Angel of the LORD
Gustave Dore Woodcut
(Click to Enlarge)

NOW: When is this time referring to? It's hard to discern with absolute certainty but it is probably referring to a time during the period of Judges and certainly a time when they had had ample opportunity to drive out their enemies but failed to do so. This event therefore could be the postscript to Jdg 1 and would be God's assessment to His people of how well they had followed His instructions and commands in Dt 7, 9, Jos 23,24 given before they came into the promised land.

Spurgeon said

"if you turn aside from God’s words by a hair’s breadth you know not where it will end. The rail diverges but a little where the switches are turned, but before long the branch line is miles away from the main track. Backslide a little and you are on the way to utter apostasy. The mother of mischief is small as a midge’s egg: hatch it, and you shall see an evil bird larger than an ostrich. The least wrong has in it an all but infinity of evil. You cannot say to sin, “Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” Like the sea when the dyke is broken, it stretches forth its band to grasp all the surrounding country. The beginning of sin is hike the beginning of strife, and that is said to be as the letting out of water: no man knows what a flood may come when once the banks are burst. So Israel went aside farther and farther from God because they regarded not their way, and did not in all things obey the Lord."

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD (Jos 5:13-15, see note Judges 5:23, Judges 6:11-24, Judges 13:3ff):

Click the discussion of Angel of the LORD. Although not everyone agrees, I think the evidence is overwhelming that this "Angel of Jehovah" represents a "theophany" and specifically an appearance of God (Jesus) in visible and bodily form.

John MacArthur agrees writing that this is...

 One of 3 pre-incarnate theophanies by the Lord Jesus Christ in Judges (cf. Judges 6:11-18; 13:3-23). This same Divine Messenger had earlier led Israel out of Egypt (cf. Ex. 14:19). (MacArthur, J.: The MacArthur Study Bible Nashville: Word or Logos)

The Bible Knowledge Commentary agrees writing that..

The Angel of the Lord was not merely “an angel”; He was a theophany—an appearance of the second Person of the Trinity in visible and bodily form before the Incarnation. (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor or Logos)

CAME UP FROM GILGAL (Jos 4:19, 20, note meaning in Jos 5:9,10) TO BOCHIM (v5, - the weepers):

Bochim was probably located between Bethel and Shiloh, some 20 mi from the Dead Sea. Gilgal was the first place Israel had camped after entering the Promised land and there they set up 12 memorial stones for there God rolled away their reproach and there they celebrated the Passover.

Gilgal was a place of OBEDIENCE and TRIUMPH but tragically Gilgal later became the scene of idolatrous worship (Hos 4:15; 9:15)!

I wonder what had happened to the 12 memorial stones (Jos 4:20-24)?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn in an address for another reason made some comments that speak to the road forgetfulness (3:7) that leads from Gilgal to Bochim:

"Over half a century ago while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all of this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed 8 volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.'"

And so too the forgetfulness of modern man continues to take him further and further from God and closer to the jaws of disaster and the pit of destruction. (see note Judges 3:7).

AND HE SAID:

Spurgeon:

 "it must have been grand hearing to hear an angel preach, and grander hearing still to hear the angel of the covenant plead with the covenanted ones. Oh, what a sermon! What a sermon it must have been! Scarcely ever was such a preacher seen on earth. And yet that sermon did not do its much good as when the seafaring man, Peter, preached at Pentecost. The sermon at Bochim, if I were to sum up its results, ended in disappointment. Be not disappointed, servant of God, if sometimes you seem to fail. Do not say, “I will give it up.” Your bread has been cast upon the waters. Wait a while, for alter many days you may find it. If Israel be not gathered, God will reward you for your toil. It is yours to labor; it is God’s to give the results; and he does not always grant pleasing results to us at once. He did not allot great triumphs to this angel of the Lord, as we shall have to show you. It was a great congregation; it was a great preacher; and it was a great sermon, and yet there was not a great ingathering. Read the sermon through; and note that though it is a short one it is all the greater for its brevity. Sermons may grow little by being long, and a sermon may he great through being short, if it be big with thought as this angelic sermon was.."

I BROUGHT YOU UP OUT OF EGYPT AND LED YOU INTO THE LAND WHICH I HAVE SWORN TO YOUR FATHERS:  (Ex 13:5, 20:2, 23:20, Dt 11:29)

C H Spurgeon writes...

"Brethren, this subject should most readily lead us to repentance,-that God should have dealt so well with us should make us grieve that we have behaved so ill to him. Do I address a backsliding child of God? I do not think that any exercise is more likely to benefit your heart than to remember what God did for you in years gone by. He took you up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay and set your feet upon a rock. He brought you out from the iron bondage of your despair and gave you liberty, he brake the yoke of sinful habits, and the chains of furious passions; and now are you wandering away from him? Are you making something else to be the god of your spirit? If so, be ashamed of your ingratitude, and let this first head of the angel’s discourse have power upon your mind. “You use no other friend so ill”; and yet you have not a friend who can be compared with your God. “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice” unto your God, and sin no longer against him."

AND I SAID 'I WILL NEVER BREAK MY COVENANT [Ps 89:34, Jer 33:20] WITH YOU:

Psalm 89:34 My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.

Spurgeon comments (on Ps 89:34): My covenant will I not break. It is His own covenant. He devised it, drew up the draft of it, and voluntarily entered into it: he therefore thinks much of it. It is not a man's covenant, but the Lord claims it as His own. It is an evil thing among men for one to be a "covenant breaker", and such an opprobrious epithet shall never be applicable to the Most High.

Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Alterations and afterthoughts belong to short sighted beings who meet with unexpected events which operate upon them to change their minds, but the Lord who sees everything from the beginning has no such reason for shifting his ground. He is besides immutable in his nature and designs, and cannot change in heart, and therefore not in promise. A word once given is sacred; once let a promise pass our lips and honesty forbids that we should recall it, -- unless indeed the thing promised be impossible, or wicked, neither of which can happen with the promises of God. How consoling it is to see the Lord thus resolute. He, in the words before us, virtually reasserts his covenant and rehearses his engagements. This he does at such length, and with such reiteration, that it is evident he takes pleasure in that most ancient and solemn contract. If it were conceivable that he had repented of it, he would not be found dwelling upon it, and repeating it with renewed emphasis.

Jeremiah 33:20 "Thus says the LORD, 'If you can break My covenant for the day, and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time,

This is still true -- God has not broken His covenant promises to Israel and will fulfill them in the Messianic Age when He reigns on earth. (See notes on Millennium Pt 1 - Millennium Pt 2 - Millennium Pt 3)

C H Spurgeon writes...

Then the angel passed on to mention the mercies guaranteed to them: “I said, I will never break my covenant with you.” Oh, that is a blessed theme. If indeed you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has pledged himself to make you perfect and to bring you home to himself with exceeding great joy. You shall not perish. Christ has said, “I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” You see the two bands-one inside the other, and you inside the middle one, enclosed within the palm of omnipotent faithfulness. Jehovah says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” He will never break his covenant with you. Will you wander away from him who passes by your iniquity, transgression, and sin, and does not let his anger smoke against you for ever-he to whom you are joined in an everlasting wedlock which shall never know a divorce? Oh, cruel heart! cruel heart! Canst thou offend against such love as this? Canst thou break with God when he declares that he will never break with you? The angel pleads this longsuffering, eternally-enduring love, and pleads it well. I know of no two greater arguments than mercy received and mercy promised. Let us not sin against these. May the Holy Spirit hold us fast with these cords of love.

THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF PARTIAL OBEDIENCE, OF SIN, OF EROSION OF THEIR SPIRITUALITY:

Sin will take you further than you ever wanted to stray,
It'll keep you longer than you ever thought you'd stay,
And will cost you more than you ever dreamed that you would pay!

PARTIAL OBEDIENCE
TAKES US
FROM REJOICING TO WEEPING

Gilgal: they set up the altar after crossing the Jordan to commemorate the crossing. So that whenever the children of generations to come would see the altar, they would REMEMBER what God had done there. Jos 4:19, 5:1, 2 (circumcision), v10 (celebrated Passover), God appeared to Joshua at Gilgal v13 (Joshua found out that God didn't come to take sides but to take over).

In short, Gilgal was the place where the blessings were, where the victories were, where the people were surrendered to do what God had told them to do.

Bochim: means mourning or weeping.

Do you see the picture of the cost that comes when you choose to begin to entertain sin in your life, becoming partially obedient (that subtle, nominal Christianity that's invaded America) and you move from the place of victory, the place of blessing to the place of mourning, to the place of weeping.

Have you been at Gilgal in your life,
only to move to Bochim and
God had to come back to you again and bring you out of it?

THAT'S WHAT REVIVAL IS ALL ABOUT
(Judges - Cycles of Revival - Pdf - Roberts)

AND AS FOR YOU, YOU SHALL MAKE (karath = cut) NO COVENANT (Ex 23:32, 34:12, Dt 7:2, cp notes Judges 1:28, 1:30, 1:33, 1:35) WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THIS LAND:

(LXX adds "neither shall you worship their gods...destroy their graven images,") (See Covenant: Summary Table)

Exodus 23:32 "You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

Exodus 34:12 "Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst.
13 "But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim
14 --for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God--
15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice;
16 and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

Numbers 33:51 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places;
53 and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.

Deut 7:2 and when the LORD your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
3 "Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.
4 "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.

Deut 12:2 "You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
3 "And you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods, and you shall obliterate their name from that place.

In this context cutting a covenant with the Canaanites would be tantamount to making a peace treaty, a treaty which would entail common worship and intermarriage. Not a "good thing" for God's holy people to do.

Don't cut covenant with the enemy (remember covenant speaks of oneness, of identity with the one you are in covenant with). If you do cut covenant it will become a snare in your midst (Ex 34:12).

Even godly Joshua "blew it" on this one (Joshua 9:1-27, which had consequences 2Sa 21:1 - see in depth discussion under topic [scroll down] Covenant Solemn & Binding)

Ray Stedman applies Israel's mistakes to believers today asking that as...

We read this story, and we think, How foolish these Israelites were not to obey the commandment of God! But don’t we do exactly the same? Don’t we settle for less than complete victory over our sins and bad habits? Don’t we say, “Well, yes, I do have a problem with anger (or gossip, or swearing, or impure thoughts, or alcohol, or tobacco), but it’s just one little bad habit! I mean, we all need one small vice, don’t we?” No! God says that it is these little things that we accommodate ourselves to and compromise with that eventually defeat us and destroy us! We cannot afford to settle for anything less than complete victory. (Stedman, Ray: Adventuring through the Bible. Discovery House)

YOU SHALL TEAR DOWN THEIR ALTARS:

They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons [Ps 106:34-37]

Psalm 106:34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, 35 But they mingled with the nations, and learned their practices, 36 And served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons

Matthew Henry wrote that...

The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those that fetched them out of Egypt; for by that time they were well warm in Canaan, they corrupted themselves, and forsook God.

They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (Psalms 106:34). When they had got the good land God had promised them, they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants, whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God, that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he.

When they spared them, they promised themselves, that for all this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them; but the way of sin is down hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen, the next news we hear is, they were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them, and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works (Psalms 106:35). That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound, than be cured or made sound by it.

Spurgeon comments on Psalm 106:34-37...

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them. They were commissioned to act as executioners upon races condemned for their unnatural crimes, and through sloth, cowardice, or Sinful complacency they sheathed the sword too soon, very much to their own danger and disquietude. It is a great evil with professors that they are not zealous for the total destruction of all sin within and without. We make alliances of peace where we ought to proclaim war to the knife; we plead our constitutional temperament, our previous habits, the necessity of our circumstances, or some other evil excuse as an apology for being content with a very partial sanctification, if indeed it be sanctification at all. We are slow also to rebuke sin in others, and are ready to spare respectable sins, which like Agag walk with mincing steps. The measure of our destruction of sin is not to be our inclination, or the habit of others, but the Lord's command. We have no warrant for dealing leniently with any sin, be it what it may.

Verse 35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. It was not the wilderness which caused Israel's sins; they were just as disobedient when settled in the land of promise. They found evil company, and delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed they made their friends. Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites, and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity. It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had condemned to utter destruction. Few would wish to go to the condemned cell for learning, yet Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient in every abomination. This, too, is a grievous but common error among professors: they court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has come of the folly of worldly conformity

Verse 36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like birdlime, and to touch it is to be taken by it. Samson laid his head in the Philistine woman's lap, but ere long he woke up shorn of his strength. Dalliance with sin is fatal to spiritual liberty.

Verse 37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. This was being snared indeed; they were spell bound by the cruel superstition, and were carried so far as even to become murderers of their own children, in honour of the most detestable deities, which were rather devils than gods. "And shed innocent blood." The poor little ones whom they put to death in sacrifice had not been partakers of their sin, and God looked with the utmost indignation upon the murder of the innocent. "Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan." Who knows how far evil will go? It drove men to be unnatural as well as ungodly. Had they but thought for a moment, they must have seen that a deity who could be pleased with the blood of babes spilt by their own sires could not be a deity at all, but must be a demon, worthy to be detested and not adored.

How could they prefer such service to that of Jehovah? Did he tear their babes from their bosoms and smile at their death throes? Men will sooner wear the iron yoke of Satan than carry the pleasant burden of the Lord; does not this prove to a demonstration the deep depravity of their hearts? If man be not totally depraved, what worse would he do if he were? Does not this verse describe the ne plus ultra of iniquity?

And the land was polluted with blood. The promised land, the holy land, which was the glory of all lands, for God was there, was defiled with the reeking gore of innocent babes, and by the blood red hands of their parents, who slew them in order to pay homage to devils. Alas! alas! What vexation was this to the spirit of the Lord.

Even in these warnings against compromise, we see a picture of God’s grace.

Israel's willingness to carry out this command would show they are not merely hearers of the Word who delude themselves but that they were genuine, sincere, doers of the Word, who demonstrated their allegiance to God by their actions. Failure to do so would reveal an underlying lack of loyalty and eventually lead to assimilation to Canaanite religion and culture.

BUT YOU HAVE NOT OBEYED ME:

What happened to Israel? Simply put they did not obey God. This is hearing with obedience, which they did not do.

WHAT IS THIS YOU HAVE DONE:

Why have you done this?... there must have been a long pause and no one seems to have answered. The Angel of the LORD was not looking for excuses but desired that they repent and return and do the deeds they did at first (cp note Revelation 2:5). Why had they done this?

John Hunter writes:

"...the awful truth of the reason why they had not driven out the inhabitants and destroyed their altars and their worship was simply this: they did not WANT to drive them out. They CHOSE to allow these people with their evil, lustful ways to remain. Something in God's people wanted what they saw in that world. Their fallen human nature responded to the wild degrading dances of the heathen worship. The prospect of involvement with male and female prostitutes made their blood tingle with excitement. That was a totally new way of life and all that was in them cried out for this new culture. So it was that no one drove out anyone." So it was not really because they were afraid of iron chariots, etc...the truth is that they did not want to drive out the enemy because the lusts of their flesh and the lusts of their eyes were attracted to the world (1Jn 2:15,16, 17, Ja 4:4) when they should have been attracted to Jehovah.

Imitating the enemy (Jdg 2:1-13) The danger. In this day of “pluralism,” when society contains people of opposing beliefs and lifestyles, it’s easy to get confused and start thinking that tolerance is the same as approval. It isn’t. In a democracy, the law gives people the freedom to worship as they please; and I must exercise patience and tolerance with those who believe and practice things that I feel God has condemned in His Word. The church today doesn’t wield the sword (Romans 13) and therefore it has no authority to eliminate people who disagree with the Christian faith. But we do have the obligation before God to maintain a separate walk so we won’t become defiled by those who disagree with us (2Co 6:14–7:1). We must seek by prayer, witness, and loving persuasion to win those to Christ who as yet haven’t trusted Him.

The Jews eventually became so accustomed to the sinful ways of their pagan neighbors that those ways didn’t seem sinful any more. The Jews then became interested in how their neighbors worshiped, until finally Israel started to live like their enemies and imitate their ways. For believers today, the first step away from the Lord is “friendship with the world” (Ja 4:4), which then leads to our being spotted by the world (Ja 1:27). The next step is to “love the world” (1Jn 2:15) and gradually become “conformed to this world” (see note Romans 12:2). This can lead to being “condemned with the world” (1Co 11:32), the kind of judgment that came to Lot (Ge 19), Samson (Judges 16:1), and Saul (1Sa 15, 31).

The disobedience (v1-5). In the OT the “angel of the Lord” is generally interpreted to be the Lord Himself, who occasionally came to earth (theophany) to deliver an important message. It was probably the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, in a temporary preincarnation appearance. (Ge 16:7) The fact that God Himself came to give the message shows how serious things had become in Israel.

The tabernacle was originally located at Gilgal (Jos 4:19,20), and it was there that the men of Israel were circumcised and “rolled away” the reproach of Egypt (Jos 5:2-9). It was also there that the Lord appeared to Joshua and assured him of victory as he began his campaign to conquer Canaan (Jos 5:13-15). To Joshua, the angel of the Lord brought a message of encouragement; but to the new generation described in the Book of Judges, He brought a message of punishment.

The Lord had kept His covenant with Israel; not one word of His promises had failed (Jos 23:5, 10, 15; 1Ki 8:56). He had asked them to keep their covenant with Him by obeying His law and destroying the Canaanite religious system—their altars, temples, and idols. (Ex 23:20-25, note the association between the angel of the Lord and the command to destroy the false religion; cp Ex 34:10-17 and Dt 7:1-11, 25, 26.) But Israel disobeyed the Lord and not only spared the Canaanites and their godless religious system but also began to follow the enemy’s lifestyle themselves.

In His covenant, God promised to bless Israel if the people obeyed Him and to discipline them if they disobeyed Him (Dt 27,28). God is always faithful to His Word, whether in blessing us or chastening us; for in both, He displays His integrity and His love (see notes Hebrews 12:1ff). God would prefer to bestow the positive blessings of life that bring us enjoyment, but He doesn’t hesitate to remove those blessings if our suffering will motivate us to return to Him in repentance.

By their disobedience, the nation of Israel made it clear that they wanted the Canaanites to remain in the land. God let them have their way (Ps 106:15), but He warned them of the tragic consequences. The nations in the land of Canaan would become thorns that would afflict Israel and traps that would ensnare them. Israel would look to the Canaanites for pleasures but would only experience pain; they would rejoice in their freedom only to see that freedom turn into their bondage.