Judges 1-2

What I Noticed Today (Judges 1-2)

In Joshua, God was with the whole nation. In Judges, God was with individuals.

Judges 1:1-3:6

This section serves as an introduction to the accounts of Israel’s judges: 1) the Israelites do not completely possess the land (Judges 1), and 2) the Israelites fall into a pattern of sin and judgment (Judges 2).

Judges 1

In Judges 1, the Israelites begin the process of conquering the Promised Land.

In verses 1-21, after Joshua’s death, the tribes were to conquer their own territories. Rather than fighting as a nation, they were now fighting as individual tribes, and they were not effective in claiming their territory. The people allowed remnants of the foreign populations to remain in their midst.

• Judah and Simeon banded together to fight against the Canaanites and Perizzites. God gave them victory, and they took possession of the hill country, the Negev, and the western foothills. But they failed to drive out the people who lived in the valley because they had iron chariots.
• At the same time, the Benjamites battled the Jebusites living in Jerusalem but failed to drive them out.

In verses 22-25, The people of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) attacked Bethel. A man came out of the city and told the Israelites how to get into the city. They attacked and conquered the city, and let the man and his family go.

In verses 27-36, other Israelite tribes failed to conquer their land:

• Manasseh failed to conquer their land and drive out the Canaanites. They subjected the Canaanites to forced labor allowing them to live among the Israelites.
• Ephraim failed to drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer and lived among them.
• Zebulun failed to drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron and Nahalol. They subjected the Canaanites to forced labor and lived among them.
• Asher failed to drive out the Canaanites living in Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob.
• Naphtali failed to drive out the Canaanites living in Beth-shemesh and Bethanath. They subjected the Canaanites to forced labor and lived among them.
• The Danites failed to drive out the Amorites living in Har-heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim. They subjected the Amorites to forced labor and lived among them.

Judges 2

In Judges 2, the Angel of the Lord specifically called out Israel for not driving out the inhabitants of the land.

In verses 1-3, the Lord reminded the people, He brought them out of Egypt and made a covenant with them on the condition that they do not make covenants with the people living in the land. They were to drive the people out completely and tear down their altars, but they failed to do so.

As a result, He said he would no longer drive them out because the Israelites had broken their covenant with Him. The people would be a thorn in the sides of the Israelites, and their gods a snare to them.

In verses 4-5, the people wept bitterly, named the place Bokim (“weeping”), and offered sacrifices to the Lord.

In verses 6-10, we jump back in time to recount the death of Joshua (Joshua 24:29-31):

• The people worshipped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime.
• Joshua died at 100 years old and was buried in the hill country of Ephraim.
• Joshua had specifically told the people to be sure that they taught their children about God, but in Judges 2:10, we see that once the children of the Exodus generation died the next generation did not know God, or what He had done for Israel.

In verses 11-13, the result of not knowing God was that this generation turned away from God, seeking the gods of the people who were around them, even serving Baal and Ashtoreth.

In verses 14-15, the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites. He handed them over to their enemies, and they suffered greatly.

In verses 16-19, the Lord then raised up judges. The people didn’t even listen to the judges but continued to whore after other gods, becoming more and more corrupt over time.

• Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the people of Israel, the Lord saved them from their enemies while the judge was alive.
• As soon as the judge died, they became more corrupt than before.

In verses 20-23, the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites because they had broken their covenant with Him. He would no longer drive out the nations for the Israelites because the Israelites had rebelled against Him.

• The Lord left the Canaanites in the land to test the Israelites to see if they would be faithful to Him.

Some thoughts for further consideration:

• In these two chapters of Judges, we see the effects of not remaining true to God. The first thing they were to do when entering the Promised Land was to conquer the land and take possession of it by driving out the inhabitants. But they did not do that and even allowed some of the people to live amongst them as forced laborers.
• Moses and Joshua both warned the people to be diligent in teaching their children about the wonders of God, yet they raised a generation of children who didn’t know God. Not knowing God this generation sought after other gods, and ultimately became corrupt worshipping foreign gods.
• The combination of the corrupting influence of the pagans living among them and the fact that they did not take care to teach their children about God resulted in the people turning away from God in a single generation!
• We are so much like this today! We have the corrupting influence of the “world” entering into our churches, and statistics show fewer and fewer people are going to church teaching their children about God. Is there any reason at all to think things will turn out better for us when we reject God as a people than when the nation of Israel rejected God?

What did you notice in your study today? Feel free to visit the website and leave a question or a comment.

Tomorrow: Judges 3-5