And the children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; and Israel was greatly distressed.
Israel had taken up the gods of its neighbours, and it cost them eighteen years under Ammon east of the Jordan. Now the trouble crosses the river into Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim — so why does God let it spread?
The oppression did not fall at random. One writer reads the nations named here as pictures of spiritual evils Israel had taken up:
The Lord's anger was such that He sold Israel into the hands of the Philistines and the children of Ammon (vv. 6-7). The Philistines (their name means "wallowers") stand for formal, ritual religion that is only a shell with no reality. If people take that up, Ammon is ready to take advantage of it. Ammon (meaning "peoplish") speaks of false, satanic doctrines that please the people... Israel accepted this compromise, and so they found themselves oppressed by it — for 18 years (v. 8).
Ammon's strength was not Ammon's own. One writer traces any enemy's power back to something in God's people:
Remember first of all that the unfaithfulness of God's people is what puts power into any enemy's hands... Midian had no strength that could or would have won if the Lord had not allowed it. And He would not have allowed it if there had been no need in Israel's condition. Those who will not learn in communion with God, must do so in the hands of the enemy.
The crossing of the Jordan is the alarming detail:
This power of false doctrine sweeps over the whole of the eastern territory. Everyone in Gilead and east of Jordan is under its sway. In fact, they have come into the land itself and attacked the strongholds of Benjamin and Judah and Ephraim. Those tribes always stood for the very heart and the defence of God's inheritance.
Benjamin's part in this goes back to an old compromise:
The tribe did not drive out the Jebusites. They let them live with them in Jerusalem (Judges 1:21), and this may have led to their idolatry. When the children of Ammon attacked them, along with Judah and Ephraim, they confessed that they had forsaken God and served the Baals (Judges 10:9-10).
Israel's distress did something that easier days had not done. One writer links the depth of the nation's decline to the depth of what God stirred in it:
The Lord raised up Ammon as His rod, and Ammon oppressed Gilead for eighteen years. Ammon also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and Benjamin. Then, under the pressure of circumstances, grace worked in the conscience of the people. Here is a remarkable fact. The nearer the falling away came to its final form, the deeper the awakenings of conscience became... Here, for the first time, God's light reaches the conscience of the people and leads them to judge themselves deeply.
Israel does not speak up until things are at their worst. One writer draws out what that shows about God:
But then it has a blessed effect. They turn. Their very misery compels them to turn from the enemy who had so enthralled them. Their very misery makes them confess at the very last point when the power of the enemy is greatest... They make a true confession to God and put themselves in His hands: "We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to You. Only please deliver us this day." How tender our God is! He cannot look on misery unmoved, even when sin has caused it: "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." Whenever there is true repentance, our Blessed God will not leave His people without some measure of deliverance at least.
(The closing quotation follows an older translation of Judges 10:16; the ESV reads, "he became impatient over the misery of Israel.")
Israel's words in verse 10 do not end the distress at once. God answers with a rebuke:
There is confession. But God is faithful, and He must show them this: it is one thing to get away from Him, and quite another to get back... I may be brought back after a long course of chastening to a sense of my sin, and I may turn and confess it to God from my heart. Does that mean that I am going to regain all that I have lost at once? Ah no! ... In solemn irony, God says, "Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress."
- Invited — The enemy holds only the ground God's people hand over. Unfaithfulness opened the door, not Ammon's strength.
- Spreading — Trouble on the far side of the river does not stay there. It crosses over and strikes the heart of God's inheritance.
- Pressing — The distress is God's rod. Under its pressure grace works in the conscience as easier days never did.
- Confessing — Misery at its worst forces the honest words out. God's tenderness meets that misery, even though sin caused it.
- Recovering — True repentance always brings some measure of deliverance. But what was lost does not come back at once: the way back is slower than the way out.
And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served the Baals.
Eighteen years of oppression by Ammon, a neighbouring nation, finally break Israel's silence. For the first time the people name their own sin instead of only crying under the pain. Their words admit two things: they left God, and they served the Baals in His place. Even so, a true confession does not restore everything at once.
The cry comes from Israel's lowest point. One writer links the depth of the fall to the depth of the self-judgment it produced.
The people were wholly given over to idolatry. The Lord raised up Ammon as His rod, and Ammon oppressed Gilead for eighteen years… Then, under the pressure of circumstances, grace worked in the conscience of the people. Here is a remarkable fact: the nearer apostasy came to its full development, the deeper the awakenings in conscience became. I do not say that they widened… Here, for the first time, divine light reaches the conscience of the people and leads them to judge themselves deeply.
Israel does not blame Ammon. The confession traces the enemy's power back to Israel's own turning away.
The oppression is so crushing and so complete that at last, thank God, the children of Israel have to cry out and confess their sin. They confess that their own departure of soul from Him is what had made such things possible. There will never be any real power over heresy until there is first confession of how heresy has come in.
God does not rescue them at once. He tells them to call on the gods they chose, and that refusal has a purpose.
Why should He deliver them any more if they give themselves up to false gods? Let them pray to the idols they have chosen. In this way God makes them think over the enormity of their sin in forsaking Him.
A hard lesson follows for anyone who thinks the right words settle everything.
There is confession, but God is faithful. He must show them that it is one thing to get away from Him and quite another thing to get back. Mere confession will not undo my departure from God. After a long course of chastening God may bring me back to a sense of my sin, and I may turn and confess it to Him with all my heart. Does that mean I am going to regain all that I have lost at once? No! We have to reap what we have sown, and that is what Israel found.
Pressed by God's answer, Israel says more. They hand themselves over to whatever He decides.
When they heard these words, the children of Israel took a further step along the healthy path where the Spirit of God was leading them. "We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to You." They confessed their sin, passed judgment on themselves, and acknowledged that God's judgment was righteous. Then they added, "Deliver us only, we pray, this day." They appealed to His grace. Could He turn a deaf ear to their cry? Impossible! Repentance led them to a fuller knowledge of the Lord than they had ever had before.
Words were not the end of it. The idols went.
This restoration would not have been real if it had not borne fruit. "And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord." Turning to God from idols, they served the living and true God. Then the Lord opened to them the treasures of the pity of His heart.
God had denied their first cry. That was not the end of the story.
He had denied their first cry. But they kept pleading and confessing. They put away the strange gods and began to serve Him again, and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. What a compassionate Lord He is!
The same order repeats through the book, and it holds for each believer.
Self-judgment, which is true repentance, had to come before each revival. They cried to the Lord; they sought His face, and then deliverance came. It is the same in the individual experience of the children of God.
- Cause. Ammon's strength did not make the oppression possible. Israel's own drift from God did, and confession has to start there.
- Cry. The deepest fall produced the deepest self-judgment. Divine light reached the conscience for the first time.
- Check. God did not answer the first cry. The silence was not rejection. It made them weigh how serious leaving Him was.
- Completion. Real repentance went further. They accepted whatever God decided, asked only for rescue, and put the idols away.
- Compassion. Once the change was genuine, their misery moved His heart. The order holds for us: self-judgment first, then deliverance.