The Repentance of Israel
May 16, 2021
Commentary
Under heavy persecution from the Ammonites, the tribes of Israel began to pray for grace and confessing their wrong doings (v. 10). They put away all the foreign idols to serve the Lord. The Lord spoke sternly to His people (vv. 11-14). He reminded them of how He had granted them seven great national deliverances in reply to their appeals and yet they had not remained true to Him. He said that mercy must yield to judgment.
Would the Almighty give them another chance? The people prayed and got rid of their pagan deities (v. 15). The longsuffering of God was again revealed as a battle line was drawn in Gilead against the enemy (vv.16-18). This invasion of the Ammonites was presumably at the end of the eighteen-year oppression. The people of the Israelite tribes assembled themselves together, with possibly a new morale and a will to resist following their repentance and return to the Lord. God again showed His compassion to the Israelites and directed His indignation toward their enemies.
Application
Why do people so often wait for a crisis before turning to God? I must continually be asking myself if I have turned over every area of my life to His control.
Judges 10:10– 18 (NET)
10 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord: “We have sinned against you. We abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.” 11 The Lord said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, Amalek, and Midian when they oppressed you? You cried out for help to me, and I delivered you from their power. 13 But since you abandoned me and worshiped other gods, I will not deliver you again. 14 Go and cry for help to the gods you have chosen! Let them deliver you from trouble!” 15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. You do to us as you see fit, but deliver us today!” 16 They threw away the foreign gods they owned and worshiped the Lord. Finally the Lord grew tired of seeing Israel suffer so much.
17 The Ammonites assembled and camped in Gilead; the Israelites gathered together and camped in Mizpah. 18 The leaders of Gilead said to one another, “Who is willing to lead the charge against the Ammonites? He will become the leader of all who live in Gilead!”
Illustration: A prostitute gets saved because no sin is too black
Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian, and he told of an incident that took place in the church he attended. During an evangelistic service, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven. One of the first persons to walk down the aisle was a well-known prostitute. She knelt in very real repentance, she wept, she asked God to forgive her. Then she stood and testified that she believed God had forgiven her and wanted to become a member of the church. For a few moments, the silence was deafening. Finally, Samuel Colgate arose and said, “I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue.” Immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation. God accepts us as we are. There’s not a sin too black, not a deed too awful, not a thought too horrible for him to forgive. (Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith For Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.).