Jesus Is the Whole Story of the Bible, Part 12 :: By Sean Gooding

Judges 2:1-6, 6:11-27

“Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: ‘I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. ² And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’

⁴ So it was, when the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.⁵ Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the Lord. ⁶ And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.”

We continue our journey, looking at Jesus in the Old Testament. I pray that as you read your personal devotions or recap the accounts that you have known before, maybe you are seeing the Lord more and more. We often hear from many people, and especially from conservative Jews, that Jesus is a New Testament character. Nothing could be further from the truth as we are seeing and learning. I hope that this is helping you to see the continuity between the OT and the NT, and that the central theme and central character is Jesus.

Last week, we looked at Jesus as the Commander of the Lord’s Armies. Today, we will explore the Angel of the Lord, and we will see Him here in two situations. First, we will meet Him as He pronounces a curse on Israel for their disobedience. Then we will take a look as He calls Gideon to be a ‘mighty warrior.’

In chapter 2:1, the Angel of the Lord comes to pronounce a judgment on the people. They have crossed over into the Promised Land, and for 5 years, they fought the inhabitants as they took the land and got their inheritance. However, they did not drive ALL of the people out of the land; they made covenants and agreements with the people, and as such, they were shoulder to shoulder with pagan people who worshipped false gods.

God never intended for this to be the case; He had intended for them to drive out the people and establish the land as a safe place for them to live, raise their children, and worship their God. But we find in verse 2 that the people had not obeyed God. So the Lord did not drive the inhabitants out; instead, they would be ‘thorns in the side’ of the Israelite people. For the better part of 400 years, the inhabitants of the land would enslave and impoverish the Jewish people.

Obedience is the highest form of worship. These folks knew that God had spoken to them; they had seen Him, heard Him, and had victories because of Him. They had seen Him kill giants on the other side of the Jordan, they had seen Him provide food, water, clothes that never wore out, and yet still, they refused to obey Him. The consequence of that was that they would have perpetual enemies.

The enemies of Israel still live on their land, killing them, persecuting them, stealing their freedoms, and taking their peace. They are still suffering more than 3,500 years later from this disobedience. For some reason, we, as God’s people, always think that obedience puts this burden on us; we think God does not know what He is doing, so we do things our way. Then we get a few years or a few generations down the road, and we begin to reap what we have sown, and we get mad at God. We disobeyed, and we have to deal with the consequences. Lord, please forgive us for being just as ‘stiff-necked’ as the Jews were back in the days of the Exodus and the Judges.

In our next account’ Judges 6: 11-27, we will meet the ‘valiant’ Gideon. He is threshing wheat in the winepress, hiding the profit of the crops from the Midianites. They had come up and stripped Israel of her food and crops. So, the Angel of the Lord comes to call Gideon to lead the fight against them and to deliver Israel for a time. In verse 17, Gideon doubts that he is speaking to God because of all that had befallen Israel. They were sorely pained by their neighbors, and nothing good seemed to ever happen to them.

Disobedience to God brings pain and lots of it. I am not talking about a one-time sin, or even sin that one repents of often, even though it is done often; we all have these kinds of sin in our lives. But this is the rebellious sin, the one that we never repent of and pursue; this is what Israel did with idolatry, especially. These kind so arrogant failings come with egregious repercussions. All that Gideon saw were the repercussions and pain, and so he doubted the goodness and even the presence of God.

In verse 21, Gideon is about to have his eyes opened all the way when this Angel of the Lord accepts a sacrifice. This is very important; normal angels like Gabriel or Michael will NEVER allow you to worship them (Revelation 22:9). But here, the Angel of the Lord allowed Gideon to worship him, and Gideon realizes what has happened. In verse 22, he cries out, “Alas, O Lord God!” He was afraid that he would die. He knew Exodus 33:20, where God tells Moses, “No man shall see Me and live.” This is an acknowledgement from Gideon that the Angel of the Lord is God.

The Lord comforts him in Judges 6:23; you will not die. In verse 24, the place is called The Lord is Peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Most of us know the story and what goes on after this. Gideon goes on to judge Israel and deliver them from the Midianites.

We can be comforted that even when we are disobedient and rebellious, God does not completely abandon us. Yes, we have to suffer the consequences of disobedience, BUT we are not forsaken or abandoned. What an awesome, loving, gracious, and faithful God we serve!

Is there unconfessed and arrogantly pursued sin that you need to confess? Are there gods in your life that you need to forsake? And yes, I know that the vast majority of the people reading RR are saved, but we can still have idols in our lives. Even in your sinful rebellion, Jesus has not left you. And yes, there may be harsh consequences for our sins, but we are still loved, and God will help us through the pain that we have brought on ourselves if we will cry out to Him.

Like Gideon, it is okay to have doubts, but don’t let that stop you from obeying.

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