The Lord God Almighty has blessed us yet with another week of His grace and mercy as we continue our spiritual pilgrimage towards Him – a journey that some of us started a long time ago and some of us in the recent past. It does not matter when we started our spiritual journey, we all have had experienced His presence, protection, and provision in each step we have taken so far. Yet, some of us might have thought of backing off or quitting from this journey on several occasions. Remember, our God is faithful, as the Lord God said: I will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5).

This week’s Scripture for the Week passage is taken from Judges 2:16-20 (mentioned above). This passage talks about the children of Israel immediately after their settlement in the promised land. In order to understand its context, we need to go back to Genesis 12:1ff, which talks about  the call of Abraham, to whom God promised that He will bless him, make him a great nation and give him a great name (Genesis 12:1-3). When God’s appointed time had come (for about four hundred years later [Genesis 15:13]), He appeared to Moses and appointed him as the leader to the Israelites. God said to Moses: Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:16-17). According to God’s promise to Abraham, He delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt and led them in to the land that promised to their ancestors – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God fulfilled what He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 13:14-17; 17:8; Deuteronomy 1:8) and gave their descendants the land He promised to them. Joshua 21:43-45 states that:

43 So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

The life-journey of the children of Israel was very interesting to know because there are numerous spiritual lessons that we can learn from it. We can understand the stages of Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan from Numbers 33:1-56. Some of the times they were very close to God, other times they were far away from God, and sometimes they behaved like they are very pious and holy people but the very next moment they became like the people whom the Lord God drove out from before them and adopted their social and religious practices, including idolatry. Even after they settled down in Canaan, the land He promised to their forefathers, they rebelled against the Lord their God who redeemed them and worshipped Baal and the Ashtoreths.

8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 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 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths (Judges 2:8-13; [also, refer Judges 3:7]).

Due to the wickedness of the Israelites against their Lord God, He handed them over to their enemies who plundered and oppressed them – the Israelites were not able to resist or defeat their enemies because the Lord God had left them. Judges 2:14-15 states that 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.

However, when they cried out to the Lord their God in their distress, despite their sins and wickedness against the Lord their God, He had compassion on them and the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders (Judges 2:16). From time to time God raised up these judges, from the time of Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother (Judges 3:9) until the time of Samuel son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite (1Samuel 1:1; 7:15) who have saved them from their enemies. Israelites enjoyed peace and lived in safety during the life-time of each judge, but after their death they would sin again against the Lord their God and arouse the Lord’s anger (Judges 2:18-19). God had been faithful to them ever since He called Abraham and established His covenant with him. Yet, time and again, and generation after generation, they rebelled against the Lord their God. Let us examine what God said through His prophet Malachi: “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 3:6-7).

Below mentioned are some of the ways they aroused the anger of the Lord their God based on Judges 2:16-19.

• • the people would not listen to their judges (2:17a)
  • the people went after other gods/goddesses of the nations around them (2:17b)
  • the people worshiped the gods of the nations (2:17c)
  • the people turned away from the ways of their ancestors (2:17d)
  • the old generation was obedient the Lord’s commands compared to the present generation (2:17e)
  • the people became even more corrupted than their ancestors (2:19a)
  • the people kept on following other gods (2:19b)
  • the people kept on serving other gods (2:19c)
  • the people kept on worshiping other gods (2:19d)
  • the people refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways (2:19e)

Despite all their sins and wickedness against the Lord their God, God had been faithful to them. He cared for them and protected them from their enemies (Judges 2:16-19).

• • the Lord raised up a judge for them (2:16a, 18a),
  • the Lord was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies (2:16b, 18b)
  • the Lord relented from sending calamity upon them (2:18c)
  • the Lord took heed of their groaning when their enemies oppressed and afflicted them (2:18d)

God is compassionate and gracious; and He is faithful (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:5,15; 103:8). Therefore, we, His children, need to be faithful to the Lord our God who have been our refuge and strength in the time of trouble (Psalm 46:1; 91:2). Prophet Isaiah wrote: For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a rain storm against a wall (Isaiah 25:4). Prophet Jeremiah said: O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress (Jeremiah 16:19a). May the Lord God Almighty bless you all! Amen!