Judges 2:11 Komentář

In this chapter we have, I. A particular message which God sent to Israel by an angel, and the impression it made upon them (Jdg 2:1-5). II. A general idea of the state of Israel during the government of the judges, in which observe, 1. Their adherence to God while Joshua and the elders lived (Jdg 2:6-10). 2. Their revolt afterwards to idolatry (Jdg 2:11-13). 3. God's displeasure against them, and his judgments upon them for it (Jdg 2:14, Jdg 2:15). 4. His pity towards them, shown in raising them up deliverers (Jdg 2:16-18). 5. Their relapse into idolatry after the judgment was over (Jdg 2:17-19). 6. The full stop God in anger put to their successes (Jdg 2:20-23). These are the contents, not only of this chapter, but of the whole book.

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 2 This chapter gives an account of an angel of the Lord appearing and rebuking the children of Israel for their present misconduct, Jdg 2:1; of their good behaviour under Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, Jdg 2:6; and of their idolatries they fell into afterwards, which greatly provoked the Lord to anger, Jdg 2:11; and of the goodness of God to them nevertheless, in raising up judges to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, of which there are many instances in the following chapter, Jdg 2:16; and yet that how, upon the demise of such persons, they relapsed into idolatry which caused the anger of God to be hot against them, and to determine not to drive out the Canaanites utterly from them, but to leave them among them to try them, Jdg 2:19.

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Openly and publicly, boldly and impudently, in the very face of God, and amidst all the good things they received from him, which were aggravating circumstances of their sins; what the evil was they did is next observed: and served Baalim; the idol Baal, as the Arabic version, of which there were many, and therefore a plural word is used; to which the apostle refers Co1 8:5; for the word signifies "lords", and there were Baalpeor, Baalzebub, Baalberith, &c. and who seem to have their name from Bal, Bel, or Belus, a king of Babylon after Nimrod, and who was the first monarch that was deified, the Jupiter of the Heathens. Theophilus of Antioch (p) says, that, according to the history of Thallus, Belus the king of the Assyrians, whom they worshipped, was older than the Trojan war three hundred twenty two years; and that some call Cronus or Saturn Bel and Bal; by the Assyrians called Bel, and in the Punic or Phoenician language Bal (q). (p) Ad Autolyc. l. 3. p. 138, 139. Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 23. (q) Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. 1. prope finem.

It was the ancients who did this, of course, but because what was written is said to be “written for our sake, to whom the end of the ages has arrived,” not on their account, we should watch lest these sayings are seen to be true of more of us than of them. Do you want to see that such things are applied to us through the apostle, rather than through me? Listen for yourself to what he said: “What does Scripture say about how Elijah interceded with God against Israel? ‘Lord, they killed your prophets, they destroyed your altars, and I am left alone and they seek my soul.’ But what was the divine response? ‘I preserved for myself seven thousand men who did not bend the knee to Baal,’ ” then the apostle adds “ ‘thus, in this time also a remnant chosen by grace is saved,’ ” You can see, therefore, that those who “bent the knee to Baal” and those who “did not bend the knee” are understood by the apostle as the multitude of unbelievers and the remnant of believers, respectively. This demonstrates, then, that those who lived in unbelief and impiety at the time of the Savior also “bent the knee to Baal” and worshiped idols, whereas those who believed and fulfilled the works of faith “did not bend the knee to Baal.” It is never mentioned in the historical books or in the Gospels or in any other book of Scripture that some at the time of the Savior did in fact bend the knee to idols, but such an act is indeed attributed to those persons who were bound by their sins, as though held by fetters. Whenever we sin and “are taken captive to the law of sin,” therefore, we “bend our knees to Baal.” But we are not called to this, nor do we believe in this, such that we would again become servants of sin and again “bend the knee” to the devil. Instead, our calling and the purpose of our faith is both to bend the knee at the name of Jesus, for “at the name of Jesus, every knee bends in heaven and on earth and in hell,” and to bend the knee to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”

AN ANGEL SENT TO REBUKE THE PEOPLE AT BOCHIM. (Jdg 2:1-10) an angel . . . came from Gilgal to Bochim--We are inclined to think, from the authoritative tone of his language, that he was the Angel of the Covenant (Exo 23:20; Jos 5:14); the same who appeared in human form and announced himself captain of the Lord's host. His coming from Gilgal had a peculiar significance, for there the Israelites made a solemn dedication of themselves to God on their entrance into the promised land [Jos 4:1-9]; and the memory of that religious engagement, which the angel's arrival from Gilgal awakened, gave emphatic force to his rebuke of their apostasy. Bochim--"the weepers," was a name bestowed evidently in allusion to this incident or the place, which was at or near Shiloh. I said, I will never break my covenant with you . . . but ye have not obeyed my voice--The burden of the angel's remonstrance was that God would inviolably keep His promise; but they, by their flagrant and repeated breaches of their covenant with Him, had forfeited all claim to the stipulated benefits. Having disobeyed the will of God by voluntarily courting the society of idolaters and placing themselves in the way of temptation, He left them to suffer the punishment of their misdeeds.

WICKEDNESS OF THE NEW GENERATION AFTER JOSHUA. (Jdg 2:11-19) the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord--This chapter, together with the first eight verses of the next [Jdg. 2:11-3:8], contains a brief but comprehensive summary of the principles developed in the following history. An attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelitish history, from the death of Joshua till the establishment of the monarchy. served Baalim--The plural is used to include all the gods of the country.

Repeated Falling Away of the People from the Lord. - Jdg 2:11-13. The Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord (what was displeasing to the Lord); they served Baalim. The plural Baalim is a general term employed to denote all false deities, and is synonymous with the expression "other gods" in the clause "other gods of the gods of the nations round about them" (the Israelites). This use of the term Baalim arose from the fact that Baal was the chief male deity of the Canaanites and all the nations of Hither Asia, and was simply worshipped by the different nations with peculiar modifications, and therefore designated by various distinctive epithets. In Jdg 2:12 this apostasy is more minutely described as forsaking Jehovah the God of their fathers, to whom they were indebted for the greatest blessing, viz., their deliverance out of Egypt, and following other gods of the heathen nations that were round about them (taken verbatim from Deu 6:14, and Deu 13:7-8), and worshipping them. In this way they provoked the Lord to anger (cf. Deu 4:25; Deu 9:18, etc.).