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by Katie Erickson

This week’s passage of Judges 2:6-23 is too long to include in this post, so please go read it here. I’ll wait til you come back.

This passages starts out with some of the historical context of this book. Joshua was the leader of the people of Israel after Moses, who brought them out of Egypt. Israel was faithful to God during the time of Joshua’s leadership, so when he died things changed. We see in verse 10 that Joshua’s generation did not leave a legacy of following God with the next generation. They were too far removed in time from the people who had left Egypt to have firsthand experience of God’s deliverance then. If the people did not continue to share the importance and significance of that event then the next generations were likely to go astray from God’s purposes, and that’s exactly what they did.

This story is the first one we see in Judges that sets up a pattern that is repeated often throughout the rest of the book. This repeated pattern has 5 pieces to it:
1. Sin - The people disobey God.
2. Slavery - God allows them to be enslaved by their enemies.
3. Supplication - The people cry out to God for deliverance.
4. Salvation - God delivers them.
5. Silence - There is a time of peace.

We’re going to take a look at this week’s passage in light of these 5 steps, and we’ll continue to use this structure in the coming weeks for other passages in Judges.

We see Israel’s sin in verses 11-13: “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.” Their sin was serving other gods instead of God Almighty. God had clearly laid this out as sin in Exodus 20:3-6.

We see Israel’s slavery in verses 14-15: “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. 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.” Not only was Israel sold into the hands of their enemies, but God was against them any time they tried to fight their enemies. This was the negative consequence that they needed for their disobedience.

We see Israel’s supplication in verse 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.”) and in verse 18b (“For the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them”). Israel did not like to be oppressed, and neither would we for that matter. They were in great distress; they cried out to God and groaned about their situation.

We see Israel’s salvation in verse 16: “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.” God had a plan to bring them back from their disobedience and get them on the right track again. The problem was in this particular case, that they didn’t stay in that salvation but instead continued to disobey God. Verses 17-19 says, “Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 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. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.”

We still see the period of silence in this passage, where the God would deliver them and keep them safe from their enemies as long as the judge was alive, even though the people did not deserve it.

Have you had times in your life where you see yourself following this pattern? It may look a little different for you than being captured or oppressed by enemies, but you can probably see a similar cycle in your own life. Take some time this week to think about when you’ve gone through this, and perhaps where you’re at on this cycle even now.

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