Here we are introduced to the angel of the LORD, Judges 2:1. Who is the angel of the LORD? He also appeared to Gideon, Judges 6:11-24, and Manoah’s wife, Judges 13:2-25. In everyone one of those texts, and these verses, we find the angel of the Lord speaking in the first person as God and speaking with authority, Judges 2:1-5 / Judges 5:23 / Judges 6:11-24 / Judges 13:1-25. So who is this angel of the LORD? He is none other than God Himself, Joshua 5:13-15.
The ‘angel of the Lord’ is what we call a Christophany, that is, an appearance of the Christ. And it shouldn’t surprise us that God would reveal Himself in another form, after all, God Himself came in human form in the form of Jesus, John 1:1-2 / John 1:14.
Haynes Jr, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A study of these passages reveals that the Angel of the Lord appeared in human form, Genesis 18:2 / Genesis 22:1-18 / Hebrews 13:2, and performed normal human functions, Genesis 32:24 / Numbers 22:23 / Numbers 22:31, yet he was an awe-inspiring figure, Genesis 32:30 / Judges 6:22 / Judges 13:22, exhibiting divine attributes and prerogatives including predicting the future, Genesis 16:10-12, forgiving sin, Exodus 23:21, and receiving worship, Exodus 3:5 / Judges 13:9-20.’
In other words, even though this was Israel’s darkest time in history, God was still very much involved with His people. It appears that the half-hearted attempts to dislodge the Amorites and also the failure to destroy the Canaanites completely brought a rebuke from God.
He reminds them of what he did for them in Egypt and the wilderness, Judges 2:1, how He has kept faithfully His promises to Abraham and the Patriarchs, Judges 2:2 / Exodus 33:1 / Numbers 14:14:23 / Numbers 31:11 / Deuteronomy 1:35 / Deuteronomy 10:11 / Deuteronomy 31:20-23. There was no way that any blame could be attached to God in saying that he had let the people down in any way. In every way, God had acted consistently with His justice and divine righteous nature.
He reminds them of the covenant he had with them and they have broken that covenant, Genesis 15:18. He reminds them that the covenant was conditional, that they were not to allow the inhabitants to live or they would face the consequences, Judges 2:2 / Exodus 24:3 / Exodus 24:7 / Joshua 24:18 / Joshua 24:21 / Joshua 24:24. They were quite willing to take the gifts from God but were not willing to keep their obligations towards God. They had promised to love their God to honour and obey their God, keeping His covenants and commandments,
In the days of Moses, He had said ‘you must destroy them totally and make no treaty with them and show them no mercy, Deuteronomy 7:2. Israel had been tricked into making a treaty with the Gibeonites, Joshua 9, and whenever a tribe of Israel was unable to drive out the inhabitants living in the land which was assigned to them, they made them tributaries, they made some kind of arrangement for these people to live among them and pay tribute to them.
They were also commanded to throw down the altars of these people, Judges 2:2. Through Moses, God had commanded the Israelites to ‘break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places,’ Deuteronomy 12:3. This Israel had failed to do that, in fact, she herself had turned to worship Baalam and Ashtaroth.
God said that because Israel failed to obey him completely, He wouldn’t drive out the nations before them and He left the nations to be as thorns in their sides, Judges 2:2-3 / Exodus 23:31-33 / Exodus 34:11-16 / Numbers 33:51-56 / Deuteronomy 7:1-5. He further stated that, since they had not overthrown their altars, these pagan gods would be a snare to Israel, Judges 2:3. Ultimately, these people in their false worship brought the downfall of Israel.
The people realised that the angel of the LORD had spoken the truth about them and as a result, they lifted up their voices and wept, Judges 2:4-5. Their weeping was of such nature that it gave the name Bokim to the place, Judges 2:5. The word Bokim means ‘weepers’. Bokim was evidently near Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim. The exact location of this place is altogether unknown today.
God had ordered the people to make no treaties with the inhabitants of the land into which they came. At that time, they also sacrificed there to the Lord, Judges 2:5 / Exodus 23:28-31 / Exodus 34:11, and so, they accepted the Lord’s punishment and turned to him for help.
Wolf, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The deplorable spiritual condition of the Israelites, not their lack of chariots, lay behind their failure to dispossess the Canaanites. To expose Israel’s sinfulness, the ’angel of the Lord’ appeared to them, Judges 2:1.’
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This paragraph is almost identical to the one in Joshua 24:28-31. Its purpose is to resume the history of Israel at this point, where the Book of Joshua ended, and to contrast the era of Joshua with the era of the judges, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 / Ezra 1:1-3. The key issue was whom the Israelites ‘served’ or ‘worshiped’ NRSV.’
Joshua had dismissed the Reubenites, Gadites and Manassites from Shiloh when the period of the conquest was ended, Judges 2:6 / Joshua 22:9. He allowed them to go back to the land which had been promised to them by Moses, Judges 2:6 / Joshua 22:9. He then called the elders of Israel to him at Shiloh and delivered the charge, Joshua 23:1-16.
Finally, he gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. He called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers, Joshua 24:1-13. On that occasion, he delivered his famous challenge and urged them to choose whom they would serve. After this thrilling event, it is recorded that ‘Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance’, Joshua 24:28. The people served God throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things God had done for Israel, Joshua 2:7 / Joshua 24:31.
This introduction to the book of Judges harks back to that meeting and sets the stage for the situation which demanded the raising up of the judges. They served God most of all but also followed pagan superstitions. They had expressly failed to drive out the inhabitants of the land and thus failed to serve the Lord completely by disobeying His commandment which he had given them.
They had also failed to throw down the altars of the Canaanites into whose land they had come, 2 Kings 17:40-41. Generally speaking, however, they had served God. This merging of both religions continued to plague the people of Israel when the Northern Kingdom was finally carried into captivity by the Assyrians, 2 Kings 17:3-6.
Joshua died at the age of a hundred and ten, Judges 2:8 / Joshua 24:29-30, and they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash, Judges 2:9 / Joshua 24:29-30. What was the exact site of Joshua’s grave? Since the site is evidently lost, we have also lost any identification of the tomb of Joshua, although some suggest it is located twelve miles from Lydda.
The younger generation did not know the Lord because they chose not to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, Joshua 2:10. They certainly knew who the Lord was, they knew of His wonderful works, but they were like the rebellious sons of Eli who despised the Lord’s offerings and lived in a sinful way, 1 Samuel 2:13. They had heard how the Lord worked wonders on behalf of Israel, but they chose not to let these lead them to faith in Him.
Notice the phrase, ‘the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD’, Judges 2:11. This is a recurring theme through Judges, Judges 3:7 / Judges 4:1. Here they did evil by serving the Baals, Judges 2:11. The Baals and the Asherahs were the various gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, Judges 3:7. The Baals were Canaanite gods, including Dagon, Baal Berith, Baal-Zebub and others mentioned specifically. Baal was the sun god and the Canaanites believed he was the source and communicator of physical life.
They forsook the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt and they followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them, Judges 2:12. They aroused God’s because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths, Joshua 2:12-13.
Many of their gods were associated with fertility rituals and their worship involved disgusting sexual acts and the actual prostitution of their daughters in the Asherahs. Asherah was the leading female Canaanite deity, a moon-goddess. The Asherahs were basically tall poles set up on hills and people would have intercourse between these poles in an effort to convince their gods to bless the crops and the ground with a good harvest, 2 Kings 23:13
Moses had specially warned the people against falling away from the Lord. He told them that if they turned their backs on Him they would suffer, although He held out to the many blessings if they obeyed God. Moses also told them how disobedience would bring an equal number of curses, Leviticus 26:1-46. He had repeatedly warned them in this manner. His last speeches were especially filled with statements about how God would be against them if they turned away from Him, Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
The theme of Joshua’s addresses was of similar nature. In his farewell address, he had warned them to be faithful to God. He told his people that when they turned their backs on Him, God would be against them, Joshua 23-24. It is an everlasting principle that all nations need to learn that God will be against them when they turn away from following Him.
God allowed the enemies of Israel to overcome them, and He ‘gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them and sold them into the hands of their enemies’, Judges 2:14. This was evidenced as they were no longer able to win victories in the field of battle. They were no longer able to overcome the temptations which were presented to them by the surrounding pagan nations, Judges 2:14.
Whenever Israel went out to fight, God’s was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them and so, they were in great distress, Judges 2:15. Everything Israel had tried to do seemed to fail.
In Israel’s darkest time God raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders, Judges 2:16.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the words, judges, Judges 2:16.
‘This is the first occurrence of the term ‘judges’ in this book, and it is from this that the Book receives its name.’
Judges who governed Israel were not men who presided over courts of law, they did not go about attired in long, black robes sitting on what we call ‘benches’. They did not pound gavels to demand order in courtrooms. The judges ruled over only one or several of the tribes, to whom they brought special deliverance. Notice that in each case it is stated that the man judges Israel, not a particular tribe, Judges 7:8 / Judges 12:7 / Judges 12:11.
Rather, these men were filled with the spirit of God. In almost every instance it is stated that the Spirit of God came upon these men, Judges 3:10 / Judges 6:34 / Judges 11:29 / Judges 13:24 / Judges 14:6 / Judges 15:14. Aroused as they were when they witnessed the depressed state of their country, they achieved deliverance. They continued in office as defenders of religion and avengers of crimes.
The people, when they saw that God’s Spirit was upon them, received them as God’s men for the hour and they submitted to their sway. Such a condition resulted in the land having peace, Judges 3:11 / Judges 3:30 / Judges 6:31 / Judges 8:28.
It is stated, however, that in general, the people were still rebellious, ‘they would not listen to their judges,’ Judges 2:17. They wouldn’t listen to the judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them and they quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to God’s commands, Judges 2:18.
Whenever God raised up a judge for them, He was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived because God relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them, Judges 2:19. Note that some translations tell us that God ‘repented’, Judges 2:18, this means that God was grieved in his heart when he saw the rebellious ways of the people of Israel. This same kind of statement was made in the days of Noah, Genesis 6:6.
This doesn’t mean that God had sinned as some understand repentance to imply. He was not repenting in the same way in which a man repents of his wickedness. This is an anthropomorphic statement, the putting of God’s thoughts and actions in words which describe similar thoughts and actions on the part of man. God’s repentance is similar to man’s in the sense that it caused him grief, but it is dissimilar inasmuch as God had no sin for which to grieve.
When the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them and they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways, Judges 2:19.
Wolf, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Israelites were stiff-necked in the wilderness, but they were even more obstinate in the Promised Land. A new environment, alas, did not mean a new attitude, Genesis 6:12 / Exodus 32:9 / Exodus 33:3 / Exodus 33:5 / Exodus 34:9.’
Because God was angry with His people because they violated His covenant and reused to listen to Him, Judges 2:20, He decided not to drive out any more of the nations, which were left in Israel at the time of the death of Joshua, Judges 2:21. He had been patient with the people and He had given them express commandments to obey and they had failed to keep them.
In a sense, His spirit was no longer striving with them, Genesis 6:3. Israel needed to learn how the king’s business demanded haste. They should have fought with zeal to drive out all the Canaanites so that the Promised Land might be theirs and theirs alone.
This punishment, however, was intended to test them and lead the rebellious nation to repentance and to promote its prosperity by a true conversion to the Lord, Judges 2:22.
However, He chose to allow those nations to remain and He didn’t drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua, Joshua 2:23. Had Israel not forsaken the Lord, so soon after Joshua’s death, the Lord would have exterminated the Canaanites who were left in the land much sooner than He did.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Judges 2:23.
‘It appears here, that God’s intention of utterly replacing the pagan nations of Canaan with the Chosen People would still be accomplished, though not ‘hastily,’ as would have been the case if Israel’s gross wickedness had not resulted in the change. Still the driving out of the seven nations mentioned in Deuteronomy 7:1-2, eventually occurred.’