Judges 1:22-36
Prayer: O Lord, please give us Your Holy Spirit this morning. We ask in particular that You in Your kindness would show us our sin so that we can turn and repent and become more like You, so that we take dominion of our lives and our land. Please do this because we ask for it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
In God’s world, words and names matter. Your words are either echoing God’s Word and naming in faith and taking dominion, or else they are defying God’s Word, naming in unbelief, fear, and setting up trouble for yourself and your children.
The tribes of Israel learned this the hard way. The lesson was clear: sin must be completely destroyed or it will eventually destroy you.
The Text: “And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel: and the LORD was with them. And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)…” (Judges 1:22-36)
Summary of the Text
The tribe of Joseph had been given a double portion—Ephraim and Manasseh, just north of Benjamin and Judah. The Lord was with them and they took the city of Bethel, echoing the story of Jericho, but the man who escaped built another city called Luz (Judges 1:22-26). As Manasseh moved north, they failed to drive out the Canaanites (Judges 1:27-28). Likewise, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites in Gezer (Judges 1:29). Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali had northern claims around the Sea of Galilee, and the refrain remains: they did not drive out the Canaanites and only made some tributaries (Judges 1:30-33). The worst report is that the Amorites forced Dan into the mountains, and while the tribes of Joseph made them tributaries, they were allowed to remain (Judges 1:34-36).
A History of Bethel
The first act of Joseph’s tribes was to take Bethel, previously called Luz (Judges 1:22ff). This city was significant because Jacob dreamed there of a ladder reaching heaven with angels ascending and descending (Gen. 28:12ff). The Lord promised Jacob and his seed that land, and Jacob declared, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. … This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16-17). Jacob set up a stone pillar, anointed it, and named the place “Beth-el,” meaning “house of God” (Gen. 28:18-19).
The Canaanites continued to call it “Luz,” but years later, Jacob returned and built an altar there, and buried his wife’s servant under an oak tree (Gen. 35:6-8). God appeared again, repeated the same covenant promises, and confirmed Jacob’s new name, “Israel” (Gen. 35:9-13). Jacob set up another pillar and reiterated the place would be called Bethel because God spoke to him there (Gen. 35:14-15).
Conquest & Naming
While God can certainly speak and name things into immediate existence (Gen. 1), He often works through a long process, calling things that are not as though they were, like He did with Abraham (and his name), and He has been bringing that to fulfillment over many years (Rom. 4:17).
In our text, the Battle of Bethel completed something God began centuries before. God told Jacob the land would be his, and Jacob believed, worshipped, and named the place “Bethel.”
The spies’ story echoes the Battle of Jericho. The conquest here is like Jericho in slower motion. For Jericho, they marched around the city for seven days, blowing trumpets and praying. On the seventh day, they marched seven times, blew trumpets, shouted, and the walls fell (Josh. 6:12-20). Jacob’s worship at Bethel began the “circling” hundreds of years before the city’s entrance was revealed (Judges 1:25).
Seven Failures that Follow
The text records seven failures: “They did not drive out…” (Judges 1:27-33), culminating in Dan being forced into the mountains by the Amorites (Judges 1:34). Moses had warned that if they failed to drive out the inhabitants or made covenants with them, their children would be tempted to marry them, turning away from God and serving other gods, leading to their destruction (Ex. 23:20ff, Dt. 7:1ff). If the Canaanites remained, they would become snares and they did.
Applications
The failures of the tribes of Israel are striking warnings to us. Remember that this is all in the context of the tribes doing a lot of fighting. It looked fairly faithful. It’s possible to look like you’re being obedient, to mostly obey, but to still be disobedient in ways that will come back to haunt you. They were homeschooling or sending their kids to private classical schools. They were going to church. But they were making small (but massive compromises).
Have you driven the Canaanites out of your Netflix viewing habits? What about your Spotify list? What about your friend groups or thought life or the way you talk or dress? Ask God to show you where you’re making peace with enemies.
Naming is conquest. And this goes both ways: Obedient naming echoes the word of God, the truth of God, but disobedient naming echoes the words of man, your fears, your doubts, your unbelief. Are you naming in faith? Is the city “Bethel” or is it still “Luz?” Read the Bible. Talk about the sermon. Sing around your dinner table. Apply the Word to your life. Don’t be like the man in James.
Confession of sin is naming obediently. Excuse making, blaming, explaining away are all disobedient forms of naming. God calls your sin lust or drunkenness or wrath or bitterness or self-centered pride, but are you still calling it something else? A “bad habit,” “your personality,” “the way you were raised,” a “family tendency,” “ADHD,” or something-something “mental health?” Have you tried to re-build that sin-city somewhere else “safe?”
Worship is warfare because when we gather here, we name God, the world, and ourselves rightly. Every seven days we gather here and march around all the cities of sin: the cities in your heart, our families, our city, our nation. We agree with God, we believe Him, and we worship Him – we fully submit in glad surrender. If you want the enemies of God to surrender, you must show them how. You must utterly destroy your own sin.
When it comes to families, cities, and nations, individual surrender is usually the beginning of a slow-motion conquest over generations. Abraham set up an altar at AI (Gen. 12:8), and many years later, Joshua led the people to conquer it (Josh. 8). Jacob set up an altar at Bethel, and here many years later, the tribes of Joseph conquered it. Jesus Christ was crucified and raised from the dead, and here we are on the other side of the planet 2,000 years later. Faithful worship and obedience today are setting you up for success tomorrow and who knows what exploits you are preparing for your children and grandchildren.
Prayer: Father, we know that many faithful Christians have come before us, setting us up for obedience today. So we ask You to give us the courage to obey today and not miss those opportunities, and we also ask that we would be faithful today so that our children and grandchildren might be even more faithful and that we would be able to take this land for Christ. And so we pray as He taught us to pray…
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