Judges 2:1-5 "Covenant Disobedience"

Introduction

Once the major battles of the conquest were over and Joshua died the Nation was divided among the tribes of Israel. There were then only smaller battles to fight in more remote and regional battles in smaller areas and the Lord designated the tribe of Judah to lead in these battles and they did.

But some of the other tribes did not do their part in driving out the inhabitants of the land in their specific regions as the Lord had commanded.

Instead the allowed the Canaanites to stay and they subjected them into slavery. They put them into forced labor just as they had been subjected to in the land of Egypt.

In their minds they probably thought it would be a great idea to enslave a people to do the task that required hard labor instead of doing yourself. It would be so much easier to disobey the Lord and keep a people enslaved than to drive them out.

Sinful Disobedience is often like that. It is easier to accommodate covenant disobedience for what we may deem to be a practical good that enhances our lives in some way, than it is to be faithful to the Lord.

Brothers and Sisters, Israel serves as a great example for us in this as their disobedience to the Lord is a crime against the Lord and defiant in the face of His covenant fidelity. Look back at your text to verses 1-2 at what I am referring to as the Crime:

I. The Crime (1-2).

We see here that the Angel of the Lord went to Bochim. This is a place in the vicinity of Bethel. Bethel is the place where Jacob had the vision of the ladder from heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending on it.

This is the place where the Angelic being spoke to the people in the absence of Joshua, He was already dead. We know this because the beginning of chapter one tells us so. Chapter 2:6 says “When Joshua dismissed the people” is denoting a historical overview beginning in verse 6.

The violation of the covenant by the people is described in Judges 1:1-36 after Joshua’s death and then they are confronted with their crime in Judges 2:1-2.

The Angel of the Lord speaks of the Lord’s own faithfulness to His covenant as He swore that He would never break His covenant with them. But they were required to obey the commands and abide by the terms of Yahweh’s covenant with His people.

The people were commanded to make no covenant with the people of the land. They violated this under deception of the Gibeonites. Joshua didn’t seek the Lord in this and instead they rushed into a covenant with them that God required them to honor once they made it. The real problem with this whole thing on Israel’s part is seen in Joshua 9:14–15 “14 So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. 15 And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.”

The people were also commanded to break down the pagan altars of the Canaanites but they didn’t. The left everything intact as to keep the door open for their own perceived benefit even from a spiritual and religious perspective.

Christian where we fall for such notions is when we see the pagan practices of our culture and we incorporate such things into the practice of our own lives as Christians. We embrace cultural practices that are contrary to God’s word because we love to accommodate the culture of this world in an attempt to appear relevant but in the end it is contrary to the word of God.

Especially the sins that are of a sexual nature. Or when a radical materialism tends to dictate our choices that we make instead of the word of God.

Christian it took a lot of faith to march into battle in the time of Joshua to be dependent upon the Lord to give you victory over your enemies when what you see experientially tells you something contrary to what the Lord promises.

In the human condition the thing that often makes the most sense is that which seems the most logical and requires the least amount of sacrifice and discomfort. An we like to imagine that in the end the Lord will be fine with our decisions.

Christian this is why prayer is essential if we are to seek the Lord’s leading in our life. And the word of God is essential to governing our prayers and our discernment of the Lord’s direction.

We can desire something of the world and convince ourselves it is of a practical good because in the end we want our desires to be met regardless of what God really wants from us. Christianity is about being a disciple of Jesus Christ and not primarily about meeting the felt needs that we perceive we have.

The point is that the things that we often make the priority are the very things that God is trying to minimize in our lives that He might have the place of supremacy in our lives.

Christian there are consequences to living this way in the covenant history of the people of God. Just as there were for the people of Israel in the Land. Look back at your text to verse 3 at the consequences:

II. The Consequences (3).

As punishment for their disobedience the Lord will no longer drive them out before them and He will allow the Canaanites to be a “thorn in their side” and the pagan gods, of whose altars they preserved, will be a snare for them.

“A thorn in their side” denotes a cursed pain upon their lives. These people will always be a problem for them, like a nagging pain for their lives. I like to think of it as a perpetual kidney stone that never goes away. One that will never pass. Always there reminding you of your failure to obey the Lord.

The idea of a snare is that the pagan gods will always be a trap for their spiritual vitality to be compromised. This will cause the Israelites to fall again and again and again.

The whole Book of Judges is the reciprocal cycles of the people falling into the worship of false gods and they end up in bondage or oppression from the pagans around them and they cry out for the Lord and He raises up a deliverer to liberate them and then the cycle repeats.

Our dog bandit has a white patch of hair on the end of his tail. Sometimes he will look back and see it and start chasing it. And at times he tries to bite at it when he chases it.

I find it very entertaining and he seems to really enjoy it, but wonder sometimes if he realizes that he is doing nothing more than chasing himself.

Sin is like that isn’t it. It is when we chase ourselves and our ambitions and when we catch them we bite down only to find that it is ourselves that we have been chasing instead of God.

And Christian the consequences can be devastating sometimes. And the Lord teaches us through the consequences something about the weakness and vulnerability of our own hearts.

And the outcome for us as the people of God should always initially be one of contrition as it was for the people of Israel in the Land at the beginning of the book of Judges. Look back at verses 4-5 at the Contrition:

III. The Contrition (4-5).

Why did the people lift up their voices and weep? That is why they called the place Bochim because the word means weepers in Hebrew.

They wept because the Angel of the Lord had brought them face to face with the reality and consequence of their sin. This is where the rubber meets the proverbial road. It was undeniable and the consequences revealed that the Lord’s blessing would no longer be upon them.

Why did they make sacrifice?

Because according to the Law of Moses they would have done it as a means to purge them of their guilt and shame before Yahweh.

Before we are ready to imagine this was a reformation of a long-lasting spiritual awakening, we may want to read the divine commentary on them from down in Judges 2:11-15:

You may remember when the Holy Spirit at times has brought you face to face with your sin in light of the holiness and righteousness of Yahweh. I can remember tears of my own and tears of others as I witnessed God bringing the conviction to peoples hearts.

But no one ever said to me afterwards nor did I ever think OK I need to sacrifice an animal in my place according to the Law of Moses. Not even in my repetition of my habitual sin or in the habitual sins of others.

You see Christian the Law was incapable of changing us internally. It was only capable of external conformity of someone initiating their own salvation through their human conformity and compliance to the Law.

If our acceptance before God was based on our good works in compliance to the Law of Moses then what would our sin and failure indicate? If our achievement meant acceptance then our failure in keeping the Law would indicate our rejection.

Our security would be like a spiritual seesaw. But like in the days in the school yard we have all witnessed the big kid on one end and the skinniest kid in the class on the other end. The weight of our sin under the Law would always weigh us down.

Conclusion:

Truth is without Christ the weight of the Law always be against us. Without the Holy Spirit in us we would always chase our own tails in perpetual cycles of being caught between religious performance and failure to determine our standing before God.

The good news is that Christ came into the world to break the cycle of us chasing our own tails. He came to direct us away from chasing idolatrous expressions of the self and He has set us free to live freely for Him in all His glory.

Unbeliever Christ is the only liberator who can set you free from your own godless ambitions and liberate you to live for your ultimate purpose. He died so that by faith in Him in all that He has done you are redeemed by God for God. Believe the gospel by faith today.

Believer this is our life. Don’t run for an animal and look for an altar Christ has paid it in full once and for all time.

In Christ we are redeemed and free to live in light of the fullness of our purpose. Accepted before God on the basis of Christ alone. Therefore we are secure because Christ kept the Law for us and then paid for all of our sin in full.

Confess your sin and receive from Him the marvelous and majestic sufficiency of His grace. Let’s Pray!