The Unfinished Work of Holy War Text: Judges 1:8-10
Introduction: The Ongoing Conquest
We come now to the book of Judges, and we find ourselves in what you might call the messy middle. The great leader, Joshua, is dead. The initial, glorious conquest of Canaan, where God toppled the great cities and broke the back of the pagan resistance, is over. But the work is not finished. Not by a long shot. The period of the Judges is the story of a covenant people who were given a glorious inheritance but who failed, repeatedly and spectacularly, to take full possession of it. They were called to a holy war, a complete dispossession of the wicked Canaanites, and they settled for a lazy and compromised coexistence.
This is a book that modern, sentimental Christians find deeply embarrassing. All this fighting, this smiting with the edge of the sword, this talk of dispossession. It seems so harsh, so unlike the gentle, meek, and mild Jesus of the popular imagination. But that Jesus is a fiction, a stained-glass caricature. The Jesus of the Bible is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the one who wages war in righteousness. And the conquest of Canaan, bloody and severe as it was, was an act of righteous judgment. The Canaanites were not innocent farmers being displaced; their culture was a festering sewer of child sacrifice, ritual prostitution, and demonic idolatry. God, in His patience, had given them centuries to repent (Gen. 15:16), and now the time of judgment had come. Israel was His instrument, His holy scalpel, to cut this cancer out of the land.
But the scalpel grew dull. The soldiers grew weary. The people grew complacent. And this is the central lesson of Judges, and it is a lesson for us. God gives us the victory in Christ. He has conquered sin, death, and the devil. He has given us a glorious inheritance. But He calls us to fight. He calls us to take possession of that inheritance, to drive out the lingering pockets of sin in our own hearts, in our families, in our churches, and in our culture. The conquest is ongoing. The war is not over. And the great temptation, then and now, is to stop fighting, to make peace with the enemy, to settle for a truce when God has commanded total victory.
In these few verses, we see the tribe of Judah, who was appointed by God to lead the charge, having some initial and significant successes. They are a picture of what could have been, and what should have been, for all of Israel. They show us the pattern of faithful warfare that leads to blessing.
The Text
Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the Shephelah. So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
(Judges 1:8-10 LSB)
Taking the High Places (v. 8)
We begin with the assault on a key city:
"Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire." (Judges 1:8)
Here Judah, the royal tribe, the tribe of the Lion, does what God commanded. They go up against Jerusalem, a formidable Jebusite stronghold. The language is stark and unsentimental. They fought, they captured, they struck, they burned. This is the language of holy war, or herem. This is not about territorial acquisition for its own sake; it is about cleansing the land. Fire in Scripture is a consistent symbol of judgment and purification. By setting the city on fire, Judah was not just destroying a military target; they were cauterizing a wound, burning out a pagan infection from the land God had consecrated to Himself.
Jerusalem, of course, is a city with a profound theological destiny. It will become the city of David, the site of the Temple, the place where God puts His name. It is the earthly center of God's covenant dealings with His people, and a type of the heavenly Jerusalem to come. It is entirely fitting that Judah, the tribe from which the Messiah would come, should be the one to lead the charge against it. This is a down payment, a foreshadowing of the ultimate conquest of Jerusalem that Christ would accomplish, not with a literal sword, but with the sword of His mouth on the cross, where He defeated the spiritual powers that held the world captive.
But there is a tragic irony here. We read later in this same chapter (v. 21) that the tribe of Benjamin fails to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and they dwell there "to this day." This tells us something crucial. Judah's victory was real, but it was incomplete. They took the city, but they didn't hold it. The enemy was beaten back but not entirely dispossessed. This sets the pattern for the entire book. A great victory, followed by a failure of nerve, a lazy compromise, which allows the enemy to regroup and become a snare later on. This is a picture of so many Christian lives. We have a great victory over a particular sin, a moment of glorious consecration, but we fail to do the hard work of rooting out all its tendrils, and before we know it, the Jebusites are back in the city, demanding tribute.
A Three-Front War (v. 9)
The campaign continues, moving from the specific target of Jerusalem to the broader regions of Judah's inheritance.
"And afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the Shephelah." (Judges 1:9 LSB)
This verse gives us the geography of the spiritual battle. Judah presses its advantage on three fronts: the hill country, the Negev, and the Shephelah. This is not random. It represents the totality of their inheritance. The hill country was the mountainous spine of their territory, the Negev was the arid south, and the Shephelah was the rolling foothills to the west. The lesson is plain: the conquest must be comprehensive. We are not called to conquer just the convenient parts of our lives for Christ. We are not called to drive sin out of the public "hill country" of our lives while letting it fester in the dry, hidden places of the "Negev" of our hearts, or in the comfortable, rolling "Shephelah" of our daily habits.
The Christian life is a three-front war. It is a war for the heart (the hill country of our worship), a war for the mind (the Negev of our private thoughts), and a war for our hands (the Shephelah of our public deeds). A victory in one area is not enough. Judah understood that to possess the land, they had to fight for all of it. They had to be faithful in the large battles and the small ones, on every kind of terrain. This is the model of sanctification. It is a steady, persistent, comprehensive advance against the remaining sin in every corner of our inheritance.
Confronting Giants in the City of Fellowship (v. 10)
Finally, the focus narrows again to another significant city, one with a history stretching back to the patriarchs.
"So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai." (Judges 1:10 LSB)
This verse is packed with theological weight. First, we are told the target is Hebron. The name Hebron comes from a Hebrew root meaning "fellowship" or "league." This was the place where Abraham, the friend of God, dwelt and buried his wife Sarah (Gen. 23). It was a place of deep covenantal significance. For it to be occupied by Canaanites was an abomination. It was a defilement of a holy place. Judah's fight for Hebron was not just a military campaign; it was an act of reclaiming their covenant heritage.
We too have a Hebron, a place of fellowship with God given to us in Christ. But it is constantly threatened by Canaanite intruders, worldly thoughts, idolatrous desires, faithless anxieties. We must fight for our fellowship with God. We must guard our Hebron. It is a precious inheritance, bought with blood, and we cannot allow the enemy to set up strongholds there.
The text then gives us the city's old name: Kiriath-arba, which means "City of Arba." Joshua 14:15 tells us Arba was "the greatest man among the Anakim," a race of giants. The names of the men they struck, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, were the very sons of Anak who had terrified the faithless spies generations earlier (Num. 13:22, 33). This is a glorious detail. The very giants that caused their fathers to tremble and rebel in unbelief are now being struck down by a new generation walking in faith. This is a direct reversal of the failure at Kadesh-barnea.
This is what faith does. It confronts the very giants that unbelief runs from. The sins and fears that defeated one generation can be conquered by the next, if that generation will but trust and obey God. What are the giants in your life? What are the "sons of Anak" that have terrified you, the besetting sins that seem too big to defeat? This text is a promise. By faith, in the strength that God supplies, you can go up against your Hebron, your Kiriath-arba, and you can strike them down. The old fears, the generational sins, the seemingly invincible strongholds, can be torn down. This is the work of the sons of Judah, the sons of the King.
Conclusion: Fight for Your Inheritance
These three verses, then, are a microcosm of the Christian life. We are called to a holy war. We begin with a great victory, like the taking of Jerusalem, but we must be warned against the incomplete obedience that allows the enemy to remain. We must press the battle on all fronts, in the hill country, the Negev, and the Shephelah of our lives. And we must have the courage to face down the giants of old, reclaiming our covenant inheritance of fellowship with God.
The story of Judges is largely a story of failure. But it begins here, with Judah, showing us the path of victory. The path is simple: trust God and do what He says. Take Him at His word that He has given you the land, and then get up and fight for it. Christ has won the war. He has secured our inheritance. But He calls us to be soldiers, to engage in the mopping-up operation, to take possession of every square inch of what He has won for us.
Do not grow weary in the fight. Do not make a treaty with the Canaanites in your heart. Do not be intimidated by the giants. You are sons of Judah, the royal tribe. Your King has gone before you and He has already conquered. Therefore, take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and fight. Fight for Jerusalem. Fight for Hebron. Fight for every corner of the glorious land He has promised you.