Judges: Chap 2: God's righteousness is the only standard for His people. He gives it by grace and we walk in it by faith.

Title: Judges: Chap 2: God's righteousness is the only standard for His people. He gives it by grace and we walk in it by faith.    

If you would like to see and be able to pronounce some of the names of God in the Hebrew, go to:

 

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/YHVH/yhvh.html

God exalts His own name and the many names that He uses enrich our understanding of Him and place awe in our hearts as to how multifaceted He is. When you speak of Him or when you pray to Him you may use any of these names and I personally think it is an enriching part of our relationship with Him to use these names while understanding them. You can choose one at a time and master it. Or you can pray to the God of healing when in search of it or the God who delivers when in search of it. These names are given to us so that we may use them - as we belong to God, these belong to us. Yevah Shalom.

 

JDG 2:1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you,

 

JDG 2:2 and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done?

 

JDG 2:3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"

 

This warning has been given on several occasions. The Israelites weep because they know they have heard it before and that they did not heed it, thinking somehow they might get away with it. The criminal weeps when the sentence finally comes to pass.

 

NUM 33:55-56

'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land in which you live. And it shall come about that as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.'"  

 

JOS 23:13

know with certainty that the Lord  your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord  your God has given you.  

 

JDG 2:4 And it came about when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

 

JDG 2:5 So they named that place Bochim [weeping]; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.  

 

Their weeping led to a repentance that motivated them to offer sacrifices. No doubt they offered sin offerings and burnt offerings, but this does not mean that they are at Shiloh, not that it matters here. We see that they may sacrifice at any place that the Lord appears.

 

The real question is not the location of Bochim but, “Did their weeping last more than a day or a few days?” Did they become like the man in the parable that was forgiven a huge debt by his master and then, once free, demand a very small debt from a man who owed him little?

 

The threat of imminent trouble causes weeping, but if judgment is lifted for a short time, does the guilty party return to his sin?  

 

We don’t have to look very far for this answer concerning Israel. They quickly returned to their sin as vs. 11 shows us.

 

JDG 2:11 Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals,

 

JDG 2:12 and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers,

 

For the remainder of the opening summary in the book of Judges we see that this age is characterized as a constant cycle of idolatry, punishment, mercy, repentance, and peace, which is followed by another cycle of idolatry.

 

The main theme of the period of the Judges the righteousness of God is clearly displayed through just discipline as well as faithful mercy as God allows Israel to be tested by demonic forces.

 

God’s punishment is only on the rebellious and His faithfulness is always to the covenant. The Abrahamic covenant saves all men who believe and it brings in everlasting righteousness to God's world. His mercy is manifested by patience. Each generation of idolaters are shown the power of God through a Judge.

 

We see in His dealings with all people that the justice of God is iron clad or immutable. As church-age believers God deals with us through love, but His love is also a source of our needed times of discipline which is always ministered fairly and justly.

 

Righteousness is non-negotiable. God enables us to clearly understand what it is and then demands it from us. Yet God provides it in Christ and through Him do we have it and walk in it.

 

Only through faith in Christ do we become righteous, and only through the power of Christ by means of faith in the Holy Spirit and in the truth can we walk in righteousness.

 

We do not work for righteousness. We have it in faith and we walk in it through faith. We have faith in what God tells us that we are. We face our enemies by faith. Our position is secure and God is faithful to that position just as He is faithful to His covenant with Israel.

 

There are no blanks to be filled in by us in the plan of God. All has been accomplished by our Lord. It is His righteousness that you possess and His word that you are learning. He sent the Spirit to indwell you so that you may by faith learn of them and trust in them and go forth in His plan, presenting ourselves to God as those alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

 

The historian now uses a broader summary for the entire period of the Judges. He gives the theme of the entire age.

 

JDG 2:6 When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

 

JDG 2:7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

 

JDG 2:8 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten.

 

JDG 2:9 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

 

JDG 2:10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

 

As it was already stated, the generation with Joshua was faithful, but the subsequent generation was not. We see the final resting place of Joshua yet again, as it was given to us in the book of Joshua this comes down on us like sound of a closing coffin. This “thud” is the end of one generation, but it is the end of something good and so it is not a cause for celebration.

 

We feel as if Joshua is sealed away in his tomb, so separated from the next generation that they cannot approach him.

 

The grave is unclean to the Jew and not to be touched, but the legacy of Joshua should not be looked upon in the same way. The covenant and the Law that was loved by Joshua should be loved by all generations.

 

Just because his body is sealed away doesn’t mean that the truth that he loved should be sealed away in the dust with him. Why is it that when one generation dies that the next thinks they are so much more modern and so much more enlightened? Why do we not see that truth is eternal and immutable and so is the same in every generation?

 

Time has no bearing whatsoever on the truth. The death of Joshua and the coming of the next generation is not a history of time but a history of change in the minds of a generation.  

 

It constitutes a radical change from one kind of people to another kind of people. They could exist on different continents at the same time and be just as different. But since it is the same people, time is a blank canvas that sets the stage for this change.