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Matthew Henry |
J U D G E S
CHAP. II.
In this chapter we have,
I. A particular message which God sent to Israel by an angel, and the
impression it made upon them,
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,
2. Their revolt afterwards to idolatry,
3. God’s displeasure against them, and his judgments upon them for it,
4. His pity towards them, shown in raising them up deliverers,
5. Their relapse into idolatry after the judgment was over,
6. The full stop God in anger put to their successes,
These are the contents, not only of this chapter, but of the whole
book.
| An Angel Rebukes the Israelites. | B. C. 1425. |
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1 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.
It was the privilege of Israel that they had not only a law in general
sent them from heaven, once for all, to direct them into and keep them
in the way of happiness, but that they had particular messages sent
them from heaven, as there was occasion, for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness, when at any time they turned
aside out of that way. Besides the written word which they had before
them to read, they often heard a word behind them, saying, This is
the way,
Isa. xxx. 21.
Here begins that way of God’s dealing with them. When they would not
hear Moses, let it be tried whether they will hear the prophets. In
these verses we have a very awakening sermon that was preached to them
when they began to cool in their religion.
I. The preacher was an angel of the Lord
(v. 1),
not a prophet, not Phinehas, as the Jews conceit; gospel ministers are
indeed called angels of the churches, but the Old-Testament
prophets are never called angels of the Lord; no doubt this was a
messenger we from heaven. Such extraordinary messengers we sometimes
find in this book employed in the raising up of the judges that
delivered Israel, as Gideon and Samson; and now, to show how various
are the good offices they do for God’s Israel, here is one sent to
preach to them, to prevent their falling into sin and trouble. This
extraordinary messenger was sent to command, if possible, the greater
regard to the message, and to affect the minds of a people whom nothing
seemed to affect but what was sensible. The learned bishop Patrick is
clearly of opinion that this was not a created angel, but the Angel of
the covenant, the same that appeared to Joshua as captain of the
hosts of the Lord, who was God himself. Christ himself, says Dr.
Lightfoot; who but God and Christ could say, I made you to go up out
of Egypt? Joshua had lately admonished them to take heed of
entangling themselves with the Canaanites, but they regarded not the
words of a dying man; the same warning therefore is here brought them
by the living God himself, the Son of God appearing as an angel. If
they slight his servants, surely they will reverence his Son. This
angel of the Lord is said to come up from Gilgal, perhaps not walking
on the earth, but flying swiftly, as the angel Gabriel did to Daniel,
in the open firmament of heaven; but, whether walking or flying, he
seemed to come from Gilgal for a particular reason. Gilgal was long
their headquarters after they came into Canaan, many signal favours
they had there received from God, and there the covenant of
circumcision was renewed
(Mic. vi. 5),
of all which it was designed they should be reminded by his coming from
Gilgal. The remembrance of what we have received and heard will
prepare us for a warning to hold fast,
II. The persons to whom this sermon was preached were all the
children of Israel,
v. 4.
A great congregation for a great preacher! They were assembled either
for war, each tribe sending in its forces for some great expedition, or
rather for worship, and then the place of their meeting must be Shiloh,
where the tabernacle was, at which they were all to come together three
times a year. When we attend upon God in instituted ordinances we may
expect to hear from him, and to receive his gifts at \ his own gates.
The place is called Bochim
(v. 1),
because it gained that name upon this occasion. All Israel needed the
reproof and warning here given, and therefore it is spoken to them
all.
III. The sermon itself is short, but very close. God here tells them
plainly,
1. What he had done for them,
v. 1.
He had brought them out of Egypt, a land of slavery and toil, into
Canaan, a land of rest, liberty, and plenty. The miseries of the one
served as a foil to the felicities of the other. God had herein been
kind to them, true to the oath sworn to their fathers, had given such
proofs of his power as left them inexcusable if they distrusted it, and
such engagements to his service as left them inexcusable if they
deserted it.
2. What he had promised them: I said, I will never break my covenant
with you. When he took them to be his peculiar people, it was not
with any design to cast them off again, or to change them for another
people at his pleasure; let them but be faithful to him, and they
should find him unchangeably constant to them. He told them plainly
that the covenant he entered into with them should never break, unless
it broke on their side.
3. What were his just and reasonable expectations from them
(v. 2):
that being taken into covenant with God they should make no league with
the Canaanites, who were both his enemies and theirs,–that having set
up his altar they should throw down their altars, lest they should be a
temptation to them to serve their gods. Could any thing be demanded
more easy?
4. How they had in this very thing, which he had most insisted on,
disobeyed him: “But you have not in so small a matter obeyed my voice.”
In contempt of their covenant with God, and their confederacy with each
other in that covenant, they made leagues of friendship with the
idolatrous devoted Canaanites, and connived at their altars, though
they stood in competition with God’s. “Why have you done this?
What account can you give of this perverseness of yours at the bar of
right reason? What apology can you make for yourselves, or what excuse
can you offer?” Those that throw off their communion with God, and have
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, know not what they do
now, and will have nothing to say for themselves in the day of account
shortly.
5. How they must expect to smart by and by for this their folly,
v. 3.
Their tolerating the Canaanites among them would,
(1.) Put a period to their victories: “You will not drive them
out,” says God, “and therefore I will not;” thus their sin was
made their punishment. Thus those who indulge their lusts and
corruptions, which they should mortify, forfeit the grace of God, and
it is justly withdrawn from them. If we will not resist the devil, we
cannot expect that God should tread him under our feet.
(2.) It would involve them in continual troubles. “They shall be thorns
in your sides to gore you, which way soever you turn, always doing you
one mischief or other.” Those deceive themselves who expect advantage
by friendship with those that are enemies to God.
(3.) It would (which was worst of all) expose them to constant
temptation and draw them to sin. “Their gods” (their
abominations, so the Chaldee) “will be a snare to you; you will
find yourselves wretchedly entangled in an affection to them, and it
will be your ruin,” so some read it. Those that approach sin are justly
left to themselves to fall into sin and to perish in it. God often
makes men’s sin their punishment; and thorns and snares are in the
way of the froward, who will walk contrary to God.
IV. The good success of this sermon is very remarkable: The people
lifted up their voice and wept,
v. 4.
1. The angel had told them of their sins, for which they thus expressed
their sorrow: the lifted up their voice in confession of sin, crying
out against their own folly and ingratitude, and wept, as those that
were both ashamed of themselves and angry at themselves, as having
acted so directly contrary both to their reason and to their interest.
2. The angel had threatened them with the judgments of God, of which
they thus expressed their dread: they lifted up their voice in prayer
to God to turn away his wrath from them, and wept for fear of that
wrath. They relented upon this alarm, and their hearts melted within
them, and trembled at the word, and not without cause. This was good,
and a sign that the word they heard made an impression upon them: it is
a wonder sinners can ever read their Bible with dry eyes. But this was
not enough; they wept, but we do not find that they reformed, that they
went home and destroyed all the remains of idolatry and idolaters among
them. Many are melted under the word that harden again before they are
cast into a new mould. However, this general weeping,
(1.) Gave a new name to the place
(v. 5):
they called it Bochim, Weepers, a good name for our religious
assemblies to answer. Had they kept close to God and their duty, no
voice but that of singing would have been heard in their congregation;
but by their sin and folly the had made other work for themselves, and
now nothing is to be heard but the voice of weeping.
(2.) It gave occasion for a solemn sacrifice: They sacrificed there
unto the Lord, having (as is supposed) met at Shiloh, where God’s
altar was. They offered sacrifice to turn away God’s wrath, and to
obtain his favour, and in token of their dedication of themselves to
him, and to him only, making a covenant by this sacrifice. The disease
being thus taken in time, and the physic administered working so well,
one would have hoped a cure might be effected. But by the sequel of the
story it appears to have been too deeply rooted to be wept out.
| The Idolatry of the Israelites. | B. C. 1425. |
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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 a 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.
11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
LORD, and served Baalim:
12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which
brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods,
of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed
themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he
delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and
he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that
they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was
against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had
sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
16 Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them
out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they
went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them:
they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in,
obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was
with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their
enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD
because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them
and vexed them.
19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they
returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in
following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them;
they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn
way.
20 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he
said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant
which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my
voice;
21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of
the nations which Joshua left when he died:
22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep
the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep
it, or not.
23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them
out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
The beginning of this paragraph is only a repetition of what account we
had before of the people’s good character during the government of
Joshua, and of his death and burial
which comes in here again only to make way for the following account,
which this chapter gives, of their degeneracy and apostasy. The angel
had foretold that the Canaanites and their idols would be a snare to
Israel; now the historian undertakes to show that they were so, and,
that this may appear the more clear, he looks back a little, and takes
notice,
1. Of their happy settlement in the land of Canaan. Joshua, having
distributed this land among them, dismissed them to the quiet and
comfortable possession of it
(v. 6):
He sent them away, not only every tribe, but every man to his
inheritance, no doubt giving them his blessing.
2. Of their continuance in the faith and fear of God’s holy name as
long as Joshua lived,
v. 7.
As they went to their possessions with good resolutions to cleave to
God, so they persisted for some time in these good resolutions, as long
as they had good rulers that set them good examples, gave them good
instructions, and reproved and restrained the corruptions that crept in
among them, and as long as they had fresh in remembrance the great
things God did for them when he brought them into Canaan: those that
had seen these wonders had so much sense as to believe their own eyes,
and so much reason as to serve that God who had appeared so gloriously
on their behalf; but those that followed, because they had not seen,
believed not.
3. Of the death and burial of Joshua, which gave a fatal stroke to the
interests of religion among the people,
Yet so much sense they had of their obligations to him that they did
him honour at his death, and buried him in Timnath-heres; so it
is called here, not, as in Joshua, Timnath-serah. Heres
signifies the sun, a representation of which, some think, was
set upon his sepulchre, and gave name to it, in remembrance of the
sun’s standing still at his word. So divers of the Jewish writers say;
but I much question whether an image of the sun would be allowed to the
honour of Joshua at that time, when, by reason of men’s general
proneness to worship the sun, it would be in danger of being abused to
the dishonour of God.
4. Of the rising of a new generation,
All that generation in a few years wore off, their good instructions
and examples died and were buried with them, and there arose another
generation of Israelites who had so little sense of religion, and were
in so little care about it, that, notwithstanding all the advantages of
their education, one might truly say that they knew not the Lord, knew
him not aright, knew him not as he had revealed himself, else they
would not have forsaken him. They were so entirely devoted to the
world, so intent upon the business of it or so indulgent of the flesh
in ease and luxury, that they never minded the true God and his holy
religion, and so were easily drawn aside to false gods and their
abominable superstitions.
And so he comes to give us a general idea of the series of things in
Israel during the time of the judges, the same repeated in the same
order.
I. The people of Israel forsook the God of Israel, and gave that
worship and honour to the dunghill deities of the Canaanites which was
due to him alone. Be astonished, O heavens! at this, and wonder, O
earth! Hath a nation, such a nation, so well fed, so well taught,
changed its God, such a God, a God of infinite power, unspotted
purity, inexhaustible goodness, and so very jealous of a competitor,
for stocks and stones that could do neither good nor evil?
Never was there such an instance of folly, ingratitude, and
perfidiousness. Observe how it is described here,
In general, they did evil, nothing could be more evil, that is,
more provoking to God, nor more prejudicial to themselves, and it was
in the sight of the Lord; all evil is before him, but he takes
special notice of the sin of having any other god. In particular,
1. They forsook the Lord
this was one of the two great evils they were guilty of,
They had been joined to the Lord in covenant, but now they forsook him,
as a wife treacherously departs from her husband. “They forsook
the worship of the Lord,” so the Chaldee: for those that forsake the
worship of God do in effect forsake God himself. It aggravated this
that he was the God of their fathers, so that they were born
in his house, and therefore bound to serve him; and that he
brought them out of the land of Egypt, he loosed their
bonds, and upon that account also they were obliged to serve him.
2. When they forsook the only true God they did not turn atheists, nor
were they such fools as to say, There is no God; but they
followed other gods: so much remained of pure nature as to own a God,
yet so much appeared of corrupt nature as to multiply gods, and take up
with any, and to follow the fashion, not the rule, in religious
worship. Israel had the honour of being a peculiar people and dignified
above all others, and yet so false were they to their own privileges
that they were fond of the gods of the people that were round about
them. Baal and Ashtaroth, he-gods and she-gods; they made their
court to sun and moon, Jupiter and Juno. Baalim signifies
lords, and Ashtaroth blessed ones, both plural, for when
they forsook Jehovah, who is one, they had gods many and lords many, as
a luxuriant fancy pleased to multiply them. Whatever they took for
their gods, they served them and bowed down to them, gave honour to
them and begged favours from them.
II. The God of Israel was hereby provoked to anger, and delivered them
up into the hand of their enemies,
He was wroth with them, for he is a jealous God and true to the honour
of his own name; and the way he took to punish them for their apostasy
was to make those their tormentors whom they yielded to as their
tempters. They made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God
as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful
to him.
1. The scale of victory turned against them. After they forsook God,
whenever they took the sword in hand they were as sure to be beaten as
before they had been sure to conquer. Formerly their enemies could not
stand before them, but, wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was
for them; when they began to cool in their religion, God suspended his
favour, stopped the progress of their successes, and would not drive
out their enemies any more
(v. 3),
only suffered them to keep their ground; but now, when they had quite
revolted to idolatry, the war turned directly against them, and they
could not any longer stand before their enemies. God would
rather give the success to those that had never known nor owned him
than to those that had done both, but had now deserted him. Wherever
they went, they might perceive that God himself had turned to be
their enemy, and fought against them,
Isa. lxiii. 10.
2. The balance of power then turned against them of course. Whoever
would might spoil them, whoever would might oppress them. God sold them
into the hands of their enemies; not only he delivered them up freely,
as we do that which we have sold, but he did it upon a valuable
consideration, that he might get himself honour as a jealous God, who
would not spare even his own peculiar people when they provoked him. He
sold them as insolvent debtors are sold
by their sufferings to make some sort of reparation to his glory for
the injury it sustained by their apostasy. Observe how their
punishment,
(1.) Answered what they had done. They served the gods of the
nations that were round about them, even the meanest, and God made
then serve the princes of the nations that were round about them, even
the meanest. He that is company for every fool is justly made a fool of
by every company.
(2.) How it answered what God has spoken. The hand of heaven was thus
turned against them, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord
had sworn
(v. 15),
referring to the curse and death set before them in the covenant, with
the blessing and life. Those that have found God true to his promises
may thence infer that he will be as true to his threatenings.
III. The God of infinite mercy took pity on them in their distresses,
though they had brought themselves into them by their own sin and
folly, and wrought deliverance for them. Nevertheless, though their
trouble was the punishment of their sin and the accomplishment of God’s
word, yet they were in process of time saved out of their trouble,
Here observe,
1. The inducement of their deliverance. It came purely from God’s pity
and tender compassion; the reason was fetched from within himself. It
is not said, It repented them because of their iniquities (for
it appears,
that many of them continued unreformed), but, It repented the Lord
because of their groanings; though it is not so much the burden of
sin as the burden of affliction that they are said to groan under. It
is true they deserved to perish for ever under his curse, yet, this
being the day of his patience and our probation, he does not stir up
all his wrath. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could
not for pity do it.
2. The instruments of their deliverance. God did not send angels from
heaven to rescue them, nor bring in any foreign power to their aid, but
raised up judges from among themselves, as there was occasion, men to
whom God gave extraordinary qualifications for, and calls to, that
special service for which they were designed, which was to reform and
deliver Israel, and whose great attempts he crowned with wonderful
success: The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up,
and so they became saviours. Observe,
(1.) In the days of the greatest degeneracy and distress of the church
there shall be some whom God will either find or make to redress its
grievances and set things to rights.
(2.) God must be acknowledged in the seasonable rising up of useful men
for public service. He endues men with wisdom and courage, gives them
hearts to act and venture. All that are in any way the blessings of
their country must be looked upon as the gifts of God.
(3.) Whom God calls he will own, and give them his presence; whom he
raises up he will be with.
(4.) The judges of a land are its saviours.
IV. The degenerate Israelites were not effectually and thoroughly
reformed, no, not by their judges,
1. Even while their judges were with them, and active in the work of
reformation, there were those that would not hearken to their
judges, but at that very time went a whoring after other
gods, so mad were they upon their idols, and so obstinately bent
to backslide. They had been espoused to God, but broke the
marriage-covenant, and went a whoring after these gods. Idolatry is
spiritual adultery, so vile, and base, and perfidious a thing is it,
and so hardly are those reclaimed that are addicted to it.
2. Those that in the times of reformation began to amend yet turned
quickly out of the way again, and became as bad as ever. The way
they turned out of was that which their godly ancestors walked in, and
set them out in; but they soon started from under the influence both of
their fathers’ good example and of their own good education. The wicked
children of godly parents do so, and will therefore have a great deal
to answer for. However, when the judge was dead, they looked
upon the dam which checked the stream of their idolatry as removed, and
then it flowed down again with so much the more fury, and the next age
seemed to be rather the worse for the attempts that had been made
towards reformation,
They corrupted themselves more than their fathers, strove to
outdo them in multiplying strange gods and inventing profane and
impious rites of worship, as it were in contradiction to their
reformers. They ceased not from, or, as the word is, they
would not let fall, any of their own doings, grew not ashamed of
those idolatrous services that were most odious nor weary of those that
were most barbarous, would not so much as diminish one step of their
hard and stubborn way. Thus those that have forsaken the good ways of
God, which they have once known and professed, commonly grow most
daring and desperate in sin, and have their hearts most hardened.
V. God’s just resolution hereupon was still to continue the rod over
them,
1. Their sin was sparing the Canaanites, and this in contempt and
violation of the covenant God had made with them and the commands he
had given them,
2. Their punishment was that the Canaanites were spared, and so they
were beaten with their own rod. They were not all delivered into the
hand of Joshua while he lived,
Our Lord Jesus, though he spoiled principalities and powers, yet
did not complete his victory at first. We see not yet all things put
under him; there are remains of Satan’s interest in the church, as
there were of the Canaanites in the land; but our Joshua lives for
ever, and will in the great day perfect his conquest. After Joshua’s
death, little was done for a long time against the Canaanites: Israel
indulged them, and grew familiar with them, and therefore God would not
drive them out any more,
If they will have such inmates as these among them, let them take them,
and see what will come of it. God chose their delusions,
Thus men cherish and indulge their own corrupt appetites and passions,
and, instead of mortifying them, make provision for them, and therefore
God justly leaves them to themselves under the power of their sins,
which will be their ruin. So shall their doom be; they themselves
have decided it. These remnants of the Canaanites were left to
prove Israel
(v. 22),
whether they would keep the way of the Lord or not; not that God
might know them, but that they might know themselves. It was to try,
(1.) Whether they could resist the temptations to idolatry which the
Canaanites would lay before them. God had told them they could not,
But they thought they could. “Well,” said God, “I will try you;” and,
upon trial, it was found that the tempters’ charms were far too strong
for them. God has told us how deceitful and desperately wicked our
hearts are, but we are not willing to believe it till by making bold
with temptation we find it too true by sad experience.
(2.) Whether they would make a good use of the vexations which the
remaining natives would give them, and the many troubles they would
occasion them, and would thereby be convinced of sin and humbled for
it, reformed, and driven to God and their duty, whether by continual
alarms from them they would be kept in awe and made afraid of provoking
God.
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