Judges 2:1-5
Build Your Bochim
The book of Judges stood to be the third book of greatness in
Israel’s history.
1. The first book of greatest was Exodus, where God brought Israel
out of Egypt with a strong hand and placed him in the
wilderness to reveal Himself to them.
2. The second book of greatness was Joshua, where God gave the
Israelites great military power, and they conquered the
inhabitants of the land.
3. The third great book was supposed to be Judges, where God
appointed godly leaders and the remainder of the enemies were
removed from the land, making the land totally Israel’s and
Israel totally under God’s rule.
But something happened. Let’s see what it was.
I. Command-Kill all.
Deut 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them;
namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the
Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded
thee:
A. To be certain that we understand, note the preceding verse.
Deut 20:16 But of the cities of these people,
which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an
inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that
breatheth:
B. That seems hard. Why?
1. Because of the evil of the land.
a. God was executing judgment on their sins.
(1) The iniquity of the Amorites had reached the full
mark!
Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they
shall come hither again: for the iniquity of
the Amorites is not yet full.
(2) The Canaanite people were cruel, ungodly people.
(a) They worshipped Molech and made an image to
him. The image was humanoid with arms
stretched outward. A flame was kindled
beneath the idol’s arms and they laid their
children in the arms to burn them alive.
Isis is not the first to burn people in the
name of their gods.
(b) W.A. Criswell said that archeologists
found skeletons in the foundations of
Canaan’s buildings, the remains of the
human sacrifices made to dedicate the
building.
http://www.wacriswell.com/sermons/1960/the-weepers-of-bochim/
(c) Some of the cruelty of these Canaanites can
be seen in their king \\#Judges 1:5-7\\.
He acknowledged that the Jews cut off his
thumbs and big toes as a JUST punishment
for doing the same to 70 kings and then
apparently making them eat like animals
UNDER his table!
(d) Some of the biggest sins of the Canaanites
were their sexual sins.
i. Two of the their primary deities were
Baal and Ashteroth.
ii. Ashteroth was a the god of fertility,
but to worship either of these gods
seem to require open and perverted
sex.
iii. Three of the main sexual perversions of
their religion that I have read about.
(aa) They build into their temples
houses for prostitution.
(bb) They build into their temples
houses for sodomies.
(cc) And they participated in
bestiality.
b. These were the kinds of people that God sent Israel
into the land to kill—yes, the men and woman and
their children!
(1) Israel was to be God’s executioner to bring
judgment for sin upon these nations.
Deut 9:4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after
that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from
before thee, saying, For my righteousness the
LORD hath brought me in to possess this land:
but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD
doth drive them out from before thee.
5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the
uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to
possess their land: but for the wickedness of
these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them
out from before thee, and that he may perform
the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
(2) By the way, when one of Israel’s cities turned to
sin, God had them killed too.
Deut 13:12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy
cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to
dwell there, saying,
13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone
out from among you, and have withdrawn the
inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and
serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and
ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and
the thing certain, that such abomination is
wrought among you;
15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of
that city with the edge of the sword, destroying
it utterly, and all that is therein, and the
cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it
into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt
burn with fire the city, and all the spoil
thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it
shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built
again.
(3) So God was not playing favorites. He was judging
sinners.
a. He would judge Israel just like He judged
Canaan—in fact, that is exactly what He has
been doing to Israel.
b. God started by sending the Amorites, the
Moabites, the Philistines, and others.
c. When that ceased to bring Israel to
repentance, He brought Assyria, Babylon,
Greece, and Rome.
d. Once that failed to turn them back to God, He
cast them out of the land and left them at
the mercy of cruel and hateful oppressors for
1900 years.
e. And so God will do to any nation that turns
from Him and into sin.
Ps 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell,
and all the nations that forget God.
(4) Someone says, "God is mean!" It is time for puny
man to understand that God is not one who can be
offended with no recourse! He is the holy Ghost
who created us for His pleasure and if we turn
from Him, He will become our enemy!
Psalm 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I
kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was
altogether such an one as thyself: but I will
reprove thee, and set them in order before thine
eyes.
22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest
I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
deliver.
2. Because of the isolation from the godly.
Deut 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them;
namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the
Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded
thee:
18 That they teach you not to do after all their
abominations, which they have done unto their
gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
a. God wanted Israel to be totally separated from the
other nations for He knew they were weak and would
desire the wickedness of those nations.
b. The truth is that peers and the pressures they exert
are typically toward wickedness.
(1) That is why God divided us into nations with
different languages and cultures \\#Ge 11:1-9\\.
(2) Mankind in unison will plunge towards evil more
surely than a person falling off a cliff will
fall down.
(3) I hate to be negative on so many of the issues of
our modern-day world, but the smaller our world
becomes and the more borders we tear down, the
sooner this planet will be welcoming the anti-
Christ!
C. I can see the reasoning of some in Israel as the time required
to defeat and exterminate the enemies drug out.
1. There were the religious voices-God is a God of mercy
and love. He is certainly not a God of hate and death.
2. There were the rationalist-War is costly both in lives
and finances.
3. There were the defeatist-They are too many and we are
too few. We can’t win!
4. And there were the pacifists-"Those people want peace
not war. Can’t we all just get along?"
D. And before Israel had finished obeying God’s command, they
quit trying.
Judges 1:28 And it came to pass, when Israel was
strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute,
and did not utterly drive them out.
1. \\#Ex 23:29\\ God did not drive the enemies out all once
but over a period of five or six years.
2. Some tribes were specifically mentioned.
a. \\#Judges 1:27\\ Neither did Manasseh drive out the
inhabitants….
b. \\#Judges 1:29\\ Neither did Ephraim drive out the
Canaanites….
c. \\#Judges 1:30\\ Neither did Zebulon drive out the
inhabitants….
d. \\#Judges 1:31\\ Neither did Asher drive out the
inhabitants….
e. \\#Judges 1:33\\ Neither did Naphtali drive out the
inhabitants….
3. And it wasn’t long until they lost the power to drive them
at all.
\\#Judges 1:34\\ And the Amorites forced the
children of Dan into the mountain….
II. \\#Judges 2:1, 4\\ Note the Messenger.
A. \\#4\\ He is called "the" Angel of the Lord.
1. That is the same Hebrew word which is used in \\#1\\,
although there the article is translated "an."
2. This Angel does not speak as the servant of the Lord, but
as the Lord Himself. (Four times uses pronoun "I.")
3. While the word ANGEL means MESSENGER, it does not
necessarily require the messenger to be a uniquely
created being.
B. I believe this to be is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ,
a Christophany.
1. There had been others.
a. \\#Ge 16:10\\-Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar
fleeing from Sarah.
b. \\#Ge 22:11\\-Angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham
stopping him from slaying Isaac.
c. \\#Ge 32:25\\-A mysterious man appeared to Jacob and
wrestled to the breaking of day.
d. \\#Josh 5:13\\-One who proclaimed Himself the
Captain of the Lord’s hosts takes command of Israel’s
army at Jericho.
(1) By the way, Jericho, where the last appearance of
Christ took place, is over beside Gilgal
\\#Josh 4:19\\.
(2) Notice Judges 2:1.
Judges 2:1 And an angel of the LORD came up
from Gilgal to Bochim….
(3) It is like the Lord has just been sitting there,
waiting to see what Israel would do!
2. How different would we treat sin if we knew the Lord Himself
would come down from heaven to deal with us!
a. But God does not come down here to deal with us.
b. Instead, He brings us up to Him, but make no mistake,
every sin must be paid for!
III. \\#Judges 2:1-3\\ Note the Message
A. \\#1\\ God reminded them of His past goodness.
1. Had brought Israel out of the Egypt.
2. Had promised God’s presence.
B. \\#2\\ God reminded them of His present commandments.
1. They were to make no leagues with the inhabitants of the
land.
2. They were to tear down the false idols.
3. These picture our present walk with God.
C. \\#2\\ God reminded them of their personal accountability.
1. God told them, YOU HAVE NOT OBEYED.
2. God asked them, WHY?
D. \\#3\\ God pronounced their punishment. In short…
1. I will not drive them out.
2. They shall be thorns in your eyes.
E. That may not sound like much of a punishment, but this
judgment marked two things.
1. The downfall of Israel to her enemies.
a. From this point on, it was inevitable that one day
Israel would be run over by the Moabites, the
Edomites, the Philistines, and the Ammonites.
b. It also meant that one day both Syria and Egypt would
have dominion over Israel.
c. And not they only, but also Assyria, Babylon, Greece,
and Rome.
d. It meant Israel would fall to the Turks for 1000 years
and be victims to the German holocaust.
e. Even more, this judgment insured the anti-Christ would
one day rule over Israel.
f. You say, "How?" Because if God will not run them out,
it would only be a matter of time before Israel would
weaken before these nations.
(1) Israel could pray and ask for mercy. God might
give them some victories and days of peace along
the way.
(2) But if God will not destroy them, Israel’s
enemies are destined to win at some point!
g. \\#3-4\\ The nation of Israel seemed to understand the
seriousness of God’s judgment.
(1) They wept, and after they had wept awhile, they
wept some more.
(2) They wept so much that the name of the place
came to be called Bochim, weeping!
h. Learn a lesson well. Once God calls a judgment, there
is nothing left but for weeping.
(1) The same things that God told Israel that day, He
could well say to America!
(2) America, God has been good to you too.
(a) All one has to do is to drive through this
country to see how we blessed we are.
(b) People sneak across our borders and risk
their lives to get into our country, while
they are fleeing from their homelands.
(c) I hear our President say foolish things such
as Islam is woven into the history of
America.
(d) Islam has never done anything good for any
nation that adhered to it.
i. They burn their own people alive!
ii. They do not produce science.
"Forty-one predominantly Muslim countries with
about 20 percent of the world’s total population
generate less than 5 percent of its science."
http://www.meforum.org/306/why-does-the-muslim-world-lag-
in-science
iii. They do not produce agriculture.
"Only 12% of the total land area is under
cultivation (arable land, orchards and vineyards)
but less than one-third of the cultivated area is
irrigated; the rest is devoted to dry farming."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Iran
iv. The truth is that even with their
abundance of oil, Islamic countries
as a whole do not better other or
themselves.
v. Many export crude petroleum but then
have to import refined petroleum,
along with wheat and other
necessities.
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/profile/country/egy/
(e) I do not know what degrees God issues in the
courts of heaven, but if America continues
to turn it’s back on God, you can rest
assured that God will condemn her and leave
her a nation weeping.
(3) God has given His commandments to American and we
have not done so well in keeping them!
(4) And it is not just nations that God condemns. If
you has an individual have not accepted His Son,
you may as well start weeping now.
(a) For you are condemned already….
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(b) You may not be in hell yet, but your name is
written there as surely as the saved’s are
written in heaven.
(c) So I beg you to turn from ways and turn to
Jesus Christ.
2. A second thing became certain with this punishment. It
became certain that God would have send His Son to
destroy nations.
a. God would not bless Israel to allow them to drive out
those enemies, but God had still promised the land to
Israel.
b. Without God’s blessing upon Israel to defeat their
enemies, God would have to do it another way.
c. He would have to come do it Himself.
d. While I am out of time and so cannot prove at this
point what I say, I assure you that Jesus Christ will
come to destroy those who align themselves against
Israel.
e. And unsaved person, He will come for you to.
So weep, world, weep! Build your Bochim, and once you have wept,
weep some more. Or else, if you have a mind to do so, turn to God.
Call upon Jesus as your Savior, and He will forgive your sins and
take away not only your tears but your reason to weep.
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