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Context No. 256 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 10:6-10: in context

6The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD, and didn’t serve him. 7The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon. 8They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was very distressed. 10The children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals.”

The book of Judges runs on a cycle that repeats until it wears grooves into the page. Israel abandons God, an enemy oppresses them, they cry out, God raises up a rescuer, and then they abandon him again. This passage is the downswing of one more turn, and the writer makes a point of letting the list of what they chased run long.

They served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, he says, and then he keeps going: the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They did not drift toward one substitute. They collected the whole set, every neighboring nation's god, and forsook the LORD and did not serve him at all. The consequence follows quickly, eighteen years of being crushed by the Ammonites and Philistines, until the pressure finally breaks them open and they cry out. And their cry is not a vague apology. We have sinned against you, they say, because we have forsaken our God and served the Baals. They name the specific thing.

That specificity is worth noticing. The turn back does not begin with a general feeling of regret but with saying out loud exactly what they had put in God's place. It is easy to be sorry in the abstract and much harder to name the particular gods you have been collecting. If I made that same confession honestly, what specific things have I gathered up and served, that I would have to name out loud instead of only feeling bad about?

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