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by Katie Erickson

“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress.” (Judges 10:6-9)

After spending many weeks looking at the stories of Gideon and his son Abimelech in the book of Judges, we’re moving on toward the story of Jephthah. In Judges 10:1-5, we see a couple minor judges named Tola and Jair, but they were not significant enough to have much of their legacy recorded in Scripture.

So in this week’s passage, we’re back to the repeating pattern of the people of Israel in the era of the judges: sin, slavery, supplication, salvation, and silence. In this passage, Israel had against strayed from worshiping the one true God, and they were instead worshiping a whole bunch of other gods. In verse 6 we read, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him.”

This list of other gods that the Israelites worshiped is the most extensive list throughout Judges. The Baals Ashtoreths were worshipped by most of the nations mentioned in this passage, who surrounded Israel’s territory. Just to give you some further background, the Moabites’ god was named Chemosh (Numbers 21:29), the Ammonites’ god was named Molek (1 Kings 11:5), and the Philistines’ god was named Dagon (Judges 16:23).

When Israel doesn’t serve the one true God, God gets angry with them for blatantly disobeying His commandments. Exodus 20:3 seems pretty clear: “You shall have no other gods before me.” That seems like a pretty easy one to remember, but we always forget that today too. While I don’t worship a god by name like Dagon or Molek, I have times in my life where I put other people and things before God, thus making them little gods in my life. I would guess you’ve done that too, if you take an honest look at your life.

So when Israel turns away from God (again), He allows them to be enslaved and oppressed by their enemies (verses 7-8). This particular incident happened around the year 1096 BC. Previously, during Gideon’s time, the Israelites were badly oppressed by the Midianites. Now, however, the oppression was even worse. Now it was both the Ammonites and Philistines oppressing them, and they were just as evil as the Midianites if not more so.

The recurring theme in the book of Judges is that you will reap what you sow. Israel was often sowing disobedience to God by worshiping other gods, and therefore they were reaping the consequences of their actions. While God will continue to forgive them when they are finally sorry for their actions, that doesn’t mean He’ll lessen the punishment. In fact, He seems to be increasing the harshness of the punishment as they continue to not learn their lesson.

What are you doing in your life where you may be repeating the same sin over and over again? What do you need to repent from, and finally learn the lesson that God is trying to teach you - before the consequences get even worse?

Stayed tuned next week as we see what happened with the Israelites in their current oppressive situation.

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