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Judges 10 Devotional

Moved by His People's Misery

“So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.”Judges 10:16 (BSB)

Brief notes on Tola and Jair record forty-five years of judges and quiet burials (10:1-5). Then the slide is worse than ever. Israel serves the Baals and Ashtoreths and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines, and abandons the LORD altogether (10:6).

When they cry out, God's answer is startling. He lists the enemies he has already saved them from and tells them to go and cry to the gods they have chosen (10:11-14). It is not cruelty but the truth about what idols can do, which is nothing. This time the people do more than ask for relief. They confess their sin, place themselves in God's hands to do as he thinks best, and put away their foreign gods (10:15-16). Then the chapter says the LORD could not endure Israel's suffering any longer (10:16). Behind his anger is a heart that feels his people's pain. Real repentance does not bargain. It throws itself on mercy and finds a God whose compassion runs deeper than his warnings.

To think about: What would it look like to stop bargaining with God and simply turn to him for mercy?

About Judges 10: Israel Repents Under Ammonite Oppression

After brief notes on Tola and Jair, Israel serves the gods of many nations, and the LORD hands them to the Philistines and Ammonites for eighteen years. God first sends them to their idols, but they confess, put the idols away, and He takes pity on them. As Ammon gathers, Gilead’s leaders seek a commander.

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