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Text: Judges 2:1-10

Introduction:

1.     Judges chapter 2 begins with an angel of the LORD coming up from Gilgal to Bochim, and delivering a stern message to the children of Israel (2:1-3).

2.     This angel is a theophany (a manifestation of God), more specifically a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of the pre-existent Christ (cf. Genesis 16:7-13; 22:11-17; Exodus 3:2; etc.).  

3.     The angel of the LORD appears several times in the book of Judges (5:23; 6:11-16; 13:3-22).

4.     The angel of the LORD ceases to appear after the incarnation, indicating that the angel of the LORD is the pre-incarnate Christ.   

5.     In the Old Testament, the angel of the LORD speaks as God, is called God, identifies himself with God, and claims to exercise the prerogatives of God.

6.     The angel of the LORD is worshipped, and he is distinguished from the Father and the Holy Spirit.

7.     Judges 13:22 says, “And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”

8.     These appearances of the angel of the LORD remind us that even when Israel was backslidden and far from God, the LORD was still with them.

9.     The angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim (2:1).  Gilgal was where the Israelites first camped after crossing the Jordan River. It was there that the LORD told Joshua, “Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time” (Joshua 5:2-5).

10.    The “second time” (Joshua 5:2) means the second time circumcision was practiced by the Israelites.  The first time was when God made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:10).

I.       THE DEATH OF JOSHUA (2:6-11; Joshua 24:29-31)

1.     The angel of the LORD told Israel, “I will never break my covenant with you” (2:1), but Israel breached the covenant (2:2b, 3).

2.     God was true to His Word, but Israel had failed to obey God’s law, which included the command that they should make no league with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan (2:2).

3.     Therefore, they had to suffer the consequences of their disobedience (2:3, 4). Because of their disobedience, the LORD would not drive out the inhabitants of the land, but would allow them to stay there to be as thorns in their sides, and their gods would be a snare to Israel (2:3).

4.     The angel of the LORD’s words in verse 3 (“Wherefore I also said”) is a reminder that the LORD had already warned Israel in Numbers 33:55, 56 and Joshua 23:13.

5.     After their weeping, the Israelites sacrificed unto the LORD (2:4, 5). Sadly, their repentance and worship were short-lived.

6.     Joshua died at the age of 110 (2:8).  After his death, there arose another generation which knew not the LORD, and “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim” (2:11).

7.     The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua and his generation, but when Joshua died the Israelites quickly started to backslide (2:7-11).

8.     The plural word “Baalim” (2:11; 3:7; etc.) is a term employed to denote all the various heathen deities, and is synonymous with the expression “other gods” (2:12, 17, 19; 10:13).

9.     Baal was worshipped by different names (cf. Judges 9:46).  In Numbers 25:3 and 5, he is called “Baal-peor.”

II.    THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS HOT AGAINST ISRAEL (2:14)

1.     Four times in the book of Judges, we read, “the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel” (2:14, 20; 3:8; 10:7).

2.     This is the pattern seen repeatedly throughout the book of Judges.  The children of Israel would do evil in the sight of the LORD, and go and serve Baal and Ashtaroth and other idols.

3.     And this would provoke God to anger (2:11-15).

4.     The LORD had warned them that this would happen if they would not obey His commandments (Leviticus 26:13-17; Deuteronomy 28:25).

5.     This cycle of rebellion, retribution, repentance, and restoration went on and on all the way up to the days of Samuel, the last judge (cf. 3:8; 4:1, 2; I Samuel 4:1, 2; etc.).

6.     Baal was a fertility god, worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The practice of Baal worship became popular with the Israelites during the time of the Judges (2:13), and became widespread in Israel during the reign of King Ahab.

7. Five hundred years after the death of Joshua, Elijah the prophet said to the people assembled up on Mount Carmel, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (I Kings 18:21).

8. Ashtaroth (2:13) was the name of the chief female deity worshiped by the Canaanites and the Philistines. The Greeks called her Aphrodite, and the Romans called her Venus, etc.

9.     Judges 3:7 says that the children of Israel “served Baalim and the groves.” The groves were places where people went to worship Ashtoroth.

10. Because of Israel’s disobedience and incomplete conquest of the land of Canaan, Ashtaroth-worship survived and plagued Israel.  It began right after Joshua died and it continued on for hundreds of years (Judges 2:13; 10:6, 7; cf. I Samuel 7:3, 4; 12:10).

III.  THE LORD RAISED UP JUDGES, WHICH DELIVERED THEM FROM THEIR ENEMIES (2:15-23)

1. The LORD is compassionate and He acted in behalf of His backslidden people by raising up judges (2:16-18). 

2. The LORD raised up the judges to induce them to repent. But “they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods” (2:17).

3. “Whoring” (2:17) is often used figuratively in the Bible to describe idolatry (cf. Exodus 34:15, 16; Leviticus 17:7). The most disgusting and vilest immoralities were connected with Baal-worship.

4. When Israel went whoring after the heathen gods, they were dragged down to their level. “All moral corruption, social and political confusion is the result of turning away from God” -- A.C. Gaebelein.

5. Judges 2:18 says, “for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.” The LORD does not repent the way men repent.  First Samuel 15:29 says that God “is not a man, that he should repent.”

6. However, there are several instances in the Bible where human emotions are used to describe God. The idea here in Judges 2:18 is the LORD was moved to pity because of their groanings, that is, the LORD had compassion on them.

7. Other examples where human emotions are ascribed to God are Genesis 6:6 (“And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”), Exodus 20:5 (“for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God”), and I Samuel 15:35 (“the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel”).

8. It has been said that these figures of speech “can be helpful in enabling us to at least partially comprehend the incomprehensible, know the unknowable, and fathom the unfathomable.”

9. “And it came to pass, when the judge was dead...” When the judge died, they returned to their idolatry (2:19).  They “corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them...” (2:19).

10. They stubbornly refused to obey God (2:19b). And once again, we read, “And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel” (2:20; cf. 2:14).

11. Back in the days of Moses, the LORD told Israel that He would “cut off” the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Exodus 23:23).

12. Israel was told, “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images... Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.” (Exodus 23:24, 32).

13. But Israel transgressed the covenant which God made with their fathers, and they not hearkened unto His voice (Judges 2:20).  Therefore, the LORD said that He would not drive out any from before them of the nations (2:21).

“We can wear out all forbearance but God’s, which is endless. We weary Him indeed, but we do not weary Him out, with our iniquities. Man’s sin stretches far; but God’s patient love overlaps it. It lasts long; but God’s love is eternal. It resists miracles of chastisement and love; but He does not cease His use of the rod and the staff. We can tire out all other forbearance, but not His. And however old and obstinate our rebellion, He waits to pardon, and smites but to heal” -- Alexander Maclaren.

These are simple Sunday School survey notes. They are not for sale. The author used many outlines from popular Bible teachers such as C.I. Scofield and J. Vernon McGee, and he has tried to give credit when using their material.

—  Pastor James J. Barker  —