Judges 2
WE noticed in our reading of the book of Joshua, the special place given to Gilgal; there the twelve memorial stones were placed that were taken out of the Jordan; there the Israelites were circumcised (type of separation from the system of things in which the unsaved live), and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Gilgal was the first camp in the land, —the starting point in taking possession of it, and the place to which Joshua returned after each campaign. Here we learn that God was there (verse 1).
But the people have not obeyed His voice, and they have sunk to the level of the inhabitants of the land, and the angel of the Lord quits Gilgal, going to Bochim, to the place of weeping, declaring that He will no longer drive out the enemy whom Israel had spared. The tears (verse 4) are for lost blessings, and God accepts them, because His relationship to the people is not altered. This change from Gilgal, the place where self is, so to speak, buried, and divine power supplied, to Bochim, the place of tears, is the key to the book of Judges and it expresses so often the condition of God’s children in our own day.
From verse 6 of this chapter to verse 7 in the third chapter we are given the historical development of the position of Israel. Like the assembly or Church of God, —preserved during the lives of the apostles, and then falling into unfaithfulness and rebellion, mixing with the unbelieving, and so getting deeper into ungodliness, —so it was in this earlier day with Israel. While Joshua lived and the elders that outlived him, the people served the Lord (verse 7), but another generation arose (verse 10), and they did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim. This worship of Baal, the chief male god (Ashtaroth—verse 13—was the chief female god) of the Canaanites, persisted in Israel until the last, although it was almost entirely stopped under Samuel and Jehu, and in Elijah’s day all his prophets were killed.
Accordingly, the hand of God was against Israel (verse 15) and they were “greatly distressed”; nevertheless He raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who oppressed them. Then we get the sad record about the people in verses 1 and 19 that they would not listen to the judges, and went after other gods.
This has ever been the history of the people of God, true in all dispensations and in all periods of time, though He in grace has raised up repeatedly devoted ones who gave their lives for Him.
Yet there is a deeper question: As we consider these people of a long past period, has the reader himself peace with God? His word declares how that peace is obtained.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1, 21Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1‑2). There is no other way but through Jesus and by His shed blood!
Do not rest in your feelings, but in Christ and His work on the cross, dying as the divine Substitute for sinners who trust in Him.
ML 10/11/1925