Judges 2:11-15--Israel's Unfaithfulness

Judges 2:11-15
English Standard Version
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Israel's Unfaithfulness
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 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 hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

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To add to the disobedience of the last passage where they failed to drive the remaining Canaanites and other Gentile nations out of the Land and instead chose to either enslave them or dwell among them, the Israelites are no serving the gods and goddesses (called Baals and Ashtaroth respectively) of the Canaanites, and they have stopped worshiping the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them up out of the land of Egypt.

This is exactly what the LORD warned the people about during the time of the Exodus, ever since Mount Sinai and the people sword they would be careful to worship the LORD their God and serve Him only, and that they would be careful to teach the entire Law to each and every generation so that they too would be careful to worship the LORD and do all that was written in the book of the Law, but they quickly abandoned that vow once they got into the Promised Land.  They had what they wanted--the Land, peace, and prosperity.  Why did they need to continue in obedience?  So their children did not see the parents with a genuine relationship with the LORD, so why did they want a relationship with their God when their neighbors appeared to be more genuine about who they were, and appeared to worship a god that let them have a lot more "fun" by indulging every kind of lust?

​The LORD was angered by this and gave the Israelites over to be plundered, occupied, and oppressed by the very nations that they refused to drive out of the Land and the ones whose gods they chose to worship--those gods were neither good nor able to save.  When the people got into trouble, it was only at that time that they would remember the LORD and would cry out to Him for deliverance and salvation.  The hand of the LORD was against them even when they went out to battle against their enemies because the LORD was trying to show them that to belong to Him was to worship Him and to obey Him.  They could not expect His blessing and provision if they were not willing to do things the way that He said would bring about blessing--not just for them, but for all those who blessed them.  He wanted to bless them so that they in turn could be a blessing to others, but no instead He had to correct them like any good father would do for his children.