The Downward Spiral (Judges 2:6-3:6)
1. Ignorance (2:6-10)
a) God’s people served the Lord all the days of Joshua & the elders from his generation. The experience His great works of deliverance from Egypt, guidance & provision through the wilderness, and victory in battles against mighty strongholds in the promise land.
b) The following generation did not know the Lord or the great deeds He had done for His people. The older generation did a poor job telling their sons/daughters about the Lord & His mighty miracles and the younger generation grew lax/comfortable & did not learn it.
2. A Vicious Cycle (vs. 11-19)
a) Rest (prosperity) → Rebellion (desertion) → Retribution (discipline) → Remorse (repentance) → Rescue (Deliverance & rest) → Rottenness (depravity)
b) Rest/Rebellion (vs. 11-13): The next generation enjoyed the prosperity of having much of the promise land handed to them. “Baals”- dominant god of Canaan who was given local names, god of the rain cloud/storm thus of fertility. “Ashtaroth”- goddess of fertility, consort of Baal. Since the people & their places of worship were not exterminated, the next generation wanting blessings of fertility added the worship of these gods/goddesses to the worship of the Lord (some probably syncretized Baal & the Lord). There is chiasm with “served” “forsook.” They did this to the Lord who brought them out of Egypt (ignorance), by bowing to these gods & provoked the Lord to anger.
c) Retribution/discipline (vs. 14-15): The Lord, Who is slow to anger (Ex. 34:6), became angry with His people and gave them into the hands of plunderers/ sold (as slaves whom He had freed for Himself) into their enemies round about. His mighty hand that delivered them in previously now was against them for evil/harm/calamity (vs. 11)
d) Remorse/repentance is not mentioned in this passage, but “their groaning” (v18) implies the pain of their oppression (Ex. 2:24).
e) Rescue/Deliverance & rest (vs. 16,18): The Lord raised up Judges/local military heroes who delivered
them, because the Lord was moved to pity over their misery.
f) Rottenness (depravity, vs. 17,19): The Judges provided some spiritual guidance. The people did not listen to these judges. Things went well as long as the judge lived, but the people continued to play the harlot against the Lord & bow before these local gods. After a judge died, the communities he influenced acted more corruptly with following, serving and bowing down to these gods.
g) One needs to worship, serve & bow before the Lord in prosperous & difficult times to break this cycle.
3. An avoidable Test (vs. 2:20-3:4)
a) The Lord’s anger against His people’s unfaithfulness burned to the point where a stricter step of discipline was needed. They had broken His covenant & not listened to His voice, so He would no longer drive out the pockets of resistance with the nations Joshua did not completely wipe out.
b) God’s plan after Joshua successful major battles was not to drive out these nation quickly (v23), so the land would not be overrun with wild animals (Ex. 23:29-30) & the next generation might learn warfare (3:1-2). Now they would remain to test Israel to see if they would obey the Lord’s commands, which included destroying these depraved nations & their idols.
c) This is a test that Israel would not have had to face if they had destroyed these peoples & gods. When we don’t obey God’s commands we experience tests that could have been avoided.
4. Compromise (vs. 3:5-6)
a) God’s people got comfortable with living among these morally & spiritually corrupt peoples. Then they intermarried with them “took their daughters” and “gave their own daughters”. With these unions came “served their gods.”
b) To worship & serve the Lord you should seek to marry a person who shares this priority. If in a mixed marriage, serve the Lord with fervor & don’t be pulled down to serve the god(s) of your spouse.