The speech from the angel of the Lord emphasizes the mutual relationship with God and the people.
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done! (Judges 2:1-2).
God was faithful in providing salvation and explained what He expected from the people. They were to remove the Canaanites from the land due to their false worship and then worship God alone.
Because the Israelites did not follow God’s leadership, the angel declared that God would not drive out the Canaanites and that they would be a snare to them.
So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept.
So they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to the Lord (Judges 2:3-5).
The people cried out in despair and even named the place after their sadness. But their sorrow did not lead to repentance.
They sacrificed to the Lord, but their religious activity was not matched by faithful obedience. The prophets declared what were God’s expectations concerning sacrifice and obedience.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
What is Repentance?
When Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I make videos, I get to ask them to respond to Bible passages. When I ask Bruce something, he almost always talks about repentance. He’s right on with that perspective. We always need to keep returning to the Lord.
I like to think of repentance this way: Imagine you’re walking away from God and realize you’ve made a mistake. You stop, turn around, and start walking side by side with the Lord.
That’s repentance—turning away from your wrong attitudes and actions and walking with Him instead.
Religion, but not Faithfulness
The Israelites were religious. They offered sacrifices and felt sad that God would not walk with them or win battles for them. Instead of turning to God completely, they turned to substitutes for Him.
Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt;
They followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them and bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies (Judges 2:11-14).
Baal was the storm god of the Canaanites who they believed provided rain and fertility. Astartes was the goddess of war.
In his book on Canaanite mythology, John Oswaldt explains that the worship of idols originates with human needs and desires.
People struggle to trust what they can’t control. To make the gods do what they wanted, humans often performed extreme acts. The core issue was the desire for control.
The Israelites didn’t want to follow a God they couldn’t put in the box of their needs and desires. So, they adopted Canaanite practices and mixed their worship of those gods with their worship of the one true God.
God led Israel from slavery in Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land. He revealed his presence in many ways, like his glory in a cloud and the daily provision of manna.
God didn’t bring them this far for them to turn away and follow their neighbors’ practices. So, judgment came upon the people.
Reflections
Jeremiah tells us that the heart is deceitful and can lead us astray (Jeremiah 17:9).
In the book of Judges, we often see people misled by their own wrong thinking and poor leadership, resulting in disaster.
As we read about their lives, let’s also examine our own. We need to ensure we’re not deceived into thinking our way is right or that everything will be fine if God just gives us what we want.
Instead, let’s discover what He wants and align our will, attitudes, and actions with His desires.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Judges 2 on YouTube today.
Real Voices 