Judges 2:11-19
SS Lesson for 07/10/2011
Devotional Scripture: Ps 81:8-16
The concept of the outline of the lesson came from the Bible Expositor and Illumninator. This week's lesson teaches how His people should Listen to God's Judges. The study's aim is to teach that we are to listen when God speaks through His appointed ones. The study's application is to understand that when we listen to those whom God has appointed, our lives will be blessed.
When Times Are Bad
September 11, 2001, is a date that shall live in infamy in the United States of America. The events of that day led to some notable responses from the American public. First of all, there was a tremendous sense of unity and patriotism that arose as flags emerged on every street. Second, President Bush’s vow to strike back at the terrorists and their base of operations was applauded by the people as with one voice. The third response was the sudden rise in church worship attendance. My son, a preacher in Illinois, told me that his church experienced an immediate increase in attendance of about 50 for almost 6 months after 9/11. But after that, attendance slid back to the “normal” numbers. When things are going well, people tend not to worry about spiritual things. But when things go bad, such as on 9/11, people become serious about their spiritual welfare, at least for a while. In the Old Testament period of the judges (about 1373–1043 BC), the people ignored God when things were going well, but in times of trouble they repented and cried out to God for help. God would raise up a judge to provide the help they needed. Then the people would backslide, and a cycle of sin would begin anew.
Lesson Background
Judges 2:11–19 (today’s text) is best understood in its literary context. We notice that Judges 2:6–9 is somewhat parallel to Joshua 24:29–31, both of which give an account of Joshua’s death. Judges begins with the words, “After the death of Joshua” (Judges 1:1; compare Joshua 1:1, “After the death of Moses”). Judges 1:1–2:5 describes events that happened before Joshua’s death, thus interrupting the story line as it moves from the book of Joshua to Judges. Therefore, Judges 2:6–10 is a flashback to Joshua 24, when Joshua assembled the people at Shechem for the nation to enter into a renewal of the covenant. The lengthy introduction of the book of Judges is thus a historical review that prepares the reader for what happens next. Judges 1:1–2:5 introduces the overall conquest of Canaan in the south, the middle, and the north. But the tribes did not complete the task of driving out the Canaanites (Judges 1:19, 21, 27–36; compare Joshua 13:1–13; 16:10; 17:12, 13, 16–18; 18:2–4). They could have done so, but the Israelites settled into a “good enough” syndrome that fell short of full obedience to God. Judges 2:1–3:6 serves as a doctrinal introduction to the rest of the book of Judges. First, the angel of the Lord speaks on behalf of Yahweh God, rebuking the Israelites for their disobedience in failing to destroy the Canaanites (compare Genesis 15:16; 48:22; Exodus 3:8, 17; Leviticus 18:28). Instead, the Israelites took only part of the hill country and made accommodations with the Canaanites (Joshua 16:10; Judges 2:2). The Israelites should have destroyed the idolatrous worship of the Canaanites, but did not. As a consequence, God announced, “I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you” (Judges 2:3). The generation that came after Joshua “knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). At this point in the narrative, the biblical writer introduces us to the infamous “sin cycle”: apostasy, oppression, cry of distress, deliverance by a judge, period of peace, and then a return to apostasy. Some folks who like alliteration suggest these six phases can be shortened to four with the descriptors sin, sorrow, supplication, salvation. This cycle will be repeated several times in the book of Judges. It becomes the blueprint for the stories of the six major judges (Judges 3–16). Since Judges 1:1–2:5 and 17:1–21:25 do not follow this pattern, the book of Judges can be divided into three parts: (1) the double introductions of Judges 1:1–36 and 2:1–3:6; (2) the six major judges of Judges 3:7–16:31; and (3) the double appendix of Judges 17–18 and 19–21). Yahweh used the enemy peoples in and around Canaan to “test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did” (Judges 2:22). While God was testing his people, he was also teaching them about warfare (3:2). The enemies of Israel are listed in Judges 3:3, 5. This is not a complete list, as will be seen. However, instead of fighting these pagan peoples, Israel compromised by intermarrying with them (3:6). Thus begins the story of the six major judges and why Israel had to listen to them.
"Sin is not logical. It is utterly irrational. At the moment we choose to sin, we suppress our logical abilities, and say, 'At this point I know better than God does, and further, I don't really believe this will be bad for me, either in the short term or in the long run. Even though the Creator who made me, who also gave me the instruction manual for my life, tells me not to do this, I think I know better, and I will do what I want.' "So we suppress God's guidance, we suppress our awareness of God, and we choose what can only be described as spiritual insanity" (Phillips, Holman Old Testament Commentary: Judges, Ruth, Broadman and Holman). We usually fail to take sin seriously. We tend to keep it in a lighter vein, which keeps us from feeling guilty. If we could grasp the holiness of God, we would better understand sin. In times of uncertainty, it is easy to forget the things that are truly important, like listening to what God is saying to us. The history of God's people shows that when they listened to God and His appointed leaders and messengers, they always succeeded. When they failed to obey, God used some of these very leaders to bring His people back to Him. In the previous lessons, we saw how important it is to fulfill God's expectations if we are to be successful. This week we learn to listen to Him and those who lead us.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;
12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.
13 They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.
13 The Lord said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them."
25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time — if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger,
18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
16 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you."
42 But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: "'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43 You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,
15 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.
14 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.
11 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
9 After they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them. 10 The Lord's anger was aroused that day and he swore this oath: 11 'Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — 12 not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.' 13 The Lord's anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.
7 The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.
11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger.
24 "Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'Because you people have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in all that you do — because you have done this, you will be taken captive.
21 Fear the Lord and the king, my son, and do not join with the rebellious, 22 for those two will send sudden destruction upon them, and who knows what calamities they can bring?
24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, 25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, 26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you — 27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
32 When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have a refuge.
24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations to take possession of their houses; I will put an end to the pride of the mighty, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated. 25 When terror comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders. 27 The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord."
16 Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.
26 "But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
9 But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'" 8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go." 9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
10 They cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.' 11 Then the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely.
J. L. Hunter “Red” Rountree was the oldest known bank robber in America. He was 92 when he died in prison on October 12, 2004. Red got a late start in his profession. In his late eighties he pulled off his first robbery at a Mississippi bank. He was given three years’ probation, a fine, and was told to get out of the state. A year later, in 1999, he robbed a Florida bank and received a three-year sentence. He was released in 2002. In 2003 he robbed a Kansas bank and was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison. Red Rountree had turned bitter many years earlier because of something about a bank loan that didn’t go well. The bitter spirit festered for years before he acted upon it. In a prison interview he said, “You want to know why I rob banks? It’s fun. I feel good, awful good. I feel good for sometimes days, for sometimes hours.” No family member claimed his body upon his death. Apparently his bitterness had made him a lonely old man. Israel’s time-and-again pursuit of fictitious gods shows some of that same futility. Like Red Rountree, Israel persisted in doing what was “fun.” But sinful “fun” is fleeting. In the long run the cost of sinful “fun” is always very steep. Both the experiences of Red Rountree and Israel should teach us a lesson. Will we learn?
6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. 40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. 41 He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.
10 Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.
18 And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
5 The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion .
156 Your compassion is great, O Lord; preserve my life according to your laws.
9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
8 They would not be like their forefathers — a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
11 "But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
God’s people even today are never far away from combining Christianity with worldly things; this is the evil of syncretism. The current time—the postmodern era—is marked by a lack of belief in absolutes. The result, among other things, is an easy spirituality and an “it’s all good” religious pluralism. Modern culture has become highly idolatrous, and God’s judgment can bring such a culture down at any time. The sin cycle of our day is just as difficult to break as it was in ancient Israel’s. Sin and evil always lead to God’s judgment and the oppression of the sinner, although God in his grace might delay that judgment for quite some time. God’s ultimate response to the sin cycle was to send Jesus as the deliverer. If we listen to him, we can break the cycle. Those who do not listen to him will continue down the road to destruction.
As has often been noted, Judges 2 provides a concise summary of the entire period between the time of Joshua and the establishment of the Israelite monarchy—a period named after the book that records it. The history is not exactly a bright, shining one to look back on. As soon as Joshua and his generation passed off the scene, the people wasted no time falling into idolatry and evil (vss. 10-13). The Lord responded by sending foreign enemies to harass them (vss. 14-15), after which He would raise up leaders, known as "judges," to deliver them from their distress (vss. 16-17). This pattern repeated itself over and over and over. The Israelites never seemed able (or willing) to learn from the failures and hardships of those who preceded them. The overall picture given by the book of Judges—and indeed in the assessment of chapter 2 —is quite bleak: The people kept returning to their evil ways, making themselves more corrupt than their forefathers, stubbornly refusing to turn around, and incurring the Lord's increasing anger (vss. 19-20). As dismal as this era was, however, it affords an unparalleled look at God's unrelenting grace in action. Every time the people fell into sin and idolatry, the Lord came back and raised up a judge (a leader, a military deliverer, and at times a settler of disputes) to rescue them and set them back on a proper course. The wait for the judge often grew longer as transgressions deepened, but the people were never abandoned. God always sent His man (or woman in one case) in time. Not only did the Lord provide the judges; He also empowered and guided them. Whenever He raised up a judge, "the Lord was with the judge." Just as Moses and Joshua could fully count on God's presence and power to meet every challenge they faced, so also could every one of the leaders raised up after them. The judges did not have to rely on their own wits and prowess, nor did they have to act in their own strength. In one notable instance, in fact, God decreased the available military strength to show clearly that it was His power that saved them (Judg. 7:1-8). As our text makes clear, the Lord raised up each judge for His people, and it was the Lord who "delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge." The usual pattern was that God would provide a quick and decisive victory at the outset of the judge's mission; then He would enable the judge to keep the peace as long as he lived. This involved keeping the people faithful to their covenant with the Lord as well as holding potential enemies at bay. God was not obliged to keep raising up deliverers for His wayward people. After repeated instances of their breaking the covenant and turning their backs on Him, He would have been fully justified in writing them off and letting them fall into national oblivion. It was His own grace and unrequited faithfulness that moved Him to keep coming back to rescue His people from ruin. We must not allow ourselves to become smug regarding those recalcitrant Israelites. It is only God's grace and unrelenting faithfulness that affords us any standing before Him as well.
1. The temptation to serve the "gods of the people" is always present (Judg. 2:11-13)
2. God is patient, but He will discipline those who keep disobeying Him (vs. 14-15)
3. In His grace, God calls us to repentance; but we personally must repent (Judg. 2:16; cf. Rom. 2:4)
4. A spiritual heritage is of value only if one learns and follows it (Judg. 2:17;cf. Prov. 3:1-4)
5. God often shows compassion to His children, even when they do not deserve it (Judg. 2:18)
6. Unforsaken sin leads one into a deadly downward spiral (Judg. 2:19;cf. Jas. 1:13-15)
Faith in the Lord is not automatically passed on to the next generation. The people of Israel followed the Lord during the time of Joshua and for some years after that, but a generation soon arose that "knew not the Lord" (Judg. 2:10). They had failed to make the faith of Joshua their own faith.
Sadly, Israel failed to completely drive out the inhabitants of the land as God had told them to do (chap. 1), and those inhabitants and their debased religion eventually became a source of temptation to Israel. Since they did not embrace the God of Joshua, the people fell prey to those temptations. They turned away from the Lord and to the fertility gods of Canaan—Baal and Ashtaroth. Those who rest on past accomplishments or their heritage and do not embrace the Lord personally and foster their faith in Him are open prey to the forces of this world. It was when Israel felt safe and contented that the people were most vulnerable to the evil one's subtle attacks. It is the same for us. Contentment with going through the motions spiritually can lead only to disaster.
Israel's apostasy could only bring God's judgment, and that judgment came in the form of oppression at the hands of their enemies. The victories their ancestors had known were replaced by fear and defeat. This occurred not because their enemies were so powerful but because "the hand of the Lord was against them."
The Lord brought oppression upon His people for a purpose. He desired their repentance and return to Him. And when they cried out in their suffering, He offered them guidance and deliverance through the judges He raised up. The judges were not kings or rulers but specially prepared leaders God sent to deliver His people from their enemies and direct them back to the Lord. Sadly, while the people rejoiced and changed their ways for a time after they were delivered, they turned back to their idolatrous ways as soon as the judge was dead. In fact, their apostasy was even greater than before. The Lord's mercy was rejected. The Lord's ways were traded for the sensual and the worldly and that which brought immediate satisfaction. The law of God was forgotten, as were the Lord's promises. The Lord became to them no more than a lifeguard to pull them out of hardship. From the triumph and glory of the days of Joshua, Israel sank into the dark and depressing days of the judges. These verses describe the entire period of the judges, which lasted some three hundred years. Over and over again in that period, the people apostatized, and the Lord turned them over to oppressors. They cried out to the Lord, and He sent deliverance. But they never seemed to learn. They soon returned to their evil ways, and the cycle started all over again. All suffering was the price for Israel's inability to keep just the first commandment! It would continue until the return from exile. This is sad to read, but it is in the Bible for a reason. We cannot live on the faith of others. We must embrace the Lord ourselves and nurture our relationship with Him.