And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
Israel had turned from the Lord, raiders had stripped them bare, and they had no claim left on His help. Then God acted anyway, and everything in the book of Judges flows from that reversal: who these judges were, why God gave them, and why their relief never lasted.
Older translations open this verse with "Nevertheless" where the ESV has "Then." One writer weighs that word against everything the chapter has just said about the people:
Israel had failed — sadly, shamefully, inexcusably failed. They had forfeited all claim to the protection of Jehovah's shield. They were justly handed over into the ruthless hands of the kings of Canaan. About all this there could be no question. "Nevertheless" Jehovah's heart could still feel for His poor, oppressed, groaning Israel. True, they had proved themselves wayward and unworthy. Yet His ear was always ready to catch their very earliest groan. We are even told, in Judges 10, that "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel."
(The ESV renders that line in Judges 10:16 as "he became impatient over the misery of Israel.")
The title does not mean a courtroom official. It covers both the rescue and the rule that followed it:
The way God delivered them — by judges who judge the people for God — matches, of course, the root of the evil to be met. "The judges," says Keil, "were men who obtained justice, or right, for the people of Israel. They did this not only by delivering them out of the power of their foes, but also by administering the laws and rights of the Lord (chap. 2:16-19). Judging in this sense was different from the administration of civil law, and included the idea of government such as would be expected from a king."
Verse 16 is one stage in a sequence that runs through the whole book. One writer traces the steps, and why each recovery had to be repeated:
The people depart from Him, and set up idols of their own, the gods of the nations around them. Then God hands them over to the enemy, who comes in like a flood and takes possession. Then the people cry out for mercy under the terrible rule of their enemies. God in His mercy raises up judges to deliver them. First there is decline; second, bondage; third, a cry for help. God raises up a deliverer for the time being. That deliverer restores them for a while, only for them to fall again into the same evil. God does not raise up another Joshua. He does not restore what has been broken to pieces. He raises up a judge for a specific purpose. When the judge has done his special work and dies, the heart of the people slips off into evil. They need another deliverer, another recovery through another judge, but weaker and weaker, until it is almost total darkness.
God's answer never came to a people still comfortable in their sin. One writer marks what had to come first:
The Lord then acted on behalf of His backslidden people and raised up judges (verses 16-18). The result was recovery. Once more, under these revivals, the people rejoiced in victory over their enemies and in the promised covenant blessings. Self-judgment, which is true repentance, had to come before each revival. They cried to the Lord; they sought His face, and then deliverance came. It is the same in the individual experience of the children of God.
"The LORD raised up" puts the weight on God, not on the rescuer. One writer notes both God's motive and the kind of person He picks:
He was grieved by the afflictions of His people. He judged their sin and evil; yet at the same time He pitied and saved. But the people He worked through were always insignificant in themselves. We do not find revivals beginning at the top. Generally, any recovery from the doctrines and traditions of men has come through some obscure individual, raised up in the energy of the Spirit.
Every judge died and every deliverance ran out. So the book points beyond its own heroes:
In Judges, God speaks to us by contrast. Out of the very eater — Satan, who is overcome — He brings us food, even Christ. We are shown that every bondage of God's people comes through sin, which turns them away from Christ. And every matching deliverance comes through leaders who, despite all their failures, clearly resemble the one great Deliverer who alone can set His people free.
- Nevertheless. Israel had forfeited every claim to protection. Yet God's ear was ready to catch their earliest groan. The verse turns on grace, not on merit.
- Cry. True repentance came before each recovery. They cried, they sought His face, and then deliverance came.
- Gift. The judge was God's remedy. God raised him up to rescue the people, then to govern them by the Lord's laws and rights.
- Obscurity. The people God used had no standing of their own. Revival does not start at the top. It starts with some unknown person moved by the Spirit.
- Limit. Each deliverance lasted only for a time, and then they fell back. So every judge points to the one Deliverer who alone can set His people free.
But they did not even hearken to their judges, for they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves to them; they turned quickly out of the way that their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of Jehovah; they did not so.
Judges 2 is the whole book of Judges in miniature. God keeps raising up judges to rescue Israel, and Israel keeps drifting back. Verse 17 is the hinge. Israel took the rescue but refused the rescuer's authority. Almost as soon as they inherited their parents' path, they left it.
The verse draws a line between being glad of deliverance and being willing to obey:
Yet God graciously stepped in at such times to raise up judges whom He used to set Israel free. But while they were glad of their deliverance, they would not honour the judges. Honouring them meant submitting to the Word of God which the judges gave them. Instead they turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked.
Read one way, the verse is a record of failure. Read another way, it exposes what God kept doing anyway.
Their unfaithfulness brought misery on them. That misery moved God to compassion. His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people... But Israel was unchanged. "Yet they did not listen to their judges." ... This is the sorrowful history of the people of God. It is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassions towards His people.
"Whored after other gods" sounds like a sudden collapse. But chapter 1 had already shown Israel's decline in their dealings with the world. One writer measures the short step from the one to the other, and turns it on us:
The close of chapter 1 gave us Israel's decline in their connection with the world. The verses we have just read show the same decline in relation to God. We have a summary of the whole book of Judges in this passage. Worldliness and idolatry follow one another. However far our hearts go after the world, that far they turn away from God. From there, forsaking the Lord to follow idols is only a step... If we keep company with the world, the things it treasures take hold of our hearts, robbing Christ of His place.
The verse says they turned aside "soon." A generation that inherits ground it never fought for lets it go:
The first generation had to break out of their natural surroundings at the call of God. They were willing to follow Him in suffering and self-denial. Then their children came into the inheritance their fathers had won for them. But they had never been through what their fathers went through. Nature attracts them to the path by force of habit. They accept easily and easily can let go. They don't know the joy of sacrifice. They don't have the vigour gained by painful work.
Not listening does not stay where it is. After each judge died, Israel sank further.
From time to time the Lord raised up judges. In the same mercy the Lord still raises up faithful men from time to time, to stem the tide and help His people... But verse 19 of our second chapter of Judges shows the continued drift. The judges passed, and then they resumed the downward course. "They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways." That is a terrible stage. No appeal reached them.
Nations were still living in the land alongside Israel. God gave that a purpose that echoes verse 17's words about the fathers' way:
God had one answer, and it was worthy of Him. In His grace He makes use of the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. God did not leave these nations only to discipline Israel. He also wanted "to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did." In short, would they separate from evil?
- Rescue. God kept raising up judges. His people's misery kept moving Him to compassion. The failure in this verse is never on His side.
- Refusal. Israel welcomed the rescue but would not submit to the Word the rescuer brought. Being glad is not the same as obeying.
- Root. Keeping company with the world comes first. Bowing to its gods is only one step further. What the world treasures takes hold of the heart and robs Christ of His place.
- Rapidity. They turned aside "soon" because they inherited a path their fathers had paid for. What costs nothing to receive costs nothing to drop.
- Retest. God left the nations in place to ask one question. Will you walk in the way of the LORD as your fathers did?
And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented Jehovah because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them.
Judges 2:18 sits inside the summary of the whole book: a nation that keeps failing, and a God who keeps rescuing. The verse holds three things together. God raises up a judge. God stands with that judge. And God feels the pain of His people.
Verse 18 follows a verdict. Israel had no right left to expect help. That is what makes the rescue so striking.
Israel had failed — sadly, shamefully, and with no excuse. They had lost every claim to the protection of Jehovah's shield. He was right to hand them over to the cruel kings of Canaan. None of this can be questioned. "Nevertheless" Jehovah's heart could still feel for His poor, oppressed, groaning Israel. True, they had proved themselves wicked and unworthy. Yet His ear was always ready to catch their very first groan.
The same God is doing both things at once in this chapter. He is the one who sold them into the hands of their enemies, and He is the one who now hears them.
But the God who judges is also the God who has compassion (Judges 2:18). Israel groans under the oppressor; then the Lord looks on this people for whom He had done such great things, and raises up deliverers for them. Such is the history which we shall see unfolded in the book of Judges, and of which we have here the summary.
An older translation reads "it repented the LORD because of their groanings." One writer explains why the Old Testament can speak of God this way, and where such language stops.
Expressions like this, used of God in the Old Testament, are never found about Him in the New. With man in the flesh before Him in the Old Testament, we can understand such a term being used of God. Man's wickedness drew out the statement from the Spirit that God repented He had made him on the earth. His people's miseries — while they suffered under His government — drew out the compassion of His heart, and He delivered them: "For it repented the Lord because of their groanings" (Judges 2:18).
What moves Him is their groaning, not any reform on their part.
The office was not simply military. The remedy God chose exposed the nature of the disease.
The Lord's way of deliverance was to raise up judges. It was a simple remedy, yet it worked only up to a point, because the people stubbornly went back to their old sins once the judge had died, if not before. Still, the remedy showed clearly what the disease was: deliverance could only come by revival. That meant judging themselves about their true condition, and returning to the One they had left. The "judge" was not merely a judge between one man and another. Above all he was the leader in the people's repentance and return to God — the representative of Jehovah's law and rule in Israel.
The nation's strength did not produce these deliverers. God gave them.
Their unfaithfulness brought them into misery, and that misery moved the compassion of God. His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people… This is the sad history of the people of God. But it is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassion towards His people.
One writer notices which words the verse does not use.
God granted revivals, but always in the power of individual faith and action. "Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge" — it does not say, then the Lord was with the people!
The help lasts as long as the judge lives, and no longer.
God does not raise up another Joshua. He does not restore what has been broken to pieces. He raises up a judge for one specific purpose. When that judge has done his special work and dies, the heart of the people slips off into evil. They need another deliverer, another recovery through another judge — but weaker and weaker, until it becomes almost total darkness.
One writer sees the same pattern in the church today, and points to a different cure.
So it has been in the professing Church. Revivals have come and gone, but they have not cured the wayward condition. The departure from God and His Word grows more and more marked, until it ends in the final great apostasy. The only complete deliverance can be the coming of the Lord.
- Groaning — Their pain moves God, not their good behaviour. They had lost every claim on His protection. Yet His ear still catches their first groan.
- Raised up — The deliverer is a gift, not an achievement. God's grace raises up judges by His Spirit among a fallen people.
- With the judge — God was with the judge, not with the people. Recovery came through individual faith, not through the crowd.
- All the days — The blessing has a date on it. God sends help into the ruin instead of rebuilding it, and each cycle leaves the nation weaker.
- Until He comes — Judges deliver; they do not cure. The repeating pattern points past every revival to the coming of the Lord.