JUDGES - CHAPTER 10
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2000 James Melough
10:1.
“And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the
son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim."
The
meaning of Tola a worm from which is produced crimson or scarlet dye (e.g., as
used in the Tabernacle furnishings),
reminds us of what is written of the Lord in Ps 22:6 “But I am a worm, and no
man,” and assures us that this Tola, like all the judges, is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
As
has been noted by others, the brief periods of earthly peace occupy little space in
our history books. It is the times of
war and trouble that fill the pages. And
so here, the paucity of detail relative to the eras of Tola and Jair may indicate
that they were times of relative peace; further confirmation that both of them
portray Him Who is the Prince of Peace. The
very fact of their being raised up to deliver Israel, however, indicates that
the peace probably followed the deliverances which they brought to Israel.
It
is to be noted that in Tola, God would have us see a figure or type of Christ as the
One Who procured our peace through His death at Calvary; but in Jair He would have us
see, not only Christ reigning in the coming Millennium, but also the peace that every
believer can enjoy here and now in the midst of earthly circumstances.
Nor should we miss the significance of its being said that the time of their
judgeship came after the disastrous rule of Abimelech.
It was after the Lord’s defeat of Satan at Calvary that peace has been made
available to men; and it will be after Satan’s imprisonment in the abyss that the
earth will enjoy a thousand years of peace. It
is the Lord’s soon-coming return in power and glory that will bring to an end the
misrule of all earth’s “Abimelechs,” each one being but the minion of him who
robbed the earth of peace long ago when he persuaded Adam to disobey God.
God’s
introduction of Tola begins with the statement that he “arose to defend
Israel.” In him, God would have us see
the One Who is not only the Defender of Israel, but of all who trust Him as Savior.
No man can pluck the believer out of His hand.
Tola’s
brief genealogy is also meant to instruct us, for Puah means he was scattered,
the scattering being associated with the blowing or scattering of the breath
in speech. Can the application be to
anyone except Him Who is the Living Word? Never
man spoke as He did. But like seed
scattered in sowing, He was the corn of wheat that was “sown” in the earth in
death, so that there might be a vast harvest of men and women redeemed for God’s
eternal glory.
Dodo
meaning his beloved needs no comment. There
is only One of Whom God could say, “This is my beloved Son.”
Further
instruction comes from its being said that he was of the tribe of Issachar, meaning he
will be hired: there is reward: he will bring reward.
This points to the servant character of the true Tola, Who came to do His
Father’s will, to occupy the place of a Servant so that we who were the unwilling
slaves of sin, might be delivered, and given the privilege of yielding willing
service to the God of heaven.
The
emphasis upon reward reminds us that Christ also had the reward in view, for
He is the One, “... who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame ....” (Heb 12:2). But
what is that joy? It is the joy
of having multitudes of redeemed men and women with Him for ever in heaven.
But
this Tola, who was of the tribe of Issachar, dwelt “in mount Ephraim” meaning double
ash heap: I shall be doubly fruitful. This
unites service and fruitfulness, and reminds us of the transcendent fruitfulness that
has sprung from the Lord’s willing service. It
is God’s desire that the same fruitfulness should attend our service.
And
the name of the place where he dwelt in Ephraim was Shamir keeping: guarding,
the thought of guarding being connected with a thorn hedge.
We should never forget that He Who is the Guardian of our souls, the
“Hedge” around us, is He Who became what the thorns represent: sin, as it is
written, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Co 5:21).
10:2.
“And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in
Shamir.”
Because
he was only a man, he must die, and be buried in Shamir, symbol of the earth bearing
the thorns which are the emblem of the curse. The
true Tola was also buried here in “Shamir,” but He arose, Victor over death, His
resurrection the assurance that all who die in faith will also have a part in the
resurrection of life, He being the Firstfruits of that resurrection.
As
with all of the judges, however, Tola is a figure, not only of Christ, but of what
any believer may be, and the first lesson to be learned is that if Christ is to be
reproduced in us, then we too must be willing to occupy the same place as He, i.e.,
the place of a “worm.” “Whosoever
will be great among you, let him be your minister: and whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt 20:26-28).
There
must be also what is represented by Puah. We
must be willing to be “scattered” among men as God’s ambassadors, our lips
bringing to men and women the words of life. And
our lives are to be the living demonstration of what is represented by Dodo, i.e.,
that as God loves us, and has given His Son to redeem our souls, so must we also love
men, that love being demonstrated, not in the shallow sentimentality that passes in
the world for love, but in a faithful proclamation of the Gospel, warning men of
their danger, and imploring them to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We
too are to have our eyes on the reward, not on the worthless baubles of earth.
We are to live as did Christ, and as did Paul who declared, “This one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus” (Ph 3:13-14).
Even
as we dwell here in “Shamir,” a world of sin and death, we are to manifest that
we are spiritual Ephraimites, producing fruit for God’s glory, and our own eternal
enrichment and honor.
Tola’s
death, however, reminds us that we too have but a brief time here on earth.
He is a wise man who lives his life in the consciousness of its brevity and
uncertainty, and in the knowledge that “the deeds done in the body” are fraught
with eternal consequences. We will be
eternally rich or poor depending on whether we lived for Christ or self.
10:3.
“And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two
years.”
Jair
means he will enlighten; and Gilead, heap of witness: rolling for ever.
No one will have difficulty seeing in Jair a figure of the true
“Enlightener,” “the light of men .... the light of the world.”
Nor is it difficult to read the lesson of his being a Gileadite, for Gilead
was the name of a person as well as a place, and while the place Gilead is a
figure of Calvary (itself the eternal witness to God’s love), the person
Gilead is an equally clear figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, the living and eternal
Witness to that love.
He
and Jephthah are the only judges mentioned in relation to the east side of Jordan;
and since that east side speaks of our literal experiences here in the body (as the
western side does of our spiritual experiences here on earth), the lessons
appear to have primary application to our daily lives in the midst of earthly
circumstances.
10:4.
“And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty
cities, which are called Havoth-Jair
unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.”
Inasmuch
as thirty is a multiple of three (the number of resurrection), the repeated
references to thirty assure us that the spiritual lesson is related to resurrection.
The picture, clearly, is of Christ in resurrection glory, Jair’s thirty sons
(the perpetuation of his own life) being the symbolic figure of the eternal
perpetuation of the Lord’s life.
As
noted in earlier studies, the ass represents the body as the servant of the old
nature, the wild ass portraying it without moral restraint; the bridled or saddled
ass portraying it under some measure of moral restraint, as in the case of the moral,
but unconverted man.
It
is to be noted, however, that these thirty asses upon which Jair’s thirty sons rode
were colts, i.e. they were young second generation asses, but the second born
is always the figure of the converted man, as the first born is of what we are by
natural birth. These sons represent
Christ’s “sons,” i.e., believers (those who are spiritually “second
generation,” those who have had a second birth).
The same truth is emphasized in that the sons were themselves second
generation.
Their
having thirty cities over which they ruled, continues to remind us that Jair is a
figure of Christ ruling, today over the churches; tomorrow, over the world.
The rule of Jair’s sons, however, was but the extension of his rule. In those sons men saw the representatives of Jair.
The spiritual lesson is easily read. The
world is to see in us those who are Christ’s representatives.
As they, the second generation of Jair, rode on second generation ass colts,
so are we who are the “second generation” of Christ, to manifest that fact in our
lives. The “deeds done in the body”
are to confirm the testimony of the lip. It
is dishonoring to Christ when a spiritually “second generation” man is found
“riding” on a “first generation ass,” i.e., when a believer allows himself to
be carried along by the dictates of the old nature rather than the new.
It
is interesting to note that the Lord Himself rode into Jerusalem, not on an ass, but
on an ass’s colt (Mk 11:1-10). As
that ass’s colt carried Him into Jerusalem, which represents peace, so will the man
who “rides on the ass’s colt,” that is, keeps the body in subjection to the new
nature rather than the old, also be brought into the enjoyment of the peace of God
which passeth all understanding.
The
collective name of the thirty cities, Havoth-Jair means villages of Jair: lives of
Jair, it being generally recognized that the latter meaning is the more accurate.
This confirms what we have been considering relative to ourselves as being the
representatives of Christ. Each
believer’s life is to be the living expression of Christ’s, as it is written,
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Ga 2:20).
The fact that the cities were also in “the land of Gilead” continues to
remind us that here on earth we are to be witnesses for Christ.
10:5.
“And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.”
Jair’s
death, like that of Tola, continues to warn of the brevity and uncertainty of life,
and of the need to live that life for Christ.
As
might be expected in a section that so strongly emphasizes resurrection, His burial
place has special significance, for Camon means rising up: standing.
All who die in faith will rise again at the resurrection of life, but only
because Christ, by dying, conquered death, emerging from that dread realm to assure
His servant John, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Re 1:18).
10:6.
“And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and
served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the
gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines,
and forsook the Lord, and served not him.”
Israel
continued to manifest that innate tendency of the human heart to rebel against God,
for as noted already, Israel is but the mirror in which God bids us see the
professing church, and ourselves individually. Nor
should we forget that that rebellion is the more reprehensible in view of God’s
gracious dealings with Israel and with us.
The
very number (seven) of the nations whose gods Israel worshipped, declares not only
the fullness of their rebellion, but also the variety of its forms.
We are reading the record unintelligently, however, if we fail to see that
this is simply a foreshadowing of the state of the professing church today.
And it is to be noted that their sin was compounded by reason of the fact that
God had delivered them from seven oppressors, see vv., 11-12.
The
names of these nations and gods, like all Biblical names, have meanings, and it is in
those meanings that we find revealed the varied character of Israel’s sin.
Baalim means simply the lords or idols, and its appearing first
on the list is to remind us of the variety of the idols worshipped by apostate
Israel.
Ashtaroth,
the goddess of love and fertility, means mind readers: thought searching,
meanings which alert us to the fact that the evil portrayed here is that which has to
do with the intellect, and no one will deny that it is doubtful if there has ever
been a time when men’s minds have been more thoroughly corrupted and depraved than
today. Connected with the worship of
this goddess was utter sexual depravity, and only those who are themselves depraved
will refuse to acknowledge that the same moral corruption marks the present day
world, and to a large extent, also the professing, but largely apostate church.
Syria,
meaning exalted, speaks of pride, pride that exalts man and debases God; and
again, no one can refuse to admit that that same pride marks men today.
Zidon
means a hunting: a fishery, reminding us that this world which is the scene of
man’s rebellion against God, is also the place of spiritual hunting and fishing.
Christ’s first disciples were fishermen.
When He called them He declared, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men” (Mt 4:19). Every believer is
given the same work. But the very same
world in which we are to fish for men’s souls with the Gospel, is the place in
which the arch enemy is “hunting” for those same souls in order to destroy them.
There is an ominous significance in the fact that in the meaning of Zidon we
find hunting and fishing brought together. They
are found together also in the professing church, for the popular “gospel” being
preached today simply facilitates Satan’s deadly “hunting.”
That false “gospel” will save no one, but rather bring the delusion
of salvation which lulls the deceived man into the false belief that he is saved when
he isn’t. That false “fishing” is
simply a subtle form of “hunting.” It brings death!
That
false “gospel” omits any mention of man’s ruined state; it calls for no
repentance; it omits any reference to the blood of Christ, any mention of hell and
the lake of fire; and it fails to declare the absolute necessity of being born again.
It simply invites men to “receive Jesus” as the Panacea for earthly
problems, rather than what men need: a Savior Who can deliver them from hell, and fit
them for heaven. But that false
“gospel” is “worshiped” today, for it seems to be achieving the same
results as did the true Gospel preached by the Apostles.
There is a vast difference, however, both as to the gospel, and as to the
motive that impelled the Apostles. Their
concern was for men’s souls. The
concern of the apostles of today’s false “gospel” is the multiplication of
earthly congregations, but with never a thought as to whether any of those
“converts” will ever occupy a seat in heaven.
Apostate
Israel worshiped also “the gods of Moab,” and as noted already, Moab represents
that religious profession which accommodates all the lusts of the flesh.
The worship of these Moabitish gods therefore speaks of that mingling of
religious profession and immorality which characterizes the professing church today.
Their
worship of the gods of the Ammonites depicts the truth that in the professing church
today genuine faith has been replaced with a religious profession that makes faith a
mere intellectual thing which gives assent to the historicity of Christ, but that
doesn’t know Him as Savior and Lord, for that is what Ammon represents - empty
profession based on an intellectual knowledge of Christ, but apart from the new
birth.
Significantly,
one of the gods of the Ammonites was Molech, the god to whom the Israelites were
guilty of sacrificing their children, see e.g., Le 18:21; 20:2-5.
Solomon was guilty of encouraging the worship of Molech (1 Ki 11:7), and this
abominable worship is mentioned in Jer 32:35. And
today it is not just the world, but also professing Christians who are sacrificing
their children to the evil represented by the ancient god Molech.
It is deemed better by many to have their children taught the knowledge of the
world, than it is to have them filled with the knowledge of God.
“...
and the gods of the Philistines.” The
Philistine, as noted already, means wallowing, and represents the great
apostate system that calls itself the true church, for just as the Philistines gave
their name to the land that God had given Israel, so has the harlot church impressed
her image on Christianity, so much so that when the world thinks of Christianity, it
is the great apostate system that comes to mind.
The
significance of wallowing (the meaning of Philistine), is declared in 2 Pe 2:22
“But it is happened unto them (apostates) according to the true proverb, The dog is
turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in
the mire.”
The
apostate abandons the Word of God, and feeds again on the filth which was his
spiritual food before professed conversion; and abandoning his temporary morality, he
returns to wallowing in sin.
The
degree to which the “Philistine” image has been impressed on the professing
church today needs no comment, but what is sadder is the extent to which genuine
believers allow the dictates of that apostate system to govern their lives also.
“...
and forsook the Lord, and served not him,” shows us how Israel’s idolatry began.
There was first a forsaking of the right way.
That was the negative aspect of their sin.
Then there was the active pursuit of evil.
That was the positive aspect. Man
cannot live in a literal vacuum, nor can he exist in a spiritual vacuum. He either serves God or Satan!
The sure way to total departure from God is to begin by forsaking the daily
reading of and meditation on the written Word, neglect of prayer, failure to tell
others the Gospel, and failure to meet with God’s people at the scheduled meetings
of the assembly. That negative evil is
quickly followed by positive evil, and the wrecked testimonies strewn along the
roadway of life ought to be sufficient warning against being guilty of such folly.
Who can tell what terrible consequences may attend that first small step of
disobedience - failure to read the Word and meditate upon it?
10:7.
“And 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 children of Ammon.”
That
word sold is instructive, for it raises the question, What was given to God that
induced Him to deliver Israel into the hands of their enemies? It was their own disobedience, and our minds are dull indeed if we
fail to see the application to ourselves.
Although
Israel had turned to worship the idols of seven of the nations around them, we note
that God delivered them into the hands of just two of those nations: the Philistines
and the Ammonites, who, as we have seen, represent apostate Christianity, and
religious intellectualism respectively. While
the professing church lies under the dominion of the modern equivalents of all of the
false gods worshiped by Israel, those who rule most oppressively are the evils
represented by the Philistine and the Ammonite.
10:8.
“And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen
years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan, in the land of
the Amorites, which is in Gilead.”
As
noted already, Israel’s territory east of Jordan represents what we have literally
here on earth, whereas what lay west of Jordan represents what we are privileged to
enjoy in spirit here on earth. “...
in the land of the Amorites” indicates that what Israel had taken from Sihon and Og
had once belonged to the Amorites, but since Amorite means sayer, the truth
being declared is that what believers have today is what once lay in the domain of
mere empty profession: we were part of the godless system that claims to be in a
right relationship with God, but is in reality at enmity with Him.
As believers, our relationship with God is no longer that of mere empty
profession, but the reality which belongs only to faith.
“...
which is in Gilead heap of witness: rolling for ever.” Calvary is the true heap of witness, a witness that will
endure for ever. Our lives here on earth
are to be lived in the light of our relationship to Calvary.
In Christ, we too have been crucified to the world, and are to live
accordingly, our lives being the witness that we are men and women who have become
dead to the world by the cross of Christ.
10:9.
“Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against
Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was
sore distressed.”
Had
Israel been guarding the fords of Jordan as they ought, Ammon’s invasion would have
been less likely, if not in fact impossible. But
since Jordan represents death, Israel’s failure to guard that border is the
warning that when we cease to guard that boundary that lies spiritually between faith
and unbelief, unbelief will soon invade what God has given us.
We have noted already that Ammon represents religious intellectualism, the
intrusion of mere earthly wisdom into the realm of faith, so that Ammon’s
oppression, and invasion of the three tribes west of Jordan, is the symbolic
announcement of the intrusion of mere human wisdom into the spiritual areas
represented by the three tribes mentioned, that is, Judah, which represents praise
or worship; Benjamin, which speaks of warfare against the forces of evil; and
Ephraim, which represents fruitfulness.
Few
will deny that this is what we have in the professing church today. True praise is seldom heard, and worship is nothing more than a
cold formal ritual. Our warfare (what
little there is of it) is conducted according to the dictates of mere earthly wisdom,
it being forgotten that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual (2
Co 10:4). And spiritual fruitfulness is
a mere withered thing claiming the name, but long ago having lost the power.
The “Ammonite” has indeed “crossed Jordan,”
Spiritual Israel, the Church, is as “sore distressed” today as was literal
Israel in the days of the Judges.
10:10.
“And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned
against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.”
The
sin of omission had been followed, as so often, by the sin of commission.
First there was sin in its negative form: they had forsaken God; but then
there was the positive evil: they had given to Baalim what they had taken away from
God. The pattern never changes.
Sins of omission are quickly followed by sins of commission.
The terrible sins that have blighted some Christian lives, began by simple
neglect of Bible reading and prayer. Nor
should we fail to note the perversity that marks all too many of us.
We forget God in the midst of prosperity, and call upon Him only in adversity.
Small wonder we experience so much of the latter, so little of the former.
10:11.
“And the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from
the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the
Philistines?”
Their
deliverance from the Egyptians was on the night of the Passover, a night they should
surely never have forgotten; but they obviously had forgotten, and that implies that
either they had ceased to keep the annual feast of Passover, or it had become a mere
empty ritual divorced from all spiritual meaning.
That
deliverance, however, is a type of the greater deliverance enjoyed by every believer;
and the commemorative feast of Passover is itself the foreshadowing of the better
feast that has superseded it: the Lord’s Supper.
All too many professing Christians have also forgotten that great deliverance;
and the Lord’s supper which commemorates it, and which is to be observed on the
first day of each week, has been reduced to an annual ritual devoid of all spiritual
significance, the very mode of observance being a travesty of the Scriptural order.
The
deliverance from the Amorites is generally agreed to have been at the time when God
delivered Sihon, king of the Amorites, into their hands (Nu 21:21-35), but that
victory was symbolically the defeat of mere empty profession (talk without fruit),
and is the foreshadowing of the deliverance granted us from that same evil power
through Christ’s victory at Calvary.
The
deliverance from Ammon is generally accepted as being that which is recorded in Jg
3:13. There Ammon was the confederate of
Eglon the king of Moab, but Ammon represents empty profession linked with earthly
wisdom, so that that deliverance portrays our deliverance from mere earthly wisdom.
The
deliverance from the Philistines is generally taken to be that of Shamgar (Jg 3:31),
but since the Philistine represents the apostasy of the great false church, that
deliverance is itself the figure of the deliverance God intends believers to enjoy
from the thraldom of that evil system which rules Christendom today.
10:12.
“The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you;
and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.”
There
doesn’t appear to be a specific reference to Israel’s deliverance from the
Zidonians, though it has been suggested that it may have been in connection with
Barak’s defeat of Jabin as recorded in Jg 4. If
this is correct, then the typical picture continues to be of the deliverance from
mere earthly wisdom, for Jabin, meaning he will understand, is clearly a type
of that wisdom.
Since,
however, it is uncertain that the Zidonians were involved in that conflict, it seems
better to attempt to find the spiritual lesson in connection with what Zidon
represents. But what does it represent?
As always, the clue is found in its meaning, which is a hunting: a fishery;
and as discussed already, it is a figure of the apostate church, for there too,
hunting and fishing are found together. Fishing
is clearly a figure of activity in the Gospel, for Christ, calling the first
disciples, assured them, “I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19).
The
fishing done by the apostate church, however, is by means of a false gospel
which lulls men into the believe that they are saved, when, in fact, they are still
on the way to hell and the lake of fire. That
delusion accomplishes the work of Satan, for he is the evil “hunter” who stalks
the earth in pursuit of men’s souls. That
false gospel delivers men into his hand! (It is significant that hunting in Scripture always has an evil
connotation). It is from that evil
system that we have been delivered.
The
deliverance from the Amalekites is generally taken to be that accomplished by Ehud in
Jg 3, for the Amalekites are there said to have been confederate with Eglon, king of
the Moabites, whom Ehud slew. It may,
however, have reference to Israel’s first encounter with Amalek when they first
came out of Egypt.
Amalek
is a type of the flesh in all its bitter animosity against the Spirit, so that
Israel’s deliverance from Amalek is the picture of our deliverance from the
dominion of the flesh, that deliverance, of course, being through Christ’s victory
at Calvary, not through any power in us.
There
is no Scriptural reference to Israel’s having been delivered from the Maonites, the
word Maon meaning habitation, the spiritual significance of which I regret
being unable to read.
Many
Bible scholars believe that the reference is to the Midianites, and if correct, then
the notable deliverance wrought by Gideon (Jg 6-8) comes to mind, and inasmuch as
Midian means contention: strife, that deliverance is the type of our
deliverance from the same evil. It is
not certain, however, that Maonite is the same as Midianite, even though in
the LXX the word is rendered Midianites.
10:13.
“Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver
you no more.”
In
spite of God’s responses to their cries, Israel had all too quickly forgotten His
goodness - which should have begotten greater devotion to Him - and, forsaking Him,
had turned to worship the idols of the nations around them.
The
fact that He did deliver them is not to be understood as indicating that He
had eventually changed His mind. The
statement has to be understood in the context of the rest of Scripture.
God would not deliver them unless there was genuine repentance; and this is a
principle governing Him in all His dealings with men.
10:14.
“Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the
time of your tribulation.”
This
confirms what we have considered in the preceding verse: they had not yet abandoned
their false gods, and until they did, God would not deliver them, for that would have
been to condone sin, something He will not do.
10:15.
“And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned: do thou unto
us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.”
This
is the repentance God sought. There was
full confession of sin, and complete submission to His will.
These are the prerequisites of blessing for saint and sinner alike.
Their
plea, “Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee” reminds us that it is
infinitely better to be in God’s hand than in the hand of the enemy.
God smites for our healing: the enemy, for our destruction.
David was well aware of this, when having sinned in numbering the people, and
being offered three choices of punishment, he responded, “Let me fall now into the
hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand
of man” (1 Ch 21:13).
10:16.
“And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord:
and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”
Their
repentance was complete for it went beyond mere words: “They put away the strange
gods from among them, and served the Lord.” God
isn’t satisfied with mere words. The
life must confirm the testimony of the lip. But
His compassion is great. In spite of all
their sin, it grieved His heart to see them suffering the consequences of their
folly; nor is He any less grieved by the misery which His people endure today as a
result of their folly. And the remedy
remains the same. If there is to be
deliverance, there must be repentance and abandonment of the sin that has brought the
chastisement.
10:17.
“Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead.
And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in
Mizpeh.”
As
noted already, Ammon, meaning tribal: peoplish, represents the evil of mere
profession linked with human intelligence - an evil which lords it over the
professing church today, just as did Ammon over Israel in the days of the Judges.
Gilead, meaning heap of witness: rolling for ever, represents, not only
Calvary, but also the sphere of testimony, and he is blind indeed who fails to see
that “Ammon” today is “encamped in Gilead,” for effective testimony in the
Gospel is presently maintained by a pitifully small handful out of the masses
professing faith in Christ.
Mizpeh,
meaning watch tower, speaks of the watchfulness of God, not only over His own,
but also over every activity of the enemy. A
distressed Israel could have assembled in no better place, nor can we assemble in a
better place than that which Mizpeh represents. Where our lives are open to His scrutiny, and there is nothing we
desire to be hidden from Him, is the place of safety and blessing, the place where
the enemy can do nothing more than God permits.
10:18.
“And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he
that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead.”
Commentators
are disagreed as to whether this consultation was proper, or indicative of failure to
wait upon God. Those contending for
failure, point to the fact that the deliverer is not specifically said to have been
called by God; those who insist that it was right, point to the fact that the Spirit
of God came upon him. In Hebrews 11:32,
however, he is listed with Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, and Samuel as one of the
worthies of faith, indicating that possibly this consultation was approved by God.
[Judges
11]