A Slow Drip
Judges 1:27-34 (condensed)
Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages. … And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. … Zebulon did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron. … Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco. … Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh. … The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, …
Consider an analogy to begin this reflection, friend. Say you find mold in the crawlspace of your home, along with six-inch deep standing water, and you hire a remedial team to pump out the water, spray the mold, and seal the walls, but you don’t address the cause of the standing water. What will happen the next time a storm hits? Unless you hire a landscaping crew to modify the terrain surrounding your foundation to divert water away from the house, you’ll be in the same moldy puddle again before long.
Consider a different analogy. Say you buy a large walnut slab from your local sawmill and take it back to your garage to build a dining room table. You buy it on sale because there’s a large hole in the center of the slab, surrounded by small gashes. No problem—you like the rustic look. So, you get to work sanding, polishing, and adding legs, till, after a few days, you bring in your polished table to the dining room, place a potted plant over the hole in the center of it, and show it off. Ah, but because you didn’t seal the hole with epoxy, those little cracks will eventually expand, making the entire table unusable at some point down the road.
The former generation in Israel provided chronicles of obedience: fortress walls crumbling at the sound of a trumpet blast, giants scampering to the shadows like roaches, demonic idols being shattered, forests being turned to pasturelands, pilgrims who finished their work and enjoyed the Sabbath rest at the end of it. Oh, but a new generation is rising that is not as meticulous as the last. A generation ready to fight but not to the death. Willing to tear down idols but not eradicate idolatry. Willing to go far in their advance but not all the way.
There’s a faint dripping sound under the floorboards of this commonwealth—a structural splintering under the ornamental décor. It’s the rumble of small compromises growing into great consequences.