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[Judges 2]
14So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.
16Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. 18Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 19But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, "Because this people has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not." 23So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
[Judges 3]
1Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
Israel's apostasy (2:11-13) warrants God's punishment. But his angry response described in 2:14-3:6 is not merely an angry fist that smashes the transgressors. God does not walk away from his people. He sets up a test for Israel. The test is not for Yahweh, so he can tell where Israel stands. It is for Israel, to give them a renewed vision of their pitiful condition, their infidelity, and God's character. The ordeal is ingeniously simple. God says, "If they ogle at these idols and follow the nations of this land, then I will feed them with their own vomit. I give them what they want—but at a high price." And so the nations whom they tried to imitate, whose idols they adored, became their oppressors. This affair seemed so promising; now it had turned sour.
What exactly was the didactic purpose of the test? Read 3:2! God's concern was that they learn war. Not the technical know-how, but that they learn the nature and significance of this war. This generation needed to learn that they had been called to holy war under God's command, who hates idolatry. Oppression was to teach Israel the hatred of idolatry and the love of God. Their own ways, which they had chosen for themselves, were to bring them down so far that they would eventually own their bankruptcy and helplessness.
Is this not the way the Lord teaches us at times? We reap the harvest of our own ways. Idols of our hearts—at first so desirable and luring—ensnare us and begin to dominate our thinking. We become slaves and captives of foreign gods. Pride, love of possessions, pleasure, worrying, or just a general sense of discontentment all betray the presence of an idol that has us by the throat.
Let us look at the textual scenario one more time. The reader should not really feel sorry for the people. They have it coming, and it is a hardened people. But, just as we saw in ch. 1, God doesn't deal with Israel on the basis of stone-cold justice. 2:18 is a telling example: "…Yahweh was moved to pity by their groaning…." Now, there are things about which God will not change his mind. More importantly, his character is immutably consistent and absolutely trustworthy. But his ability to feel pity for suffering people and do something about it is fundamental to his nature. His mind is not fossilized, and he is not incapable of being moved by our groaning. He is sensitive to our experience of calamity, even if it is a consequence of sin. How else could he be our Savior?
In the days of the settlement God raised up judges who (temporarily) threw off the yoke of oppressors. Well, he does not do that anymore. But we have one deliverer, whom God raised up, and he is good for all our trouble in this world. It is in him and through him that God's mercies are new every morning. And if he showed himself a pitiful Father for Israel, how much more for those who have been washed in Christ's blood? "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Ps. 30:5). Is it not better to serve the Lord, and to receive his yoke? The door to his heart is open.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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