The Bible contains a number of narratives describing spiritual declension, as the people of Israel departed from the true God and His ways. The book of Judges describes one such period. We read; ‘The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.’ (Judg 2.7) In contrast, v11 says; ‘the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.’ They left behind the good and embraced evil. This took many forms, but in particular, they fell into idolatry, they ‘served the Baals’ (also v11). The writer is describing spiritual unfaithfulness, or adultery. Verse 12 repeats this; ‘they forsook the Lord their God of their fathers, who had bought them out of Egypt. The followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them.’ The latter part of this chapter (v16-23) describes the downward spiral, which is then detailed through the rest of the book.
The story of spiritual declension ends in the anarchy of chapters 17-21, when; ‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ (17.6: 21.25). Their behaviour lacked moral restraint, as corrupt worship led to corrupt behaviour. In 20.6, the Levite took his deceased concubine (!) and cut her into twelve pieces and sent them throughout the land. In the times of Joshua, I suggest, such an action would have been inconceivable.
My point is this – blame for Israel’s corrupt worship and corrupt behaviour did not lie at the feet of the invading Midianites or Ammonites, but at the feet of the people of God themselves.
The Levite’s warning stands relevant; ‘think about it! Consider it! Tell is what to do!’ (Judg 19.30)
Israel’s later history follows a similar pattern. 2 Kings 17.7-23 explains why the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated and exiled; ‘And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt.’ A few chapters later, we read of the impending and irrecoverable defeat and exile of the southern kingdom of Judah; ‘Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him’. (2 Kings 23.26-27). Even Josiah’s reforms were insufficient to rescue Judah from judgment by exile in Babylon. The northern kingdom had already been scattered, apparently ceasing to exist.
The apostles, in writing to Churches in the first century, highlight a range of failures; the legalism in Galatia, unaddressed immorality in Corinth. Ephesus had lost its first love (Rev 2.1-7); Pergamum and Thyatira had tolerated false doctrine (Rev 2.12-29); Sardis was dead (Rev 3.1). In no case did the apostle acknowledge that external factors had brought about those faults and failures.
Whilst there is no doubt that the culture in which we live impacts our lives, cooling our devotion for Christ, I suggest that the burden of scripture is that the responsibility for departing from the ways of God lies with the people of God.