July 12, 2021
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Reading along with us in Judges? Here’s today’s reading:
Judges 2 (NIV)
The Angel of the Lord at Bokim
1The angel of the Lordwent up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?......Continue Reading
Well immediately you are struck that the generations following Joshua’s death did not know God in a personal way and therefore chose to live in sin instead of follow Him. God always stressed the to the Israelites the importance of remembering ALL He had done for them and passing that on to their children which did not seem to happen.
It is also clear that this is one of those times where God allows the sin we choose to keep in our lives to stay there and run its course to what became their own destruction!
“You shall not make a covenant with the people of this land.” Disobedience began back during Joshua’s time at least with respect to the inheritance. Whether through laziness or whatever, they refused to rid the land of other gods resulting in God refusing to clear the nations from the land.
Okay. Certainly a bad pattern happening here. Without Moses and Joshua. The next generation is drifting away. Can’t help but think of the country we live in. Growing up in the 60’s God was very prevalent in this country. Sunday morning the streets were empty and stores were closed. Most were at church. My generation started letting the practice of worshiping God slip away. And look at were we are today. Adopting and promoting lifestyles that we know God objects to. We so need to pray for our nation to return to God. And ask forgiveness!!!!
Moses, Joshua, Judges, even the Angel of the Lord – God provides leadership to rescue the Israelites out of the hands of their oppressors, they need to be continually reminded and re-oriented to the Lord.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
– Judges 2:20-23
It is an interesting dynamic that even in our own lives today, God will allow us to live in our disobedience and “learn the hard way” as the results of that disobedience are manifested in our lives. How encouraging to know that even in our sin, God is still with us. He is always there, even if we don’t see Him.
The first thing I noticed in this chapter is how the Angel of the Lord, thought by many to be the Old Testament manifestation of the 2nd person of the trinity, talks like God. The land is land He swore to their forefathers, He is the one who made the covenant with them, and He is the one they have disobeyed. An angel doesn’t talk like that, but God does.
And the rest of the chapter is far too common a story even in our day. One generation knows God’s presence and power well and the next generation just doesn’t get it. How important it is for us to pass along our faith to the next generation. How important it is for leaders to be raised up to lead the next generation to faith. Even with those dynamics happening the next generation may stray away, but let’s not let it be because we didn’t do our part. But when they do stray away though, there is enough of God in them that when trouble comes they turn to Him, and then when there isn’t trouble, they fall away. Well it is no wonder that God comes to the conclusion that I must need to bring trouble to them to keep them close to me. Hence He keeps the Canaanites who were not driven out already around to be a test to see which way the Jews would go…..let’s not put God in the same position in our lives….
16Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 18Whenever the Lord 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; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19But 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. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.