to work yeah mono that’s right it had a spring within the city walls and the Israelites arrived right after the grain harvest so the people had a fresh supply of food so assaulting the city was a bad idea and seating the city was a bad idea but god but God gave Joshua his battle plan and it was a seemingly impractical battle plan how did Joshua and Israel respond they doubt or complain yeah yeah they were careful to obey it they believed and they made sure to do exactly what God said what did God therefore show in Israel’s defeat of Jericho what a God show about himself right that God was the one with the power he does the impossible he uses his people as means but ultimately it’s he who is the one who brings victory or brings defeat so you can trust him to be obedient are you can trust him in and you’re being obedient because he’s the one who accomplishes anything he’s the one with the power and he showed that a Jericho so indeed this ought to encourage us to perceive confidently in whatever obstacles appear in the path of our obedience God will do the miraculous before he fails to provide for any of his people who walk after him I fate questions about last week’s lesson all right we’re jumping forward in time today we saw how Israel’s conquest began but now we’re jumping to the end of the conquest and the beginning was described in the book of Judges if you know anything about the book of Judges it ain’t pretty but God wants us to know about these things so that we might learn we might believe that we might obey here’s our outline for today’s class we’re going to look at the end of the book of Joshua Joshua 23 and look at some summary information regarding Israel’s conquest now we’re going to look at the beginning of judges and the beginning of issues tragic turn away from God then finally will briefly discuss child sacrifice in the ancient world it’s a lot i want to share with you today so please hold your questions and comments to the end hopefully we can come back to those let’s pray father i pray that you help me to be able to explain clearly and correctly your word and that you would work in our hearts so that we are changed we are further sanctified and we can become more like you in Jesus name Amen let’s start by reading Joshua 23 verses 43 to 45 please turn there Joshua 23 verses 43 or 45 these verses they appear after Israel has finished its conquest campaign and the land has been distributed to the various tribes the Joshua 23 verses 43 to 45 oh that can’t be the right one adjust with 21 Josh / 21 verses 43 to 45 I am sorry we’re going to Joshua 23 later on so that’s probably why I of the typos okay Joshua 21 verses 43 to 45 verse 43 so the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to their fathers and they possessed it and lived in it and the Lord gave them rest on every side according to all that he had sworn to their fathers and no one of all their enemies stood before them the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand not one of the good promises which the Lord had maids the house of Israel failed all came to pass we’re not going to analyze this section of text in depth but notice two things than me how many of God’s promises were said to be fulfilled to Israel all of them not one of them had failed how do they Canaanites fair and their resistance against Israel it was yeah the resistance was futile no one was able to stand against Israel and we already know why we saw it at Jericho it’s not because the Israelites were more cunning strategist or stronger or more numerous than the people of the land it’s because God fought for them and he gave them the land just as he promised he would well where are we at this moment in redemptive history well you remember some of the things that we’ve already looked at creation and corruption around 4,000 BC the flood catastrophe around 2350 BC confusion at babble about 20 to 40 bc abraham living around 2000 and 1900 BC but when did Abraham’s descendants leave Egypt around what date yeah around 1450 BC how many years went by Between the Exodus and the beginning of the conquest 40 years two years when they first arrived at canaan and then 38 extra years of wandering we often talked about it being 40 years of wandering but technically was 38 and 40 all together the conquest then took place around 14 10 BC about 2,600 years after the creation of the world now a difficult question how long does the conquest take it takes about seven years takes about seven years seven eight years how do we know this well Joshua records for us a little helpful detail in the middle of his historical narrative we won’t read it together but and Joshua 14 Caleb gives a speech at the end of the conquest before the land is distributed and in the speech he mentions that he was 40 years old when Moses first sent him into Canaan as part of the group of twelve spies but he was 85 at the end of Joshua’s conquest campaign the Israel wandered in the wilderness for 38 years we can this just add 40 to 38 and we get 78 which is Caleb’s age when the conquest began but he’s 85 at the end of the conquest so 85-78 equals 7 I know uh difficult math this morning but it’s about seven years so conquest took about seven years or maybe eight depending on when Caleb’s birthday was so the end of the conquest brings us to about 1400 BC and that’s an approximation jmac John MacArthur Study Bible gives us the specific data 1398 DC but 1400 is good enough for us to remember the disk class from this spot in the text and going forward Old Testament history is going to be about the landed nation of Israel Twain did you want to say something ah you’re getting ahead of me playing but yes we’re going to talk about we don’t want to misunderstand what that statement means but yeah you’re right not every came tonight was eliminated let’s talk about that and let’s talk about some other things to help us understand the conquest a little bit better though did the destruction of Jericho was total and spectacular Israel actually did not destroy most of the cities that they conquered in fact only two other cities are recorded in the Bible as being turned into rubble which cities Jericho was one of them but the two others beside them there was I and haze or or hots or those three cities were the only ones recording the Bible is being totally destroyed all the other cities were apparently seized and used intact this detail is important for us to remember for two reasons one that’s what God promised part of God’s promise to Israel is that they would dwell in cities that they did not build that’s in Deuteronomy 6 10 so if Israel destroyed all or most of the land cities then Israel would have had to build from scratch and the inheritance from God would not have been quite as grand as it otherwise would have been but the second reason this detail is important is that it helps us understand better the archaeology in Canaan when archaeologists first started digging in Canaan they were really excited because they expected to unearth evidence of widespread destruction from Israel’s conquest they were looking for an obvious change in the Hat inhabitants of the land due to the conquest but that’s not what they found so far archaeologists have not discovered evidence for a massive shift in the land lands inhabitants around 1400 BC they have however discovered three cities completely destroyed around this time today identified as Jericho I and hot sore now these archaeologists many of them disappointed by not finding such obvious evidence of change in the land they’ve stopped trusting the Bible Bible was wrong this is most unfortunate because actually if they paid attention what the Bible says they would see that the change in the land would have been more subtle they were actually just taking ownership of what was already there the same vineyards the same cities the same houses add to that the fact that settled Israel very quickly started to act like the previous people of the land as we’ll see so you can see even more why archeologists might not be able to tell the difference between Canaanites and Israelites dwelling in the land in this period furthermore though the conquest campaign under Joshua was completed as Dwayne mentioned the people of the land had not been totally eliminated but this was not a failure of Joshua or of the Israelites the conquest was designed to continue after Joshua are after Joshua’s campaign as Israel continued to multiply now let’s go to Joshua 23 Joshua 23 verses 11 to 12 we’re going to hear words from Joshua that confirm this verses 11 and 12 Joshua 23 so take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God for if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations these which remain among you and intermarry with them that you associate with them and they with you know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you but they will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you so here Joshua acknowledges that many people the land still remain but if the people the land had not been totally destroyed then how can Joshua’s mission be said to be fulfilled well Joshua’s campaign obtained two key results for Israel first Joshua totally destroyed the resistance capability of the lands inhabitants the Canaanites and the others were no longer serious military threats to Israel and that sent Israel had rest on every side just as we saw in Joshua 21 the 12 tribes were simply tasked with carrying out mop-up duty over the coming years and secondly Joshua seized enough land to satisfy the settlement needs of every one of Israel’s tribes there was indeed more land to be taken but Israel was not large enough yet just fill up the whole land the people could not be totally eliminated at all at once otherwise the wild animals would increase so Joshua did indeed fulfill his mission from the Lord and Lord truly did bring about all his promises for Israel now where did each tribe settle where exactly well let’s take a look at the map you can see maybe a little bit there but I’ll help describe it not every map of tribal placement is exactly the same you might have a map similar to this in the back of your Bible but this map should give us some idea of Israel’s settlement or give us a good idea of visual settlement the information in this matt comes from the description given to us in the Bible in book of Joshua Joshua chapters 14 to 21 settlement of came and started with the three tribes on the east side of the Jordan this inheritance was assigned actually by Moses Reuben GAD and a half tribe of Manasseh so that’s Manasseh the top gad below them and Reuben at the bottom they had specifically asked for this section of land after Moses had led Israel to destroy the previous inhabitants on that side of the Jordan but they didn’t receive their inheritance until issue came back to actually conquered the land now after Joshua’s campaign of conquest the rest of the tribes of Israel received their inheritances but not by asking for it it was by lot by casting Lots something a little like dice and we can see the results up at the top maybe you can’t read the writing but in the top left the most northwest is the tribe of Asher next to them on the right nastily right between them zebulon and then that little piece below them is is a car so those four tribes settled in the northwest the other half of manasseh settled right below them so you got Manasseh on both sides of the Jordan and then beneath them you have Dan that’s on the on the left side next to coast then e free em right beneath Manasseh and then Benjamin Benjamin of which they are right next to Jordan and then at the southern part of Israel you have Judah and Simeon Simeon being that contained inside Judah we’re at the bottom part of Judah and there you have it the tribes now remember even with this map various pockets of indigenous people still lived in the areas of Israel’s inheritance but each tribe was obligated to drive out and destroy any remaining inhabitants as that tribe of visual group and this is exactly what Joshua charges Israel to do before Joshua’s death be careful to obey God trust in him be sure to destroy the remaining people of the land or else they will be a snare to you but soon after Joshua dies we see the first foreboding signs of disbelief and disobedience let’s turn to the book of Judges now we’ve looked at information related to the initial conquest campaign let’s now look at the beginning of Israel’s downturn things don’t get really bad right away rather seemingly small compromises set the stage for future calamity this is what we’re going to see seemingly small compromises set the stage for future calamity I want to mention something about chapter one of judges without reading it chapter one and judges details how the conquest has continued after Joshua at first it sounds pretty good Judah Simeon and Benjamin they’ve all conquered many new cities though they’ve left a few cities uncon chord too strong for them then there’s a slightly less rosy report Manasseh and Ephraim they’ve conquered a few cities but they’ve mostly left their enemies concord then there’s an even more concerning report zebulon Asher nastily have not conquered anything they’ve left many enemy cities standing and then there’s the report on Dan Oh Dan look down in verse 34 chapter one how has Dan’s conquest fared not only have they not conquered any new cities for what they’ve been driven back from the cities they already had this is the worst results they’ve actually lost some of the conquered land it’s not mentioned here but eventually Dan gives up on its inheritance totally they actually migrate to a totally separate part of Israel they settle in the Northeast so these reports in Chapter one are concerning they’re not doing as Joshua said but there’s more look down two verses 27 236 just scan those verses because there’s a phrase that gets repeated what do many of the tribes decide to do with the inhabitants of the land instead of destroying them will they do with them yeah Duane that’s right they subject them to forced labor again and again a text that says when they became strong they subjected them to forced labor now this doesn’t seem like a bad idea from a human perspective why get rid of these people and when fighting with them is just going to be difficult and if you subjugate them you can benefit from their labor but this is not what God had commanded now look at chapter 2 we’re going to read and analyze verses 1 to 15 follow along with me now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to bak him 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 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 therefore I also said I will not drive them out before you but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you when the angel the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel the people lifted up their voices and wept so they named that place Bok him and there they sacrifice to the Lord when Joshua had dismissed the people the sun’s visual one each to it his inheritance to possess the land the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua who had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel then Joshua the son of nun the shirt of the Lord died at the age of 110 and they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in timnath Harris in the hill country of ephraim north of mount gash all that generation also were gathered to their fathers and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord nor yet the work which we which he had done for Israel then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales and they forsook the Lord the god of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who are around them and bowed themselves down to them thus they provoked the Lord to anger so they forsook the Lord and served bail and the Astaroth the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them so that they could no longer stand before their enemies wherever they went the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them so that they were severely distressed let’s analyze his passage by starting with observations who speaks to Israel here how does the text identify the person the angel of the Lord is the angel the Lord who speaks that does the angel the Lord say thus says the Lord or does he use the first person he speaks in the first person and notice what the angel of the Lord says he reminds Israel that he brought them out of Egypt and he made a covenant with them he also reminds Israel that at that time he charged the people to not make any agreement with the people of the land to leave them alive it tells Israel that they have not obeyed that charge and he warns Israel of the consequence what’s the consequence they will be ensnared that God Himself is not the snare what’s he what is he going to allow that’s going to be a snare that’s right he says you wouldn’t drive them out and now I won’t let you drive them out you won’t be able to drive out the pupil the land I will not give you victory anymore the surviving people will become a thorn in Israel side a source of a source of continual trouble and pain now how did the people of visual respond one of the things they do is they wept they weep what else do they do yeah Duane they off sacrifices they weep they cry out and they offer sacrifices to the Lord but what don’t they do they don’t actually change the situation how long does Israel continue to worship and generally obey God that’s right only as long as Joshua and elders who were with Joshua lived as long as any of those people were alive Israel continue to be faithful to the Lord generally after that a new generation that does not know the Lord emerges and all the people the people as a whole turn away to do evil and to worship the gods of the lands inhabitants they bow down to these gods and serve them you always people become idol worshippers now who or what exactly were the people visual turning to and worship let’s get some background on some of the gods of the land first qualifier talking about ancient deities is difficult because our information is limited and ancient religions are contradictory and always changing one God turns into another God over time where new God is added due to the influence of a neighboring people where a god or goddess that were once brother and sister in the mythology they later become a couple or one goddess is simultaneously the mother and the daughter of another God so it gets pretty confusing and unsurprisingly there’s still a lot of dispute today as to the exact mythology of the people of Canaan furthermore our text mentions bales and Ashtaroth these are plural terms standing for the gods and goddesses of the land or and or the various local versions of two particular deities bail and ashteroth so the text is actually referring to many different gods that either refer to all the gods generally or to just various versions of these two deities let’s see what we can learn about these these deities first veil it’s actually a statue that’s an idol of bail right there the name bail is actually the word Lord it’s a title that’s a notes rule or ownership people could be called bail many of the deities at the time we referred to as bail as part of their title the word is even used in some parts of the Bible to describe Yahweh the true Lord it’s just a word that means Lord but when referring to the false god bail the Bible is referring usually referring to the chief god of the Canaanites a false god probably bail shimane or bail hadoo but bail for short there are many versions of bail this chief male God each place in Canaan actually probably had its own flavor of bail the phoenician version of bail has him as the Sun God while a more ancient Semitic version has bail as the storm God similar to Marv Duke of Babylon or Zeus from the Greeks either way bail was associated with fertility because Sun or rain they’re necessary for life and bail was always chief of the gods now Canaan was a land particularly dependent on just the right amount of Sun and just to write just the right amount of rainfall for its prosperity so bail was very important he was very popular among the people they needed him they thought to survive and to prosper baya was usually depicted as a man or as a bull since bowls are associated with fertility the chief goddess if bale is the chief male God the chief goddess in Canaan which Ashtaroth also known as a starter or Ishtar some versions of Astaroth have her associated with the moon while others have her associated with the morning or evening star that is Venus she was the goddess of love sex fertility and war so very similar to Venus or Aphrodite she was usually depicted as a naked woman and many such idols have been excavated in Palestine they might be wondering is ashteroth the same as a Shura or are the two related in some way well that’s a difficult question some say ashra was a separate goddess that came two nights ancient mother goddess who gave birth to all of the gods by L the ancient creator god there’s L and Astra and they created all the gods as the mother goddess Asheville would be associated with fertility and trees but other scholars say however that Astra is just the term for the cultic objects of ashteroth because we do hear about objects referred to as ashworth throughout the Bible either translated as ashra or astral poles we actually don’t know what an ashram really was we know it was made of wood and that can be cut down but we don’t really know if it was a pole our best guess is that the Astra probably were wooden tree like figures of a female of a female deity now because these objects were made of wood none of them have survived they’ve all rotted and though excavators can discover where wooden coat objects once stood at a certain site they don’t have the object itself so is it a cultic object is Astra a separate deity not exactly sure it’s also possible that they were two separate deities that later fuse together or they were one original deity that later split apart such happens often in ancient mythology so we have bail we have a stress one other deity dimension because he’s often associated with child sacrifice what deity Molech Molech being the other deity but a little bit of question about Molech it’s actually unclear whether Molech was originally the name of a god or simply the term denoting a special kind of offering to various gods and that this offering later became its own God the name Molech comes from the word comes from a word meaning King and it may be related to milcom the principal god of the ammonites milcom literally means their King Molech we should note was not the only God who permitted or demanded child sacrifice but we see the these gods these main gods and gods like these were the ones that issue was turning to in worship instead of the one true God instead of Yahweh now God responds to this new rebellious generation with faithfulness faithfulness that is to curse and to oppose them just as he promised he would in his covenant if they turned and disobeyed him the anger of the Lord burns against Israel specifically bringing what judgment upon them according to the text what does he allow to happen to Israel that’s right their soul into the hands their enemies their conquered by their enemies formally nobody could stand against Israel’s armies now Israel’s armies cannot stand against any of the any of their neighbors their conquered it cannot stand before their enemies that’s the result let’s ask some interpretive questions now after we’ve made our observations who is angel of the Lord this is God and I think we can go even further to say that this is the pre Incarnate Christ then the first person makes it obvious this is god this is not simply a messenger from God another question the mostly faithful generation of Israel probably never foresees that such rebellion will happen that within one generation the nation will become thoroughly idolatrous how does such a tragedy happen yeah Duane you hmm hmm yeah that’s got to be part of it you you made reference to Wayne to Deuteronomy 6 which tells visual they need to be diligent to instruct their children in what the Lord says and must be there’s evidence so they didn’t do that because as soon as the parents disappear the next generation no longer follows the Lord so part of it has to be that they were not faithful or they’re not completely faithful to teach their children what the Lord had commanded but it’s not just the teaching it’s also something that they did rather something they didn’t do just as God warned they didn’t drive out the people of the land this may seem like a small compromise but small compromises that are not dealt with properly in one generation they become big compromises in the ensuing generation that’s the pattern of history we see the same thing throughout Christian history and we’ve even mentioned this i think in sunday school before Answers in Genesis certainly emphasizes this when Christians when Christians compromise certain doctrines or biblical standards in one generation may not seem like a big deal but the next generation tends to do even more not simply because their parents teach them improperly but because they look at what their parents do they imitate their parents they see what their parents really value and don’t value and often this next generation or part of this next generation totally abandons the faith we’ve seen that in modern times it’s especially true when it comes to belief about the Bible whether the Bible can be trusted to be accurate clear complete or sufficient Christians compromise in small ways when they say things like the Bible contains God’s truth or science helps us interpret the Bible it’s more revelation from God or God still gives special revelation to prophets these may not seem like serious compromises and faithful believers generally faithful believers can say such things but these two open the door to serious future apostasy the flesh and the evil one are happy to take advantage of these seemingly small compromises this principle is also true when it comes to our personal sanctification sin when not dealt with properly through repentance and mortification will always increase it will always increase until it dominates and leads to ruin seemingly small compromises like dating a non-believer watching TV and movies with nudity or strong sexuality obtaining some material treasure that you you know could easily distract you from Christ these usually lead to other and greater compromises I don’t seem like a big deal but they’re just the beginning of a greater compromise another question to ask along the same lines of what I’m talking about we noted that Israel doesn’t change even when confronted by God why doesn’t Israel just restart destroying or driving out the people of the land once God confronts them and wouldn’t that be the thing to do why don’t they it could be practically there there was no strong leadership for Israel that could be part of it it ultimately we don’t know exactly you just repeat your comment that their heart didn’t change at the end we know it’s either one of these two things the either wouldn’t or they couldn’t notice again what we observed God specifically condemns Israel for making covenants with the people of the land he says I warned you as part of my covenant don’t make any any agreements with the people the land to leave them alive now if God says you didn’t keep that charge that we can infer that Israel swore treaties with these people they entered into contractual agreements with the Canaanites and with the other inhabitants of the land now that they’ve made these agreements honor and truthfulness truthfulness demand that Israel keep its word even though the agreement that they made was sinful in the first place they can’t go back now on what they swore this is the same thing that we observed with Joshua and the Gibeonites when the giving nights were a tribe that deceived Josh when they said over from a faraway land make a treaty with us Joshua made the treaty he didn’t know but later on when Israel tries to go back on that treaty and kill the Gibeonites a curse comes on Israel that happens during Saul’s time so they made agreements and they couldn’t violate those agreements now moreover as time goes on the pagan and the Holy societies intermingle and it becomes increasingly difficult to separate them how can you destroy the people of the land when your own sons and daughters are married to them and your grandchildren are of mixed heritage it becomes too late for Israel to go back and do what they should have done at first that’s why God says you’ll no longer be able to drive out the people of the land you’ve made it so that you can’t go back and there’s a relevant principle for us here too warns us in the Bible about various foolish and sinful choices but we sometimes discount the danger and we say I’ll be fine I’ll be able to resist when the time comes if things get bad I can always stop or I can always remove myself from the situation but that’s not how sin and really idolatry that’s not how they work and when we don’t obey God’s initial commands to walk wisely we’ve already gained momentum towards an in steering fall let us not make a mistake in our thinking sin has some consequences that can never be reversed and further once you establish a sinful habit it becomes very difficult and painful to break your flesh is fed and empowered loudly calling for you to continue and others involved with you and the sin similarly pull you along it’s like our pastor says soon we’ll take you further than you want to go make you stay longer than you want to stay and make you pay more than you want to pay now thanks be to Christ there is still hope in such situations for us if we take radical action but dear brothers and sisters let us learn from Israel’s tragic disobedience let us beware small compromises and immediately go all out to uproot wrong thinking and sinful habits before they establish themselves in our lives or in our church let us be aware of those choices for which we will never be able to go back let us take seriously the biblical commands a flea idolatry not just statues but idols of the heart the belief that anything is more necessary or pleasurable for you than God because once you start worshipping an idol it’s so painful and difficult to get away from it all idols will perish as will this whole world anything you think is necessary more pleasurable than God it will perish but God and his reward are eternal I urge you I heard us all believe believe in the worthiness of God believe what God says about himself and don’t believe your flesh is your flesh will always be with you always say no no listen to me believe God’s Word don’t believe the slashed so that you may overcome and that you may cut off whatever causes you to stumble before it’s too late the stakes are high if we don’t do this God Himself will oppose us says he did with Israel which leads to the next question even though God’s people turn against him we know from many instances in the Old Testament and New Testament that you always nature is patient and loving why does your way react in such angry judgment against Israel I thought God was loving aren’t these his people why is he not patient with them God is a God of goodness and justice he is holy and his goodness and holiness demands that evil be judged those who just that you were saying Steve those who reap a certain harvest will so that harvest few so evil your evilness will be judged if you so righteousness your righteousness will be rewarded evil must not characterize God’s people God can I have fellowship with such people and this defames God God is trustworthy and if he promises a curse for disobedience he’s going to be faithful to that promise and that’s what he promises throughout the scriptures if you do evil you will be judged our God is patient and merciful at various times but he’s never obligated to be so he says that if you do evil you will be judged but if you do right if you believe the Lord if you obey the Lord you will receive his reward now someone might say well just how bad were the people of the land that imitating them was so heinous to the Lord well this question came up last week and I didn’t really have a specific answer but on further review the answer is actually obvious there’s one source that gives us a very good idea about the practices of the people of Canaan and you guess the source the Bible they say we’re in the law when God gives his law to Israel he constantly makes reference to what the people in Egypt and in the people of Canaan do and he tells Israel don’t be like them for example after detailing a list of abominable practices God says this in Leviticus chapter 20 verses 22 to 24 says this to Israel you are therefore to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out moreover you shall not follow the customs in the nations which I will drive out before you for they did all these things the things I just talked about they do the all and therefore I have aboard them so we can say with confidence the people of the land were full of strange and despicable practices drunken revelry and carousing murder rape bribes perverted justice thefts incest demonic sorcery bestiality cult prostitution cursing of parents lying adultery homosexuality cutting oneself for the dead boiling baby goats and their mothers milk and burning babies as sacrifices to the gods on that last practice I want to I want to talk a little bit more about it because the details about child sacrifice in the ancient world are very poignant let’s be the last thing I talked about in lesson today I read a really chilling article from the Association of biblical research that’s a Christian archaeology organization that talks all about child sacrifice we’ve learned a good deal about it from archaeology the practice of killing children as part of worship to gods and goddesses appears to have originated in Phoenicia on the northwest side of Canaan from there it’s read to the rest of Canaan and outward across the Mediterranean reaching as far as the Phoenician colony of Carthage modern Tunisia and this practice persisted for centuries let me illustrate for you what child sacrifice looked like using some of the information we know about carthage ancient in the ancient city of Carthage and that’s in Tunisia archaeologists uncovered a massive cemetery containing the remains of ceremonial sacrifice children one section of the cemetery that was used from 400 to 200 BC contains an estimated twenty thousand burials which would be about 100 child sacrifices per year the cemetery was used longer than that though it was used from about 7 50 to 150 bc the excavators examine hundreds of barilla earns filled with the charred remains of children from newborns up to age six but most of them are newborns children came from both the poor and the rich though one ancient Greek historian says that sometimes the rich bought poor children in order to present them as sacrifices instead of using their own in Carthage the children were sacrificed to to God’s bail Hammond and Tanit which were the local counterparts to bail and ashteroth which we looked at earlier bail Hammond literally means lord of the brassiere as in a pan or grill paste over burnt a place over burning hot coals the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus reports in the first century BC and describes the scene of sacrifice quotes there was in their city a bronze image of bail extending its hands palms up sloping toward the ground so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire the burial urns at the cemetery included inscriptions related to the child sacrifices that give us insight as to why the people did them most were sacrificed as part of some dedication or val fulfillment something like if you give me this thing Oh bail I will promise my child to you I will sacrifice my child to you bail does that and it’s a god-awful film I vow or sometimes they did it before the val was fulfilled because I’m sacrificing my child Oh bail please give me what I ask some children were sacrificed as part of a crisis situation Carthage or people were in danger and so as part of entreating the gods they sacrificed their children and one instance of severe danger in Carthage about 200 children from noble families were sacrificed in order to save the city other inscriptions show us that some children with defects were exchanged via sacrifice or at least that was the hope the couple sacrificed a defective child and hope that they would receive a new healthy child from the gods in return these are verifiable from the inscriptions but it’s probable that they sacrifice their children for other reasons including to prevent a rich family’s inheritance from being divided into many ways to help poor families save money or to eliminate the unwelcome products of adultery and coal prostitution there are practical reasons and theological reasons and their minds to sacrifice children but as you look at these things ritual child sacrifice was used just like what modern practice abortion right an abortion is basically just child sacrifice an innocent babies are sacrificed in order to secure the ones of their parents the new generation of Israel decided to take part in this practice along with all the other perversions of the people of the land Psalm 106 part of Psalm 106 gives comments on this verses 34 to 39 of Psalm 106 I’ll read it to you the psalmist says they that’s Israel they did not destroy the peoples as the LORD commanded them but they mingled with the nations and learn their practices and serve their idols which became a snare to them they even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons and shed innocent blood the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrifice the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with the blood thus they became unclean and their practices and played the harlot and their deeds is this not outrageous is this not profound iniquity God’s angry judgment was was more than warranted his supposedly holy people his special inheritance they decided to descend the grossest and most heartless evil and how did it happen well it started with all compromises and it ended with the total embrace of the lands God’s not really bail asteroth or Molech but really what those gods represented material prosperity sensual pleasure and power they love these things more than God they trusted in these things to satisfy them and to deliver them instead of God and the people therefore were willing to sacrifice whatever was necessary to obtain their lusts even their own children so if we find ourselves at all resembling disobedient Israel or godless Canaan let us repent now before it is too late we risk being hardened by sin or putting ourselves into a situation in which we cannot get out God and His goodness is faithful to judge but here’s the good news he offers mercy in Christ if we turn and give up all for him may God have mercy on our nation which I think as you can tell resembles pagan Canaan and idolatrous Israel in many ways that comes to the end of the lesson so now there’s time for comments and questions any comments or questions is what is abortion of sin yes yes it is abortion is a sin it’s sometimes talked about in a way that it as if it were not not a sin that the baby is not or the the fetus is not really alive it’s not a soul or we don’t really know and the mother has the right to choose choose the rhetoric is very clever but the the reality is that a baby inside the womb is just as alive as a baby outside the womb and we can see that even in the Bible itself with the laws that talk about those who cause a pregnant woman’s child to die by by hurting her they were to be put to death because they put to death or because they had ended a life they had ended the life of a child that’s a human and that’s also what the early church was totally on board with they saw infanticide and abortion as murder Tyrolean says in the 2nd century says it makes no difference if you kill the baby outside the moon were inside the womb you’re still committing murder it’s not like this has been confusing or unclear issue for the church it’s always been known as murder so yeah other questions or comments yeah hmm that’s a good question Joe what what gave the bales what gave the gods of the land the power to so attract and keep the people worshipping them well part of it is the bales don’t have to do anything it’s just a flesh the flesh or the New Testament tells us that sometimes we think that that God is tempting us or that we’re being tempted by Gandhi says no it’s your own lusts that are leading you away it’s what’s in you and so they these outward manifestations of God’s just become excuses to worship what’s inside the various lusts and idols of the heart though that we should also say that the Bible even in the psalm that we read connects false gods with demons and so we know that the demons were working to deceive the people and to cause the people to commit these perversions as part of the demonic opposition to God as as part of the demonic mission to ensnare the people of God so to answer your question succinctly what gave the gods of the land power well it was the unmodified lusts of God’s people and another of the people of the land and it was the demons and the the evil one working with those lusts to keep the people in snared yeah that’s a good question was there any because the demons are associated with these gods today were they also connected to the idols and so that the idols themselves had some sort of a coal power because the demons working with them I think it’s a little bit hard to say how the demons acted certainly the people saw the idols as incarnations of their gods the gods would you see this in other mythologies the gods are said to inhabit a statue and you had to maintain the statute so that the god could continue to inhabit it if the statue fell into disrepair then the God would no longer come to it or you would curse you or something like that but I don’t know specifically if we can say what the demons did with the statues or if they were able to do anything certainly they were working in people and whether you say that they worked from the statue or they work from with inside a person I don’t know if we can say yeah if you have other questions or comments that come talking with the afterwards but we need to close next time though I mean this is pretty sobering day of Sunday School next time we see something amazing we see what God does next after judgment after he totally gives over Israel to judgment because of their idolatry when they turn back to him when they cry out to him God is merciful and he provides deliverance through judges that’s we’re going to talk about next time let’s pray father when we come to grips with what the people the land of what Israel actually did it is just so reprehensible it is so evil of course you must judge it you are a good god you are a holy God you can’t stand to see that and if you could and that would be a flaw we thank you that your patient a merciful but we thank you that you’re also good and holy so that you will judge evil we love your justice Oh father and yet it would destroy us if not for Christ thank you for your son I would pray that you would bless the rest of the service today help us to be in all and in love with you so that we choose to believe your word over the flesh is that we do not like Israel that we be your holy people in Jesus name Amen