seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Judges 10:11 The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites[c] oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
17 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”
15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
17 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”
c. Judges 10:12 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts Midianites
So, the Israelites, being the humans that they are.... thought that God would just forgive and forget every time they went off track. They thought they could go ahead doing life their way, worshiping little shiny idols, and life would be amazing.... but that's not the way it is....
It appears that now they are in a war without someone to lead the troops.... oh no!
This is from the easy English site.
The people came to God. They confessed that they had done wrong things. But they had not changed their minds. And they had not changed their ways. They still had other gods at first. They did not remove the other gods until verse 16. God reminded them how he had helped them to escape from the Egyptians. This was in the Exodus (when they went out of Egypt). He had helped them to defeat the Amorites. (Look at the story about Sihon and Og. This is in Numbers chapter 21.) He had also helped them to defeat the people from Ammon and the Philistines. (Ehud led them against the people from Ammon. Shamgar led them against the Philistines.) And he had helped them to defeat the people from Sidon. (These had helped the people from Midian to attack Israel’s people.) Finally, he had helped them to defeat Amalek’s people. (These were friends of the people from Midian and Moab.) Israel’s people had also defeated the Maonites, who were probably those same people from Midian. God told them to go. And he told them to cry to the gods that they had chosen. He did this to test whether they were honest. In reply, they removed their foreign gods. Although they only changed their ways a little, God was ready to forgive them.
Rough holiday? We've all had them.... our dysfunctional lives collide with out dysfunctional family.... and we all want someone to play EMT at the collision scene. God wouldn't save them until they started to make some changes..... I'm sure... just like so many of us in dysfunctional families.... I'm sure God wanted to just make things better.... it would all be easier if God would just "cause" them to stop chasing after those shiny objects.... but God loves the Israelites.... and God used "Tough Love".
Once they changed a little.... then God could help.... He didn't ask them to be perfect.... He just waited from them to make a move in the right direction ON THEIR OWN and then He could help them.
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