Judges 2:1-23
Prayer: Father, we are easily discouraged because of our sins. So I ask You to send Your Holy Spirit of Comfort now to accompany this Word. Give us courage for the battles You have assigned to us, and give us victory, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
The people of Israel during the era of the judges largely failed, and they failed because they refused to seek God with their whole heart. They did not destroy their idols and the pagan nations around them, so they would have mild success during the lives of strong leaders and then immediately fall back into their idolatry over and over again. But Christ has come to call His people to true repentance. The message of the gospel is that Christ is our Judge who is risen from the dead – our deliverer will never die.
The Text: “And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?…” (Judges 2:1-23)
Summary of the Text
Judges 2 is often considered a sort of second introduction since it zooms out and gets another running start, going back to before Joshua died (Judges 2:6-8). The word “messenger” sometimes refers to an angel in Scripture and sometimes it refers to a human messenger (prophet), but the reference to Gilgal seems to be alluding to the “captain of the Lord’s host” – an angel-warrior who appeared to Joshua in or near Gilgal in Joshua 5:13-15. It is likely that “Bochim” is another name for Bethel, since the oak tree where Rebekah’s nurse was buried was named “The oak of weeping” (Gen. 35:8). It is also where the people gather and weep at the end of the book and where the ark was (Judges 20:26).
The angel particularly condemns the “league/covenant” that the tribes have been making with the Canaanites – likely referring to those that they had enslaved and put under tribute (cf. 1:28, 30, 33, 35), and the Lord says He will no longer drive out the Canaanites because of their disobedience (Judges 2:1-3). The people respond with great weeping and sacrifices, and all of this happened before the death of Joshua (Judges 2:4-10). But after the death of that generation, the people of Israel went back to serving the gods of Egypt and Baals, and the Lord sold them into the hands of their enemies (Judges 2:11-15).
However, God would raise up judges who would deliver them, but after the judges died, the people would go right back to their idols (Judges 2:16-19). Therefore God was angry with His people and determined to leave many of the nations in the land to test His people constantly to see if they would walk with the Lord or not (Judges 2:20-23).
False Repentance
This chapter introduces the basic pattern that will continue throughout Judges: the people turn away from the Lord and serve idols, the Lord delivers them into the hands of their enemies who oppress them, the Lord has compassion on His people in their oppression and raises up a judge who fights for His people and delivers them (even though the people do not really listen to them), and after the judge dies, the people turn away from the Lord and serve idols (and repeat) (Judges 2:14-19).
This cycle illustrates well false repentance and worldly sorrow. There are certain hard-hearted pagans who do not even pretend to repent. They hate God, and they hate His ways and they say so and aren’t sorry. But there are many people who say they are sorry for their sins and many who even say they are Christians and go to church on Sundays. They may confess their sins, maybe even set up meetings with a pastor or elder or Christian counselor, and there may even be tears and sacrifices. But they refuse to actually change.
Paul describes the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
It is possible to feel sorry and sad about your sins and be getting worse. It’s possible to feel sorry and sad about your sins and to be smearing death all over yourself. Godly sorrow works repentance. What is repentance? Repentance means turning, change, going the other way. Repentance does not mean perfection, but it means there is a clear break.
What Does Repentance Look Like?
Jesus said that repentance means plucking out the eye that is causing you to sin and cutting off the hand that is offending you (Mt. 5:29). Colossians says that you must “mortify” the deeds of the body, works of the flesh – that means put them to death (Col. 3:5). In other words, repentance is violent, extreme, radical, and conclusive – you must utterly hate and destroy it. And the reason Jesus gives for this kind of repentance is: it would be better to go to Heaven missing an eye or missing a hand, than to go to Hell with both eyes and both hands. You must kill sin or sin will kill you. This means you must hate sin.
The immediate context of this exhortation is the warning about lust (Mt. 5:27-28). But Jesus also warns about the sin of wrath leading to Hell (Mt. 5:22). He also warns about causing little ones to stumble into sin, and repeats the same exhortation to pluck out that eye or cut off that hand (Mt. 18:8-9, Mk. 9:42ff). In other words, whatever the sin, you must do whatever it takes to stop. Whatever the idol, you must tear it down.
The fundamental difference between worldly sorrow that merely stops sinning momentarily and godly sorrow that truly changes is the root cause. Worldly sorrow is sorry to have been caught, sorrow for some of the immediate consequences, sometimes mixed with a prideful sorrow that resents those things. But Jesus warns His disciples not to fear those who can merely harm your body (trouble in this life), but rather fear God who is able to destroy soul and body in Hell (Mt. 10:28). Godly sorrow trembles before God (Ps. 51:4).
Conclusion
The “captain of the Lord’s host” is the pre-incarnate Christ. Jesus said that He was at the burning bush as the “I am” (Jn. 8:58), and Paul says that Jesus was the One leading and feeding Israel in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:4). This passage indicates that Jesus was with His people as they went into Canaan, but they sinned against Him, they turned away from Him and turned to idols.
In Revelation, Jesus Himself addresses the seven churches, and He says repeatedly, “I know thy works…” and He calls upon those churches to “repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them…” (Rev. 2:16).
Godly sorrow trembles before Christ who is with you always. Do you tremble before Christ or your wife? Christ or your parents? Christ or your teacher/pastor/counselor/friends? Or do you tremble before your fear – fear of feeling out of control, fear of never being satisfied, fear of never changing?
The one/the thing you tremble before is your god. And ironically the more you tremble before it, the more influence it wields over you.
Why tremble before Christ? Because Christ fights for you. He was crucified for Your sins; He has the power to deliver you from every evil thing. To tremble before Christ is nothing like trembling before your sins/fears/failures/other humans. When Christ is your fear, all your other fears fade away. When Christ is your fear, you always find mercy and love and power that fights for you.
Why does God not usually take away all our temptations immediately and miraculously? Why does He allow Canaanites to remain in our land? He is testing you to see whether you will walk in His ways or not (Judges 2:22). And it’s important to underline the fact that temptation is not itself the sin. But temptation is where you must fight. Many people think they are fighting sin when they are really already in sin. Fight temptation – do not let the enemy even have a chance.
And list to this promise: with every temptation – God promises to always provide a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). The lie of the devil is that you can’t take it (too hard), that it’s too late, that there’s nothing else you can do – but those are the lies of idols that cannot save you. But Christ bled and died to set you free. And He is always there. He is the Captain of the Armies of the Lord. If He is with you, what can stand against you?
Prayer: Father, please do whatever it takes to bring us trembling before You. We know that you have assigned particular struggles and battles to everyone in this room because You want us to turn to You. But we are stubborn and foolish creatures, so I ask that You would turn us to You now. Do not let us get off the point because we ask in Jesus name, who taught us to pray…
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