Judges, Chapter 2 - A New Era | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of Judges chapter 2. This series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. And if there is a book in the Bible that speaks to our generation in the land of Israel, it's the book of Judges. I mean, it's a generation that's living in the land, a generation that's living as different cultural tribes in the land, from secular Tel Aviv to the ultra-Orthodox in Mea Shearim, from settlers in Judea and Samaria. And I always see that divide really clearly expressed politically through the different parties in the parliament, like in the Israeli Knesset. Every time I look, it's like the parties in some ways represent spiritually different tribes in the land of Israel. And it's also where a generation that's growing up in the land of Israel. We were born here. They didn't experience the Holocaust, the rebirth in 1948. The children of this generation, they were just born into this miracle called Israel. And the same challenges that face us today faced the Israelites after the days of Joshua. And so it's so important that we really delve into this book because what happens when a generation inherits everything but remembers nothing? And that's really the tragedy framed in Judges chapter 2. And it might be one of the most relevant chapters in all of Tanakh for our generation. And so chapter 2 opens up with a divine revelation. An angel of God appears and confronts Israel with the truth. Verse 1. And 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.'" In the book of Judges, it's one of the most tumultuous books in the Bible. Israel has highs and lows, victories and failures, but it starts off with a clear declaration from God. I will never break my covenant with Israel. And so so many centuries of exile, and even today, the haters of Israel want to say that God abandoned the people of Israel. He replaced them with this version of Christianity or this version of Islam. Israel is done away with and it's gotten to the point where the people today, the haters of Israel, are saying that Israel today are not the Israel of the Bible, the people of the Bible, they've been long gone. I mean, at the beginning of the book of Judges, there's so many times that you can see God abandoning the people of Israel. But he makes an eternal declaration. No matter what, God will never break his covenant with Israel. That's what an eternal covenant is. It's eternal. And in fact, the people of Israel living in the land of Israel, we are the ultimate testimony of the truth of the Bible and God's promise. That's the spiritual truth as to why there are so many haters of Israel. We're the living testimony of the living God. And so verse 2 then brings the Israelites its ultimate truth that it has to confront. And it says, "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?" You know, it's not just a confrontation, it's really a heartbreak. I mean, God is saying, "I kept my side of the relationship. Why didn't you keep yours?" And the people cry. I mean, that cry was so powerful that the place itself was called Bochim, which in Hebrew literally means "and they cried." But you know, there's a tension here. Yes, they cried, but they don't really change. And because the real story of this chapter, it's not really about rebellion, it's something that's so much more insidious. It's much more dangerous. The chapter just records Israel living a good life. They're living righteous lives. They're staying connected to Hashem all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that lived after Joshua. And then a new generation comes up in Israel. And for the first time in Israel's history, a generation rises up that didn't live the story. Verse 10. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. You think about that. I mean, they have the land, they have the inheritance, they have victory, but they don't have the memory. And without memory, the entire system begins to collapse. And you know, I'll tell you, Jeremy, what makes this so striking is that the forgetting, it didn't happen overnight, right? This wasn't a a generation that woke up one day and just decided to abandon everything. It was gradual, it was generational. Think about it this way. In any relationship, even even a fight, even a rebellion, it means you're still in the relationship, right? There's heat, there's engagement, you care enough to push back. But forgetting forgetting is something entirely different. It's not conflict, it's distance, it's tragic, it's painful. It's the slow cooling off of something that used to burn. And in many ways, that's far more painful. Because at least with rebellion, the other person knows you exist. And I think about the the manna. For the generation that left Egypt, people who had known slavery and hunger hunger and helplessness and just the laws of nature, the manna falling from the sky every single morning in the desert, that must have been overwhelming. And and a a daily, visible, undeniable miracle. But for the generation born in the desert, that was just breakfast. That was just how the world worked. That was nature. They had no reference point for what the world looked like without it. And that's exactly what happens here. The elders who walked with Joshua told the story with fire. They lived it. Their children heard it second hand. Their children's children inherited land without inheriting the why behind it. And familiarity became the enemy of of wonder. They stopped seeing what was right in front of them. And a relationship that nobody is tending quietly disappears. You know, and that's exactly what happened. You know, Ari mentioned this in chapter 1, but here chapter 2 in scripture lays out the pattern, a cycle that will define the entire book of Judges. Israel forgets God. They become corrupt. They turn to other powers. They fall into crisis and are attacked by enemies. Then they cry out to God and God sends a leader, a judge, and he saves them. And then it starts all over again. And here's the key. It's like even though Israel forgets God, God never forgets them. That's why it starts off saying, "I have an eternal covenant with Israel. They may go through ups and downs, but every time they stray from the path of righteousness, it's okay. I will correct them." And that's the right way to see the challenges of Israel. It's like their behavior triggers enemies' attacks. And even when Israel is attacked over and over again, God sends leaders. Over and over again, Hashem responds to their cries. And it's like almost God's saying like, "You may forget me, but I'm not letting go of you." And that's a truth that we live by in the land of Israel. And it's the truth that we should live by really every believer in the world. Everything that happens to you happens for you. And we first see that biblical principle play out on a national level here in the book of Judges. Every challenge Israel faces, every time we're attacked, it's an opportunity to realign, to do teshuvah, to return to God. And in that way, there's something really inspiring and beautiful about Israel. Cuz even though we fall and fail over and over again, in the end, Israel always takes responsibility, tries to be better, and calls back to God. That's always in our heart. And I think that's the deepest tension of this chapter because every generation inherits something. A story, a mission, they inherit covenant. And the question is never just, "Did you receive it?" The question is, "Did you make it your own? Are you living it?" Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, this is for me personally, if I could just interject myself in here, I grew up in day school. And every morning when we prayed with fillin, you know, the phylacteries, just like we're commanded to in the book of Exodus and and Devarim and Shmot and Devarim, uh Deuteronomy, it was it was part of the schedule of my school, part of the structure. And I did it because I had to, you know? But on weekends at home, it never crossed my mind. Until one morning when I was 15 years old, I walked past my father's room and I saw him standing there quietly putting on his fillin. Nobody told him to, nobody was watching, it was just him and Hashem. And I don't think he even knew I saw him. But I haven't missed more than a day, maybe two, in the 30 years since that morning. And that's what really unlocks this whole thing for me because the transmission of faith was never really about instruction. It wasn't about telling the story correctly or building the right curriculum. I mean, that's a part of it, but that's not the heart of it. What's actually contagious is witnessing someone who genuinely lives it. My father didn't just teach me fillin that morning, he showed me what it looks like when something is truly yours. Children don't catch theology, they catch fire. And the the generation in this chapter, they simply weren't catching the fire in their parents' hearts. Maybe the fire was still there, but it wasn't visible, it wasn't being lived out in the open, in the quiet moments where children actually see. And so it dimmed slowly, almost imperceptibly, until one day there was just nothing really left to pass on. You know, I really love that story about your father, Ari. I didn't know that. And you know, that's just just so true. You know, in some ways that really is the underlying message of all of the prophets of Israel. Hashem wants our hearts. He wants a living relationship with us. He wants us to live a life that reflects his light in the world. A relationship, it's something you have to choose. It's something you have to live by. And that's why the chapter ends with this. Verses 21 and 22. I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. So that through them I may test Israel whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not. See, the challenges Israel has before them, it's a challenge that's designed for them. It's a constant test and reminder to be who Hashem created us to be. That's a shift. Until now, God was removing all the obstacles from Joshua. And now, he leaves them in place. Why? Because the challenges, they're not random. They're designed directly for Israel. It's not a punishment or an accident. It's a test. The nation that remains in the land, the struggles it goes through, the pressures, the tension, they're all to reveal something. Will Israel remember who they are or will they forget? Because your true identity isn't exposed when everything is easy. It's revealed when it's tested through challenge. In Judges chapter 2, it's not just the beginning of a difficult period in Israel's history. It's a warning that the greatest threat to a nation it's not the external enemies. It's about Israel forgetting who we are. Because once that happens, you don't even realize what you've lost. And it might take an attack from a Canaanite or from the Hamas on October 7th to bring us back to who we really are and who we can be in the world. All right, my friends. So, that's chapter 2 of the book of Judges. We'll see you tomorrow for chapter 3. And if you're enjoying this series and you want to go deeper, you're invited to join our global community at the Land of Israel Network. And if you've just [music] found this series, you can catch up on all of the journey we've been through so far [music] with the entire book of Joshua at the landofisrael.com.