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More Judges commentaries
Judges 1:1-20
Partial Success in Southern Canaan
Judges 1:21-36
Failure in Northern Canaan
Judges 2:1-15
God’s Anger in Action
Judges 2:16-23
Devine Testing of Israel
Judges 3:1-11
The Sinful Failure of Israel
Judges 3:12-31
Israel’s Apostasy is Described
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God’s Anger in Action
Judges 2:1–15
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, once complained to the President about a fellow army officer. Lincoln advised him to write the man a letter expressing his anger. Stanton did so, and showed it to Lincoln. After approving the letter, the President asked Stanton w … More
Judges 2 gives us a clear picture of God’s anger in action as He deals with the disobedience and sin of Israel. A heavenly messenger brought distressing news to the multitude of Israel assembled at Bochim. This messenger severely rebuked the Israelites for their disobedience in failing to drive out their enemies and for not tearing down their altars (vv. 1-3). Israel’s rebellion was intolerable and they would have to suffer the consequences of their wrong-doing. Israel was so disturbed by this stern rebuke that she cried (vv. 4-5) . However her tears soon vanished and her memory was short lived. A new generation soon forgot about the good resolutions made by its parents (vv. 6-10). Could this have been because their fathers were so busy trying to possess the land that they neglected the spiritual instruction of their children?
Contact with the unconquered heathen now produced distressing results. Soon Israel was prostrating herself before Baal which was the Phoenician rain-god and Oshtaroth the moon-god (vv. 11-13). When any people who knew God forsook Him, the result was a vacuum of religion that soon was filled with other objects of worship. This passage gives us a clear picture of God’s anger in action as He deals with the disobedience and sin of Israel. The time of the judges was a low point in Israel’s history, as God’s people provoked Him to anger by their sin (v. 14). The LORD had warned Israel he would do this, and now the Israelites were miserable (v. 15).
Application
When it comes to me personally getting angry, it’s almost always a good idea for me to think twice, count to ten, take a walk, or do whatever it takes to reconsider my response. But God never needs to reconsider or repent for His anger. Because God is holy and perfect, His anger is holy and perfect.
Judges 2:1-15 (English Standard Version)
Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you." As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the LORD. When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So 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. Whenever 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.
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