Life After Joshua

Judges 2:1–22 (CSB)

1 The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your ancestors. I also said: I will never break my covenant with you. 2 You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What have you done? 3 Therefore, I now say: I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.” 4 When the angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. 5 So they named that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the Lord.

Don’t be confused by the term “angel”. Angels are not the winged shiny being we know from movies and TV shows.

Here the word “angel” is the word malak (mal-awk) in Hebrew. It comes from an unused root meaning to dispatch as a deputy. Yes it also mean messenger of God or supernatural being.

It has been mentioned before but when we see the phrase “the angel of the LORD” it is most often associated with God Himself (a theophany) - seen as the preincarnate Jesus.

This can be verified by the wording of the passage. If it were AN angel of the Lord the message most likely would have been, “The LORD says, ‘I brought you out of Egypt…” This is not what was recorded. THE angel of the LORD said, “I brought you out of Egypt…” This is clearly attributing God status to Himself.

Being God He could come in and level the charge of breaking the covenant against Israel.

God has delivered the people, given them the land and promised not to break His covenant with Isreal and all they have to do is obey Him.

Unfortunately, they failed. Because they failed to obey God, God is no longer going to intervene on their behalf against the inhabitants of the the land. The punishment would be constant aggravation from the inhabitants and an ever present risk of falling prey to the false gods and idols.

To avoid falling repeatedly into sin, remove every opportunity for temptation. If you have a drinking problem them get rid of all the alcohol in the house and don’t even eat at places that sell alcohol.

The people responded by weeping. Weeping does not necessarily mean repentance but if you combine that with their offering of sacrifices it seems as though Israel repented of their national sin.

This is an interesting concept… national sin verse personal sin. I am glad God doesn’t hold me fully responsible for the sins of America but he will hold us accountable for our actions to present the truth and out attempts to turn people from sin.

6 Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works he had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. 9 They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel.

Joshua brought the people together and renewed the covenant with the LORD then he sent the people away to complete the mission of possessing the land God had given them.

As long as Joshua was alive the people stayed focused on God. They even stayed faithful as long as the elders who were with Joshua but out lived him remained.

Vs6-9 almost parallel Joshua 24:28-31.

Notice is was the people who experienced all that God had done who remained faithful.

As faithful as they were in following the LORD they failed in a vital task… passing on to the next generation the same passion for worshipping God. This is something we need to take seriously today. If we don’t raise up the next generation they will walk away from God.

11 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals 12 and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord, 13 for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. 15 Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

Now we enter the cyclical pattern Israel cannot keep from doing: sin, slavery, supplication (crying out to God to save them), salvation and silence.

Their moment of sin was always introduced by the phrase, “The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.”

God looks on our sin as EVIL.

Baal is the title used for the storm/weather god of the Canaanites - has several names applied with the word baal. When in plural it is not referring to a multiplicity of gods but numerous manifestation of the one weather god.

Ashtoreths is commonly known as Astarte, who was worshipped as the goddess of love and war.

Because the people didn’t experience God’s miracles and because God was not working for them due to their sin, they found it easier to follow the false gods of the land.

God was furious with Israel and He didn’t hide it - God allowed the people to be punished by invaders.

God often uses the things of this world to bring judgement, punishment and correction on His people.

Without God, they could no longer find victory.

Take note - God is not an unloving God, He told them what would happen is they disobeyed so they are without excuse. He would not be just if He allowed their disobedience to go unpunished.

16 The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, 17 but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors did. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them. 19 Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways. 20 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he declared, “Because this nation has violated my covenant that I made with their ancestors and disobeyed me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I did this to test Israel and to see whether or not they would keep the Lord’s way by walking in it, as their ancestors had.”

Vs16-22 are basically an overview of Israel’s pattern of self-destruction that we will see in the rest of the book of Judges.

The LORD raised up judges - the people were saved - after a time they stopped listening to the one sent to save them - and back into trouble they went.

We can tell God loves His people because no matter how many times the people rebelled God took pity on them when they cried out to Him.