EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers can expect their obedience to God to be tested.
20 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel,
and he declared,
“Because this nation has violated my covenant
that I made with their ancestors
and disobeyed me,
21 I will no longer drive out before them
any of the nations Joshua left when he died.
22 I did this to test Israel
and to see whether or not they would keep the Lord’s way
by walking in it, as their ancestors had.”
23 The Lord left these nations and did not drive them out immediately.
He did not hand them over to Joshua.
How did God reveal His attitude toward sin in these verses?
He withdrew His hand of protection from the people
and allowed their enemies to overwhelm them.
Highlight God’s motivation for allowing His people to suffer at the hands of their enemies:
“Verse 20 emphasizes how angry God was with Israel.
Next, the Lord referred to Israel as ‘this nation’.
This expression indicates a sense of Alienation
and speaks to Israel’s infidelity to God as Israel
violated the covenant the Lord made with their forefathers.
Consequently, the Lord emphatically declared He would no longer
give the Israelites the ability to drive out
the Canaanites who still lived in areas of Israel’s
tribal allotments that were yet to be possessed. .The Lord made clear His intention in
allowing the Canaanites to remain.
It was to test the Israelites.
Would they turn back to God and walk in His ways
like their forefathers, or would they continue in their rebellion against Him?
The writer then states the Lord did as He declared.”
This was not the generation that had fought the battles and conquered the land.
That generation, along with Joshua and its leaders, had passed from the scene.
This was a new generation of Israelites
who had to learn how to trust God for themselves.
When they failed, God placed them in situations
that would challenge them to come back to Him.
Repentance and restoration are always God’s purpose in discipline and testing.
Review these points from Apply the Text on page 81 of the Personal Study Guide:
Call for a few volunteers to share which statement challenges them the most this week.
Draw attention again to Pack Item 13 (Handout: The Cycle of Judges) and review the cycle of sin in the book of Judges. Encourage the group to keep this handout in their Bibles for reference in the coming sessions.
Guide the group to read and respond to the second question set on page 81 of the PSG. Challenge adults to remember that God’s character is the key to His discipline.
Provide a few moments of silent prayer, encouraging adults to reflect on their lives and to identify how they might be caught in a cycle of sin. Urge them to confess this to God and ask for His help moving forward. Close the session in prayer, asking God to protect each adult from the same cycle of sin, judgment, confession, and restoration that the Israelites experienced for so many generations.
Send an email to challenge the group to reflect on how a cycle of sin has impacted their own walk with the Lord. Suggest they review the information on Pack Item 13 (Handout: The Cycle of the Judges). Direct them to read and reflect on the first question set from page 81 of the PSG. Encourage them to find ways to hold one another accountable and point each other toward the goodness of God.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. (See Luke 3:8; Romans 2:4-5.)
Learn more about a person in the Bible.
The “angel of the Lord” appears in Judges 2:1, the first of four times in the book of Judges (see also 5:23; 6:11; and 13:1-24). Many scholars believe this was a “christophany,” an appearance of Jesus prior to His incarnation in the Gospels. Read and reflect on other possible christophanies in the Old Testament, such as Genesis 32:24-30 and Daniel 3:24-25. Why do you think Jesus appeared in situations like these? How does the presence of Jesus affect your life each day?