Judges 10:11-18: a reflection

11The LORD said to the children of Israel, “Didn’t I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will save you no more. 14Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!” 15The children of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, today.” 16They put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. 17Then the children of Ammon were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together and encamped in Mizpah. 18The people, the princes of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

Israel has fallen into idolatry yet again, and God responds with what sounds like weary exasperation: I have saved you from enemy after enemy, he recounts, and still you have forsaken me for other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go cry to the gods you have chosen; let them save you! It is a hard word, God seemingly done with rescuing his faithless people. But then Israel does something real: they confess their sin, put away their foreign gods, and serve the LORD. And the passage says something tender: God could bear the misery of Israel no longer.

Notice the turn. God had said he would save them no more, and they deserved it. But when they genuinely repented, not just with words but by putting away their idols and turning back, God's heart moved. He could bear their misery no longer, the text says. His compassion overcame his just anger; the sight of his repentant people's suffering was more than his tender heart could stand. What his justice had refused, his compassion, stirred by their repentance, could not withhold.

There is deep hope in that glimpse of God's heart. Even when we have sinned repeatedly, even when God's patience seems exhausted and we deserve to be left to the gods we have chosen, genuine repentance moves the heart of God. When his people truly turn back, putting away their idols, his compassion cannot bear their misery. If you have failed repeatedly and fear you have exhausted God's patience, look at this: real repentance found not a closed door but a heart that could bear his people's misery no longer. Turn back genuinely, and find the God whose compassion outruns his anger.

Lord, though you had said you would save faithless Israel no more, when they truly repented and put away their idols, you could bear their misery no longer. Thank you for that glimpse of your tender heart, whose compassion outruns your anger. When I have failed repeatedly and fear I have exhausted your patience, help me turn back genuinely, putting away my idols. Meet me, as you met Israel, with a compassion that cannot bear my misery. Your mercy is greater than my failure.