On one of the occasions of Israel’s rebellions against God during the time of the judges, God chastised them. We are told that because of God’s anger for their idolatries, “He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon” (Judges 10:7). After eighteen years of harassment and oppression, “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!’”
However, God did not immediately deliver them at their confession. The pattern of rebellion and idolatry had brought God’s longsuffering to an end. Instead, God first pointed out their previous deliveries from oppression (10:11-12). Then God pointed out their continued rebellion, “Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods.” He refused to deliver them. (cf. 13). God then said to Israel, “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress” (10:14).
Certain truths are suggested in this text, primary among them the preeminence of God. There was great satire in God’s words. He directed them to call upon their “gods” to show that they were not real. There would be no deliverance because the God “who made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24) is uniquely Divine. As Paul wrote, “Therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising” (Acts 17:29).
Second, God’s longsuffering comes to an end. This is why He not only oppressed Israel, but initially rebuffed their petition for deliverance. This is important to consider as we contemplate God’s final day of judgment. It has not yet come because of one reason only, the longsuffering of God. But as Peter assures us, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Finally, sorrow for sin must be godly sorrow in order to receive God’s forgiveness. Israel was sorry (sorrow brought by their oppression). However, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.”
Judges 10:16 shows that Israel finally, truly repented. “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.” God loves us, He does not want us to suffer. He wants us to serve Him righteously. And if we do He will gladly reward us for our righteous obedience by granting deliverance to us. Israel received (from God) Jephthah of Gilead as their next deliverer. We receive Christ as our ultimate deliverer!
