Judges 2/3 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Jud 2:6-19

6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.

8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshipping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

A. Find Out:

1. What was Israel ‘s relationship with the Lord in Joshua’s time? v.7
2. What happened after Joshua died? v.8-13
3. What did the Lord do? v.14,15
4. How did the Lord help Israel? v.16,18
5. Yet what did Israel do? v.17,19

B. Think:

1. How is the sinfulness of mankind exhibited in these verses?
2. Yet how is the grace of God still seen?
3. What was the cycle observed?

C. Comment:

      These verses are overall summary verses that really put all that happens, as recorded in Judges, in context. To start with, in Joshua’s lifetime, Israel still have a relationship with the Lord. Joshua’s leadership and, no doubt, the recent activities of coming into the Land after leaving their wilderness wanderings, all help maintain Israel in that relationship. If we thought being a special chosen people would make them automatically holy, then the book of Judges shows us that that is far from the truth. The sinfulness of mankind is as strong in this people as in any. It is shown by their stupidity in turning away from the Lord. He had delivered them, led them, provided for them, made them a nation and blessed them, yet still they forget all of this and turn to the ways of the people of that land, and worship idols. How crazy!

      So, because the Lord loves them, He disciplines them (Heb 12:6). In Rom 1:24 ,26,28 we see that the Lord “gave over” the people to their wishes and the sense is that He withdrew His restraining hand. Whether that is what happens here, or He specifically puts attack in the minds of Israel ‘s enemies and makes them feel good, isn’t clear. What is clear is that every time Israel turn from God, they suffer. Every time we will see, they cried out to the Lord, He gave them godly judges to lead them, and they were restored. We will see this cycle again and again: godliness – apostasy – defeat – crying out – judges appointed – victory.

D. Application:

1. The Lord is a refuge (Psa 7:1). With Him there is safety.
2. On our own we are vulnerable to the enemy.

Passage: Jud 2:20 – 3:6

20 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, ‘Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.’ 23 The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

1 These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

A. Find Out:

1. How did the Lord feel and why? v.20
2. What did He say He would do? v.21
3. Who was He doing this for? v.1,2
4. Who were the inhabitants left? v.3,5
5. What did Israel do with them? v.6

B. Think:

1. How was the Lord going to use Israel ‘s failure for His purposes?
2. What should that do for them?
3. Yet how did they continue to fail?

C. Comment:

      We see within this passage the Lord’s thinking, faced with Israel ‘s failure to be wholehearted in clearing the occupants of the land out. Very well, He says, I will make use of the present situation in two quite specific ways!

      The first way was that He would use the presence of the existing pagan occupants as a check against the Israelites. In other words, the presence of temptation and their response to it would act as a clear and visible sign as to the ongoing state of heart of this ‘people of God’. This is similar to God’s telling Adam and Eve not to eat of one particular tree among many in Eden (Gen 2:16 ,17). The sign of their ongoing faithfulness would be their obedience to this one restriction. For Israel, it would be don’t go to join themselves to the pagans.

      The second way He would use these circumstances, was to train the present Israel in the art of war. The fact was that, because they had left these people in the land, they would find in the days to come that these people would fight against them and oppress them, and they would have to learn to fight to survive. We too, today, have to learn to fight against Sin, against the temptations that come before us, against Satan. All of these things come as a threat to our position and we have to learn to stand against them. Christianity is not passive; it is outward going and as such attracts the attacks of the enemy. There is a very real battle.

D. Application:

1. We are called to stand against Sin and Satan.
2. As we stand against the enemy, we are strengthened.