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From Eternity Past
But they chose ease and self-indulgence. They let slip their op-
portunities for completing the conquest of the land. And for many
generations they were afflicted by the remnant of these idolatrous peo-
ples, that were as “pricks” in their eyes and “thorns” in their sides.
Numbers 33:55
.
The Israelites were “mingled among the heathen, and learned their
works.” They intermarried with the Canaanites, and idolatry spread
like a plague throughout the land. “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and
their daughters unto devils... . And the land was polluted with blood.”
“Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people,
insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance.”
Psalm 106:35-40
.
Until the generation that had received instruction from Joshua
became extinct, idolatry made little headway, but the parents prepared
the way for the apostasy of their children. The simple habits of the
Hebrews had secured them physical health, but association with the
heathen led to indulgence of appetite and passion, which gradually
enfeebled the mental and moral powers. By their sins the Israelites
were separated from God, and they could no longer prevail against
their enemies. Thus they were brought into subjection to the very
nations that they might have subdued.
“They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them
out of the land of Egypt.” “They provoked Him to anger with their
high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.”
Therefore the Lord “forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which
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He placed among them; and delivered His strength into captivity, and
His glory into the enemy’s hand.”
Judges 2:12
;
Psalm 78:58, 60, 61
.
Yet He did not utterly forsake His people. There was ever a remnant
who were true to Jehovah, and from time to time the Lord raised up
faithful and valiant men to put down idolatry and deliver the Israelites
from their enemies. But when the deliverer was dead and the people
were released from his authority, they would gradually return to their
idols. Thus the story of backsliding and chastisement, of confession
and deliverance was repeated again and again.
The Sad Story of Continual Backsliding
The king of Mesopotamia, the king of Moab, and after them the
Philistines, and the Canaanites of Hazor led by Sisera, in turn became