Judges 2:1-3 – 1 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
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Judges chapters 1-3 give to us the account of Israel’s first years after the rule of Joshua. As the nation fought to take the land, they failed to thoroughly drive out the inhabitants. Later, those enemies whom the nation refused to destroy reared their heads to the harm of Israel. Simply put, Israel struggled and often failed because they failed to obey God’s command to completely destroy their enemies.
It is apparent that, in the Christian life, we too must strive against sin in such a way as to utterly destroy it. It is no good simply to have partial or temporary victory over a sinful habit. We need to so fight against sin as to put it to death, to mortify it. While we may never be totally victorious in this lifetime, we must battle against our sinful natures in such a way that we show our sin no mercy, no rest, no chance to regroup and assault us.
Read the following excerpts from chapter 6 of John Owen’s book, On the Mortification of Sin in the Life of the Believer (I have no page numbers to offer you, as this is from a downloaded copy from www.ccel.org):
“As a man nailed to the cross; he first struggles, and strives, and cries out with great strength and might, but, as his blood and spirits waste, his strivings are faint and seldom, his cries low and hoarse, scarce to be heard; — when a man first sets on a lust or distemper, to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved; but when by mortification the blood and spirits of it are let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparingly, and is scarce heard in the heart; it may have sometimes a dying pang, that makes an appearance of great vigour and strength, but it is quickly over, especially if it be kept from considerable success.”
“This is the folly of some men; they set themselves with all earnestness and diligence against the appearing eruption of lust, but, leaving the principle and root untouched, perhaps unsearched out, they make but little or no progress in this work of mortification.”
“Such a one never thinks his lust dead because it is quiet, but labours still to give it new wounds, new blows every day.”
“For instance, when the heart finds sin at any time at work, seducing, forming imaginations to make provision for the flesh, to fulfill that lusts thereof, it instantly apprehends sin, and brings it to the law of God and love of Christ, condemns it, follows it with execution to the uttermost. Now, I say, when a man comes to this state and condition, that lust is weakened in the root and principle, that its motions and actions are fewer and weaker than formerly, so that they are not able to hinder his duty nor interrupt his peace, — when he can, in a quiet, sedate frame of spirit, find out and fight against sin, and have success against it, — then sin is mortified in some considerable measure, and, notwithstanding all its opposition, a man may have peace with God all his days.”
Pastor Travis Peterson 