Following on from last week, we’re looking at the appearance of the angel of the Lord in Judges 2, and why the writer of judges would make the effort of specifically describing that the angel of the Lord had come from Gilgal to Bokim.
We saw last week the significance of Gilgal, for these reasons:
• Place where the 12 stones were laid to represent that it was the Yahweh God who took the Israelites across the Jordan river
• Place where they had to undergo circumcision as the ultimate experience of correct self-acknowledgement and denial
To the Israelites that are soon going into wars with Canaan tribes, God is sending them a message to say “This is not a war that you will fight with your strength and efforts, but a war fought only through God’s grace, so obey the words of the Lord”.
That’s Gilgal. Now we’ll look at what kind of a place Bokim is.
Bokim
Bokim is a place 20km away from Gilgal, and it had a different name previously, before it was changed to Bokim. The name was changed to Bokim because that was where the Israelites wept aloud after hearing God’s message to them.
Then where exactly is this place, before it was called Bokim?
There are some clues that lead us there.
In verse 5 of today’s passage it says that the Israelites offered sacrifices at Bokim – and the only place that Israelites were allowed to offer sacrifices were where the Ark of the Covenant was. And at that time the Ark of the Covenant was at Bethel.
<Judges 20:26-28>
Not only that, the Septuagint bible (which is an ancient, Hebrew to Greek translation of the Old Testament), translates Bokim as “the place of weeping”, and then adds the words “Bethel” and “The house of Israel” to that. In effect, Bokim is being translated in the Septuagint as:
“Bethel the place of weeping, the house of Israel”
Here the “House of Israel” means the tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant is, and “Bethel” is the place where the tabernacle was, and it says this was where the Israelites offered sacrifices – so it seems likely that Bokim is Bethel.

And Bethel is the place where Ai was.
<Joshua 8:15-17>
Verse 17 says “not a man remained in Ai or Bethel”, which lets us know that people called Ai and Bethel interchangeably, without differentiation at that time.
So Bokim is the same place as Ai, where man’s helpless rebellion was first exposed through Achan, and that same rebellion is happening now, as you can see from verse 2 of today’s passage:
<Judges 2:2> 
Remember as the Israelites were conquering Ai, God had commanded them to store all the spoils from the war in God’s storage, but Achan could not help but take some for himself as it was “pleasing to the eye” to him, and all of Israel came under the wrath of God as a result.
The same things is taking place again in the book of Judges, in the same place of Ai (now called Bokim), after time had passed.
God had commanded the Israelites to destroy all of Canaan, drive them all out, do not make covenants with them and to destroy their altars. But as we saw in Judges chapter 1, Israel could not help itself but be attracted to Canaan’s civilisation, their gods of prosperity, and thus throw away the promise they made to the Lord.
At Gilgal, the Israelites had firmly established 12 stones to commemorate and never forget that their lives are driven and fulfilled only through God’s covenant. And through undergoing the covenantal circumcision at Gilgal, they confirmed to themselves that man’s strength is useless in the wars that God fights.
In this way Israel is God’s people who exists only by God’s covenant, who proceed only by God’s covenant, who are nurtured only by God’s covenant, and who will be completed only by God’s covenant. But still, in every opportunity Israel would rely on their eyes and ears to dream up their future according to what they wished, and was quick to discard God’s commands that went against these desires.
 There God threatens them – verse 3:
<Judges 2:3>
These words from God were already warnings that were repeated to death in Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua.
<Numbers 33:55-56>
<Joshua 23:10-13>
These warnings from these books are being repeated once again in today’s passage of Judges 2. How much does this clearly prove that despite warnings and lessons too numerous to count, and even threats from God, Israel cannot help but hold on to the attachment to the world’s appeal?
Which is why Israel live through this history, as per God’s promise, of being stabbed with thorns on the sides and being caught in the snares of gentiles. The thorns are continuing to pickle their sides, the snares are continuing to strangle them, but they cannot let go of the desires regarding worldly power. So it is right that they face death.
But the Son of God came down to this earth and was thrown into death by being strangled by the snares of the gentiles, and stabbed in His side by the spear of the gentiles. We died together with Him in His death. The spear and snare that we deserved for our sin, was taken by Jesus who had us wrapped in His arms, and we were set free from the death sentence.
But the important thing is that Jesus who died with the spear in His side and the snares of the gentiles, rose up after three days. So even though our true states are no different to the rebellious Israelites who constantly betray God’s commands and live according to their desires, because God poured His curse of the thorn and the snare up on Jesus, we can dare to speak of joy and hope. 
They will be your sides
But here’s an interesting twist.
In verse 3, where it says “they will be thorns in your sides”, the original Hebrew text does not contain any such word as “thorns”. In translation they might have added the word “Thorns” just because the same warning messages given by God in Numbers and Joshua contains the word “Thorns” but in Judges there is no “Thorns”. That is, the original text in Hebrew only says “They will be your sides”.
To say that the Canaanites that the Israelites could not drive out will be their sides, is an idiom that symbolises that the Canaanites will be Israel’s brides. God is saying He will attach the Canaanites as brides to His people.
In other words, He is going to attach the world to us. Why is that? It’s the same question as why did God put us, who are eternal beings chosen before the creation of the world, in this human history?

What do you think is the difference between believers and non-believers? Believers have had their spiritual eyes and spiritual ears opened by God. What are the spiritual eyes or ears open to see? To see and hear God and God’s kingdom. Then if we turn those eyes and ears towards the world, what would we see? We would see the fake grandeur of the world. We can see man trying to make something of themselves, trying to find glory for themselves through cities, civilisations, culture, as if to prove and declare that there are many things in this world that we can rely on and pursue other than God. We can see man living brainwashed since birth to think that this world is a decent place with many fun and valuable things. Then ultimately, man who should only depend on God and pursue God fall deeply into the appeal of the world.
Paul describes this state in this way:
<Romans 1:21-25>
This is the state of Achan in Ai, this is the state of Israel in Bokim, and this is the current state of you and me.
But here’s the difference between believers and non-believers.
Believers pursue those things just like non-believers, but because our eyes and ears have been opened, we can see the true state of the world, even as we pursue it. So we cannot feel happy as we pursue it, but rather we lament it, regret it and repent (though we fall back into it).

Knowing this helplessness and impossibility of the physical nature of believers, God should be building a huge wall between us and the worldly gentiles, but He rather attaches them as our brides. Though He said for us to not share a yoke with them, He himself binds us together under one yoke. That is the life of the believer.
In that way He makes us experience with our bodies and our hearts how empty and painful it is to be living an adulterous life with the world, as our hearts desire. This is the very little taste of hell we’re given by God. Even though our due punishment has been taken care of by Jesus, God makes us go through this in this world.
<Numbers 33:55-56>
What God is saying is that the judgment and condemnation that He will pour upon the gentiles, He will first make His people taste through life in this world.
We are not people that live in order to have a strong, prosperous life in this world with the help of the commander of the Lord’s army.

 As long as we are wearing this physical body, we cannot escape our powerlessness and impossibilities. Until the day when we are given new bodies to wear, when we are made as a new completion, God will continue to keep us in our bodies, in this world, to experience the reality of those who have left God’s grace, to the point when we can realise and confess…
“Us creation do not live by the bread of this world, but by the word of God”

Today’s passage says that the Israelites wept aloud after hearing what God had to say right? Some people have said that those were tears of repentance, but if you read on a little bit it’s very clear that those were closer to tears of resentment than repentance:
<Judges 2:11-13>
What do you think?
This is the act of the people who cried and wept aloud after hearing God’s warning message. They did evil in the eyes of the Lord and they serve Baal. So the weeping in today’s passage is more of a groaning and resenting cry, saying “I like this a lot so why do you keep blocking it?”
In this way God places these impossible people into life here in history, to experience His judgment. That is the life of the believer and that life itself is suffering. Because it’s judgment. It must be experienced and felt to the believer as judgment. That is why the believer’s life is hard. But it is a blessed suffering.
It is a blessed suffering because without experiencing the little judgments, we absolutely cannot know how scary God’s final judgment is.