Consequences

Judges 2:11-23

INTRODUCTION:

Opening Question:

If you could pick any OT Bible Character to have lunch with, who would it be?

Some of the most fascinating historical figures in the OT are some of the judges.

Can you name any of them?

The book of Judges records twelve major judges who led Israel during the period of the judges. Here’s the complete list:

Othniel — son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who delivered Israel (Judg 3:9–11), with the land experiencing rest for forty years (Judg 3:9–11).

Ehud — a left-handed Benjamite who served as a deliverer (Judg 3:15–31) against Moabite oppression through a dramatic assassination.

Deborah — a prophetess who judged Israel (Judg 4:4–5:31), working alongside Barak to lead military forces against enemy forces (Judg 4:4–5:31).

Gideon — called by God to save Israel from the Midianites (Judg 6:11–8:35), known for his military victories with a small force.

Abimelech — though not a traditional judge in the same sense, he briefly ruled Israel (Judges 9).

Tola — from Issachar, who judged Israel for twenty-three years (Judg 10:1–5).

Jair — a Gileadite who judged Israel for twenty-two years (Judg 10:1–5).

Jephthah — a mighty man of valor from Gilead (Judg 11–16), who led Israel against the Ammonites.

Ibzan — judged Israel for seven years (Judges 12:8–10).

Elon — judged Israel for ten years (Judges 12:11–12).

Abdon — judged Israel for eight years (Judges 12:13–15).

Samson — the final judge, known for his supernatural strength and conflicts with the Philistines (Judges 13–16).

The cycle throughout Judges shows Israel experiencing oppression, crying out to God, and receiving deliverance through these divinely appointed leaders.

The book of Joshua ends on a high note. In Joshua 24, the aged leader gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, rehearsed the mighty acts of God from Abraham to the conquest, and issued a final, unforgettable challenge:  "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).

The people responded with a solemn, collective affirmation:  "The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey" (Joshua 24:24).

Joshua recorded it in the book of the law of God, set up a stone of witness, and sent the people to their inheritance. Then Joshua died.

The very next chapter of Israel's story opens with that vow already in ruins. The generation that pledged faithfulness at Shechem has passed from the scene, and what rises in their place is a generation that "knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10).

The contrast could not be more jarring: one chapter, solemn covenant renewal; the next, wholesale abandonment. What happened? And what does it mean for us?

Israel's rebellion in Judges and God's response to it stands as a warning to us against rebelling against God. The cycle we are about to trace through these thirteen verses — sin, judgment, crying out, deliverance, and back to sin again — is not merely ancient history. It is a mirror, and what it reflects about the human heart has not changed since the days of the judges. The record of Israel's rebellion in Judges was written as a warning to us.

We shouldnot rebel against God’s ways for three reasons.

REASON #1 – GOD JUDGES REBELLION IN HIS PEOPLE (vv. 11-15)

A. Israel's rebellion was a deliberate act of covenant-breaking (vv. 11-13).

Judges 2:11–13 KJV 1900

11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. 13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

The opening words are blunt and unsparing: the children of Israel "did evil in the sight of the LORD." The Hebrew word for evil here speaks of moral wickedness — not careless stumbling, but willful transgression against a known standard. Their rebellion expressed itself in one repeated, devastating word: they forsook the LORD. The word translated "forsook" (ʿāzab) means to abandon, to leave behind, to walk away from. Israel knew exactly who God was, what He had done, and what He required — and they deliberately chose to walk away.

What makes the rebellion all the more inexcusable is who they abandoned. They forsook "the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt." This is the God of the burning bush, the parted sea, the manna in the wilderness, the walls of Jericho. Their defection was not a product of ignorance — it was ingratitude of the deepest kind. And where they went makes it worse still: they followed "the gods of the people that were round about them." Rather than being a distinct and holy people whose faithfulness influenced the nations, they simply became like the nations. They pledged allegiance to Baal — the Canaanite storm god whose worshipers believed he controlled the rainfall and harvest upon which their survival depended — and to Ashtaroth, the goddess of sex and fertility, whose worship incorporated ritual sexual immorality. The people delivered from slavery had voluntarily placed themselves under the most degrading spiritual bondage imaginable.

B. God's judgment on their rebellion was righteous and certain (vv. 14-15).

Judges 2:14–15 KJV 1900

14 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

What followed was immediate and severe. "The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel." God's wrath is never arbitrary or impulsive — it is the holy response of a covenant God to deliberate covenant betrayal. Through Moses, God had warned Israel in exact terms what would come upon them if they broke the covenant:

Deuteronomy 28:15 KJV 1900

15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

Israel should not have been surprised. They had been warned plainly and repeatedly.

The discipline took a concrete, devastating form: God "delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about." The generation of Joshua had marched through Canaan in victory; this generation could not stand before any enemy. Wherever they turned, "the hand of the LORD was against them for evil." The very power that had parted the Red Sea and toppled Jericho's walls was now arrayed against them. They were, as the text says, "greatly distressed." God takes rebellion in His people seriously — seriously enough to allow the full weight of its consequences to fall.

REASON #2 – GOD RESPONDS TO THE CRY OF HIS PEOPLE (vv. 16-19)

A. God's response to their cry reveals the depth of His compassion (vv. 16, 18).

Judges 2:16 KJV 1900

16 Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Judges 2:18 KJV 1900

18 And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

The most important word in this section may be the very first one: "Nevertheless." Despite the rebellion, despite the betrayal, despite the undeniable fact that Israel had no one to blame but themselves — nevertheless the LORD raised up judges to deliver them. When the people groaned under the crushing weight of their oppression, the text tells us that "it repented the LORD because of their groanings." God was moved by their suffering. He heard their cry and He acted.

It is worth noting carefully what the text does not say. It does not say Israel repented. It says they groaned — they cried out under the pain of the consequences of their own choices. And still God responded. This is not because Israel deserved rescue; they clearly did not. It is because God's faithfulness to His people is rooted in His own character, not in theirs. The judges He raised up over three centuries — twelve in all, drawn from nine different tribes, ordinary and unlikely people — were instruments of a compassion that originated entirely in God Himself.

Before moving further, there is a word in verse 18 that deserves careful attention, because it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the church today. The text says "it repented the LORD because of their groanings." To the modern ear, that is a puzzling — even troubling — statement. Does God sin and need to repent? The answer is absolutely not, and the text is not saying anything of the kind.

When the Bible says God "repented" here, it means He turned — to something and from something. He turned from the full weight of His judgment toward compassion and action on behalf of His suffering people. This is not God correcting a mistake or changing His essential character. It is His covenant faithfulness expressing itself in response to their cries, exactly as He had always promised to do. His character did not change; His response did, because the circumstances of the covenant relationship had changed.

This is also a fitting moment to be clear about what repentance means for us, because confusion here has done real damage in the modern church. Repentance is not sorrow. Sorrow leads to repentance, but feeling badly about sin is not repentance itself. Paul draws this line sharply: e

2 Corinthians 7:10 KJV 1900

10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Israel in these very verses is a sobering illustration of the difference — they groaned under the consequences of their choices, but they did not truly repent, and the cycle continued to repeat.

Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of direction. In salvation, it means coming into agreement with God — about who He is, about who we are, about the reality of our sin, and about what Christ has done and freely offers. It is the alignment of our minds and wills with God's own assessment of our condition and His provision for it. In our sanctification — in the daily walk of the believer — repentance is what happens when we recognize that disobeying God is not merely a detour; it is walking away from Him. Repentance is the turn back. And when we turn, we find that confession, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration are there waiting for us.

Israel's experience in these verses puts both kinds of repentance on full display — God's compassionate turning toward His people, and His people's failure to genuinely turn toward Him. That contrast is precisely what drives the cycle forward.

B. The shallowness of their response warns us against presuming on God's grace (vv. 17, 19).

Judges 2:17 KJV 1900

17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.

Judges 2:19 KJV 1900

19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.

Verses 17 and 19 add a deeply sobering note. Even as God was raising up deliverers, the people "would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods." The language of spiritual harlotry captures precisely how God viewed their idolatry — as the violation of a marriage covenant. And when each judge died, they "returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers." Every generation descended lower than the one before. They cried out for relief from the consequences of sin without ever truly turning from sin itself.

This is the warning embedded in God's compassion: His responsiveness to our cries is not a license to continue in rebellion. To presume that God will always send deliverance regardless of how we live is to misread His grace and to test His patience. God responds to the cry of His people — but the purpose of every deliverance is to bring His people back to faithful obedience, not merely to relieve their immediate suffering.

REASON #3 – GOD TESTS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE (vv. 20-23)

A. Persistent rebellion brought a decisive word from God (vv. 20-21).

Judges 2:20–21 KJV 1900

20 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:

The cycle has now repeated itself more than once, and each time Israel has sunk lower. God's response moves from discipline to declaration. The distancing language of verse 20 is striking — He calls them "this people," not "my people." Sin produces alienation between God and His people, and that alienation is felt in every word of this pronouncement. God declares that He will no longer drive out the remaining Canaanite nations from before them. He was allowing Israel to live fully with the world they had chosen. They wanted to be like the nations; they would now dwell permanently among them.

B. God's testing was designed to expose what was truly in their hearts (v. 22).

Judges 2:22 KJV 1900

22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

But beyond the weight of this judgment lay a purposeful design. God declared it plainly: "That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not." The word "prove" (nāsāh) means to test, to examine, to determine what is genuine. God was not gathering new information — He is omniscient and already knew. The test was designed to reveal to Israel what was in their own hearts, and to give them the opportunity to respond with genuine faithfulness.

God has always worked this way with His people. Abraham was tested on Mount Moriah — not for God's information, but to reveal and confirm what genuine faith looks like. Job endured unimaginable loss, and through it the authenticity of his trust in God was proven before heaven and earth. James reminds us that  "the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).

Difficulty does not destroy what is real — it exposes and refines it. But it also exposes what is false. A faith that cannot stand the pressure of the Canaanites in the land was never deeply rooted in God to begin with.

C. God's sovereignty was at work even through their failure (v. 23).

Verse 23 closes the passage with a statement that must not be overlooked: "the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua." The nations remaining in the land were not there by accident or historical oversight. They were there because God left them there — by deliberate design, as part of His sovereign purpose. This was not a failure of Joshua's leadership. It was God's plan working precisely as He intended.

This is simultaneously humbling and comforting. It humbles us because it means no human failure can ultimately frustrate God's purposes — He works through failure, around it, and in spite of it. It comforts us because it means nothing in our lives lies outside His sovereign hand. The same God who left those nations in the land to test and refine Israel oversees every difficulty in our own lives — always with the purpose of drawing His people back to Himself and conforming them to the image of His Son:

Romans 8:28 KJV 1900

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

CONCLUSION: The record of Israel's rebellion in Judges was written as a warning to us. Three truths from this passage carry that warning forward:

· God Judges Rebellion In His People,

· God Responds To The Cry Of His People,

· God Tests The Hearts Of His People.

None of these are comfortable truths — but they are the truths of a God who takes His people seriously and loves them too much to leave them in their sin.

The challenge of Joshua 24 has not expired.  "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).

Israel answered that challenge with a solemn vow, then broke it within a generation. The warning is written. What will we do with it?