“The anger of Adonai blazed against Israel; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies.”-Judges 2:14
I wanna show you something really amazing about verse 14 that shows why it’s so important not to skip over even one word in the Scriptures.
Notice the beginning of verse 14 says “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel”.
The Hebrew word for “anger” here is APH.
And do you know what APH means?
It means “nostrils”.
So a more accurate translation would be “the NOSTRILS of the Lord burned against Israel”.
Why is this fascinating?
Because it demonstrates just how enraged the Lord was about Israel’s idolatry.
This is also evidence the Israelites were offering burnt offerings to the BA’ALs and then turning around and offering those same offerings to the Lord.
Pretty horrific, isn’t it?
These offerings were stained, unclean and completely unacceptable to God.
Do you remember during our studies of the Book of Leviticus how it said the smoke from Israel’s burnt offerings would rise up from the altar and the Lord would find the odor pleasing to His nostrils.
We were a given a picture of God who was satisfied and pleased with His people.
Why was He satisfied and pleased?
Because not only were those sacrifices offered up in obedience, they were offered…
…from God’s ordained altar…
…at God’s ordained sanctuary…
…by His ordained Levite priests.
However, here in Judges 2:14 we find the exact opposite.
Here we’re told the smoke from these particular burnt offerings caused the Lord’s nostrils to flare up with rage because they were offered…
…from a pagan altar…
…at a pagan sanctuary…
…by a pagan priest.
And it didn’t matter one bit that the Israelites were sincere in their intentions and did what they did out of a desire for peace.
Can you see now why it’s so important to do things God’s Way according to His Word and not make excuses born more from our flesh than the Scriptures?
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