I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 1-3.

The Israelites were unable to drive all of the other peoples out of the land during Joshua’s lifetime, which was consistent with what God had promised through Moses.  God had promised that He would drive the peoples out of the land gradually as the Israelites grew to control the land.  Unfortunately, as soon as the generation of leaders who served with Joshua had died the Israelites started to assimilate with those who remained.  We often read this and imagine it took a few generations for things to go bad, but it must have been almost immediately.  The passage tells us that God allowed King Cushan-rishathaim to oppress the Israelites because of their sin.  Then, when they cried out to Him, He raised up Caleb’s nephew to rescue them.  Caleb’s nephew led them to follow the Lord for forty years.  After which they descended once more into idolatry and evil.  And once again God allowed them to fall under an oppressive foreign ruler.  It does not take long for people to turn away from God and to experience the suffering which follows.