'And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I
made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land
which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my
covenant with you. 2. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants
of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed
my voice: why have ye done this? 3. Wherefore I also said, I will not
drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your
sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. 4. And it came to
pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the
children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 5.
And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed
there unto the Lord. 6. And when Joshua had let the people go, the
children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the
land. 7. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all
the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great
works of the Lord that He did for Israel. 8. And Joshua the son of Nun,
the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. 9.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres,
in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10. And
also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet
the works which He had done for Israel.'--JUDGES II. 1-10.
The Book of Judges begins a new era, the development of the nation in
its land. Chapters i. to iii. 6 contain two summaries: first, of the
progress of the conquest; and second, of the history about to be
unfolded in the book. The first part of this passage (verses 1-5)
belongs to the former, and closes it; the second (verses 6-10)
introduces the latter, and contrasts it with the state of things
prevailing as long as the soldiers of Joshua lived.
I. 'The Angel of the Lord' had appeared to Joshua in Gilgal at the
beginning of the war, and issued his orders as 'Captain of the Lord's
host.' Now He reappears to ask why his orders had not been carried out,
and to announce that victory was no longer to attend Israel's arms.
Nothing can be plainer than that the Angel speaks as one in whom the
divine name dwells. His reiterated 'I's' are incomprehensible on any
other hypothesis than that He is that mysterious person, distinct from
and yet one with Jehovah, whom we know as the 'Word made flesh.' His
words here are stern. He enumerates the favours which He had showed to
Israel, and which should have inspired them to glad obedience. He
recalls the conditions on which they had received the land; namely,
that they were to enter into no entangling alliances with the remnant
of the inhabitants, and especially to have no tolerance for their
idolatry. Here we may observe that, according to Joshua's last charge,
the extermination of the native peoples was not contemplated, but that
there should be no such alliances as would peril Israel's observance of
the covenant (Joshua xxiii. 7, 12). He charges them with disobedience,
and asks the same question as had been asked of Eve, 'What is this ye
have done?' And He declares the punishment about to follow, in the
paralysing of Israel's conquering arm by the withdrawal of His
conquering might, and in the seductions from the native inhabitants to
which they would fall victims.
Note, then, how God's benefits aggravate our disobedience, and how He
bases His right to command on them. Further, note how His promises are
contingent on our fulfilment of their conditions, and how a covenant
which He has sworn that He will never break He does count as
non-existent when men break it. Again, observe the sharp arraignment of
the faithless, and the forcing of them to bethink themselves of the
true character of their deeds, or, if we adopt the Revised Version's
rendering, of the unreasonableness of departing from God. No man dare
answer when God asks, 'What hast thou done?' No man can answer
reasonably when He asks, 'Why hast thou done it?' Once more, note that
His servants sin when they allow themselves to be so mixed up with the
world that they are in peril of learning its ways and getting a snare
to their souls. We have all unconquered 'Canaanites' in our hearts, and
amity with them is supreme folly and crying wickedness. 'Thorough' must
be our motto. Many times have the conquered overcome their conquerors,
as in Rome's conquest of Greece, the Goths' conquest of Rome, the
Normans' conquest of England. Israel was in some respects conquered by
Canaanites and other conquered tribes. Let us take care that we are not
overcome by our inward foes, whom we fancy we have subdued and can
afford to treat leniently.
Again, God punishes our making truce with our spiritual foes by letting
the effects of the truce work themselves out. He said to Israel, in
effect: 'If you make alliances with the people of the land, you shall
no longer have power to cast them out. The swift rush of the stream of
victory shall be stayed. You have chosen to make them your friends, and
their friendship shall produce its natural effects, of tempting you to
imitation.' The increased power of our unsubdued evils is the
punishment, as it is the result, of tolerance of them. We wanted to
keep them, and dreamed that we could control them. Keep them we shall,
control them we cannot. They will master us if we do not expel them. No
wonder that the place was named Bochim ('Weepers'), when such stern
words were thundered forth. Tears flow easily; and many a sin is wept
for once, and afterwards repeated often. So it was with Israel, as the
narrative goes on to tell. Let us take the warning, and give heed to
make repentance deep and lasting.
II. Verses 6-10 go back to an earlier period than the appearance of the
Angel. We do not know how long the survivors of the conquering army
lived in sufficient numbers to leaven opinion and practice. We may,
however, roughly calculate that the youngest of these would be about
twenty when the war began, and that about fifty years would see the end
of the host that had crossed Jordan and stormed Jericho. If Joshua was
of about the same age as Caleb, he would be about eighty at the
beginning of the conquest, and lived thirty years afterwards, so that
about twenty years after his death would be the limit of 'the elders
that outlived Joshua.'
Verses 6-9 substantially repeat Joshua xxiv. 28-31, and are here
inserted to mark not only the connection with the former book, but to
indicate the beginning of a new epoch. The facts narrated in this
paragraph are but too sadly in accord with the uniform tendencies of
our poor weak nature. As long as some strong personality leads a nation
or a church, it keeps true to its early fervour. The first generation
which has lived through some great epoch, when God's arm has been made
bare, retains the impression of His power. But when the leader falls,
it is like withdrawing a magnet, and the heap of iron filings tumbles
back to the ground inert. Think of the post-Apostolic age of the
Church, of Germany in the generation after Luther, not to come nearer
home, and we must see that Israel's experience was an all but universal
one. It is hard to keep a community even of professing Christians on
the high level. No great cause is ever launched which does not lose
'way' as it continues. 'Having begun in the Spirit,' all such are too
apt to continue 'in the flesh.' The original impulses wane, friction
begins to tell. Custom clogs the wheels. The fiery lava-stream cools
and slackens. So it always has been. Therefore God has to change His
instruments, and churches need to be shaken up, and sometimes broken
up, 'lest one good,' when it has degenerated into 'custom,' should
'corrupt the world.'
But we shall miss the lesson here taught if we do not apply it to
tendencies in ourselves, and humbly recognise that we are in danger of
being 'hindered,' however 'well' we may have begun to 'run,' and that
our only remedy is to renew continually our first-hand vision of 'the
great works of the Lord,' and our consecration to His service. It is a
poor affair if, like Israel, our devotion to God depends on Joshua's
life, or, like King Joash, we do that which is 'right in the eyes of
the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.'