Judges chapter 2

After reading chapter 2:

*The Angel of the lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim.  One might ask what the Angel of the lord was doing in Gilgal to begin with and why he needed to travel. One explanation is that it was a prophet giving the people a message from Yahweh, not a supernatural being. Bokim does not appear anywhere else in scripture and no one knows where it was supposedly to have been. It was named after this event, in which the "Angel of the lord" rebukes the Israelites for having been disobedient. Now, Yahweh will not help them drive out the natives. They will be thorns in their sides and their gods will be a snare. One also wonders how many Israelites actually heard this message, since they were now spread out over Canaan. The Israelites wept and offered sacrifices at Bokim to Yahweh. Some Commentaries say this must have actually been Shiloh, because that was the only approved place for sacrifices. ...but that's not what this passage says.

*It appears that we weren't given the back story for the above rebuke, so the rest of the chapter enlightens us. After Joshua sent the Israelites off, each to his own inheritance, the Israelites were obedient through Joshua's lifetime and through the lifetimes of the remaining elders who had seen the conquest of Canaan. After that generation died, there came a generation who apparently knew absolutely nothing about Yahweh and what he had done for them. Looks like the previous generations dropped the ball, or didn't care about Yahweh enough to pass the info down to their kids. (Or there was nothing to pass down or remember because none of it ever happened.) Then the Israelies served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. Because of this Yahweh handed the Israelites over to their enemies who raided and plundered them.  Seems like they never did become the strong ones subjugating the Canaanites to their will.

*Because the Israelites were distressed, Yahweh gave them judges who would save them from the raiders. They wouldn't listen to the judges and continued to worship other gods. Whenever there was a new judge, Yahweh would be with the judge and would save the Israelites from their enemies. But as soon as a judge would die, the Israelites would be back to their wicked ways, even worse than before. Yahweh became very angry and declared that he would no longer help the Israelites drive out the nations Joshua left when he died. Instead, he would use those nations as a test to see if the Israelites would be obedient after all. I thought Yahweh was supposed to be omnipotent, according to christianity? Hadn't  he already known that all these events would happen? Doesn't he already know if the Israelites will pass his test?

This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book of Judges.