Judges 2:2, commentary and pictures

The Speaker who came up from Gilgal to Bochim to review Israel's history and rebuke disobedience is Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God equal with God, appearing as the Angel of the Lord. He does not speak in the manner of human messengers who speak as commissioned oracles saying Thus saith the Lord, but speaks in His own voice with authority. Only the Son of God could claim to have brought Israel up out of Egypt into the land sworn to their fathers. His pledge never to break His covenant with Israel was made upon condition of obedience, and here He charges them with not obeying His voice.

The command was to dispossess the heathen inhabitants of the land, to make no league with them, to keep separate from them, and to throw down their altars. Israel disobeyed by neglecting that work and instead associating with the godless Canaanites. They united with them in degrading practices, tolerating their cruelty and even countenancing their injustice so long as it was not directed against themselves. The closing question why have ye done this exposes their covenant-breaking. For that reason judgment followed that God would not drive out the inhabitants, but they would be as thorns in their sides and their gods would be a snare to them.

That disobedience left them dispirited and cowardly, tamely submitting to an oppression and degradation they might have escaped had they obeyed. It went so far that they deserted the deliverer God raised up for them and sided with their enemies instead of joining him to gain freedom from their oppressors. The rebuke is to be searched and applied by all who profess to belong to God to test whether they are in the faith. When heard with contrition it produces weeping, with confession to God and to one another, and with sacrifice that has value only with true repentance. Through the grace of Christ working in the heart it brings forgiveness, genuine revival, and a reformation that keeps the covenant for a time, though the seed of evil sown by disobedience still springs up to bear fruit in a later departing generation.

The verse means Christians must not choose the society of those who have no connection with God and whose course displeases Him. They must not invite vain, trifling, ungodly relatives into their homes or make concessions to please irreligious relatives and friends. Their example and influence harms children, and one concession prepares the way for another until those once true in life and character are conformed to the customs of the world. The connection with God is broken and they become Christians in name only, having sold themselves and their children to the enemy and dishonored God. When the test hour comes their hope will be seen to be without foundation, and in the revelation of righteous judgments they will reap what they have sown, when Christ will address this same rebuke to them.