READ: Judges
2
Chapter two introduces the context of the book of
Judges. God shows up in the first few verses, appearing to the people of Israel
as the angel of the Lord. God summarizes what has happened among His people and
prophesies what will come as a result: because they have broken their covenant
to destroy the wicked nations and strike down their pagan altars, their
conquest will be difficult and the pagan gods will be a snare to them. This is
a sad pronouncement, foreshadowing the miserable road ahead.
The description of Joshua’s death is telling:
unlike Moses, it seems that Joshua failed to establish a strong successor who
would lead the Israelite people within the Promised Land. Thus, after he died,
a generation arose that did not know the Lord or the wonders He had performed
for His people. This reveals another way that Israel failed in their covenant
relationship: Moses had told them to remember what God had done – to write His
works on their hands and tie them to their foreheads so that they would not
forget. All generations were to teach their children the things Yahweh had
done. (See De 6:4-9) Only a few generations later and we see that this command has
been ignored.
The chapter goes on to describe the apostasy of
Israel: their further abandonment of God and His ways. The words of the angel
of the Lord ring true: instead of worshipping the true God, Yahweh, Israel
instead turns to the pagan gods of the land, Baal and Ashtoreth. Sometimes when
we envision this, we think of people bowing down to wooden statues, but it was
much more than that. Baal and Ashtoreth were the god and goddess of fertility.
Their worship included a mixture of cult prostitution, sexual orgies and child
sacrifice – all in hopes that their god would bless their land and their loins.
This was the kind of activity that Israel was participating in; they had turned
from God and in turn had lost their moral compass.
Judges is a book of cycles. We see cycle after
cycle of sin, supplication and salvation: the people fall deep into sin, which
brings great hardship; so they call out to God, begging Him to save them; in
His mercy and compassion, God listens and sends a deliverer – called a judge –
to rescue the people from their oppression. Unfortunately, the people of Israel
do not learn from their mistakes, nor do they fear the Lord, because every time
He saves them, they slip back into their old habits; in fact each time they
become more corrupt than the last! God is angry with them, yet His mercy and
faithfulness is so evident. He is so patient with His people, and He desires to
see them follow His ways and receive His abundant blessing for their loving
obedience!
JOURNALING AND
PRAYER
1. When God said “You shall have no other gods
before Me” (Ex 20:3), He said so with a purpose. He alone is God and to worship
anything else, to set anything else above Him, is idolatry.
a. When we think of idolatry in the Bible, we
imagine people bowing down to statues and we tend to think they were really
stupid – Why would they worship blocks of
wood? We think ourselves quite beyond that. But they weren’t any less
stupid than us; religion and worship were just a large part of their culture.
Take some time to think about Israel’s cycles of sin and idolatry. Why do you
think the pagan gods were so enticing to them? Why might they have abandoned
Yahweh to follow these gods of wood and stone?
b. Ask God how this translates into our culture
today. Our society is becoming less and less “religious” but it is still FULL
of idol worship. What are the Baals and Ashtoreths of today? What about in your
own life? Ask God to reveal any idols, anything that you have set above Him.
c. Repent of any idolatry that is revealed in your
life. Take time to pray for our nation, that our eyes will be opened to our
idolatry, that we would have repentant hearts and turn from our sins.
2. Israel’s fall into idolatry would not have been
momentary. It will have been a slow fade, beginning with small compromises and
corner-cutting. That and the people did not take the time to teach and remember
the things God had done for them. God was not sought or pursued and as a
result, He was forgotten. Ask God to open your eyes to any compromises and corner-cutting
in your life that could potentially draw you away from Him. Recommit yourself
to Him.
