Judges 10: 1 – 18
The God of 2nd Chance And 3rd, And 4th, And ..
After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. 2 He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir. 3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 Now he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; they also had thirty towns, which are called “Havoth Jair” to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Camon. 6 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. 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. 8 From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years—all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. 9 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. 10 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!” 11 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? 12 Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. 14 “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.” 15 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.” 16 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. 17 Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. 18 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.”
We have now moved on past Gideon and his son Abimelech. This chapter gives an account of two judges of Israel, in whose days their parts of Israel enjoyed peace, after which, by sinning against our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High, Israel came into further trouble, and were oppressed by their enemies eighteen years, and were invaded by an army of the Ammonites.
The Israelites continued the same patterns. They were blessed by the Lord and they forsook Him and turned to lives of disobedience. The Lord would send hardship their way in order to get them to repent and turn back to Him When they did He would raise up a ‘Judge’ who would save them from the oppression. It seemed that the people stayed in obedience as long as the Judge lived. However, when he died they fell away again.
We are going to see something new happening here. The people were not learning their lessons of obedience. This time when they cried to Yahweh for deliverance, confessing their sins, He at first refused to grant it, although on their continuing and reforming He had compassion on them. The chapter will conclude with the preparations made by both armies for battle.
After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. 2 He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.
As a reminder please remember that Abimelech never delivered, saved or was referred to as a Judge in Israel. His short appearance was an interlude between another Judge. When he was gone, our Holy God raised up other Judges in accordance with His will. The first was Tola, the son of Puah.
Thus to this point we have had five judges, Othniel of Judah, Ehud of Benjamin, Shamgar, Deborah with Barak of Naphtali, Gideon of Manasseh and this, Tola of Issachar, is the sixth.
We will see that Tola will be followed by Jair of Gilead, then Jephthah of Gilead, Ibzan of Bethlehem, Elon of Zebulun, Abdon the Pirathonite, and Samson the Danite. Thus making twelve in all, the number of the tribes in the covenant.
Tola ‘saved’ Israel. This would suggest that he was more than just an administrator, but was a charismatic leader raised in a time of trouble. However, we know no more about him except that he judged Israel for twenty three years.
If you are a sports advocate like I am then you can better understand my point. Referees are vital to any sport. However, they can drive us crazy by some of the calls they make. A good measure of an excellent official is that they control the game with little attention being drawn to them. If this happens then the game is more enjoyed than when you sometimes see verbal confrontations going on between these refs and coaches, players, and fans.
The reason I bring this up is that even though Tola does not get much press from our Precious Holy Spirit. When you consider that He also saved the Israelites from foreign enemies, which lasted for twenty three years, He should go down on our heroes list.
3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 Now he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; they also had thirty towns, which are called “Havoth Jair” to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Camon.
Jair means ‘he who enlightens’. The word ‘enlighten’ always speaks about seeing better as only our Holy God can cause one to do. We read in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 22 verse 29, ““For You are my lamp, O LORD; The LORD shall enlighten my darkness.”
He judged in a totally different part of the country than Tola, on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead. ‘After him’ may simply signify that he arose after Tola saved Israel and began to judge. Thus the judgeships may overlap.
He seemingly had a number of wives who gave him thirty sons, each of whom ruled a town. The fact that they rode on ass colts stresses their position and dignity. ‘Havvoth Jair’ means ‘the tent villages of Jair’, but by now, while retaining the old name, they had progressed to small towns and cities.
Even though both these judges do not have much said about them they appear to have served well and maintained submission to Adoni Yahweh, for you will note that it was only on their deaths that the children of Israel again backslid.
6 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.
From this it is apparent that a large part of the people were now seeking different gods in different parts of the country. This was to ‘forsake’ Yahweh. They no doubt kept up some formal observance of His requirements but they found the other gods more exciting and stimulating, and less demanding, and they could see them and be awed. It may also be that in some cases, such as the Philistines, Ammon and Moab, they were required to worship these gods because of the pressure from their oppressors.
This wasn’t just a slight slip. The Israelites embraced every phony god they came in contact with. The ones that they worshiped were - These gods would include Ashtoreth of Zidon, Baal-peor and Chemosh of Moab, Melek of Ammon, and Dagon and Baalzebub of the Philistines.
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. 8 From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years—all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.
From the list of phony gods you will note that our Lord then gives the people what they have asked for. If they want to forsake our Holy Creator than our Magnificent Ruler will give the Israelites over to these nations to rule them. This is a general description before each will be dealt with in full detail, the Ammonites first. The Philistines in the west on the coastal plain and the Ammonites in east Transjordan had Israel trapped in between them. The writer informs us that this was because Yahweh was sick of their behavior and idolatry so that He ceased to protect them and handed them over into virtual slavery.
9 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. 10 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!”
Once again oppression brought the children of Israel to their senses. But this time they were to find out that His attitude had hardened. Those who go on sinning in the face of His mercy find eventually that the way back is harder.
We should all underline this point in our bibles. It says in the book of Romans chapter 15 verse 4 that we need to take to heart what happened to the Israelites so the same things will not happen also to us, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
11 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? 12 Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand.
My heart is moved as I see the actions that the Israelites had done to our Holy Master and God still is done by all of us even to this day. They have denied the only Living God for the fleshly religious orgies of foreign idols. Now when the pressure hits they come running back to Him with their tails between their legs. Again, it is not just the Israelites who have done this to our Holy Maker, but also I can speak for myself that I am guilty also.
In sadness I can feel the Lord’s hurt as He has reminded them of all their past rebellion and His rescues.
13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. 14 “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”
Seven oppressors are mentioned, the number of divine perfection. This summarizes therefore all who had oppressed them at any time. When these people had oppressed them in one way or another they had cried to Yahweh and He had delivered them.
There does come a time though when our Lord says, ‘enough is enough. I will not put up with your rebellion any more. Look at these Scripture passages;
Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.
Psalm 66 17 I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Proverbs 1:27-29, 27 When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD.”
As long as you are still breathing I strongly recommend that you repent of your sins and turn back to God. He has promised us that He has forgiven all our sins when we asked Him to be our Lord and Savior. We were all in the future some 2000 years when our Precious Holy Lord and Savior paid for us with His blood.
The Israelites came to their senses also and threw themselves upon the Mercy of our Great God
15 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.”
The children of Israel remembered Yahweh’s promises to Abraham, and were confident that He would pity them. They could not believe that he would not honor His promises. That is always a good place to start when we seek God. So they admitted their sins and sought Him for deliverance, telling Him that He could punish them as He wished if only He would deliver them.
Now if you are facing similar conditions then do what the Israelites did – clean house!
16 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.
His words had hit them hard. There was a wholesale cleansing and reformation, although we do not know how far it reached. Perhaps it was mainly limited to east of Jordan. So great was the distress that they removed all traces of Baalim from their houses, and all the household idols, and destroyed the altars of their other gods. They recognized that if Yahweh was to accept them again they must be thorough. Then they went to the central sanctuary and made all the necessary offerings, renewed their covenant with Yahweh, and returned home determined to obey His laws and walk in His ways.
Yahweh saw their repentance and He heard their cry, and He felt for His people and their misery. ‘His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.’ How great is the goodness and mercy of God. So He determined that once again He would deliver them through someone raised up to help them. But possibly His choice owed much to the fact that they had treated Him as an outcast, for He would save them through an outcast.
17 Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. 18 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.”
It may well be that the Ammonites and their allies saw the religious reformation in Israel as an act of rebellion. The Ammonites had placed their gods in Gilead and now they had been torn down, and what was more, the people of Israel here had been consorting with others in their tribal confederacy (a result of the reformation). This could only spell danger. It may also be that they had withheld tribute. So the armies of Ammon and their allies invaded Gilead, and encamped there, to find out what was happening, and to frighten Gilead into submission. ‘Gilead’ here probably represents the whole of the Beyond Jordan tribes.
Here is something to take to heart. When you repent and turn back to our Loving God, the enemy of our souls is not happy. Write this down – you will have the enemy come and make war with you, so do not be so shocked when it happens. You and I both need to put our total trust in the One Who Loves us.
In conformity with their renewed faith in Yahweh, and recognizing that they must prepare to fight with Ammon, Israel also gathered together and set up camp. ‘Israel’ here probably means the Beyond Jordan tribes. But they had one problem, they needed a champion.
At this stage they had no judge over them so that having gathered for battle they had no war leader. It is, however, significant that the writer makes clear that they did not look for the answer from Yahweh. Instead they surveyed their own resources. Whoever would take over the responsibility, and was acceptable, would be made their ‘head’.
We will read on how the people selected Jephthah the Gileadite to lead them.
I know when we are in panic we tend to take things into our own hands. Why oh why don’t we just let go and totally give all to the Lord. My motto now is that I am ready to perish if necessary. The Lord Is in charge of my life totally, so He can take the leadership role. I surrender to His Rule and Authority in my life.
This is something very important to take away from this lesson. We need to trust God with all or none at all. What is your choice?
