RACIAL CONTEXT OF JOSHUA/JUDGES
Sermon notes by Jim Jester
July 10, 2022
SCRIPTURE TEXT: Judges 21:25: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
NEWS ITEM
Russian Enclave in Post-Christian Europe Is a ‘Spiritual Outpost’
[NOTE: Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian semi-exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea. It is the westernmost territory of the Russian Federation. Below is its flag.]
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia noted the increasing role of Kaliningrad against the backdrop of the current situation around Russia.
“I have already said many times that Kaliningrad is really a border region, it is the only region of Russia that borders on the European Union. Given that for various reasons, rationally unexplained, there is an extremely unfriendly attitude towards Russia on the part of Western countries; the role of Kaliningrad is very much growing today. I do not speak about secular or military aspects, but it is an outpost in a spiritual sense,” the Patriarch said at a meeting with Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov during his pastoral visit to the region.
The Patriarch pointed out that a loss of religiosity and Christian identity is taking place in the world, including Western Europe, where “Western countries no longer call themselves Christian, and religion is effectively relegated to the margins of public and private life.”
According to the patriarch, they [the west] “do not need to show or prove anything … let them live as they see fit. But for themselves,” he says, “it is important to understand that the strength of Russia is in her spiritual roots.”
The Primate of the Church believes that if we live according to God’s law, if we find the strength to fight our passions and vices, then indeed the Lord will be with us.
“Here on the western border of Russia, it is especially felt... May the Lord keep the land of Kaliningrad, our people and the whole Russian land from all enemies and foes. But the most important thing — that God keeps our hearts and our minds in purity and in faith. If this is the case, no enemy can frighten us,” said Patriarch Kirill. (Russian Faith website)
The truth of our Scripture text is well illustrated in the formerly Christian culture of the West. The clamor and cry of men, women, and LGBTQ+ for their so-called “Rights” is heard in the streets of America — “Everyone does what they think is right in their own viewpoint.” (Judges 21:25, Jester’s 21st Century America Version)
INTRODUCTION
When Moses died, Joshua was commissioned to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The book of Joshua is the account of the family of God crossing over the Jordan River on dry ground and possessing all the land that God had given to them. Jehovah had fought for Israel; and the people who had lived in the land were either driven out or killed. The land was divided up among the tribes of Israel, just as God had promised.
Quite some time after, God had given Israel rest from her enemies, Joshua, being near death, called Israel together so he could speak to them.
Now after a long time, when the Lord had given Israel rest from wars on every side, and Joshua was old and full of years, 2 Joshua sent for all Israel, for their responsible men and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers, and said to them:
‘I am old, and full of years: 3 You have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is the Lord your God who has been fighting for you. 4 Now I have given to you, as the heritage of your tribes, all these nations which are still in the land, together with those cut off by me, from Jordan as far as the Great Sea on the west. 5 The Lord your God will send them away by force, driving them out before you; and you are to take their land for your heritage, as the Lord your God said to you. 6 So be very strong to keep and do whatever is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, not turning away from it to the right or to the left; 7 Have nothing to do with these nations who still are living among you; let not their gods be named by you or used in your oaths; do not be their servants or give them worship: 8 But be true to the Lord your God as you have been till this day. 9 For the Lord has sent out from before you nations great and strong: and they have all given way before you till this day. 10 One man of you is able to put to flight a thousand; for it is the Lord your God who is fighting for you, as he has said to you. 11 So keep watch on yourselves, and see that you have love for the Lord your God. 12 For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: 13 Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.’
14 Now I am about to go the way of all the earth [die]: and you have seen and are certain, all of you, in your hearts and souls, that in all the good things which the Lord said about you, he has kept faith with you; everything has come true for you. 15 And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you. 16 If the agreement [covenant] of the Lord your God, which was given to you by his orders [law], is broken, and you become the servants of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be cut off from the good land which he has given you. (Joshua 23:1-16, BBE)
What a speech; and, what a lesson for today! Is this last paragraph not relevant to us? Isn’t our land nearly lost — the land of our forefathers? And is there not clearly a racial context here? There certainly is!
In verse 7, “Have nothing to do with these nations…” and “…Let not their gods be named by you…” Joshua sounds like he is quoting from Deuteronomy; as well as the Apostle Paul, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.” (Eph. 5:3)
Verse 9, “For the Lord has sent out from before you nations great and strong: and they have all given way…” In the Prayer Book of the Church of England we find the appeal, “O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them.” And the passage in Psalm 44:1-3, from which the idea of this petition is taken, is an allusion to this speech of Joshua.
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. (Ps. 44:1-3)
In verse 15, “all the good things…” is, literally, “all the good word.”That is to say, the prophecies of good had been fulfilled. Joshua uses this as an argument that the evil also will not fail to follow, if Israel provoked God to inflict it. But the memory of these words and of the great deeds of Jehovah faded quickly from their minds. And then, like the people before the flood, like the men of Sodom before it was destroyed, and like many others since, they turned a deaf ear to the prophecies of evil, which faithful men foresaw and foretold.
And how terrible have these predictions been fulfilled? First, the Assyrian captivity and then the Babylonian. Then the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus; with the continued dispersion of Israel throughout the west (and Don has been teaching us about the chaos in Britain); only in our own age has a brighter day begun to dawn on them, in the founding of America. And yet we see still, the Deep State working to take it all down into what they call “a New World Order.” Verse 15, “All the evil things…” Literally, all the evil word; or every evil thing, which had been foretold. This becomes the cycle of history when Israel forgets her God.
JUDGES
The book of Judges picks up the events in the promised land just prior to Joshua’s death. The section of chapters 2:11–3:6 (which we are covering) spells out the recurring cycle of history: apostasy, oppression, supplication, and deliverance. In the first six of these cycles, during the period of the Judges, the Israelites reach a point of repentance and cry out to God for deliverance. But it is significant that in the seventh, the story of Samson, there is no cry for help. They have become content to live under the authority of a foreign people and are in jeopardy of losing their identity. This reminds me of America — we are too content living under the authority of the “people of color.”
The people of God were still in the process of driving out the native people of the land. Unfortunately, they had not been very successful. In spite of Joshua’s warning, most Canaanite groups were not driven out.
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. (Judges 2:1-3)
Who knows best, God or his people? God knew what would happen if the heathen people were not driven out. He knew that Israel would tolerate and eventually approve of the customs and religions of Canaan. Our Lord asks, “Why have ye done this?” So, what happened? It’s not hard to figure out:
And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites: 6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. (Judges 3:5-6)
They first race-mixed, and then they served the gods of the Canaanites. The judeo-Christian may respond to this and say, “But we don’t serve false gods, we believe in Jesus Christ.” However, the truth is that if you are universal, accepting other races into your fellowship, then you already are in servitude to their gods. Furthermore, once children are born to racially mixed couples, the chosen race loses its spiritual capacity to know and follow God; thus, losing the ability to perpetuate a Christian civilization. The spiritual capacity in God’s family is preserved only when it is kept pure, i.e., by marrying within our own kind. Keeping our spirituality is the only way to remain true to our God.
In our Scripture reading (and other places), Joshua referred many times to “the Lord your God.” Modern churchianity refuses to recognize the significance of the pronouns in Scripture. Why is that? Because most of the religious world believes in universalism, i.e., anyone can become a Christian. However, the pronouns designate specificity and possession. The God of who? The God of one race — Israel.
God is always faithful to His covenant (q.v., Jdg. 2:1). He removed Israel from Egypt in order to preserve His family. God gave them His law to govern the nation that He was now dealing with corporately. He could have left them in Egypt, but by now they would have been completely amalgamated into the blood and culture of Egypt. But God had destined something far greater for this privileged people. They had the covenants, promises and inheritance that God had made with Abraham. Therefore, He ordered the Israelites to drive out or kill every person in the Promised Land, so they would be prevented from serving the false gods. The soft modern Christian thinks this is merciless and cruel. They do all they can to prove God did not mean what He said.
WARRIORS
While God had fought for His children and drove out many Canaanite nations, He did not do it all. He required the action of His people, Israel:
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; 2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof; 3 Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath. 4 And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. (Jdg. 3:1-4)
The lesson here is that we have a responsibility — we have a part to play in fulfilling God’s will upon the earth. God left some heathen nations in the land to give the next generation of Israelites military training. They had not seen war as their forefathers, and they had to learn to stand up like men and take action themselves. The Pulpit Commentary explains this by the word “prove.”
We are now told in detail what was stated in general in Judges 2:22-23, after the common method of Hebrew narrative. ‘To prove Israel.’ This word to prove isused here in a somewhat different sense from that which it bears in Jdg. 2:4 and in Jdg. 2:22. In those passages it is used of their moral probation, of proving or testing their faith and obedience; but here it is rather in the sense of “to exercise” or, to train them to war. A considerable period of rest had followed Joshua’s conquest, during which the younger Israelites had no experience of war; but if they were to keep their hold of Canaan, it was needful that the warlike spirit should be kept up in their breasts.
A “warlike spirit” in the Christian’s breast? Far too many Christians are soft — they want to love everybody, and have a sweet spirit. But that is not always God’s way. Sometimes a Christian may have to get angry enough to be war-like.
The ultimate sin against God is to destroy His seed line. This is exactly what interracial “marriages” do. God took His seed line out of Egypt with the intent to isolate them in order to preserve them intact. Thus, the command to remove or kill all the inhabitants of the land. This is how it was done:
Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. (Jdg. 1:8)
And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. (Jdg. 1:17)
This was how the Israelites obeyed the orders from God; but notice the disobedience from other tribes:
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. (Jdg. 1:21)
Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. (Jdg. 1:29)
Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries. (Jdg. 1:30)
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob… (Jdg. 1:31)
The Angel of the Lord (Jesus Christ) said, “…You have not obeyed Me; what have you done?” (q.v., Jdg. 2:2) “Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.” (Jdg. 2:3) Their disobedience brought about the violation of the First Commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The expulsion of foreign inhabitants was essential to the obedience, well-being, and preservation of God’s family.
CONCLUSION
As His children, God has every right to direct our ways. Our disobedience to Him has brought about every misery and curse throughout the ages. This inability to keep the First Commandment is what brings the wrath of Almighty God. In the name of “freedom of religion,” we Americans have allowed every false religion and foul person to invade our land. Worse yet, we have allowed the anti-Christ seed of Cain to become our taskmasters, tormentors and destroyers, while the pulpits of America proclaim “God’s chosen people” status for these same “locusts.” How correct our heavenly Father is to demand total isolation for His children, for it seems we are not capable, corporately, of keeping the First Commandment — “no other gods.” Will this fault remain with us until our Lord establishes His rule upon the earth?
The book of Judges states repeatedly the judgment that came upon Israel when they “…did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God.”
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. (Jdg. 2:12)
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. (Jdg. 2:14)
And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge… (Jdg. 2:18)
This last verse gives us a glimmer of hope, for God could raise up a good judge or a good president that would do God’s will during their term of service.
The cycles of judgment and deliverance continued all the years covered by the book of Judges. As one generation repented and was delivered, the next one fell and was judged. The Promised Land never became the utopia which God had intended, all because Israel failed to obey God by driving out all the heathens. They acted contrary to God’s will, mixing with foreigners and worshipping their gods.
What began as deliverance from Egypt, God eventually drove the Israelites from the promised land, all in an effort to keep His family pure. Today, race-mixing has shifted into high gear and we are definitely losing our racial integrity. What will happen next? We are at the bottom of another cycle: apostasy, oppression, supplication, and deliverance. The last verse from the book of Judges is surely a picture of the West. “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg. 21:25)
Will we not enjoin with our God in obedience to His law, and bring deliverance once again?