Judges 2:4

Judges 2:4

I. Observe, first, that the reprover of the people is termed "an angel." "An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal." But the first utterance carries us to the thought of One higher than angel or archangel. The speaker describes Himself as the deliverer of Israel out of Egypt, and He finishes with the denunciation, "Ye have not obeyed My voice." The coming up from Gilgal seems to connect at once the prophet of Bochim with Joshua's vision of the Captain of the Lord's host. In this place and in many others, we have a previous manifestation of the second person of the Trinity in the form of the manhood which in the latter days He was about to take into God. We here see the eternal Word in one of His three great offices, viz., that of prophet or teacher. The burden of His prophecy is worthy of the Divine speaker, for it is the simple enunciation of the fundamental truth of all religion man in covenant with God, and bound to comply with the terms of that covenant.

II. Consider the result of the prophesying. The general result was but transitory. The people wept and sacrificed unto the Lord. But no amendment ensued. The whole effect was a momentary outburst of feeling and a hasty sacrifice. Most true picture of the reception of the word of God in after time. It is sensational or emotional religion against which Bochim is our warning. There are two principal elements of this fruitless sorrow. The first is want of depth of soul. The second is the "after revolt of the human mind against the supernatural."

Godly sorrow issues in a repentance not to be repented of, in that thorough turning of the life to God's service, from which, in the hottest fire of temptation, there is never a turning back to the way of evil again.

Bishop Woodford, Oxford Lent Sermons,1870, p. 63.

References: Judges 2:4; Judges 2:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1680. Judges 2:18. Parker, vol. vi., p. 162. 2 Ibid.,vol. v., p. 324.Judges 3:4. Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 163.Judges 3:9; Judges 3:10. Ibid.,vol. v., p. 333.Judges 3:15. Ibid.,vol. v., p. 339. Judges 3:16. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year,vol. ii., Appendix, p. 16. Judges 3:20. T. Guthrie, Sunday Magazine,1873, p. 281; T. Cartwright, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 125.Judges 3:31. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year,vol. ii., Appendix, p. 47; Parker, vol. v., p. 344; T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees,p. 21.Judges 4:1. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 279. Judges 4:8. J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after 2rinity,Part I., p. 64.Judges 4:8; Judges 4:9. S. Leathes, Truth and Life,p. 99. Judges 4:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xvi., p. 273.