A Call For Help
Once again the Israelites had begun worshipping false gods, so the Lord allowed them to be conquered by their enemies. After eighteen years of suffering, the people finally confessed their sin and asked God for help.
To their surprise, God refused! He told them to ask their false gods for help, However, like a father who loves his children, God, at last, showed mercy to his people and helped them once again
We often suffer because we don’t call on God until we have tried everything else. Or, we call on God when we are in trouble, but forget about him when things are going well.
It honours God when we call on him as our first choice, not our last resort.
Further Disobedience and Oppression
Judges 10: 6-16
The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the LORD and did not serve him. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and also the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year.
For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim so that Israel was severely distressed. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the LORD said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and the Amorites, from the Ammonites and the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will spare you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” And the people of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.”
So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
