Judges, chapter 2, comments: the preincarnate Christ speaks to the Israelites

(picture represents Deborah the Judge)

 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. 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.

Remember, an angel is a presence, an appearance of something that is somewhere else, representing that person or thing but with power and ability that would prevent us from distinguishing the difference.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Matthew 18:10  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Acts 12:15  And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.

Revelation 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Here is the Angel, the appearance of God, the preincarnate Jesus Christ, that was promised.

 

Exodus 23:23  For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

 

Exodus 32:34  Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

 

Jesus will in the late first century, from Heaven, send His own appearance to testify of the things which are to come in the book of Revelation.

 

Revelation 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

 

Christ is the image or appearance of the invisible God.

 

Galatians 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

 

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…

 

Notice here the confirmation of what I just said in chapter one. They Hebrews were ordered to make no agreement with the Canaanites but to destroy them and their pernicious religion. This they did not do as per this passage. So God will not drive them completely out of the land and they will be a thorn in the side of the Israelites helping to cause their downfall.

 

Bochim  means weeping according to Strong’s dictionary which is obvious from the text.

 

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. 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 an hundred and ten years old. 9  And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, 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.

 

Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim.

 

Numbers 13:8  Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun…16  These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

 

Jehoshua is a spelling variation of Joshua, meaning Jehovah is salvation, the Hebrew name which is in the Greek name Jesus.

 

Acts 7:45  Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

 

One of the great tragedies for ancient Israel was their not regenerating themselves spiritually and passing on their knowledge of the God who created them. There was clearly no instruction to the younger generations. This is something Americans, too, the nation on earth that contains the most professing Christians, have done. Our younger generations do not know sound doctrine or have any experience with sound Biblical exposition. Even Christian children who attend church have some knowledge of Bible stories but like their parents can’t string things together or cross-reference for understanding.

 

No matter how much you would like to go to Latvia or Namibia to be a missionary your first mission field is to your own family, your own children. That is the mission field, the fertile soil, that God has given you. He may or may not be calling you to be a missionary to El Salvador but it is abundantly clear that He has called you to witness to your offspring.

 

At some point in the last century through mass mobilizations in wars and through the dominance of government indoctrination centers called public schools American Christians have surrendered their responsibility to Marxist trained globalists who stand between them and their children. There is no viable alternative for a Christian parent other than homeschooling for the parent to do their job and impart their values AND an education to their children. If you simply must allow your children to attend public schools at least spend some time at home each night debriefing them and correcting the falsehoods they will have been taught using the Bible.

 

The ignorance of the Bible and the lack of a knowledge of how God affects every minute of their lives makes our current generations as ignorant, willfully so, as this generation of Israelites.

 

In verse 11 Baalim is the plural of Baal for heathen gods. This is confirmed in the next verse as the gods of the people that were round about them.

 

Almost immediately the Israelites sink into idolatry.

 

Baal means lord and is the supreme divinity of the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. Baal is the masculine form of Satan in practice and worship.

 

Ashtaroth is the female version of Satan as represented by the fertility cults and goddesses of the ancient world.

 

Deities such as Bel or Ishtar in Babylon or Amaterasu in Japan or Viracocha in Peru or Quetzlcoatl in Mexico, the Catholic Virgin Mary or the pagan Roman Cybele and many others are all derivations of this representation of Satan in masculine and feminine forms. Lest you feel proud that you are not involved in such worship consider that the statue of Lady Liberty in New York Harbor ultimately is a version of Ishtar who is a version of Satan himself in feminine form. The pagan god of war, Mars, is on the U.S. Capitol building. He can be traced to Baal and is a derivation of Satan, as are the rest.

 

So, God was angry at the Israelites, as 14 tells us and He let the heathen dominate them. However, he raised up Judges to deliver them, Judges whom they did not obey for long.

 

Here is part of the definition of a Judge in verse 16. This is confirmed elsewhere. I refer you to my comments on Acts 7.

 

“Acts 7:27  But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28  Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? 29  Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

 

In verse 27 we see the definition of a judge of the book of Judges. It was a ruler. In Exodus the word prince was used, the same thing.

 

Exodus 2:14  And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

 

In the next passage all three will be linked to deliverer which hearkens back to Judges 3:9 and 15.

 

This reinforces how word substitution between Old and New Testament helps define words in context as meant by the Holy Spirit. See the previous comments on Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1 to further understand how this method of interpretation works. Notice also how by the use of word substitution the Holy Spirit defines words. By comparing the two passages, one in Isaiah and one in Luke we see synonyms like preach and proclaim, deliverance and liberty, gospel and good tidings, poor and meek. Experiment with that interpretation method and you will learn some amazing stuff throughout the Bible in quotes made in the New Testament from Greek with the Old Testament translated from Hebrew under the guiding hand of the Spirit of God and Christ.

 

Acts 7:30 ¶  And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31  When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came

unto him, 32  Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. 33  Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. 35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.”

 

In these passages we can see a judge, ruler, and deliverer are linked as synonyms.

 

So God would deliver them with a Judge and then they would fall back into apostasy. I can imagine this in regard to the Christian and his or her own sins. Consider this, many Christians have been delivered from sins that so easily beset them and yet when stressed they will fall back into their old habits, their old sins. How long before God stops delivering you temporally from the sins of the flesh you cling to like some kind of corpse tied to your back, sins you dig up from their grave each time God buries them?

 (picture represents Deborah the Judge)