Judges 2:1-6

Judges 2:1

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.

 

Joshua 4:19 (KJV)   And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.  Gilgal was the place where Israel set up 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan River for a memorial.  Gilgal was located east of Jericho.  Gilgal was the place where Joshua had circumcised all the men.  Joshua 5:8-9 (KJV)   And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.  {9} And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.  Now the angel of the Lord had come from Gilgal to Bochim.   It is symbolic because at Gilgal the reproach or stench of the idolatry of Egypt had been removed from the children of Israel.  Now from Gilgal, that is obedience to the Lord, they have now sunk into disobedience.  The Angel speaking here is Christ Himself as a Christophany which is a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Christ.  This is not a created angel or even a prophet as they would use terms like “thus saith the Lord” which meant they would be speaking for God.

 

The children of Israel have now been approached by Christ at a place called Bochim.  Bochim means “weeping” and is not a specific town and the location was lost in antiquity.  It is not the location which is the important point in this verse, it is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is now confronting their disobedience.  It was this confrontation which caused a spirit of sorrow to go through the Israelites.  The Lord confirms to them that He made them go out of Egypt.  Notice the verse uses the word “up” which means they came from a place of lowliness which was slavery to a heathen nation to a place of prominence in the eyes of the world based upon the fact that God used 10 mighty, visible miracles to free them and bring them into their own land.  Genesis 12:7 (KJV)   And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.  God had fulfilled that promise by bringing them into it and then assuring them He would never break His covenant with them and that meant there had to be an element of trust on the part of the Israelites to confront and drive out the Canaanites and that God would give them the victories thus fulfilling His covenant with them.

 

Judges 2:2

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?

 

The term “league” carries with it the meaning of “covenant or compact.”  As we read in Judges Chapter 1 that tribe after tribe kept living with the Canaanites instead of driving them out.  They were making covenants with them and living with them instead of driving them out.  Once they made any agreement they had to keep to it or else there would be uprising on the part of the inhabitants and then there would be war and this is what the tribes did not want to happen which resulted in the covenants.  God knew that these Canaanites will become a snare to them as He commanded the Israelites to throw down their altars.  This meant that God did not want them affected by false religion.  The reproach of the false religions of Egypt were rolled away at Gilgal in obedience but now they are back living with false religions which will become a snare to them until the times they are taken into captivity and destroyed in 70 A.D.  Then the Lord asks “why have ye done this?”  He knew why but He wanted them to confess the fact that they lived in fear of the inhabitants.

 

Judges 2:3

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.

 

Since the Israelites had acted in a disobedient manner by not obeying the Lord, He tells them that He will not drive out these inhabitants before them.  Joshua had already told them before he died that because of their disobedience, God would not drive out the Canaanites from the land.  Joshua 23:13 (KJV)   Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.  They will eventually begin to worship the false gods and that is something they will be plagued with until they lose all rights to the land in both 721 B.C. and 70 A.D. never to become a nation again.

 

There is an interesting phrase in this verse which puts to death much speculation concerning the Apostle Paul and it is “but they shall be as thorns in your sides.”  Joshua 23:13 above states that these false religions of the heathen nations they made covenants with will become “thorns in your eyes” until the time they perish off the land.  Now how does this affect the Apostle Paul?  All throughout the ministry of the Apostle Paul, who were his greatest enemies?  It was the Judaizers who kept following him and contradicting him everywhere he went.    2 Corinthians 12:7 (KJV)   And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.  Notice in 2 Corinthians 12:7, it speaks of a thorn in the flesh which is the same thing the Israelites faced when they failed in driving out the Canaanites.  Judges 2:3 speaks of the false religions as being a thorn in their eyes.  The thorn in the flesh the Apostle Paul faced was the Judaizers who kept trying to add the law to salvation making it salvation by works.  The Apostle Paul asked the Lord 3 times to have it removed but God assured him that His grace was sufficient for him.  Many times you will hear that it was Paul’s eyesight that was his thorn.  In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul is giving a list of the persecutions which happened to him and then further in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks about taking pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, and persecutions.  All those things happened to Paul but he is going to go to God and ask for some physical ailment be removed?  I think not because what concerned Paul was the true gospel becoming mixed with false teaching which would confuse and cause false teachings to spread in the churches.  He wasn’t concerned about some physical malady.  So the thorn in the flesh which was the messenger of Satan who were the false teachers, the Judaizers that followed him around hoping to negate his ministry.

 

Judges 2:4

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.

 

As usual there was weeping when they were confronted by their failure in trusting the Lord to help them drive out the inhabitants.  This will become a recurring theme in the book of Judges as they sin and then seek the Lord with repentance.  Here in this verse the repentance may have been sincere but it was a short lived sorrowful repentance as we read in verse 17 of this chapter.  Judges 2:17 (KJV) 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. 

 

Judges 2:5

And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.

 

At the time they repented of their disobedience, they named the place where the Lord confronted them “Bochim” which means “weeping.”  Since there was no official place to sacrifice to the Lord, they sacrificed to Him right where they were.  I am not sure if the Tabernacle was still operational at this time having just recently crossed over into the Promised Land.  They might have sacrificed in the Tabernacle since only the Priests were allowed to sacrifice according to the Law of Moses.  It may have been a sin offering.

 

Judges 2:6

And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.

 

After this event at Bochim, the people were dismissed by Joshua and the tribes then went back to their allotted land which was their inheritance.  Joshua 24:28 (KJV)   So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.   It would only be a short time after this that they will begin their idolatrous ventures which will last 400 years.

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