Last Sunday afternoon, my wife and I got lost in the Ramapo Mountains. Our trail had been marked by white trail blazes, but all of the sudden the trail led to a clearing and the blazes disappeared. I looked around for the next one and found a path leading to the other side of the clearing. There, we found some red blazes, which was the color of the next trail we needed to find, so we figured we must have found the right trail. However, the trail didn’t seem to be going the right direction and the blazes were different (instead of metal plates, painted or tied on w/ plastic ties). And as we walked further and stumbled upon a blue trail, we realized that this was not the right trail and we were lost. We turned around (and around – seemingly walking in circles) and headed back the way we came, following the crazy red (and now even yellow) blazes. We bushwacked our way back to the clearing, eventually finding our original path. And there we discovered our mistake. We had missed the blaze directing us to go to the right. We had blown right by it, following what we thought was the trail. However, we were following a false trail and false blazes and so we had ended up lost and confused. We got back on the right trail and eventually made it back, having learned the importance of watching for signs, following directions and recognizing true blazes from false ones. In thinking about that hike, while looking at our passage for today, I realized that in a similar way, the people of Israel, during the days of the Judges, got lost. They left the Path of God and followed other paths – false trails and false directions. As we will find in the text, they were walking in circles. It’s ironic that as a people, they were no longer wandering in the wilderness because they had entered the Promised Land, however, now they were wandering spiritually. they had left the way of the LORD and were making their own way (or more accurately following the false blazes of others). See: Judges 2:16-3:11.
As mentioned last week, the Israelites got themselves into a cycle of sin. We find this in Judges 2 and also in the account of the first judge, Othniel in 3:7-11. There we find the Israelites cycling from: rebellion to retribution to repentance to rescue to reprieve and then repeating it all over.
But what caused Israel to cycle in sin? What led them away from the Lord? I suggested three factors last time: prosperity, pragmatism and peccability (being liable to sin; the opposite of impeccable). I think the historical context helps us to understand them.
- First, prosperity. The Canaanites were technologically advanced. They were established in cities. They were wealthy and powerful (if you remember the spies that Moses sent were in awe of the people and the land). The Israelites on the other hand, were ex-slaves who had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 yrs. The wealth and power of Canaanite culture was a very real temptation.
- Secondly, pragmatism and susceptibility to sin. Idolatry was attractive to the Israelites. But why – what was so great about a statue anyway? Idolatry was guaranteed, selfish, easy, convenient, normal, logical, pleasing to the senses, indulgent and erotic.
- But there was even more to it than that. There was a pagan mindset that they fell into as well. Religion in the Ancient Near East, at that time, involved a 3 tiered structure. There was a national god (in case of emergencies or war or big things – the 9-11’s and financial crises of the day). There was a family or clan god (for more local matters which often was a god of the ancestors). And there was a personal god (who was sought for smaller, personal matters). For example, a Canaanite could have El as their national god (to protect them from other nations), Baal as their family god (for more local matters such as rain for the fields) and Asherah as a personal goddess (for fertility say if you were trying to get pregnant or for the healing of an illness). Israelites on the other hand, were to have only one God – the LORD (Yahweh). However, it seems that many Israelites fell into this pagan mindset.
I think we often believe that if you could go back in time and interview an idolatrous Israelite you would find someone who had totally rejected the LORD. But in reality if you were to ask them if they believed in Yahweh, they would most likely say yes. The problem, however, was that they also believed and served a number of other gods and goddesses.
And so the problem of Israelite idolatry was, for the most part, that it was the sin of addition rather than subtraction. The problem was not removing the LORD and inserting Baal, but keeping the LORD and adding Baal. It was syncretism – adding elements of paganism to the worship of the LORD and accommodating the worship of the LORD to fit with paganism.
And this syncretism led to the cycle of sin. The LORD was supposed to be worshiped alone and yet Israel repeatedly worshiped pagan gods and idols. So the Lord brought punishment upon them. And notice that when this national threat came upon them, it appears they did not turn whole–heartedly to the LORD, but simply to Him as their ‘national God’. He would rescue them, but then they would forget and go back to “life as usual” and look to their little, local and personal gods.
The Israelites failed to realize that the LORD is a jealous God. He has a holy jealousy for His people. His wrath is fierce because His love is fierce. He will not be one among many. He is Lord alone – the only King. He is to be Lord over the nation, over every tribe, clan and family, over every person and every situation.
What I find interesting and horrifying in these passages from Judges is how similar we are to them – how we often face the same temptations and fall into the same traps.
I believe we struggle with Syncretism. Often we focus on the syncretistic climate of religion and “spirituality” in our society. And that is a problem. It’s very popular to believe that all religions basically believe the same thing (it’s utterly ridiculous and naïve, but nonetheless popular). It’s popular to think that all the religions have interchangeable parts, in that you can connect parts of Christianity to parts of Buddhism and Scientology. In this climate, one can go from a Bible study to a Reiki healing circle or put down your Bible and pick up your horoscope or believe in the resurrection and reincarnation. I think we recognize this ‘salad bar’ approach to religion (taking a bit of this and a bit of that). Our idol is therefore kind of like Mr. Potato Head (with interchangeable parts that you can construct the way you want). Syncretism, in this sense, is a problem.
However, there is a more subtle form of syncretism which, though we often overlook it, we are quite susceptible to. It’s a syncretism described best as “God-and”. A.W. Tozer puts it this way, “there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the and lies our great woe. If we omit the and we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.”
How often are we guilty of that! We fall into the traps of thinking that we are saved by God and our good work; or that we will be happy if we have God and this or that; that we can believe in God and do whatever we please; we are motivated by God and the approval of people; we will be successful because of God and us pulling ourselves up by the boots straps and doing things our way. Like the Israelites, we are very quick to add things to the worship and service of God, whether it be incompatible religious beliefs or our own will and desires. Like the Israelites in the time of the Judges, we don’t find God sufficient. We want to add our own thing and go our own way. We want to inform God of our will rather than conforming our will to His.
We also struggle with Relegation. We often relegate God to the margins or to a certain area of our lives. Imagine a king who ruled a land having it described to him like this:
“Your majesty, behold your land and people. You are king over all this land, except for that area
over there … and there … and the region in between those to places. Other than those, you’re
king over it all. And you are king over this people … usually … sometimes … well actually most
of the people only recognize you as king once a week … and some only a couple times a year.
But if things get real bad, they will usually declare you king … for a while.”
Do you think any king would be ok with that? No king would be and neither is God. God refuses to be relegated to the margins of our lives. He doesn’t want part of us, He wants all of us. God is not simply our national God who we seek when the stock market falls or a hurricane hits or wars continue or the ozone is depleted or a candidate we don’t like may get elected. (God is not our last ditch effort or our hail Mary pass into the end zone – only sought after when everything else that we have tried has failed.) God is not merely our family God (well, I was raised Christian so that means I’m a Christian – my parents are Christian so …). God is not our God by default. And God is not simply our God personally, but maybe not for someone else.
The LORD is King over all the earth and He is King over all of us. He will not be relegated as our national or family or personal God. He is all of that and more. He is the Lord over every part of us (our hopes and dreams, our time and money, our jobs and portfolios, our family and friends). He is our King.
And finally, we struggle with Forgetfulness. Like the Israelites, we easily forget. We face trouble and cry out to God. He helps us and we are psyched, motivated and close to Him. But then the erosion of time occurs and we soon forget and drift away. That is why we are told over and over to remember. And that is why being an active part of the community of God is so important. That is why having an active personal devotional life is so essential. That is why being accountable to another believer or to a small group is so vital. It helps us to remember who God is and who we are – that we belong to the LORD.
We must not forget who He is and what He has done and promises to do. We must not pollute our relationship with Him through false beliefs or seeking God-and. We must not relegate Him to the margins of our lives. God is our King and He must exercise sovereign authority over every area of our lives.
May we not get lost by following false trails and false blazes. To modify Hebrews 12 a bit, may we hike with perseverance the trail marked out for us, casting off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Trail Blazer of our faith. May we not be found (or rather lost) walking in circles.
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