God’s favor toward Israel was due to His gracious love (Ex 19:5-6; Deut 7:6-9), and thus He’d chosen her as a nation as a witness to others (Gen 23:6; 26:26-33; 30:27; 39:5; Deut 4:1-13).
When Israel gave up her devotion to God, she rejected her identity as God’s special people. Yes, Israel remained God’s chosen, earthly people, but they ceased being a witness to the world of His glory and a recipient of His favor.
As individuals in Christ today, this can happen to us. If we are truly saved, we can’t lose our salvation, but we can lose our witness to, and sight of the God, who makes us unique (1 Pet 2:9-10).

I. Wedlock (Judg 3:5-7). Israel brought paganism into their homes through marriage, which God forbid (Num 25:1-9; 31:16; Deut 7:1-5; Josh 23:12). Marrying outside God’s covenant people appeared as a harmless way to get along with others; compromise was more important than obeying God. By inter-marriage, Israel served Canaanite gods in perverse sexual orgies to manipulate the gods (Judg 3:6). Likewise Christians are not to marry un-believers; marriage is a symbol of Christ’s tender, loving and complementary relationship with the Church (Eph 5:21-33; 1 Cor 7:39; 11:3; 2 Cor 6:14).
Israel became indiscernable from the Canaanites. Apart from God, we always become everything opposite of God. We’ll rationalize sin like the murder of the unborn, accept the love of homosexuality, sexualize children, turn an eye from political corruption, and adopt false teaching.

II. Worship (Judg 3:7). Israel walked by sight before gods they could see and forgot the God who saved them from Egypt. To forget means to be oblivious, to cease caring, and neglect. Rather than worship (serve) the Creator (Rom 1:22-32), Israel worshiped the Baals and Asherahs. By serving the creature not the Creator, Israel further became like those they were supposed to be a witness to.
Neglecting the worship of God was evil in the sight of the Lord, a phrase found 7 times in Judges and 56 times in the whole of the Old Testament. This phrase is a synonym for disobedience, which is always wrong, even when culture applauds it. God is the Author of all which is good; disobeying Him is the experiential knowledge of evil (Gen 3:1-5).

III. Woe (Judg 3:8-9). Since Israel acted like pagans, God treated them like the pagans they emulated. They acted like slaves so He sold them as slaves. Their sin brought them great woe, and God sold (to transfer property) Israel the king of Mesopotamia (Babylon) for 8 years. You are a slave to what you serve, and serving foreign gods made Israel slaves to them; we likewise become enslaved to what we worship (Gen 4:7; 2 Pet 2:19). The faithful God didn’t abandon Israel, but He did transfer them for a time into the hand of a tyrannical master.
We know little about the King of Mesopotamia called Cushan-Rishathaim. His title, however, speaks to his character and conduct: Rishathaim means double wickedness and Cushan means the dark one. Refusing to freely serve the good God, God placed His people under the hand of the dark one of double wickedness for discipline. What a trade! Serving foreign gods (Judg 3:7) led to serving a foreign king (Judg 3:8).
Today, God still disciplines His erring children (Heb 12:5-11), sometimes using the local church in this process (1 Cor 5:1-8; 1 Tim 1:20). Delivering (a judicial act of sentencing for punishment) an unrepentant believer over to Satan is God’s loving and gracious method of protecting the purity and preserving the witness of the local church. It is also a discipline of His erring child unto the recognition of that sin in repentance. God’s loving discipline may destroy a man’s possessions and afflict his body and mind, but God mercifully keeps the saved soul through faith in Christ Jesus (Lam 3:22-23; 1 Pet 1:3-9; Jude 1:24-25).



Into a world of woe caused by Israel’s sin, God raised up a judge, a deliverer named Othniel, to rescue His people. At the right time, He also sent Jesus to deliver us and make us His son rather than sin’s slaves (Gal 4:1-11).