God wants to teach His people the unbroken relationship between action and consequence.
The Angel of the Lord had ascended from Israel’s base camp at Gilgal and confronted the tribes at a place soon to be named Bochim, meaning “the Weepers.” “You have not obeyed My voice,” He said. “Why have you done this?” (Jdg 2:2). Very good question. It may not seem that way at first, but every tribe west of the Jordan had made a deal with the devil. That’s how God saw it. When you agree to let the Canaanites live among you, you also welcome their demon-embodied gods into the neighborhood. There was the destruction god, Baal, and his consort Asherah, who was given the credit for fertility. They encouraged perverted sexual practices as if they were acts of worship. Add to that Astarte and Anat, the goddesses of love, sex, and war. Then there were the astral deities of the Sun, the Moon, and Lucifer (yes, that Lucifer), plus deities from the underworld: Mot, the god of death; Resheph, meaning “the Ravisher,” and Molech, with his lust for incinerating children alive. Clearly, these were not the influences God wanted on little Israelites growing up in the Promised Land! Like the West, Israel had been so blessed by God, but had turned aside in moral compromise. These would be the consequences: “Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you’” (v 3). As with God’s hope for Israel, so it might be for our lands: If they did not seek the Lord in days of prosperity, perhaps they might find Him in times of adversity. So we read, “The people lifted up their voices and wept” (v 4). Godly sorrow is good, but weeping is not enough. Thankfully, they also “sacrificed there to the Lord” (v 5). O that today we would do the same!