No League with the Inhabitants - Judges 2:2

In the book of Judges we learned about Israel how, “an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you”, and in chapter two and verse two of Judges, we learn how the angel said, “you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land”, where we read,

And you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall throw down their altars: but you have not obeyed my voice: why have you done this?

The verse reads, “And you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land;” The writer began with the words, “and you shall make no league” which means “and you, the people of Israel, are not to form, fashion or cut any alliance, covenant, pledge, oath or agreement” “with the inhabitants” or “accompanied by the dwellers, abiders and people who live” “of this land” which means “within this territory, region or district”. The writer shared how the “angel of the LORD”, Jehovah God, instructed the people of Israel not to form an alliance or agreement in any manner with the people who lived within the promised territory.

The verse continues, “you shall throw down their altars: but you have not obeyed my voice: why have you done this?” The writer added the words, “you shall throw down their altars” which means “you, the people of Israel, are to cast, break, destroy and beat down their, the people of the land’s, sacrificial place or torrent of slaughter and worship”: “but you have not obey my voice” or “however, nonetheless, notwithstanding and moreover you, the people of Israel, have in no way or manner listened to, perceived, understood or given heed to my, Jehovah God’s, sound and noise of uttered words”: “why have you done this” which means “for what reason and cause have you, the people of Israel, performed and produced this, not obeying God’s voice”? The writer shared how Jehovah God instructed the people of Israel to destroy the sacrificial places of worship of the pagan inhabitants’ , however, they did not listen nor take heed to what He said. 

When we think through the words in this verse, we learn how Jehovah God gave instructions to the people of Israel as they entered and occupied the promise land. They were in no way to form alliances with the people there, and they were to destroy all their sacrificial places of worship. The people of Israel did not obey Him. In like manner, God wants an exclusive personal relationship with us through His Son Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of all mankind and was resurrected from the dead after three days. When we surrender to Him completely, He will forgive our sins, grant us everlasting life and put His Holy Spirit within us to guide us into all truth and to equip us to remove all other gods and implements of worship other than Him from our lives. (See John 3:16: Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8)

Next time we see how the angel said, “I will not drive them out from before you”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".