January 2, 2025

Judges 2:6-15 (HCSB)
Joshua’s Death
6 Joshua sent the people away, and the Israelites went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works He had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. 9 They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel. 11 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals 12 and abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They infuriated the Lord, 13 for they abandoned Him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. 15 Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as He had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

Dwayne Koelling
Here we get a summary of the events leading up to Joshua's death, shortly thereafter, and the rest of the book of Judges. The failures of Joshua's generation to remove the Canaanites impacted their sons and daughters by leaving a temptation to follow other gods, a temptation that they didn't resist. The two predominant gods of this region were Baal and Ashtoreth and are false gods that will be a "thorn in their side" as the Angel of the Lord put it, for centuries. Baal was the god of intellect and water. Ashtoreth (also called Ishtar or Easter) was goddess of fertility and the senses. They represent the mind and the body, common places for sin to abide. This is where we see the start of a sin cycle that the Hebrews will repeat over and over. Succumb to sin (vs. 13), enslaved by sin (vs. 14), sorry for their sin (vs. 15), and God's compassion saves from sin (vs. 16). Interesting to see that pattern of the Hebrew society plays out, not just on a large scale, but also on an individual basis as well today. And just the Hebrews' sin impacted the next generation, we should be reminded that our lack of obedience to God impacts others sometimes leading them onto the path of sin themselves. Sin is a contagious, fatal disease (worse than Covid). Be obedient to God and limit its spread (better than any face mask).