Judges 2 – 8

In Romans 1, Scripture teaches that God does not fight man in a struggle of wills. Instead, He “gives over” the rebellious to their inclinations. Although Yahweh doesn’t give up on folks, far too many give up on Him. So it was with the generation after the generation that followed Joshua. Apparently, Joshua’s generation succeeded in passing on the need for faithfulness, but failed to pass on the need to pass it on.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 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 hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

Judges 2:11-16

Yahweh even came to them personally – the Angel of the LORD – and told them what was about to happen. Notice in Judges 2:1-5, the Mal’ak of YHWH (“official representative” of the “I Am”) claims personal credit and uses the personal pronoun “I” repeatedly. Before God became the man Jesus, He was the caregiver of Israel. Hebrews had seen Him before. Compare this to Exodus 3:1-22, Exodus 14:19-20 and Exodus 23:20-23. So had Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22:22-40). The Angel of the LORD is God Himself. He had not abandoned the Hebrews, but was concerned for them and called them back. For the moment they listened.

Sadly, it was not long before they gave up on Yahweh and He gave them over to their choice. Baal was the giver of life and fertility and his wife, Ashera, was the giver of fruit from the land. These false gods usurped the very qualities of Yahweh that He showed to the Israelites time and again. If they were faithful to Him, Yahweh promised the land would be fruitful. Yahweh was faithful to His promises and the curses of unfruitfulness came upon the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Ever patient and desiring all to come to repentance, God heard when they cried and raised up deliverers from among them who the Bible calls “judges”. And so began a dangerous cycle.

We see the same cycle at work in our relationship with God. To one degree or another, some days we are “closer” to Him than other days. We get caught up in sin we choose to commit and then call out to Him when we want out of the mess we make. Most often, sin comes from the temptations that we allow into our lives or keep there instead of getting it out of our lives contrary to God’s instruction. When I do this, the only one more disappointed in me than me is God. In the pages of Judges, we see our compassionate God actively hoping and patiently waiting for the Hebrews who disappoint Him so often to cry out to Him and come back. Thankfully, Yahweh Elohim is faithful to His people.

Consider His nature. Consider His ways. Strive to love Him more!