The angel of the Lord appeared to the Israelites and reminded them of the covenant God had made with their fathers to bring them to the promised land. However, the Israelites had not obeyed God's commands and had failed to drive out the Canaanites from the land. As a result, the Canaanites became thorns in their sides and led them to worship false gods. When the angel spoke these words, the people wept but did not truly repent by tearing down altars or driving out the pagans. Their disobedience led the next generation to not know the Lord and to turn to worshipping Baal.

1. Judges 2 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. The Angel of the LORD (Heb., Yahweh ) went up from Gilgal to Bokim. The Angel of the Lord was not merely “an angel”; He was a theophany -- an appearance of the second Person of the Trinity in visible and bodily form before the Incarnation. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.

2. "I will never break My Covenant with you." Every Word of God is True and Faithful. Those who rebel against God's Way and go their own way Can not be blessed .

3. The Israelites did not keep their Covenant with God. They promised to obey His Laws with all their hearts . They were disobedient . To keep His Word , God had to punish them.

4. 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? This Law had a purpose: To save them from idolatry.

5. Exodus 20 3-5 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: …

6. 2c Why have ye done this? God is trying to make them think and perhaps stir their consciences. But they won't repent until they have reaped the consequences of their sin.

7. 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. God empowered Israel to drive out the Canaanites, But they chose to let them stay. Now they will be thorns in the sides of the Israelites , and their false gods will entrap them .

8. 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. We might think that they did repent, but what did they do ? They wept; but did they tear down any altars? Did they drive out any pagans? This happened before Joshua died.

9. 5 And they called the name of that place Bochim (weeping) : 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.

10. 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. Why didn't the next generation know the Lord?

11. 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. Could this have been prevented? If God's people had obeyed Him in the first place: Kill them. Drive them out. Tear down their altars.

12. This backsliding of the first generation , Brought about a greater backsliding in the next.

13. 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.

14. 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. Their greed and disobedience . What caused all this trouble? We find the answer back in chapter one .

15. 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. They had a better idea. God turned it around. They became slaves of the Canaanites. They paid tribute to them.

16. Psalms 119 33 Teach me, O Lord, The Way of Thy Statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. God's Way is the only way of blessing. Lamentations 3 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Why didn't the next generation know the Lord?

17. Deuteronomy 6 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these Words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart : 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

18. Men's Fellowship and Meeting Saturday, May 8 at 8:00 A.M. April 11, 2010