Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done! So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept. So they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to the LORD.
When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites all went to their own inheritances to take possession of the land. The people worshiped the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred ten years. So they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them, who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.
Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and worshiped the Baals; and they abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD, and worshiped Baal and the Astartes. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring misfortune, as the LORD had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress.
Judges 2:1-15
The good shepherd, the one who came into the world to save us even when we turned away completely
The angel knows God to be jealous, yet a keeper of promises; intolerant of the Israelites being in relationship with the natives.
The people of Joshua's generation seem to know God to be jealous and not willing to tolerate worship of other Gods; God makes them weep.
Joshua knows God as the one who gives them land.
The people of the following generation seem stupid, forgetful of history and have completely forgotten who God is.
The author knows that God is jealous and the one who gave the land. The author knows that when Israel loses in battle, it is because they've done bad things and worshiped the Baals instead of God. God is angry, easily provoked, tempermental...
No. Actually. Where is the patience, the good shepherd? Israel was so obsessed with the land, that they mistook the Kingdom of God for the land. God is faithful to the covenant only when the people are faithful too. This doesn't seem to fit with God coming after us, being incarnated and born in the world to save us.
The entire agenda of the book of Judges (as much of the Hebrew Bible) seems to be to explain why the exile to Babylon happened. The entire project of establishing a holy people went off the rails in the first generation after they moved into the land. Of course, it was already off the rails in the generation that left Egypt, but there was only one good generation in there, and even it was questionable. Jesus told the parable about the house built on a solid foundation vs. the house built on sand. The author here seems to be telling us that (in his opinion) the kingdom of Israel was built on sand from the very beginning.
I'm going to allow God as revealed in Jesus to stand in judgement of the author of Judges and correct the vision of God presented here. The author got it wrong; he needed so badly to explain how the exile could happen that he had to present God as fickle and the Israelites as idolotrious fools from the moment Joshua died.
What about the people? Why did they instantly go after the Baals?