J
U D G E S
CHAP. II.
In
this chapter we have, I. A particular message which God sent to
Israel by an angel, and the impression
it made upon them, ver. 1-5. II. A general idea of the state of Israel during
the government of the judges, in which observe, 1. Their adherence to God
while Joshua and the elders lived, ver. 6-10. 2. Their revolt afterwards to
idolatry, ver. 11-13. 3. God's displeasure against them, and his judgments
upon them for it, ver. 14, 15. 4. His pity towards them, shown in raising them
up deliverers, ver. 16-18. 5. Their relapse into idolatry after the judgment
was over, ver. 17-19. 6. The full stop God in anger put to their successes,
ver. 20-23. These are the contents, not only of this chapter, but of the whole
book.
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An
Angel Rebukes the Israelites.
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B.
C. 1425.
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1 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. 2 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? 3
Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they
shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto
you. 4 And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD
spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up
their voice, and wept. 5 And they called the name of that place
Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.
It was the privilege of Israel that they had not only a law in general sent
them from heaven, once for all, to direct them into and keep them in the way
of happiness, but that they had particular messages sent them from heaven, as
there was occasion, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness, when at any time they turned aside out of that way. Besides the
written word which they had before them to read, they often heard a word
behind them, saying, This is the way, Isa. xxx. 21. Here begins that way
of God's dealing with them. When they would not hear Moses, let it be tried
whether they will hear the prophets. In these verses we have a very awakening
sermon that was preached to them when they began to cool in their religion.
I. The preacher was an angel of the Lord (v. 1), not a prophet,
not Phinehas, as the Jews conceit; gospel ministers are indeed called angels
of the churches, but the Old-Testament prophets are never called angels of
the Lord; no doubt this was a messenger we from heaven. Such extraordinary
messengers we sometimes find in this book employed in the raising up of the
judges that delivered Israel, as Gideon and Samson; and now, to show how
various are the good offices they do for God's Israel, here is one sent to
preach to them, to prevent their falling into sin and trouble. This
extraordinary messenger was sent to command, if possible, the greater regard
to the message, and to affect the minds of a people whom nothing seemed to
affect but what was sensible. The learned bishop Patrick is clearly of opinion
that this was not a created angel, but the Angel of the covenant, the same
that appeared to Joshua as captain of the hosts of the Lord, who was
God himself. Christ himself, says Dr. Lightfoot; who but God and Christ could
say, I made you to go up out of Egypt? Joshua had lately admonished
them to take heed of entangling themselves with the Canaanites, but they
regarded not the words of a dying man; the same warning therefore is here
brought them by the living God himself, the Son of God appearing as an angel.
If they slight his servants, surely they will reverence his Son. This angel of
the Lord is said to come up from Gilgal, perhaps not walking on the earth, but
flying swiftly, as the angel Gabriel did to Daniel, in the open firmament of
heaven; but, whether walking or flying, he seemed to come from Gilgal for a
particular reason. Gilgal was long their headquarters after they came into
Canaan, many signal favours they had there received from God, and there the
covenant of circumcision was renewed (Mic. vi. 5), of all which it was
designed they should be reminded by his coming from Gilgal. The remembrance of
what we have received and heard will prepare us for a warning to hold
fast, Rev. iii. 2, 3.
II. The persons to whom this sermon was preached were all the children of
Israel, v. 4. A great congregation for a great preacher! They were
assembled either for war, each tribe sending in its forces for some great
expedition, or rather for worship, and then the place of their meeting must be
Shiloh, where the tabernacle was, at which they were all to come together
three times a year. When we attend upon God in instituted ordinances we may
expect to hear from him, and to receive his gifts at \ his own gates. The
place is called Bochim (v. 1), because it gained that name upon
this occasion. All Israel needed the reproof and warning here given, and
therefore it is spoken to them all.
III. The sermon itself is short, but very close. God here tells them plainly,
1. What he had done for them, v. 1. He had brought them out of Egypt, a
land of slavery and toil, into Canaan, a land of rest, liberty, and plenty.
The miseries of the one served as a foil to the felicities of the other. God
had herein been kind to them, true to the oath sworn to their fathers, had
given such proofs of his power as left them inexcusable if they distrusted it,
and such engagements to his service as left them inexcusable if they deserted
it. 2. What he had promised them: I said, I will never break my covenant
with you. When he took them to be his peculiar people, it was not with any
design to cast them off again, or to change them for another people at his
pleasure; let them but be faithful to him, and they should find him
unchangeably constant to them. He told them plainly that the covenant he
entered into with them should never break, unless it broke on their side. 3.
What were his just and reasonable expectations from them (v. 2): that
being taken into covenant with God they should make no league with the
Canaanites, who were both his enemies and theirs,--that having set up his
altar they should throw down their altars, lest they should be a temptation to
them to serve their gods. Could any thing be demanded more easy? 4. How they
had in this very thing, which he had most insisted on, disobeyed him:
"But you have not in so small a matter obeyed my voice." In contempt
of their covenant with God, and their confederacy with each other in that
covenant, they made leagues of friendship with the idolatrous devoted
Canaanites, and connived at their altars, though they stood in competition
with God's. "Why have you done this? What account can you give of
this perverseness of yours at the bar of right reason? What apology can you
make for yourselves, or what excuse can you offer?" Those that throw off
their communion with God, and have fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, know not what they do now, and will have nothing to say for
themselves in the day of account shortly. 5. How they must expect to smart by
and by for this their folly, v. 3. Their tolerating the Canaanites
among them would, (1.) Put a period to their victories: "You will
not drive them out," says God, "and therefore I will
not;" thus their sin was made their punishment. Thus those who indulge
their lusts and corruptions, which they should mortify, forfeit the grace of
God, and it is justly withdrawn from them. If we will not resist the devil, we
cannot expect that God should tread him under our feet. (2.) It would involve
them in continual troubles. "They shall be thorns in your sides to gore
you, which way soever you turn, always doing you one mischief or other."
Those deceive themselves who expect advantage by friendship with those that
are enemies to God. (3.) It would (which was worst of all) expose them to
constant temptation and draw them to sin. "Their gods" (their abominations,
so the Chaldee) "will be a snare to you; you will find yourselves
wretchedly entangled in an affection to them, and it will be your ruin,"
so some read it. Those that approach sin are justly left to themselves to fall
into sin and to perish in it. God often makes men's sin their punishment; and
thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, who will walk contrary
to God.
IV. The good success of this sermon is very remarkable: The people lifted
up their voice and wept, v. 4. 1. The angel had told them of their
sins, for which they thus expressed their sorrow: the lifted up their voice in
confession of sin, crying out against their own folly and ingratitude, and
wept, as those that were both ashamed of themselves and angry at themselves,
as having acted so directly contrary both to their reason and to their
interest. 2. The angel had threatened them with the judgments of God, of which
they thus expressed their dread: they lifted up their voice in prayer to God
to turn away his wrath from them, and wept for fear of that wrath. They
relented upon this alarm, and their hearts melted within them, and trembled at
the word, and not without cause. This was good, and a sign that the word they
heard made an impression upon them: it is a wonder sinners can ever read their
Bible with dry eyes. But this was not enough; they wept, but we do not find
that they reformed, that they went home and destroyed all the remains of
idolatry and idolaters among them. Many are melted under the word that harden
again before they are cast into a new mould. However, this general weeping,
(1.) Gave a new name to the place (v. 5): they called it Bochim,
Weepers, a good name for our religious assemblies to answer. Had they kept
close to God and their duty, no voice but that of singing would have been
heard in their congregation; but by their sin and folly the had made other
work for themselves, and now nothing is to be heard but the voice of weeping.
(2.) It gave occasion for a solemn sacrifice: They sacrificed there unto
the Lord, having (as is supposed) met at Shiloh, where God's altar was.
They offered sacrifice to turn away God's wrath, and to obtain his favour, and
in token of their dedication of themselves to him, and to him only, making a
covenant by this sacrifice. The disease being thus taken in time, and the
physic administered working so well, one would have hoped a cure might be
effected. But by the sequel of the story it appears to have been too deeply
rooted to be wept out.
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The
Idolatry of the Israelites.
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B.
C. 1425.
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6 And when Joshua had let
the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to
possess the land. 7 And the people served the LORD
all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua,
who had seen all the great works of the LORD,
that he did for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant
of the LORD,
died, being a hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried
him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of
Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10 And also all that
generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
generation after them, which knew not the LORD,
nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. 11 And the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD,
and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the LORD
God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and
followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about
them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD
to anger. 13 And they forsook the LORD,
and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14 And the anger of the LORD
was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that
spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so
that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD
was against them for evil, as the LORD
had said, and as the LORD
had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. 16
Nevertheless the LORD
raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled
them. 17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but
they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they
turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the
commandments of the LORD;
but they did not so. 18 And when the LORD
raised them up judges, then the LORD
was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all
the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD
because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed
them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that
they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in
following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not
from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. 20 And the
anger of the LORD
was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath
transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not
hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out
any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the
LORD
to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 23
Therefore the LORD
left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he
them into the hand of Joshua.
The beginning of this paragraph is only a repetition of what account we had
before of the people's good character during the government of Joshua, and of
his death and burial (Josh. xxiv. 29, 30), which comes in here again only to
make way for the following account, which this chapter gives, of their
degeneracy and apostasy. The angel had foretold that the Canaanites and their
idols would be a snare to Israel; now the historian undertakes to show that
they were so, and, that this may appear the more clear, he looks back a
little, and takes notice, 1. Of their happy settlement in the land of Canaan.
Joshua, having distributed this land among them, dismissed them to the quiet
and comfortable possession of it (v. 6): He sent them away, not
only every tribe, but every man to his inheritance, no doubt giving
them his blessing. 2. Of their continuance in the faith and fear of God's holy
name as long as Joshua lived, v. 7. As they went to their possessions
with good resolutions to cleave to God, so they persisted for some time in
these good resolutions, as long as they had good rulers that set them good
examples, gave them good instructions, and reproved and restrained the
corruptions that crept in among them, and as long as they had fresh in
remembrance the great things God did for them when he brought them into
Canaan: those that had seen these wonders had so much sense as to believe
their own eyes, and so much reason as to serve that God who had appeared so
gloriously on their behalf; but those that followed, because they had not
seen, believed not. 3. Of the death and burial of Joshua, which gave a fatal
stroke to the interests of religion among the people, v. 8, 9. Yet so
much sense they had of their obligations to him that they did him honour at
his death, and buried him in Timnath-heres; so it is called here, not,
as in Joshua, Timnath-serah. Heres signifies the sun, a
representation of which, some think, was set upon his sepulchre, and gave name
to it, in remembrance of the sun's standing still at his word. So divers of
the Jewish writers say; but I much question whether an image of the sun would
be allowed to the honour of Joshua at that time, when, by reason of men's
general proneness to worship the sun, it would be in danger of being abused to
the dishonour of God. 4. Of the rising of a new generation, v. 10. All
that generation in a few years wore off, their good instructions and examples
died and were buried with them, and there arose another generation of
Israelites who had so little sense of religion, and were in so little care
about it, that, notwithstanding all the advantages of their education, one
might truly say that they knew not the Lord, knew him not aright, knew him not
as he had revealed himself, else they would not have forsaken him. They were
so entirely devoted to the world, so intent upon the business of it or so
indulgent of the flesh in ease and luxury, that they never minded the true God
and his holy religion, and so were easily drawn aside to false gods and their
abominable superstitions.
And so he comes to give us a general idea of the series of things in Israel
during the time of the judges, the same repeated in the same order.
I. The people of Israel forsook the God of Israel, and gave that worship and
honour to the dunghill deities of the Canaanites which was due to him alone. Be
astonished, O heavens! at this, and wonder, O earth! Hath a nation, such a
nation, so well fed, so well taught, changed its God, such a God, a God
of infinite power, unspotted purity, inexhaustible goodness, and so very
jealous of a competitor, for stocks and stones that could do neither good nor
evil? Jer. ii. 11, 12. Never was there such an instance of folly, ingratitude,
and perfidiousness. Observe how it is described here, v. 11-13. In
general, they did evil, nothing could be more evil, that is, more
provoking to God, nor more prejudicial to themselves, and it was in the
sight of the Lord; all evil is before him, but he takes special notice of
the sin of having any other god. In particular, 1. They forsook the Lord
(v. 12, and again v. 13); this was one of the two great evils
they were guilty of, Jer. ii. 13. They had been joined to the Lord in
covenant, but now they forsook him, as a wife treacherously departs from
her husband. "They forsook the worship of the Lord," so the
Chaldee: for those that forsake the worship of God do in effect forsake God
himself. It aggravated this that he was the God of their fathers, so
that they were born in his house, and therefore bound to serve him; and
that he brought them out of the land of Egypt, he loosed their
bonds, and upon that account also they were obliged to serve him. 2. When
they forsook the only true God they did not turn atheists, nor were they such
fools as to say, There is no God; but they followed other gods: so much
remained of pure nature as to own a God, yet so much appeared of corrupt
nature as to multiply gods, and take up with any, and to follow the fashion,
not the rule, in religious worship. Israel had the honour of being a peculiar
people and dignified above all others, and yet so false were they to their own
privileges that they were fond of the gods of the people that were round
about them. Baal and Ashtaroth, he-gods and she-gods; they made their
court to sun and moon, Jupiter and Juno. Baalim signifies lords,
and Ashtaroth blessed ones, both plural, for when they forsook Jehovah,
who is one, they had gods many and lords many, as a luxuriant fancy pleased to
multiply them. Whatever they took for their gods, they served them and bowed
down to them, gave honour to them and begged favours from them.
II. The God of Israel was hereby provoked to anger, and delivered them up into
the hand of their enemies, v. 14, 15. He was wroth with them, for he is
a jealous God and true to the honour of his own name; and the way he took to
punish them for their apostasy was to make those their tormentors whom they
yielded to as their tempters. They made themselves as mean and miserable by
forsaking God as they would have been great and happy if they had continued
faithful to him. 1. The scale of victory turned against them. After they
forsook God, whenever they took the sword in hand they were as sure to be
beaten as before they had been sure to conquer. Formerly their enemies could
not stand before them, but, wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was for
them; when they began to cool in their religion, God suspended his favour,
stopped the progress of their successes, and would not drive out their enemies
any more (v. 3), only suffered them to keep their ground; but now, when
they had quite revolted to idolatry, the war turned directly against them, and
they could not any longer stand before their enemies. God would rather
give the success to those that had never known nor owned him than to those
that had done both, but had now deserted him. Wherever they went, they might
perceive that God himself had turned to be their enemy, and fought against
them, Isa. lxiii. 10. 2. The balance of power then turned against them of
course. Whoever would might spoil them, whoever would might oppress them. God
sold them into the hands of their enemies; not only he delivered them up
freely, as we do that which we have sold, but he did it upon a valuable
consideration, that he might get himself honour as a jealous God, who would
not spare even his own peculiar people when they provoked him. He sold them as
insolvent debtors are sold (Matt. xviii. 25), by their sufferings to make some
sort of reparation to his glory for the injury it sustained by their apostasy.
Observe how their punishment, (1.) Answered what they had done. They served
the gods of the nations that were round about them, even the meanest,
and God made then serve the princes of the nations that were round about them,
even the meanest. He that is company for every fool is justly made a fool of
by every company. (2.) How it answered what God has spoken. The hand of heaven
was thus turned against them, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord
had sworn (v. 15), referring to the curse and death set before them
in the covenant, with the blessing and life. Those that have found God true to
his promises may thence infer that he will be as true to his threatenings.
III. The God of infinite mercy took pity on them in their distresses, though
they had brought themselves into them by their own sin and folly, and wrought
deliverance for them. Nevertheless, though their trouble was the punishment of
their sin and the accomplishment of God's word, yet they were in process of
time saved out of their trouble, v. 16-18. Here observe, 1. The
inducement of their deliverance. It came purely from God's pity and tender
compassion; the reason was fetched from within himself. It is not said, It
repented them because of their iniquities (for it appears, v. 17,
that many of them continued unreformed), but, It repented the Lord because
of their groanings; though it is not so much the burden of sin as the
burden of affliction that they are said to groan under. It is true they
deserved to perish for ever under his curse, yet, this being the day of his
patience and our probation, he does not stir up all his wrath. He might in
justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. 2. The
instruments of their deliverance. God did not send angels from heaven to
rescue them, nor bring in any foreign power to their aid, but raised up judges
from among themselves, as there was occasion, men to whom God gave
extraordinary qualifications for, and calls to, that special service for which
they were designed, which was to reform and deliver Israel, and whose great
attempts he crowned with wonderful success: The Lord was with the judges
when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. Observe, (1.) In the days
of the greatest degeneracy and distress of the church there shall be some whom
God will either find or make to redress its grievances and set things to
rights. (2.) God must be acknowledged in the seasonable rising up of useful
men for public service. He endues men with wisdom and courage, gives them
hearts to act and venture. All that are in any way the blessings of their
country must be looked upon as the gifts of God. (3.) Whom God calls he will
own, and give them his presence; whom he raises up he will be with. (4.) The
judges of a land are its saviours.
IV. The degenerate Israelites were not effectually and thoroughly reformed,
no, not by their judges, v. 17-19. 1. Even while their judges were with
them, and active in the work of reformation, there were those that would
not hearken to their judges, but at that very time went a whoring after
other gods, so mad were they upon their idols, and so obstinately bent
to backslide. They had been espoused to God, but broke the
marriage-covenant, and went a whoring after these gods. Idolatry is spiritual
adultery, so vile, and base, and perfidious a thing is it, and so hardly are
those reclaimed that are addicted to it. 2. Those that in the times of
reformation began to amend yet turned quickly out of the way again, and
became as bad as ever. The way they turned out of was that which their godly
ancestors walked in, and set them out in; but they soon started from under the
influence both of their fathers' good example and of their own good education.
The wicked children of godly parents do so, and will therefore have a great
deal to answer for. However, when the judge was dead, they looked upon
the dam which checked the stream of their idolatry as removed, and then it
flowed down again with so much the more fury, and the next age seemed to be
rather the worse for the attempts that had been made towards reformation, v.
19. They corrupted themselves more than their fathers, strove to outdo
them in multiplying strange gods and inventing profane and impious rites of
worship, as it were in contradiction to their reformers. They ceased not
from, or, as the word is, they would not let fall, any of their own
doings, grew not ashamed of those idolatrous services that were most odious
nor weary of those that were most barbarous, would not so much as diminish one
step of their hard and stubborn way. Thus those that have forsaken the good
ways of God, which they have once known and professed, commonly grow most
daring and desperate in sin, and have their hearts most hardened.
V. God's just resolution hereupon was still to continue the rod over them, 1.
Their sin was sparing the Canaanites, and this in contempt and violation of
the covenant God had made with them and the commands he had given them, v.
20. 2. Their punishment was that the Canaanites were spared, and so they were
beaten with their own rod. They were not all delivered into the hand of Joshua
while he lived, v. 23. Our Lord Jesus, though he spoiled
principalities and powers, yet did not complete his victory at first. We
see not yet all things put under him; there are remains of Satan's
interest in the church, as there were of the Canaanites in the land; but our
Joshua lives for ever, and will in the great day perfect his conquest. After
Joshua's death, little was done for a long time against the Canaanites: Israel
indulged them, and grew familiar with them, and therefore God would not drive
them out any more, v. 21. If they will have such inmates as these among
them, let them take them, and see what will come of it. God chose their
delusions, Isa. lxvi. 4. Thus men cherish and indulge their own corrupt
appetites and passions, and, instead of mortifying them, make provision for
them, and therefore God justly leaves them to themselves under the power of
their sins, which will be their ruin. So shall their doom be; they
themselves have decided it. These remnants of the Canaanites were left to
prove Israel (v. 22), whether they would keep the way of the Lord or
not; not that God might know them, but that they might know themselves. It
was to try, (1.) Whether they could resist the temptations to idolatry which
the Canaanites would lay before them. God had told them they could not, Deut.
vii. 4. But they thought they could. "Well," said God, "I will
try you;" and, upon trial, it was found that the tempters' charms were
far too strong for them. God has told us how deceitful and desperately wicked
our hearts are, but we are not willing to believe it till by making bold with
temptation we find it too true by sad experience. (2.) Whether they would make
a good use of the vexations which the remaining natives would give them, and
the many troubles they would occasion them, and would thereby be convinced of
sin and humbled for it, reformed, and driven to God and their duty, whether by
continual alarms from them they would be kept in awe and made afraid of
provoking God.
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