Chapter 10 of the Book of Judges, beginning in verse 1. After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. He judged Israel 23 years, and he died and was buried in Shamir. After him arose Jer, a Gileadite, and he judged Israel 22 years.
Now he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys. They also had 30 towns, which are called Havoth-Jer to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jer died and was buried in Caiman. Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines.
And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. From that year, they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for 18 years, all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. Moreover, the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah also, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.
And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against you, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals.
God's Rejoinder: No More Deliverance
So the Lord said to the children of Israel, did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, and from the people of Ammon, and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians, and Amalekites, and Mayonites oppressed you. And you cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods.
Therefore, I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress. And the children of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned.
Do to us whatever seems best to you. Only deliver us this day, we pray. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.
Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
Amen.
Introduction
We find ourselves in the larger section in the book, chapter 3, verse 7 to chapter 16, verse 31. The various deliverers that God raises up to send to vindicate His people, to release them from the oppression of the enemy armies. And here specifically we have two minor judges and then Japheth. Now minor shouldn't be taken as not as important but rather simply like the minor prophets.
Hosea, and Joel, and Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, and Zechariah, and Malachi, they're as important as Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The idea being that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel wrote very long books. Those are the major prophets. the minor prophets wrote not as long. So it doesn't refer to the minor being of importance, but rather to the length of their particular writings.
Well, the same thing is true here. In fact, the Jephthah narrative, or the man Jephthah rather, is surrounded by five of these minor judges. Here in chapter 10, we have Tola and Jer. And then in chapter 12, after Jephthah, we have Ibsen, Elon, and Abedin.
So those are the five sort of minor judges that the Lord God raised up to assist, to aid, and to deliver Israel. And so with this particular chapter we have the deliverance by Tola, the deliverance by Jer, the degeneracy of Israel, and then the specific response of Israel to the Lord God Almighty. And when we look at Tola and Ger, we see that in this book, there is normal things as well. In other words, when we're reading through this and we see these powerful deliverers and these powerful judges, and we see Uyghur, and we see jail, and we see sort of this dramatic presentation of the advancement of God's kingdom, we see something a little bit opposite here with Tola and Ger. fireworks, it's not dramatic, it's not this sort of razzmatazz, but it's just basic God using particular means to provide security and stability to his covenant people.
In Tola's time he reigned or he ruled or he governed rather for 23 years, and with Jer, 22 years. So those are long periods of time that are relatively insignificant. In other words, the normal, the mundane, the routine. That's what we ought to appreciate with Tola and with Jer.
Not everything is always this brink of excitement with people in tent pegs and oxcoats and all those sorts of things. But there is the normal going on in the period of the judges as well.
Deliverance by Tola
So let's look first at the deliverance by Tola in verses 1 and 2. Note the occasion. After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua. Now, Abimelech was not a deliverer, was he?
Abimelech was not a judge. Abimelech was a usurper. He wanted to be installed as the king over Israel. He basically goes to his own countrymen.
He makes an appeal to them that he's bone of their bones, flesh of their flesh, that his mother is part of them. and so they then give him money so that he can hire hitmen and eliminate the sons of Gideon. Abimelech is not a deliverer, he's not a judge, he's not a savior in Israel, but rather he is the destroyer of Israel. Under his particular watch, there's civil war that takes place. The city of Shechem basically turns against King Abimelech, and Abimelech turns against Shechem.
It shows us that threats not only come from without, but threats come from within as well. And so the ruler, the reign of Abimelech, brought internal strife within Israel. And that's what chapter 10, verse 1 indicates. After Abimelech there arose to save Israel.
They needed salvation from one within their own ranks. Davis says it this way, but his saving work told us whatever it was came after Abimelech, after the destroyer of Israel had done his worst, after the chaos he caused, after the infamous treachery against Gideon's family, after that God raises up Tola for a saving mission. That is, I would say, typical of God. He does not allow blasting to go on forever, does not allow his people to be trampled ad infinitum, but it is his way after the Valley of the Shadow to anoint our heads with oil. after sorrow and sighing to grant joy and gladness.
Yahweh is the gracious God who never allows Abimelech to be the last word for his people." So just in that brief statement in chapter 10, verse 1, the fact that after Abimelech there arose to save Israel, Tola the son of Huwa, again magnifies the kindness and the graciousness and the mercy and goodness of God. He could have left Israel on their own. He could have abandoned them. He could have left them in this state of depravity and internal strife.
He could have washed his hands of the whole nasty experiment and said, I'm done with you. But no, he raises up Tola. Tola is a man, again, very insignificant. If I were to ask you tonight, who are your top 10 favorite Bible characters?
Probably not one of you would name Tola. Probably not one of you would name Jer. Perhaps before this evening you never even realized there was a Tola and a Jer in there. And so these are insignificant men on the one hand, but significant on the other.
They are the instrument of God just as much as Ehud is. just as much as Jephthah, just as much as a Samson. Remember that each of these earthly deliverers typifies for us and shows us something about the saving purposes of God. His grace comes to those who are not deserving. or else it wouldn't be grace. The fact that he delivers them in the midst of this turmoil magnifies the goodness and the kindness of God Most High.
So he's identified, his place of residence is indicated, he is from the tribe of Issachar, and then all we find in verse 2 is that he judged Israel 23 years and he died and was buried in Shamir. Bloch says the simple details, he lived, he governed, he died, he was buried, suggest an orderly and stable tenure. Orderly and stable tenure. That's a good thing.
Think that at times the church wants the dramatic and wants the sensational. It wants the cutting edge, each and every moment of every single day. Stability. and solidity and security and safety and peace and order. Those are the sorts of things that we ought to seek the Lord God for as well.
Yes, excitement and revival and outpouring of the Spirit, people crying in the pews and getting saved. All of that is not to be shunned. In fact, that is good stuff and we ought to prize it. And we ought to pray to God as He sees fit and as He wills to bring such things.
But there does seem to be a tendency, and it happens within the reformed at times, especially sort of a revival-seeking reformed wing that seeks revival to the point where they neglect something of the normal. And that's faulty. That's not right. The fact that we have stability, and we have orderliness, and we have security and safety, those are as much gifts from a good and gracious God as are the powerful manifestations and display of his glory.
Just as he raises up Ehud, just as he uses Jael, so he used this man Tola from Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim.
Deliverance by Jair
Notice secondly the deliverance by Jer, verses 3 to 5. After him arose Jer, a Gileadite, and he judged Israel 22 years. Now he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys. They also had 30 towns which are called Havoth-Jer to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
And Jer died and was buried in Caiman. Now, the fact that it indicates that he had many sons, who had 30 donkeys, and owned many towns, is not given any sort of an interpretation. The author is not saying this is a bad thing. He's not saying it's a good thing.
But when we compare this particular passage with Judges chapter 9, we see that Gideon as well had many sons. What do you think many sons means? Many wives. Very good.
He had many wives. So it could be the case that the author, while not making a positive statement one way or the other, is hinting that maybe under Ger, not everything was as rosy or as solid as it was under Tola. It could also be significant that after this statement concerning Jer, and then in chapter 12 with two of the judges, the minor judges, Ibsen and Abedin, it is also mentioned that they had many sons. Ibsen, chapter 12, verse 9, He had 30 sons.
And then in verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 14, with reference to Abednon, he had 40 sons and 30 grandsons. It is an interesting thing when we see the one that's in between, Japheth. Jephthah's a man that comes on the scene as not one that we would choose to be a leader in Israel. I mean, he's a rogue sort of a guy.
His mother's a harlot. The only child that is indicated with reference to Jephthah. He doesn't have 30 sons who have 30 donkeys who own 30 towns, but rather he has one daughter that he makes a rash vow concerning. whether it was to sacrifice her and take her life or to make sure that she was a perpetual virgin. We will, God willing, deal with that next week.
But you have these minor judges on both sides of Jephthah, perhaps to punctuate and perhaps to show that God does use weakness in a man like Jephthah. Jephthah, again, is not the sort of fellow that commends himself to the people of God on a regular basis. He, in many ways, is one that we would bypass. He's not got that stock.
He's not got that royal blood. He's hung out with worthless men. He is the raider of these These men are the leader of these raiders, rather. And so maybe there is an instance here where on the one hand we've got the Jer, we've got these other men who've got their big families, and then in the middle we've got this man, Jephthah, who with one daughter makes this vow concerning her.
I don't know which way we ought to interpret with reference to Jer, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that it references his 30 sons who had 30 donkeys and they had 30 towns. But notice verse 5 again ends with Jer died and was buried in Canaan. So if this was negative, nevertheless, he exercised a positive influence over Israel for these 22 years.
Degeneracy of Israel
Don't miss the connection. At verse 6, then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So while the human deliverer, while God's savior, was governing the nation, the people by and large towed the line. They didn't forsake the Lord, they didn't go after Baal, they didn't go after the gods or the pagans, but rather they sought, at least externally, they sought some degree of faithfulness and respectability before God.
That brings us to the degeneracy of Israel. Notice. First, there's sin. We're used to this by now, aren't we?
We've seen this pattern over and over again. Go back for just a moment to chapter 2, where this whole thing is set forth in a thematic way. Chapter 2 gives us sort of the scheme, or gives us the program, or gives us the plan. how the book is orchestrated and how it's going to function. And then in chapter 3, beginning with Othiel, in verse 7 to 16.31, ending with Samson, we see those cycles put into play.
But notice in Judges 2 at verse 16. It says, Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord.
They did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers." We need to understand, it's a series of cycles, but it's a degenerating series.
In other words, it's not at the same benchmark. They keep going down and getting worse and worse along the way. This is what verse 19 indicates. And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.
They did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. One of the lessons that we see throughout this book is
The Pervasive Power of Sin
the persistence of sin. The power of sin. The pervasive influence of sin. And you see that here in chapter 10 at verse 6.
Most of the reports tell us that they committed idolatry with Baal and Ashtoreth. Notice here in verse 6. Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. Again, we're used to that, aren't we?
The gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. There wasn't a god in the land that they did not go a-whoring after. There wasn't a god in the land that they didn't bow down to. There wasn't a god in the land that they didn't pursue with all their hearts.
And there are seven instances, or seven cities, or seven nations, rather, that are indicated in this particular reference. Remember back in Deuteronomy 7. There were seven nations specified that they were to go in and dispossess those people from the land. They were to have no truck with them religiously.
They were to break down their altars. They were to destroy their idols. They were to purge them from the land. Well, here the fact that these seven are referenced again shows us the absolute spiritual declension and depravity of the nation of Israel.
It speaks to the total and pervasive influence of idolatry in the land of of Israel. One man, Bloch, says that this highlights the total spiritual corruption of the nation. So they go after these gods and they forsook the Lord. We can't mistake that throughout this book.
You don't have God and Baal. You don't have God and the Ashtoreths. You don't have the gods of the Sidon's and the God of heaven and earth. Now they would try that throughout redemptive history in Israel.
They tried to have Yahweh and Baal. They tried to have Yahweh and Molech. They tried, in this attempt called syncretism, to marry the worship of the living and true God with these idols. But you can't do that.
The Lord Jesus tells us that. You can't serve two masters. You'll either love the one and hate the other, or you'll love the other and hate the one. You cannot successfully pursue two gods.
And this is what more often than not Israel did, and so they forsook the Lord and they did not serve Him. This is defection from the living and true God. They reverted and they acted more corruptly than their fathers before them. This is a pervasive problem in Israel.
Now notice the specific agents that God raises up, and this will then end the book of judges in terms of the men or the deliverers, up to chapter 16, verse 31. He raises up the Ammonites, Jephthah will deal with them, and he raises up the Philistines, Samson will deal with them. So notice in verse 7, so the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon.
From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for 18 years. You see, they've just come off a good bout with Tola and Jer. They've had a 23-year period of peace under Tola, they've had 22 years under Ger, and now they've got 18 years of oppression because they reverted and acted more corruptly. The Lord God brings judgment to bear upon them.
The agents of oppression are specifically mentioned. Notice the severity of oppression. Verse 7 there. It says, Verse 7, So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the people of Ammon.
From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years. The word harassed there is, the only other place it's used is in Exodus 15. It is to crush, it is to shatter. And in Exodus 15 it's used of God crushing or shattering the Egyptians.
So here it's interesting, the author of Judges is telling us that now God is using these enemy oppressors to shatter or crush these particular people.
Israel Conformed to the Canaanites
Remember the idea being the canonization of Israel. They are taking on the very characteristic of the people that they were supposed to cast out. When they rejected God and they disobeyed him, and they made allowance for the Canaanites to stay in their land, it turned out to be the case. They did not convert them, but the Canaanites rather converted them, and they are taking on the very characteristics of these people that were described as an abomination.
This is the lesson, this is one pervasive lesson we need to understand. It typically is not the case that through our holiness we convert others. It is usually the case that through the unholiness of others, they affect or convert us. We need to remember that.
The Book of Judges is most helpful for the Church of Jesus Christ today. Far too often we lay down our guards and our defenses and we say, you know, I'm going to befriend that person because I want to win them to the Savior. Now by all means, befriend people and win them to the Savior. It's not what I'm saying.
But more often than not, we let down our guards, we let down our armor, and we end up becoming more like them than they become like us. Sin is a contagion, and it's not the case that we are so powerful and so strong that we're able to resist it in every place. James says, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted or unstained from the world. So this is most important and this is something, as we look at these narratives, as we look at these cycles, what was the fundamental problem that Israel engaged in?
They sinned against the Lord, they forsook the Lord, they bowed down to the idols of the nations around them. because they didn't obey, they didn't cast them out. It should be the case that there was no altar of Baal that they could even worship at because they should have smashed them and destroyed them the way the Lord God had commanded them. So the author is telling us in many respects that the Lord now is coming against Israel the way the Lord came against Egypt to free Israel, his children. And then notice the extent of the oppression.
Verse 8, all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. The other side of the Jordan is the east side of the Jordan, the trans-Jordan. So on the east side of the river Jordan you had Ammonite oppression. The Ammonites were not content with that.
Notice what they do. They cross the River Jordan, and then they go to the main part of the land, and they begin to destroy, or they begin to war against Judah, also against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. So you see, this wasn't just a Gilead problem. Even in the extent of the oppression that is going on here, it shows us the unity of Israel.
If Gilead suffers, and if Gilead doesn't resist these things, then all of Israel will taste something of the judgment and the punishment and the chastening hand of God Most High in this particular situation. So that's the degeneracy of Israel, verses 6 to 9. Again, a bleak picture. A terrible situation.
It's not just Baal, it's not just Ashtoreth, but it's any god out there, let us have it. I mean, truly, this looks like a corrupt and terribly licentious, promiscuous person going about and engaging in illicit sexual relations in any manner whatsoever possible. That's what Israel has become.
Israel's Cry and God's Response
Now notice the response in verses 10 to 18, And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, We have sinned against you, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals. Now, this is a bit different than what we've seen up to this point. Typically, when they cry out, and they have several times in the book, in chapter two, a few times, chapter three, a couple of times, chapter four, chapter six, they cry out in their distress, and what does God do? He comes to deliver them.
And as we've had cause to know, when they cry out in their distress, it's not repentance. It's not confessing their sin. It's not voicing the reality that they have transgressed the covenant and as a result, Lord, we want you to draw near to us and help us and put us on the path of righteousness. No, typically, when they cry out, it's because they don't like oppression.
When they cry out, it's because they don't like pain. When they cry out, it's because they don't like difficulty. When they cry out, it's because they don't like bands of marauders going through their land, destroying their crops. In other words, they cry out the way a lot of people cry out.
People will cry out to God when they want something from Him. Isn't that the case? I hope it's not that way for us. I hope that we cry out to God as a matter of course, because Jesus says when you pray, go into your closet and there your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Hopefully as a matter of routine and as a normal part of your life, you pray. But there's a lot of people in the world and probably Need and difficulty and suffering and trial may elicit more prayer from us, but as a general rule, the people of God are a praying people. There's people out there, though. When things go wrong, they make deals with God.
They say, God, I'm sorry that I've done this. Get me out of this. I remember this happened to me as a young child. I was in Seal Beach near the pier.
I was out in this rubber raft. I got knocked off the little dinghy. I was underneath this thing, and I thought I was a goner. And I made a deal with God.
God, get me out of here, and I'll be faithful going to church. As a young papist, that was something I thought was a legit deal to make. You make deals, right? Notice what they're doing in verse 10.
On the one hand, it's good. Up to this point, we've only seen them crying out because they're distressed. They've only cried out because they've got pain. But
The Confession of Israel
note in verse 10, the children of Israel cried out to the Lord saying, we have sinned against you because we have both forsaken. Notice, our God. They understand the reality. They understand something.
They're using the language of covenant. We have forsaken our God and served the Baals. On the one hand, verse 10 looks very positive. It looks very good.
They're expressing something of their own sinfulness and their own waywardness. But when we see God's response, it's almost as if He says, I don't buy it. I don't believe you. I don't think this is legit.
I don't think that you're honest with me. I don't think you mean to do genuine repentance over your sinfulness. That seems to be how it is going in this particular instance. So they confess, verse 10, but note the rejoinder by God in verses 11 to 14.
So the Lord said to the children of Israel, Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, and from the people of Ammon, and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians, and Amalekites, and Mayonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hand? You see, God is saying that we've been down this road before. This isn't the first time.
This isn't the only instance where I have seen you in distress. It's nice that you're throwing in now that we've sinned against you, and we have forsaken you, and we have turned to the bales. That is a good sort of ornament that you've put on this, but forgive me, I'm reading between the lines here, if I'm not so quick to jump upon the bandwagon of your repentance. God says, we've been down this road.
I have delivered you from Egypt, that great redemptive act called the Exodus. When we've gone into the land of promise, into Canaan, when you have gone to battle under Joshua, when you've gone to battle in the period of the judges, Hasn't it been the Lord that has come to deliver you? Hasn't it been your good and gracious God that has freed you from your oppressors? Notice verse 13, yet you have forsaken me and served other gods.
You see, if the deliverance out of Egypt and the deliverance within the promised land did not secure fidelity in you, then I have no reason to believe in this particular confession that you are going to be faithful to your covenantal vows. You see, God is not ma. God knows the difference between genuine repentance, and when we seek to manipulate Him, and when we seek to use Him, or when we're underneath a rubber dinghy and we say, Lord, save me, and I'll go do this for you. We need to guard against and we need to resist the tendency and the temptation to use God to simply free us from our difficulties and our problems.
This is one of the primary emphases of the heretical health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. God simply exists so that you can be healthy, so that you can be wealthy, and so that you can be prosperous. That is not why God exists. God is holy, holy, holy.
God does not need this creation. God is not dependent upon you. God does not care one whit in the grand scheme of things if you have a million dollars or you have negative a million. That is not what God is after.
And so this attempt to manipulate and to use and to so work God that he only does what we want him to do is false, it is heretical, and instead of preaching this and people believing this, the church has a whole lot to engage in genuine thoroughgoing repentance and confess our iniquities to the high and Holy One of Israel. He says, you have forsaken me and served other gods, therefore I will deliver you no more. I will deliver you no more."
Threat of Judicial Abandonment
This is a threat of judicial abandonment. This sounds to me like a Romans 1, 24, 26, 28 scenario. In that particular place, the Apostle Paul says that men who knew God exists but suppress that truth in unrighteousness, they don't honor God as God, nor are their hearts thankful, what does God do as a result to that? He gives them over to a reprobate mind.
He hardens them in that activity and in that pursuit of wickedness. God is not obligated to make sure that you always have the mercy and the grace that you come to expect. Grace and mercy are undeserved, isn't it? When did we begin to think we actually deserve grace?
If we deserve grace, it's not grace anymore. It's payment. It's based on merit. What we want is God to be merciful to us as undeserving wretches and sinners.
The Lord has put his finger right on the pulse of Israel in this particular instance, yet You have forsaken me and served other gods, therefore I will deliver you no more. And then verse 14, to punctuate this, go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress. Similar argument to Gideon's father.
Remember when the men in Gideon's town wanted to destroy him? What does Gideon's dad say? Let Baal contend. If he's a god, he'll be able to deal with the destruction of his altar.
God uses that logic here with the children of Israel. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress. What a terrible indictment.
I mean, if it ever gets to that place with us, I don't see anything more grievous and more terrible than this. For God to say, I'm not going to deliver you anymore, and then to tell us, go after the girlfriend that you have been courting. Go after the boyfriend that you have been seeking. Go after Baal.
Go after Ashtoreth. To sort of grab this, I want to quote from Davis and from Bloch. Davis says it this way,
Bomb Shelter Religion Exposed
the theology of bomb shelter religion. the bomb shelter religion. We're in the bomb shelter. We know the A-bomb is coming, so we're occupying. He says, the theology of bomb shelter religion teaches that, of course, God will help you in your need. that he is, helpfully enough, incredibly naive and hopelessly soft.
He's like a great warm vending machine in the sky, into which you need only drop a token or two of repentance before he spits out the relief you currently crave. Religion is a great game. You only need to know a few rules. See, what's most disturbing about this quote and about Judge's can is that much of evangelicalism and, unfortunately, reformed people operate this way.
We're not broken over our sin. We really don't care about God's law. We just want happier lives. We just want more blessing.
We just want more wholeness. We just want more security and safety. He says, you only need to know a few rules. And Yahweh is a great God if you happen to need him and want to use him.
Yahweh must destroy these false images we fashion of him. Israel apparently assumed that whenever things became bad, she could always go back to Yahweh. And he says that she cannot. He says there is a difference between a prodigal who comes to his senses and returns home and a whore who pleads for her husband's security only until she finds someone else to take her on.
That's what's going on here. And God says, no, I am not here to exist for your ease and for your comfort and for your safety and your security. Bloch says it this way, in his response to the people's expression of distress, God recognizes and exposes the purely utilitarian and manipulative nature of their cry. Utilitarianism is utility.
We do that which brings the most happiness to us. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that says right is right if 51% of the people benefit as a result of a particular decision. Utilitarianism on a personal level means whatever makes me happiest is right. That sounds like Canada and America, doesn't it?
Sounds like the narcissistic age in which we live. He says, The people have used him repeatedly simply to get them out of difficult circumstances. In the past he has responded to their pleas, but no more. Their confession sounds like true repentance, but God sees past their pious words to their treacherous and parasitic hearts.
That's what's going on in this particular passage. That's why when Jephthah is dispatched to deliver Israel, we ought to praise all the more amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Because as we read on, they affirm again their commitment to repentance. God knows that they're not going to follow through.
God knows that they're going to falter. God knows that they're going to do less than stellar. So the deliverance that comes is not based on their professed repentance. The deliverance comes as a result of his covenant mercy and faithfulness, because he promised to Abraham a seed.
And he will secure that people until the deliverer Christ is born. in whom He will save all His people from their sins. He must keep these people together based on His faithfulness and based on His covenantal fidelity.
God's Covenant Mercy Prevails
Brings us finally to 15 and 16. The children of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems best to You. Only deliver us this day, we pray.
Again, it sounds legit, doesn't it? What tips me off that it may not be altogether legit is that last clause, only deliver us this day. If you're really content on pouring yourself upon the mercy of God, there's something about earnestness, there's something about importunate prayer, there's something about what Spurgeon says, go through the front door of heaven and tell the Lord what it is you want. But based on their track record, based on their previous cries of distress, it seems again that what they want is a life without Ammonites.
A life without Philistines. A life wherein they can live and move and have their being in the land, doing what pleases them. So the children of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems best to you.
Only deliver us this day, we pray. Isn't it just amazing that whatever seems best to God is to deliver them? Please do not miss the theme of the Book of Judges. It's not about the faithfulness of the people of God.
It's not about their goodness. It's not about their merit. It's not about their hard work. It's not a model of repentance here.
It's not they're going to try harder. It's all about God shining through this depravity to show his amazing grace and mercy. It says in verse 16, so they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. Again, this is good.
Excellent. Do they keep it up? Are they faithful? Do they persevere?
No, they don't. We know better. And then verse 16 at the end, and his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. Now, this is a tough verse.
This is a tough verse for a variety of reasons. translation. Here's just a sampling of texts. His soul can no longer endure the misery of Israel. New King James.
King James. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. NIV. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.
N-A-S-B, and he could bear the misery of Israel no longer, but the margin gives the literal reading. His soul was short with the misery. And then the E-S-V says, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
His Soul Could Not Endure Their Misery
Now, whatever that particular clause means, we know from the following that God brings deliverance to his people once again. With the arrival of Jephthah, with the situation concerning the Ammonites, and then through Samson, how the Lord brings judgment to bear upon the Philistines. What we have in this particular passage, at the end of verse 16, is God's commitment and resolve to do his people good. As Davis says, our hope does not rest in the sincerity of our repentance, but in the intensity of God's compassion.
Now, having said that, we need to repent, and we need to do so properly, and we need to do so legitimately, and we need to do so honestly. But in the final analysis, when we get benefit from God, it's not because of our repentance. It is because of His grace and His mercy and His kindness. Now,
The Need for a Deliverer
verses 17 and 18 then basically is the need for the deliverer. Verse 17, the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead, and the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall behead over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
And then enters Jephthah to come and to deal and to take care of some Ammonites.
Scripture References
- Deuteronomy 7
- Judges 2:16; 2:19; 3:7; 9; 10:1; 10:6; 10:7; 10:8; 10:10; 10:11-14; 10:13; 10:14; 10:15-16; 10:16; 10:17-18; 12:9; 12:14; 16:31
- Romans 1:24-28
- James 1:27