God's Benefits Aggravate Our Disobedience When Broken

The Angel of Yahweh reappears in Judges 2:1 at the same place where He had commissioned Joshua—Gilgal—but now with a terrible question: 'What is this ye have done?' His reiterated I's declare Him as one in whom the divine name dwells, the Word made flesh. He does not merely condemn; He first enumerates the favours which He had shown Israel, recalling the conditions of the covenant: no entangling alliances with the inhabitants, no tolerance for their idolatry. Maclaren's insight cuts to the moral centre: God's benefits aggravate disobedience. The very mercies that should have inspired glad obedience became the measure of Israel's guilt when spurned.

The covenant itself remains unbroken by God's part, yet He counts it as non-existent when men break it. This is no arbitrary punishment but the withdrawal of His conquering might. Victory would no longer attend Israel's arms because they had already severed themselves from the Source of all conquest through their faithlessness.

Maclaren's final warning resonates with penetrating force: 'We have all unconquered Canaanites in our hearts, and amity with them is supreme folly and crying wickedness.' The extermination demanded was not about geographical cleansing alone, but the refusal of any compromise between covenant faithfulness and worldly seduction. 'Thorough' must be the motto of God's servants. Those who allow themselves to become so mixed with the world that they learn its ways place a snare upon their own souls. No man dare answer when Adonai asks, 'What hast thou done?'