Judges 3:12-14 Once Again!

 12Once again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. So He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. 13After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.

14The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

 “Moab, situated to the east of the Dead Sea between the Arnon and the Zered, was settled as a kingdom some fifty years before the Israelite invasion.”

·“Ammon, to the north-east of Moab, was established about the same time as Israel in the late thirteenth century B.C.”

“The Amalekites, who were akin to the Edomites, were a nomadic race occupying the considerable area south of Judah, and were possibly Israel’s bitterest enemy (Exodus 17:8-16; cf. 1 Samuel 15:2-3).” (Cundall)

“Israel’s sin brought them into bondage. They suffered 8 years of bondage before they cried out to the LORD in the days of Othniel. Then they endured another 18 stubborn years of bondage before they cried out to the LORD.” (Guzik)

“Once again the __________ did evil in the sight of the LORD”. Fill in the blank! Is there any country or nationality that doesn’t? Brethren, evil is increasing by the minute in the world and things are changing fast! 

Please pray for a revival! Our country needs to return to the Lord before it’s too late.

Blessings 

Judges 3:9-11 Spirit of the Lord

 9When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. 11So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Othneil, where have we heard that name before? 🤔

Judges 1:12 Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife. 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.

“Spirit of the Lord came upon him” this phrase is mentioned many times in the Old Testament and several times in the New Testament. And when it happened the recipient was used mightily for the Lord! 

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit!

John 14: 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

Does the Holy Spirit abide in you?

Blessings 

Judges 3:8 Bondage

 8Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.

Bondage 

It took eight years of bondage before the Israelites cried out to the Lord! I wonder if in those eight years the Israelites cried out to their pagan gods made of wood, stone or metal and they just sat there stone faced before they came to their senses and cried out to the one true God?

“God gave Israel just what they wanted. They didn’t want to serve God, so He allowed them to be in bondage to a pagan king. Israel reaped exactly what they sowed.” (Guzik)

“The name of Cushan-Rishathaim is also suspect, for it reads literally ‘Cushan of double wickedness’, not likely a personal name, and it would appear that the historian has made a deliberate distortion to cast ridicule upon this oppressor.” (Cundall)

“A rather strange designation but perhaps intended to be an intimidating one. It could also be a caricature of the actual name.” (Wolf)

“Tyrants delight in terrible names and titles, as Attilas, the Hunne, who would needs be styled Ira Dei et orbis vastitas, the wrath of God, and waster of the world.” (Trapp)

Are you being oppressed? Have you cried out to the Lord?

Blessings 

Judges 3:5-7 Served their gods

 5Thus the Israelites continued to live among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 6And they took the daughters of these people in marriage, gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. 7So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

Served their gods.

How is it any different if a Christian marries someone outside their faith or without faith at all? The people of the world chase after their gods but a Christian chases after Jesus and they oppose each other. 

“Jesus told us that following Him would require that we give up the things we love most (Mark 10:29-30). Often an ungodly romance falls into this exact category. (Guzik)

As for me and my family, give me Jesus! Blessings 

Danny Gokey - Give Me Jesus (Live)

https://youtu.be/bbh43MGoigw

Judges 3:1-4 TEACH

 1These are the nations that the LORD left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. 2He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle. 3These are the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath. 4These people were left to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the LORD had given to their ancestors through Moses.

Teach

“He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.”

King David comes to mind when he was a young boy shepherding his father’s sheep. He practiced with his sling and used it on the wild animals for the sheep’s safety. Some wrongly believed when David killed Goliath it was a miracle at the Lords hand. The Lord was actually teaching David as a young boy with that sling and teaching him courage with the wild animals! So when David and Goliath went to battle, David was a seasoned warrior taught by the Lord.

1 Samuel 17: 34David replied, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it down, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it. 36Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

37David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

“Israel was to be in a hostile environment for the major part of her history, due either to the pressures of the petty kingdoms which surrounded her or, at a later stage, due to her strategic position between the successive world-powers of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and Greece on the one hand and Egypt on the other hand. Military prowess was a necessary accomplishment, humanly speaking, if she was to survive.” (Cundall)

Blessings 

Judges 2:20-23 Test

 20So the LORD burned with anger against Israel. He said, “Because these people have violated my covenant, which I made with their ancestors, and have ignored my commands, 21I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. 22I did this to test Israel—to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the LORD as their ancestors did.” 23That is why the LORD left those nations in place. He did not quickly drive them out or allow Joshua to conquer them all.

“He is not made all of mercy, as some dream, but can be angry: and ‘who knoweth the power of his wrath?’ (Psalm 90:11). It is such as men can neither avoid nor abide.” (Trapp)

“After setting their hearts on sinful things, Israel found that God gave what their sinful hearts desired. This illustrates the great danger of setting our hearts on sinful things; we may get to the point where God may allow us to have them - thus bringing sin, bondage, and pain into our lives.” (Guzik)

Test

Have you ever taken a test and failed? Here a whole nation took one and failed! And the Lords anger burned against them because of it.

Has our nation passed or failed the test?

Blessings 

Judges 2:16-19 Spiritual Leaders!

 16Then the LORD raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers. 17Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves (played the harlot) by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commands.

18Whenever the LORD raised up a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the LORD took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. 19But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They went after other gods, serving and worshiping them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

“Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them: Because of His great love for His people, God raised up judges – heroic leaders – to rescue Israel from their calamity. God did this nevertheless; not because Israel ever deserved such a deliverer from God, but in spite of the fact that they were undeserving.” (Guzik)

“It was a method made necessary by the repeated failure of the people. That should be clearly understood.” (Morgan)

“Though God gave Israel these heroic leaders, they did not listen to their judges in matters of spiritual leadership. They wanted the judges as political and military leaders, but not as spiritual leaders.” (Guzik)

played the harlot: “Carried on by a spirit of fornication, a strong inclination, a vehement impetus to whoredom; so that they care not how they waste all upon it, and will not be reclaimed: so idolaters.” (Trapp)

“This connection of sin, punishment, and deliverance really forms the keynote to the historical movement recorded in the whole of the Book.” (Morgan)

Something Guzik said makes sense as people today are no different! “They wanted the judges as political and military leaders, but not as spiritual leaders.” People don’t want spiritual leaders because they will point out their sins against the Lord! Today we have at the highest levels in our government politicians openly sinning and this won’t end well for our country or us as citizens. 

Please pray for a revival before it’s too late.

Blessings 

Judges 2:14-15 Burn with anger

 14This made the LORD burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. 15Every time Israel went out to battle, the LORD fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress.

Burn with anger

The Israelites were for warned what would happen if they forsook the Lord!

Leviticus 26: 14“However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16I will punish you.

“We serve God under the terms of a different covenant, a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). When we forsake God and do not abide in Jesus Christ, things may (and often do) go badly for us, but not because God has actively set His hand against us as He did to Israel under the Old Covenant. When we do not abide in Jesus and things go badly for us, it is simply because our actions have consequences and we reap the bitter fruit of not keeping ourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21).” (Guzik)

Have you ever burned with anger towards one of your children? I have and it’s hard when you have to walk away and decide on a form of discipline. The art of discipline is to do it with love instead of angry hatred.

Blessings 

Judges 2:11-13 We worship other gods!

 11The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight and served the images of Baal. 12They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the LORD. 13They abandoned the LORD to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.

“There were also ‘Baals’ associated with particular places, like the Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:3) or Baal-Berith (Judges 9:4); and this may account for the plural form.” (Wolf)

According to Wolf, the word Baal also meant “husband” or “owner.” Therefore, when Israel worshipped the Canaanite god Baal, they entertained another “husband” or “owner.” (Guzik)

“The Canaanite idol Ashtoreth was an attractive rival to Yahweh because she was thought to be the goddess of love, sex, and fertility. She was usually honored with the practice of ritual sex with a priestess-prostitute. One might say that the bottom line with Ashtoreth was sex and love.” (Guzik)

“The religion of these fertility gods was accompanied by all kinds of lascivious practices, especially in Canaan, where it was found in a degraded form which even incorporated child sacrifice.” (Cundall)

In the sight of the LORD: “This implies that the sin was even more offensive to God because it was done right before His eyes. To give an extreme example, it is bad enough for a married person to commit adultery; but to commit adultery before the very eyes of one’s spouse would be especially offensive.” (Guzik)

They followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them: “This shows another root cause for Israel’s tragic idolatry. The influence of the Canaanites that they allowed to remain in their midst led them to idolatry. The result of not fully driving out the Canaanites was far worse than Israel imagined.” (Guzik)

“We worship other gods – the gods of the nations around the idols of the market-place, the studio, the camp, and the bar.” (Meyer)

Images of Baal and Other gods!

We have the same problem because of our sin nature! We attended Compassionate Recovery at our church and I really enjoyed the men’s group after the biblical teaching. One thing I’ve learned is “everyone” has an addiction in one form or another. Food, alcohol, drugs, lust, pornography, gluttony, drama, or ________ (fill in the blank)!

Is abortion the ultimate child sacrifice?

Like Meyer’s quote above, “We worship other gods”.

Dear Heavenly Father, we lay our other gods at Your feet and ask that You break them up with Your hammer of bronze. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Blessings 

Judges 2:7-10 Servants of the Lord

 7And the Israelites served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.

8Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110. 9They buried him in the land he had been allocated, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

10After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

Servants of the Lord 

Joshua was truly a servant of the Lord as others named in the Bible like Moses and David. There a a few in more recent history like Billy Graham and Charles Spurgeon.

If we are lucky enough to live to a ripe old age will our family and friends recall us being a servant of the Lord? More importantly will our children acknowledge the Lord or remember the things He has done for you? 

Blessings 

Judges 2:4-6 Considering Our Deserts

 4When the angel of the LORD had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

6After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

“The subsequent record of the Book of Judges shows that this initial reaction of sorrow and repentance did not mature into a real, lasting repentance. Real repentance shows itself in action, not necessarily in weeping. We can be sorry about the consequences of our sin without being sorry about the sin itself.” (Guzik)

“The tear is the natural drop of moisture, and soon evaporates; the better thing is the inward torrent of grief within the soul, which leaves the indelible mark within…One grain of faith is better than a gallon of tears. A drop of genuine repentance is more precious than a torrent of weeping.” (Spurgeon)

They sacrificed there to the LORD: In this, they did the right thing. Any awareness of sin should drive us to God’s appointed sacrifice. In their day that meant sin offerings of bulls and rams; in our day it means remembering God’s sacrifice for us on the cross of Jesus Christ. (Guzik)

“In testimony of their faith in Christ’s merits (for they mourned not desperately) and their thankfulness that God had sent them a preacher, and not an executioner, considering their deserts.” (Trapp)

Considering Our Deserts

Judges 2 gives us retrospect, so should we when we grow old. I believe that the Lord gives us this time to look back on our lives to consider our just deserts. Like Trapp’s commentary my “thankfulness that God had sent them a preacher, and not an executioner”!

Considering my deserts, I deserve the executioner!

But thank God!

1 Corinthians 15: 57But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are your deserts any different than mine?

Blessings 

Judges 2:1-3 Disobedience

 1Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, 2and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’

Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done? 3So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

“The first thing Jesus (as the Angel of the LORD) did was to remind Israel of His great love and faithfulness to them. He delivered them from Egypt’s bondage; He gave them an abundant land of promise; He gave them a covenant that He would never break.” (Guzik)

“The deplorable spiritual condition of the Israelites, not their lack of chariots, lay behind their failure to dispossess the Canaanites.” (Wolf)

Disobedience 

“Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?”

Why are we such a fickle people? One minute on fire for God and the next following the devil! Paul described it best in Romans 7, Struggling With Sin! 

The Lord is telling the Israelites and us that our sins, “they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

Like the prodigal son we have to wallow with the pigs for awhile before we come to our senses.

Lord help us examine our hearts for gods that snare us and thorns in our sides. Please shake and wake us up so that we can fully serve You and Your will for our lives. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Blessings 

Judges 2:1-3 Christophany

 1Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, 2and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’

Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done? 3So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

Guzik’s commentary below is extraordinary and rich! For today we will be focusing on who is the “Angel of the LORD”!

a. The Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal: It is likely that this was God Himself, appearing in a human form. There are frequent Old Testament appearances of the Angel of the LORD that indicate that it is God Himself.

i. There is a legitimate question as to if every mention of the Angel of the LORD is a divine appearance. As G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “This messenger, referred to as ‘the angel of the Lord,’ may have been a prophet, for the word rendered ‘angel’ may with equal accuracy be rendered messenger. On the other hand, it may have been a special divine and angelic personality.”

ii. Assuming this to be a divine appearance (as the author believes it does indicate), we surmise that this was Jesus Christ appearing to the people of Israel before His incarnated appearance in Bethlehem. We know this is Jesus for two reasons.

· First because the Angel of the LORD here claimed divinity by saying that He was the one who led Israel up from Egypt, who made a covenant with Israel (Judges 2:1), and who personally called Israel to obedience (Judges 2:2).

· Second because this person, appearing in human form before Israel, cannot be God the Father, because the Father is described as invisible (1 Timothy 1:17) and whom no man has seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16).

iii. The idea of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, appearing as a man before Bethlehem is provocative, but logical. We know that He existed before Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); why should He not, on isolated but important occasions, appear in bodily form? We see other places where this happened, such as Genesis 18:16-33, Genesis 32:24-30, and Judges 13:1-23.

iv. “Not in such a body as God had prepared for him when he took upon himself the form of a servant, but in such a form and fashion as seemed most congruous to his divine majesty, and to the circumstances of those he visited, this angel of the divine covenant whom we delight in came and spoke unto this people.” (Spurgeon)

I have to admit that I had to read and reread Spurgeon’s comment to fully grasp and understand the full weight of it. Pastor Robert teaches about Christophanies and here we have an example of one. David

“Some Bible commentators believe that whenever someone received a visit from “the angel of the Lord,” this was in fact the pre-incarnate Christ. These appearances can be seen in Genesis 16:7-14; Genesis 22:11-18; Judges 5:23; 2 Kings 19:35; and other passages. Other commentators believe these were in fact angelophanies, or appearances of angels. While there are no indisputable Christophanies in the Old Testament, every theophany wherein God takes on human form foreshadows the incarnation, where God took the form of a man to live among us as Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).” 

https://www.gotquestions.org/theophany-Christophany.html

Blessings