In any event, I find I can still 'whine' and ask the "why didn't You...?" questions, and, as is the general nature of my particular sinfulness/character flaws, I can resign myself wordlessly to my circumstances (with a pious 'Thy will be done'), rather than what HE longs for me to do: to hound him incessantly for justice upon the earth [Luke 18], to hold His skirt tenaciously til He visits his benefits upon the needy [1 Kgs 4.8ff], to stand in the gap before Him [Ezek 22.30; Ps 106:23/Ex 32.11ff]  and argue His own heart against Him [Gen 18.22ff], until (beaming with pleasure at me finally growing in the likeness of His Son a little more, by living the prophetic voice for once!) He 'relents' from disaster, or 'uncovers His arm in power' or any of the other beautiful ANE images of a community leader charging into helping 'to right' imbalances and counter destructive forces in our world.

Enough about my failures (smile)... At the end of this discussion, of course, I realize that not only did He not forsake me, but the enemy didn't actually win after all--my life continued, my heart grew, my joy/love/compassion/forgiveness expanded, victims will be rewarded (with a multiplier--cf Zech 9.12!) in some way/sense, and the hostile lost its grip on my life altogether... "The righteous man falls seven times, but rises up again..."

According to the Joshua text (allegorically speaking?), we are tempted to ally with these (i.e., commit to protecting them, and depending upon them for support for our 'needs' instead of God), tempted to intermarry with them (e.g., giving them priority of consideration in cases of competing values--helping someone dear to God's heart versus serving our own desires, etc ), and tempted to associate (socialize with, as an implicit recognition of legitimacy) with them. In each of these cases, the destructive nature of these influences is either ignored or even valued. Then, according the text-story, these compromises will become 'thorns in our sides'.

I look at it this way: every moral compromise that I make repeatedly (not the simple slip-ups) and that I legitimize/excuse somehow and every wrong that I do not 'judge', de-value for my life, and attempt to discard, becomes a drain on my vitality. Just as thorns irritate (and dilute focus) and fester and modify behavior (e.g., we 'favor' a foot with splinters in it, or a hand with a sore on it), so too do these un-uprooted 'Canaanites' in our life constantly reduce our effectiveness, the clarity of our life-witness, and our sheer energy-which-flows-from-purity-of-conscience. Eventually, we even lose the ability to 'see them' for what they are--we perhaps rationalize them as being 'necessities important to our ecosystem' (so we can serve the Lord undistractedly, at all the other times, of course!), or maybe we even move them into the 'not so bad' or 'I have bigger fish to fry FIRST' categories...

Now, let me tell you the only/associated problem with this obviously important directive: it is too easy to be dishonest in our 'canaanite' hunting! When I went through that logic in Devotions, I did my characteristic over-response: I whipped myself into a frenzy to hunt down all the little 'Canaanites' in my life and remove them. So far, so good. But the problem came when I had to evaluate individual 'candidates'. Some were very obvious, since the Lord had been working on me about those for some time (smile), but I found myself almost 'inventing some'--I took what I knew to be legitimate fruits of the freedom of the faith, but which my not-yet-sanctified-100% conscience still 'scolded me' about. In other words, I knew (truth/faith) that the attitude, behavior, celebration, etc was literally fought for by the very death of my Lord(!). I knew He set me free from legalism, from 'external measurements' of spirituality, from asceticism, and from 'false humility', but the vestiges of my childhood/cultural conscience still remains (and will until I get a new body) and wants to re-take the throne of moral Lordship in my life (from my Jesus). So, I had to really scrutinize each potential candidate, to be sure I was operating on the basis of truth/faith, rather than on the 'traditions of men' (as inculturated in me). This is  not as simple as it sounds, since both my 'old man' and my 'new man' have consciences somehow. I am supposed to live with a clear conscience, but when my heart contradicts the truth of God as I have learned it, my heart has to get demoted ("And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.", 1 Jn 3.19). My 'old conscience' is corrupted, self-righteous, dictatorial, self-exalting, and focuses on the external... So, I have to pursue honesty, constantly asking God to show me the 'real perspective', in His timing in my life.  But I DO know the power of an 'obvious canaanite' to weaken me, steal my joy, mute my song, slow my dance, and render my heart a little more pale...

I remember vividly one passage in Judges earlier this year, 10:1-5: "After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, who lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel. He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died, and was buried at Shamir. After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty towns, which are in the land of Gilead, and are called Havvoth-jair to this day. Jair died, and was buried in Kamon." I tried to find more information about these two multi-decade judges but not much was available, and I imagined an email something like this: "What kind of a God would let these two people spend the best years of their life serving Him and helping His people, then give them 1-2 measly lines in the Bible?! Especially, when all the other judges got much fuller write-ups? Why would a good God slight and/or almost marginalize His subjects so thoughtlessly?!" The objection cannot be answered other than from general 'literary aims of the author' (which is the answer, of course), but the feel of slander against God's goodness nonetheless still hangs in the air. There are countless such arguments from the surface of the text--of this 'from silence' type--that simply cannot be answered from the text, from archeology, from history, etc. So, they can still eat at you, even though you KNOW the objection is off-base and flawed.

Now, I should also mention that--given the character of the literary portrayals of the judges in the book--it is a good possibility that God actually HONORED those two above the other, by simply leaving out their particular failings. Commentators have often noted that the Judges are portrayed in the worst possible light, as an object lesson to Israel at that time. So, perhaps the reader is supposed to ASSUME that these two were 'better than' the others, since any failings of theirs escaped mention. Just a thought...

One other rabbit-trail I went down while thinking about that passage: that the unnoticed-by-us will be announced-by-God in the New Future. Jesus mentions this principle explicitly in the "do these good things in secret, and your Father will reward you" passages (e.g., Matt 6) . Some of these rewards may/will be in time, but the day will come when the full commendation occurs (1 Cor 4.5). Given that one covenant-consequence of goodness is a good reputation, the fact that many sweet lovers of God & good are unnoticed by the world (or by other believers, in many cases) means that their 'good reputation' will be rewarded to them in the New Future! I think of the many, many people who are unnamed in the Bible, yet who play pivotal roles in redemptive history. I think of the people of ancient Israel who prayed for the nation and delayed the Exile as long as it could be delayed. I think of the unnamed women in the gospels, and the unnamed disciples in Acts--did God leave their names out JUST TO HAVE AN EXCUSE to honor them exceedingly in the Eschaton?! It's not at all unlike His heart to do something like that, IMHO.

The two passages which added some new perspective to this were Lam 1.22 and Ps 7:

"All my enemies have heard of my distress;  they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like me.
Let all their wickedness come before you; 
deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins". [Lam 1.21f]

"O LORD my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands—
 if I have done evil to him who is at peace with me or without cause have robbed my foe—
 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground
 and make me sleep in the dust." [Ps 7.3ff]

In the Lamentations passage, the author is pointing out that God had punished Israel for her crimes, and he asks that--since the wicked have rejoiced in enmity against Jeremiah--God would LIKEWISE judge the enemies for THEIR crimes. In other words, there is no favoritism here--Israel is just as subject to punishment as are the foreigners.

In the Psalms passage, David is actually making an imprecatory prayer against himself! Before he gets into asking for judgment upon his enemies, he wants to make sure the problem situation is not HIS FAULT. So he asks God to let his enemies WIN, if he himself is the perp. Instead of forgiveness, he asks for judgment upon himself--to preclude the possibility of him simply being an 'evil avenger' or 'evil curser' agent.

Job's discourse in chapter 31 is a series of such self-imprecations: "If I have done X... let Y be done to me"

As commentators frequently point out, imprecatory prayers are essentially calls to God to judge NOW and judge FULLY, instead of waiting for repentance (i.e., the damage being done is too great for the community to sustain) and instead of 'another small, symbolic corrective measure' (i.e., God has already done this repeatedly to the perps but they haven't listened--it is time to remove them). What these two passages do for me is to indicate that (a) Israel is aware that they are liable to (and often experienced) this judgment themselves; and (b) that Israel  understood that they should examine themselves first before asking for judgment upon others. This makes sense to me, especially in light of Jesus' "judge not lest you be judged" and "take the log out of your own eye, before trying to help with the speck in someone else's eye)... There's more to it than this, of course, but these two verses contributed to a more balanced view of the subject for me.

Had Josiah been more like his ancestor Hezekiah, he might have selfishly accepted that as OK ("The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” 2 Kings 20.19f), but he didn't. He loved his people--the Lord's people--more, and didn't accept this blessing as it stood. Instead, he instituted a major reform attempt to restore Judah's heart before God--knowing that God would QUICKLY relent, upon even the SLIGHTEST sign of Judah's renewal-heart. He knew--like Jonah--that an 'unconditional prophecy' of judgment was also 'no such thing'--God would always respond to the slightest indication (be it Jewish or pagan--cf. the actions of the ruler of Nineveh in response to Jonah's pronouncement of judgment) of a change of mind, of an openness to Him, of even a request for openness... He didn't give up on Judah, and tried to save his precious people. The reform was not truly heart-deep among the people, so judgment still fell upon Judah, but I am always so 'challenged' by this young man's faith. David made similar statements ("who knows if the Lord might relent?"), based upon his knowledge of God's passion to forgive, to heal, to comfort, to protect, to enjoy His people...

This challenges me to integrate more and more my understanding of God's beautiful, responsive, compassion heart into the way I see the world...

What I noted from this (in case you haven't already applied this to YOUR life already, too--smile) is that it is so much easier to 'look' (to others and yourself!)  righteous, open-to-God, submissive, servant-oriented, etc than it is to actually be such! I reflected over the situations in my life where I begged God to make His will known, and when He did--and I didn't like it--I 'explained it away' somehow (e.g., the message was somehow 'confused' due to my muddy heart and so I had to follow 'my God-given desires' instead, or other such subterfuges--of which I have many...sad chuckle).

These folks might have already had their minds made up before they asked God, or they might have simply rejected in as the response came--it doesn't matter. It is so much easier to profess a yielded heart, that it is to have or live one.

“Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant?  8 Why provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations on earth.  9 Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your fathers and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?  10 To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your fathers. “Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah. ...

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah,  16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD!  17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.  18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.” 19 The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,  21 “Did not the LORD remember and think about the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land?  22 When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became an object of cursing and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.

This is one of those all-too-common cases where God almost 'cannot win'. If He is patient in judgment-bringing with wrongdoing (of this type), people can draw the wrong conclusion. If He judges them (us) quickly, we label Him as being 'harsh' or 'impatient' or not respecting our moral freedom (or even our 'moral goodness'!). I am consistently amazed at how many things we can 'fault God' about! It's like that blame-shift habit we acquired in the Garden, in which it is always God's (or somebody created by God) fault: "the woman YOU GAVE ME gave me to eat..." and "The serpent deceived me"...