Deeper Commentary
Consider the following examples of God 'repenting'. For each, try to
explain it in terms of God Himself changing His mind, and
then think how an understanding of Angels could do better: Ex. 4:24; Num.
14:34 AVmg.; Ex. 32:11 mg.; Hos. 12:4; Jud. 2:1 cp. Zech. 11:10,11. If you
like this line of approach, consider the following examples, of where
'God' says He won't do something; and then does: Ex. 33:3 cp. 34:9; Dt.
4:31; 31:6,8 cp. 31:17. S
God promised that even if Israel sinned, He would never break His
covenant with them (Lev. 26:44; Jud. 2:1). But He did (Zech. 11:10 cp.
Jer. 14:21), as witnessed by the termination of the Law of Moses, which
was the basis of His covenant with Israel. His love creates yet another
Bible paradox. Israel broke the covenant by their disobedience (Lev.
26:15; Dt. 31:16 and many others). God therefore broke His part of the
covenant. Yet God made His promises concerning the unbreakable covenant
because He chose to speak in words which did not reflect His foreknowledge
that Israel would sin. The apparent contradiction is resolvable by
realizing that God did not set His mind upon Israel's future apostasy when
He made the 'unbreakable' covenant with them. And yet the paradox still
ultimately stands; that He broke His covenant with them when they sinned.
He worked through this punishment in order to establish an even more
gracious new covenant.
Jdg 2:2 and you must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land;
break down their altars’. But you have not listened to My voice; why have
you done this?-
As discussed on :1, their covenant with the inhabitants of the land
was an undoing and abrogation of the exclusive covenant with Yahweh which
they had signed up to. And yet He still remained in covenant. We read that
the Israelites 'dwelt among' the Canaanites in some areas, and this would
have been as a result of making a covenant with those "inhabitants of this
land" (Jud. 2:2), which in turn abrogated their exclusive covenant with
Yahweh (:1). The existence of pagan place names throughout the record of
the conquest, e.g. Bath Dagon, house of Dagon, Beth Shemesh, house of the
sun god, all demonstrates that they didn't break down the altars.
Jdg 2:3 Therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out from before
you, but they shall be thorns in your sides-
I noted on Jud. 1 that many of the towns which weren't subjugated by
the tribes were on the very edges of their tribal cantons. They were
therefore literally thorns in their sides (Jud. 2:3).
As in their response to Joshua's speech challenging their idolatry,
we rather wait with expectant hope to read that like Jacob's sons, they
bring out their idols and bury or burn them. If only we could achieve a
second naivety in reading the records, we would at this point be on the
edge of our seats, waiting for them to now ditch their idols. But we read
only of their tears, the emotion of a religious moment, rather than any
lasting response to the blunt warning they had been given.
Jdg 2:5 They called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed
there to Yahweh-
We notice that they had the opportunity to rename or name places in
Israel. But they retained so many place names which have clear
associations with Baal and Dagon. As noted on :4, they went through the
motions of religious worship and repentance- but there is no record of
them actually ditching their idols.
Jdg 2:6 Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel
went every man to his inheritance to possess the land-
As discussed on Josh. 24, I suggest that the 'service of Yahweh' in
view here refers to the operation of the tabernacle rituals. For 'serving
Yahweh' can be a technical term which refers to this and nothing else.
This is not to say that they were faithful nor exclusively committed to
Him. Joshua in Josh. 24:19 had said that they could not 'serve Yahweh'
acceptably, unless they ditched their idols. Which they didn't. The people
understood serving Yahweh as doing the rituals of His religion, whereas
Joshua understood it as serving Him exclusively with no place in their
hearts for any idolatry.
Jdg 2:8 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one
hundred and ten years old-
Jdg 2:9 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnah Heres,
in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash-
Jdg 2:10 Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers; and
there arose another generation after them who didn’t know Yahweh, nor yet
the work which He had done for Israel-
The "fathers" served other gods (Josh. 24:2), but the Bible describes
death as a gathering to the fathers. Clearly the differentiation between
good and bad men is not made at death. Death is unconsciousness, and the
ultimate division and reward will be at the return of the Lord Jesus and
the judgment seat He will then set up.
Jdg 2:11 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh and
served the Baals-
Serving Yahweh was to be exclusive. Any worship of Baals was to break
that exclusive covenant they had made with Yahweh and therefore to forsake
Yahweh (:12,13). But 'forsaking Yahweh' is how He saw it. They themselves
never became atheists or formally abrogated their relationship with
Yahweh. They believed that they could worship Yahweh through worshipping
Baal, and that they were doing nothing wrong to Him by this infidelity.
Jdg 2:12 They forsook Yahweh the God of their fathers who brought them out
of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the peoples who were
around them and bowed themselves down to them-
See on :11.
Jdg 2:13 They forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtaroth-
As explained on :11, this was how Yahweh felt. They themselves didn't
think they had forsaken Him. The Bible at times speaks from God's
viewpoint, at others from the perspective of the people whose actions are
being described. To forsake Yahweh was to break covenant with Him (Dt.
31:16,17). Israel did forsake Yahweh (Jud. 2:13), but still He remained
faithful to them, as Hosea remained faithful to Gomer despite her
infidelity to their marriage covenant. Instead of forsaking them as He
threatened, He instead by grace sent them saviours, judges, looking
forward to His grace in sending the Lord Jesus, Yah's salvation.
Jdg 2:14 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel and He delivered
them into the hands of raiders who plundered them, and He sold them into
the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand
before their enemies-
As noted on :13, this was a very restrained response from Yahweh, and
not actually according to the judgments threatened for forsaking Him in
Dt. 28:20,21. The judgments of Dt. 29:23-27 were likewise the prophesied
outcome of Israel forsaking Yahweh; and this too didn't happen at this
time, by grace alone: "The whole land is sulphur, salt and burning, that
it is not sown nor giving produce and no grass grows therein, like the
overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew
in His anger and in his wrath. They and all the nations shall say, Why has
Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger
mean? Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh the
God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth
out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshipped
them, gods that they didn’t know and that He had not given to them.
Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on
it all the curse that is written in this book". But instead we are to read
that although God punished them, He raised up saviours to save them from
the judgments; and this looks forward to His grace in the Lord Jesus,
'Yah's salvation'.
Jdg 2:15 Wherever they went the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil,
as Yahweh had spoken and as Yahweh had sworn to them; and they were very
distressed-
See on :18. But as noted above, He did not bring upon them all the
things which He had spoken, in wrath He remembered mercy. This "distress"
is the word used of the distress of the historical Jacob / Israel (Gen.
32:7), when like Israel he was confronted with his sins and led to cast
himself upon God's grace.
Jdg 2:16 Yahweh raised up judges who saved them from those who plundered
them-
The judgments for forsaking Yahweh were of total destruction- see on
:13,14.
Jdg 2:17 Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they played the
prostitute after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned
aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, who had obeyed
the commandments of Yahweh. They didn’t do so-
Jdg 2:18 When Yahweh raised up judges for them-
The hand of their enemies was effectively Yahweh's hand (:15). Yet
God's grace worked as it were against His own judgment. We see here the
tension between mercy and judgment deep within the personality of God; and
the pole of grace wins out over that of necessary judgment. And this God
is our God. "Grieved" is the word for "repent" (as AV); He changed His
mind, because He was grieved for them. And so we read in Hos. 11:8 of how
His repentings were kindled together deep within Him.
Jdg 2:19 But when the judge was dead they turned back and behaved more
corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to
bow down to them. They didn’t cease from their evil practices or from
their stubborn ways-
Jdg 2:20 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel and He said,
Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their
fathers and has not listened to Me-
To keep covenant was thus paralleled with listening / being obedient
to God. The covenant was broken, because they had broken it rather than
God. And yet for generations (see on :19), He still kept His side of it.
Josh. 23:16 had said that when Israel "transgressed [My] covenant", then
they would "perish quickly from off the good land". But as noted on :19,
this didn't happen "quickly". God's grace waited many generations before
exiling them from their land. He changed His mind, or 'repented', because
of His grace; see on :18.
Jdg 2:21 I also will no longer drive out from before them any of the
nations that Joshua left when he died-
Jdg 2:22 So by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of
Yahweh to walk therein as their fathers did, or not-
As discussed on :21, the test of Israel was really leading them
further down the downward spiral which they themselves wanted. We note
Yahweh graciously considered that "their fathers" had "kept the way of
Yahweh", clearly alluding to Abraham and the patriarchs (Gen. 18:19). But
this too was an imputation of righteousness by grace, for the patriarchs
often strayed from that covenant, Jacob especially.
Jdg 2:23 So Yahweh left those nations without driving them out quickly and
didn’t deliver them into the hand of Joshua-
Just as all the animals and everything in the eretz promised to
Abraham was 'delivered into the hands' of Noah (s.w. Gen. 9:2), so the
nations of that eretz were delivered into the hands of Israel
(s.w. Ex. 6:8; 23:31; Dt. 2:24; 3:2,3; 7:24; 21:10; Josh. 2:24; Jud. 1:2).
Tragically, like Adam in Eden [perhaps the same eretz promised to
Abraham] and Noah in the new, cleansed eretz, Israel didn't
realize this potential. What was delivered into the hand of Joshua (Josh.
2:24) actually wasn't delivered into their hand, because they disbelieved
(Jud. 2:23); and this looks ahead to the disbelief of so many in the work
of the Lord Jesus, who has indeed conquered the Kingdom for us. They
considered the promise of the nations being delivered into their hand as
somehow open to question, and only a possibility and not at all certain
(Jud. 8:7; Num. 21:2 cp. Num. 21:34). Some like Jephthah (s.w. Jud. 11:32;
12:3), Ehud (Jud. 3:10,28), Deborah (Jud. 4:14), Gideon (Jud. 7:15) did,
for a brief historical moment; but as individuals, and their victories
were not followed up on. Instead they were dominated by the territory. And
so instead, they were delivered into the hands of their enemies within the
eretz (s.w. Lev. 26:25; Jud. 13:1).
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