Cry unto the gods which ye have chosen. Judges 10:14 Man in trouble crying to his god Homilist. I. EVERY SINNER IS DESTINED TO MEET WITH TROUBLE. Personal afflictions; social bereavements; death. II. IN GREAT TROUBLE HE INSTINCTIVELY CRIES TO HIS GOD. 1. Every man has a god. 2. Every man's god ought to be able to help him when help is needed. III. NO GOD CAN HELP HIM IN TROUBLE BUT THE TRUE ONE. ( Homilist. ) No help in trouble save from God G. Swinnock. Travellers tell us that they who are at the top of the Alps can see great showers of rain fall under them, but not a drop of it falls on them. They who have God for their portion are in a high tower, and thereby safe from all troubles and showers. A drift rain of evil will beat in at the creature's windows, be they never so well pointed: all the garments this world can make up cannot keep them that travel in such weather from being wet to the skin. No creature is able to bear the weight of its fellow-creature, but as reeds break under, and as thorns run into the sides that lean on them. The bow drawn beyond its compass breaks in sunder, and the string wound above its strength snaps in pieces. Such are outward helps to all that trust to them in hardships. ( G. Swinnock. ) Helpless gods R. Rogers. It is a most grievous casting them in the teeth, by an ironical mocking of them with their idolatry, as if he should say, "Now ye prove and see what your gods can do." As Elias did the like to the prophets of Baal. Therefore by thus speaking, and bidding them go seek help at their idols' hands, they having shaken off the Lord, he teacheth us that they whom we have served, and committed ourselves to, must pay us our wages, and to them the Lord justly doth and will send us to their patronage in our greatest need, even to our horror, yea, destruction, if He take us not, as He did these here, to His mercy. They therefore that have trusted, and still do in man, and have made flesh their arm, shall know by experience one day that they have trusted to a bruised reed. Briefly to conclude this doctrine with some other uses thereof, we see secondly by this that God doth import no less than that (by the law of like equity, and by virtue of a far stronger covenant) if this people had persisted faithful in His service He could not have denied their suit for help and defence against their enemies. Thirdly, these words note out this, that it is wisdom for a man to bestow his chief cost there whence he looks for best recompense and acknowledgment in the time of most need. A man is not ashamed of that labour which hath brought him in plentiful gain, but of that which answers not his cost and hope. Men that have run themselves out of breath all their life, groping after a blind happiness, in their unprofitable, superstitious, profane course, at length, seeing themselves deceived, wish they had served a Master who might have saved them and received them into everlasting habitations. Thus the Lord is fain to upbraid men (though not by word, saying, "Go to your idols," yet in effect, in that He leaveth them shiftless), or else who should persuade one of a hundred that he soweth among thorns, or loseth his labour and cost, when he casteth it and himself away upon idols? ( R. Rogers. ) The misery of forsaking God Bp. Shuttleworth. I know not how anything can be imagined more sublime, more edifying, or more truly affecting than the delineations of the moral character of the Almighty Governor of the universe, afforded us by Scripture. Immensity of power, combined with the most unrestricted condescension to the wants of the meanest of His creatures; and purity, which charges the very heavens with comparative uncleanness, united with plenitude of compassion. Perhaps, however, there is no passage in the book of the Old Testament more completely to this purpose than the text. Now, be it remembered, that a correct theory of the Divine Being, and sound views of practical morality, are as closely connected with each other as cause and effect. All real morality being the adaptation of our actions to some authentic first rule, and that rule being the presumed will of the great Being who has an undisputed claim to our obedience, it follows as a matter of course that, in order that our standard of morals should be high, our notions of Him to whose approbation that standard is referable should be high in a like proportion. We might as well expect the subsequent course of a stream to be more elevated than its fountain as imagine holy and perfect actions to proceed from belief in an imperfect or impure deity. This con- sideration will at once show us that spiritual debasement is a necessary result of false worship; and will point out the fallaciousness of that favourite assertion of the unbeliever, that accuracy of our abstract notions respecting the Deity is of no consequence provided our practical theory of morality be correct, And now, then, by this infallible test let us try the Christian revelation, comparing it with all that the most plausible surmises of pagan philosophy, or of modern infidelity, have at any time suggested in opposition or rivalry to it. The more substantial theories of paganism on this subject lie in very small compass. It is true that the better disposed heathens in all ages have, from an instinctive feeling of religion, been ready to admit the occasional intervention of Providence with the affairs of mankind, and something like a general system of rewards and punishments, having reference to the morality of human actions. These opinions, however, so far as they went, were, I believe, on all such occasions, rather the spontaneous suggestion of the moral feeling within them, acting against theory, than the result of any deliberate assent of the understanding, founded upon rational inquiry. In fact, I know only of two views of the great question, "What is God?" or, "What is the great moral sanction for the guidance of man's actions?" as taken up after mature deliberation by the philosophers of antiquity, which can lay claim to the character of a regular system; the one is that adopted by the Stoics, which pronounces virtue to be so intrinsically lovely in itself as, under all external circumstances, to prove its own reward; the other, that which, though not formally avowed, would, if strictly reasoned out, necessarily result from the principles of the Peripatetics, which, considering the Creator of the universe as the summit of all possible perfection, would represent Him as eternally wrapt up in the contemplation of His own transcendental nature, and consequently indifferent to the vicissitudes which may befall inferior beings. Now it is obvious that both these views, either if entertained as physically true, as affording a substantial first principle of religious morality, are quite unsatisfactory and inoperative. Strange, then, as the proposition may sound in the ears of those who have not been accustomed to consider the doctrines of paganism in all their strictness and in all their consequences, it is undoubtedly true that the belief in a Being at once all perfect in His own nature, and yet at the same time watchfully attentive to all that passes in the creation beneath Him, is the result of revelation only. Our natural reason not only never could have arrived at such a conclusion, but in fact, at the first blush of the question, it absolutely recoils from it. Can God really regard, not merely perishable man, but even the very worms that creep at our feet? Our first impulse, when we consider the presumed impassiveness of its nature, is to say, "Certainly not." How can He be at once complete in His own perfection and happiness and accessible to prayer; or, in other words, liable to be influenced by causes external to Himself? Our natural reason is quite unequal to the solution of this difficulty. It is only, I repeat, when we reflect how entirely the whole sum and substance of religion, the elevation of our souls, the establishment of all morality, and the consequent entire welfare of society turn upon this very doctrine, that we learn how much more complete is the revealed wisdom which is from heaven than that which it is given to unassisted man to find out. The question is, not what God might have done, but what He actually has done. The infidel may try to get rid of the difficulty by turning the whole discussion into ridicule, and attempting to show that human life, and all connected with it, is merely like a feverish dream or an ill-told tale without object or connection. The worldly man may assert that, after all that may be said against it, life is still a state of tolerable ease and comfort, and contented with living like the brutes, may think it unnecessary to inquire further; or the more stern philosopher, arguing upon the principles of the ancient Stoics, may assert, contrary to self-evident fact, that life in reality possesses no evil for the truly wise, and that the theory of a future state is not necessary for the vindication of the ways of Providence. But meanwhile the really painful circumstances of our existence will make themselves felt, whether we will or not; and, if we would explain them in a manner satisfactory to our highest notions of God's goodness, we must have recourse to our Bible. I do not, indeed, say that even in our Bibles we shall find all our difficulties removed. Very far from it; but I do say, that the Bible presupposes the existence of all these very difficulties; that the theory of the Bible would be false did we not find the world precisely what we do find it; and that the great object of the Bible is to show how this very state of things (the great stumbling-block of every other form of religious belief) is part and parcel of the Divine arrangements for the accomplishment of God's wise and beneficent purposes. Let us pass on to the inferences resulting from these momentous facts. Consider, then, in what a new position, with respect to everything around us, we are all of us placed by this circumstance of the intimate, and almost social, connection which revelation thus declares to exist between ourselves arid our Maker. What a vast interest is communicated to the whole tenor of our existence when we recollect that we are not, as heathen speculation would teach us, placed as in a dreary moral solitude, withdrawn from the superintendence of the Divine mind, who has other and better occupations than to trouble Himself with the details of our sorrows or of our pleasures, of our good or of our bad actions; but that we subsist day and night under His all-searching eye; that not a thought passes through our breasts, not a word escapes our lips, but is pregnant with the consequences of our future weal or woe; that every apparent blessing, every seeming evil with which we are visited, has its peculiar errand and object, viz., the disciplining of our hearts, and the preparing us for immortality! ( Bp. Shuttleworth. ).

Benson Commentary Judges 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. Jdg 10:1 . There arose — Not of himself, but raised by God, as the other judges were. To defend — Or, to save, which he did, not by fighting against and overthrowing their enemies, but by a prudent and pious government of them, whereby he kept them from sedition, oppression, and idolatry. He dwelt in Shamir — Which was in the very midst of the land. Judges 10:2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. Judges 10:3 And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years. Jdg 10:3-4 . Jair, a Gileadite — Of Gilead, beyond Jordan. He had thirty sons — Who, it seems, were itinerant judges, and went from place to place, as their father’s deputies, to administer justice. That rode on thirty ass- colts — It was customary for the noblest persons to ride on those beasts, and that not only in Judea, but likewise in Arabia, and other countries, even among the Romans. Thirty cities, called Havoth-jair — That is, the villages of Jair. These villages were so called before this time from another Jair, but the old name was revived and confirmed upon this occasion. Judges 10:4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. Judges 10:5 And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. Judges 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. Jdg 10:6 . Israel served the gods of Syria — They added to their former idolatries the worship of new gods, particularly those of Syria, which were Bel, or Baal, Astarte, Dagon, Moloch, Thammuz. And the gods of Zidon — The supreme gods of the Sidonians were Baal and Ashtaroth: but it is likely they had more, such as Asaroth, Asarim, Asarah. And the gods of Moab — The principal of which was Chemosh, 1 Kings 11:7 . And the gods of the children of Ammon — The chief of which was Milcom, ( 1 Kings 11:5 ,) where Ashtaroth is mentioned as the goddess of the Sidonians. And the gods of the Philistines — They had more, it seems, besides Dagon, but their names are not mentioned in Scripture. And forsook the Lord — They grew worse and worse, and ripened themselves for ruin. Before, they worshipped God and idols together: now they forsake God, and wholly cleave to idols. Judges 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. Jdg 10:7-8 . He sold them into the hand of the Philistines, &c. — The one on the west, the other on the east, so that they were molested on both sides. That year they vexed, &c. — Or, that year they had vexed and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years — This was the eighteenth year from the beginning of that oppression. And these eighteen years are not to be reckoned from Jair’s death, because that would enlarge the time of the judges beyond the just bounds; but from the fourth year of Jair’s reign: so that the greatest part of Jair’s reign was cotemporary with this affliction. This case of Jair and that of Samson seem to be much alike. For as it is said of Samson, that he judged Israel in the days of the tyranny of the Philistines, twenty years, Jdg 15:20 ; by which it is evident that his judicature and their dominion were cotemporary; the like is to be conceived of Jair, that he began to judge Israel, and endeavoured to reform religion, and purge out all abuses; but being unable to effect this, through the backwardness of the people, God would not enable him to deliver the people, but gave them up to this sad oppression; so that Jair could only determine differences among the Israelites, but could not deliver them from their enemies. Judges 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. Judges 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. 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. Jdg 10:10 . We have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim — Not contented to add idols to thee, we have preferred them before thee. All the rest of the pagan gods, mentioned Jdg 10:6 , are here comprehended under the name of Baalim. They were so many and various, that they had entirely alienated the affections of the Israelites from their own, that is, the true God, as they now acknowledge in a penitential strain. Judges 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? Jdg 10:11 . The Lord said unto Israel — Either by some prophet whom he raised up, and sent for this purpose, or by the high-priest consulting God for them by Urim and Thummim. For we find that the Israelites, notwithstanding their idolatries, when they were sorely afflicted, bethought themselves of repairing to the tabernacle, and asking counsel of the Lord. Did not I deliver you from the Amorites? — Both Sihon and Og, and their people, and other kings of the Amorites. From the children of Ammon — Who were confederate with the Moabites, Jdg 3:13-14 . Judges 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. Jdg 10:12 . The Zidonians — We do not read of any oppression of Israel, particularly, by the Zidonians. But many things were done which are not recorded. The Maonites — Either, first, those who lived in or near the wilderness of Maon, in the south of Judah, 1 Samuel 23:25 ; 1 Samuel 25:2 ; whether Edomites or others. Or, secondly, the Mehunims, a people living near the Arabians, of whom see 2 Chronicles 26:7 . For in the Hebrew, the letters of both names are the same, only the one is the singular, the other the plural number. Judges 10:13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Jdg 10:13-14 . I will deliver you no more — Except you repent in another manner than you yet have done: which when they performed, God suspended the execution of this threatening: Cry unto the gods you have chosen — You have not been forced to worship those gods by your oppressors; but you have freely chosen them before me. Judges 10:14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. Judges 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. Jdg 10:15 . Do thou unto us, &c. — Do not give us up into the hands of these cruel men, but do thou chastise us with thine own hand as much as thou pleasest, if we be not more faithful and constant to thee than we have hitherto been. Judges 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. Jdg 10:16 . They put away the strange gods — As an evidence of the sincerity of their sorrow, and that they did not only confess their sins, but also forsake them. And it is probable that, for the present, a thorough reformation took place, and that they entirely quitted the worship of strange gods, and served the Lord alone. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel — That is, upon their repentance and reformation he turned away his anger, had compassion upon them on account of their miseries, and acted toward them like one that felt their sufferings. He changed his carriage toward them, and punished their enemies as sorely as if they had grieved and injured his own person. From this chapter we may learn the amazing depravity of human nature, and how readily it falls from one degree of degeneracy to another. God, who knows what our nature is, foresaw that apostacy to idolatry would be the certain consequence of the Israelites dwelling among the heathen nations, and therefore had strictly commanded them to expel those nations entirely out of Canaan, and to have no communication with them. But the Israelites did not obey his commands in this; and, in neglecting this one thing, fell into all the errors, crimes, and miseries, which God had forewarned them would be the consequence. They thought there was but little harm in letting the Canaanites remain among them as long as they lived peaceably with them. But, alas! evil communication unavoidably corrupts good manners; they could not converse and traffic with the Canaanites without, by degrees, contracting a friendship with them, perhaps thinking they should be strengthened by these alliances with the inhabitants of the land. This naturally produced at least a complaisant deference to their customs and religious ceremonies, and, in a little longer time, the adjoining some of those customs and ceremonies with their own; till at last they fell into all the abominations of the nations; to deliver them from which, the true God had done so many wondrous works. From hence we may learn how we may, by offending in a single point only, and that not seeming in itself absolutely immoral, or of any great consequence, be by degrees carried entirely out of the paths of piety, and brought to the greatest degeneracy. We may further observe, from the circumstances of the Israelites, related in this chapter, that afflictions are of great use, and are employed by God to bring men to a right sense of their duty, and into the paths of righteousness, from which they had wandered by their follies. And we may also learn, that God is always ready to receive us with forgiveness and mercy whenever we return to him. Judges 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. Judges 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. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Judges 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. GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF Jdg 10:1-18 ; Jdg 11:1-11 THE scene of the history shifts now to the east of Jordan, and we learn first of the influence which the region called Gilead was coming to have in Hebrew development from the brief notice of a chief named Jair, who held the position of judge for twenty-two years. Tola, a man of Issachar, succeeded Abimelech, and Jair followed Tola. In the Book of Numbers we are informed that the children of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the Amorites which were therein; and Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh. It is added that Jair, the son or descendant of Manasseh, went and took the towns of Gilead and called them Havvoth-jair; and in this statement the Book of Numbers anticipates the history of the judges. Gilead is described by modern travellers as one of the most varied districts of Palestine. The region is mountainous and its peaks rise to three and even four thousand feet above the trough of the Jordan. The southern part is beautiful and fertile, watered by the Jabbok and other streams that flow westward from the hills. "The valleys green Kith corn, the streams fringed with oleander, the magnificent screens of yellow-green and russet foliage which cover the steep slopes present a scene of quiet beauty, of chequered light and shade of uneastern aspect which makes Mount Gilead a veritable land of promise." "No one," says another writer, "can fairly judge of Israel’s heritage who has not seen the exuberance of Gilead as well as the hard rocks of Judaea, which only yield their abundance to reward constant toil and care." In Gilead the rivers flow in summer as well as in winter, and they are filled with fishes and fresh-water shells. While in Western Palestine the soil is insufficient now to support a large population, beyond Jordan improved cultivation alone is needed to make the whole district a garden. To the north and east of Gilead lie Bashan and that extraordinary volcanic region called the Argob or the Lejah, where the Havvoth-jair or towns of Jair were situated. The traveller who approaches this singular district from the north sees it rising abruptly from the plain, the edge of it like a rampart about twenty feet high. It is of a rude oval shape, some twenty miles long from north to south, and fifteen in breadth, and is simply a mass of dark jagged rocks, with clefts between in which were built not a few cities and villages. The whole of this Argob or Stony Land, Jephthah’s land of Tob, is a natural fortification, a sanctuary open only to those who have the secret of the perilous paths that wind along savage cliff and deep defile. One who established himself here might soon acquire the fame and authority of a chief, and Jair, acknowledged by the Manassites as their judge, extended his power and influence among the Gadites and Reubenites farther south. But plenty of corn and wine and oil and the advantage of a natural fortress which might have been held against any foe did not avail the Hebrews when they were corrupted by idolatry. In the land of Gilead and Bashan they became a hardy and vigorous race, and yet when they gave themselves up to the influence of the Syrians, Sidonians, Ammonites, and Moabites, forsaking the Lord and serving the gods of these peoples, disaster overtook them. The Ammonites were ever on the watch, and now, stronger than for centuries in consequence of the defeat of Midian and Amalek by Gideon, they fell on the Hebrews of the east, subdued them and even crossed Jordan and fought with the southern tribes, so that Israel was sore distressed. We have found reason to suppose that during the many turmoils of the north the tribes of Judah and Simeon and to some extent Ephraim were pleased to dwell secure in their own domains, giving little help to their kinsfolk. Deborah and Barak got no troops from the south, and it was with a grudge Ephraim joined in the pursuit of Midian. Now the time has come for the harvest of selfish content. Supposing the people of Judah to have been specially engaged with religion and the arranging of worship that did not justify their neglect of the political troubles of the north. It was a poor religion then, as it is a poor religion now, that could exist apart from national well being and patriotic duty. Brotherhood must be realised in the nation as well as in the church, and piety must fulfil itself through patriotism as well as in other ways. No doubt the duties we owe to each other and to the nation of which we form a part are imposed by natural conditions which have arisen in the course of history, and some may think that the natural should give way to the spiritual. They may see the interests of a kingdom of this world as actually opposed to the interests of the kingdom of God. The apostles of Christ, however, did not set the human and divine in contrast, as if God in His providence had nothing to do with the making of a nation. "The powers that be are ordained of God," says St. Paul in writing to the Romans; and again in his First Epistle to Timothy, "I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men: for kings and all that are in high place, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity." To the same effect St. Peter says, "Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake." Natural and secular enough were the authorities to which submission was thus enjoined. The policy of Rome was of the earth earthy. The wars it waged, the intrigues that went on for power savoured of the most carnal ambition. Yet as members of the commonwealth Christians were to submit to the Roman magistrates and intercede with God on their behalf, observing closely and intelligently all that went on, taking due part in affairs. No room was to be given for the notion that the Christian society meant a new political centre. In our own times there is a duty which many never understand, or which they easily imagine is being fulfilled for them. Let religious people be assured that generous and intelligent patriotism is demanded of them and attention to the political business of the time. Those who are careless will find, as did the people of Judah, that in neglecting the purity of government and turning a deaf ear to cries for justice, they are exposing their country to disaster and their religion to reproach. We are told that the Israelites of Gilead worshipped the gods of the Phoenicians and Syrians, of the Moabites and of the Ammonites. Whatever religious rites took their fancy they were ready to adopt. This will be to their credit in some quarters as a mark of openness of mind, intelligence, and taste. They were not bigoted; other men’s ways in religion and civilisation were not rejected as beneath their regard. The argument is too familiar to be traced more fully. Briefly it may be said that if catholicity could save a race Israel should rarely have been in trouble, and certainly not at this time. One name by which the Hebrews knew God was El or Elohim. When they found among the gods of the Sidonians one called El, the careless minded supposed that there could be no harm in joining in his worship. Then came the notion that the other divinities of the Phoenician Pantheon, such as Melcarth, Dagon, Derketo, might be adored as well. Very likely they found zeal and excitement in the alien religious gatherings which their own had lost. So they slipped into practical heathenism. And the process goes on among ourselves. Through the principles that culture means artistic freedom and that worship is a form of art we arrive at taste or liking as the chief test. Intensity of feeling is craved and religion must satisfy that or be despised. It is the very error that led Hebrews to the feasts of Astarte and Adonis, and whither it tends we can see in the old history. Turning from the strong earnest gospel which grasps intellect and will to shows and ceremonies that please the eye, or even to music refined and devotional that stirs and thrills the feelings, we decline from the reality of religion. Moreover a serious danger threatens us in the far too common teaching which makes little of truth, everything of charity. Christ was most charitable, but it is through the knowledge and practice of truth He offers freedom. He is our King by His witness bearing not to charity but to truth. Those who are anxious to keep us from bigotry and tell us that meekness, gentleness, and love are more than doctrine mislead the mind of the ago. Truth in regard to God and His covenant is the only foundation on which life can be securely built, and without right thinking there cannot be right living. A man may be amiable, humble, patient, and kind though he has no doctrinal belief and his religion is of the purely emotional sort; but it is the truth believed by previous generations, fought and suffered for by stronger men, not his own gratification of taste, that keeps him in the right way. And when the influence of that truth decays there will remain no anchorage, neither compass nor chart for the voyage. He will be like a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed. Again, the religious so far as they have wisdom and strength are required to be pioneers, which they can never be in following fancy or taste, Here nothing but strenuous thought, patient faithful obedience can avail. Hebrew history is the story of a pioneer people and every lapse from fidelity was serious, the future of humanity being at stake. Each Christian society and believer has work of the same kind not less important, and failures due to intellectual sloth and moral levity are as dishonourable as they are hurtful to the human race. Some of our heretics now are more serious than Christians, and they give thought and will more earnestly to the opinions they try to propagate. While the professed servants of Christ, who should be marching in the van, are amusing themselves with the accessories of religion, the resolute socialist or nihilist, reasoning and speaking with the heat of conviction, leads the masses where he will. The Ammonite oppression made the Hebrews feel keenly the uselessness of heathenism. Baal and Melcarth had been thought of as real divinities, exercising power in some region or other of earth or heaven, and Israel’s had been an easy backsliding. Idolatry did not appear as darkness to people who had never been fully in the light. But when trouble came and help was sorely needed they began to see that the Baalim were nothing. What could these idols do for men oppressed and at their wits’ end? Religion was of no avail unless it brought an assurance of One Whose strong hand could reach from land to land, Whose grace and favour could revive sad and troubled souls. Heathenism was found utterly barren, and Israel turned to Jehovah the God of its fathers. "We have sinned against Thee even because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baalim." Those who now fall away from faith are in worse case by far than Israel. They have no thought of a real power that can befriend them. It is to mere abstractions they have given the Divine name. In sin and sorrow alike they remain with ideas only, with bare terms of speculation in which there is no life, no strength, no hope for the moral nature. They are men and have to live; but with the living God they have entirely broken. In trouble they can only call on the Abyss or the Immensities, and there is no way of repentance though they seek it carefully with tears. At heart therefore they are pessimists without resource. Sadness deep and deadly ever waits upon such unbelief, and our religion today suffers from gloom because it is infected by the uncertainties and denials of an agnosticism at once positive and confused. Another paganism, that of gathering and doing in the world sphere, is constantly beside us, drawing multitudes from fidelity to Christ as Baal worship drew Israel from Jehovah, and it is equally barren in the sharp experiences of humanity. Earthly things venerated in the ardour of business and the pursuit of social distinction appear as impressive realities only while the soul sleeps. Let it be aroused by some overturn of the usual, one of those floods that sweep suddenly down on the cities which fill the valley of life, and there is a quick pathetic confession of the truth. The soul needs help now, and its help must come from the Eternal Spirit. We must have done with mere saying of prayers and begin to pray. We must find access, if access is to be had, to the secret place of the Most High on Whose mercy we depend to redeem us from bondage and fear. Sad therefore is it for those who having never learned to seek the throne of divine succour are swept by the wild deluge from their temples and their gods. It is a cry of despair they raise amid the swelling torrent. You who now by the sacred oracles and the mediation of Christ can come into the fellowship of eternal life, be earnest and eager in the cultivation of your faith. The true religion of God which avails the soul in its extremity is not to be had in a moment, when suddenly its help is needed. That confidence which has been established in the mind by serious thought, by the habit of prayer and reliance on divine wisdom can alone bring help when the foundations of the earthly are destroyed. To Israel troubled and contrite came as on previous occasions a prophetic message; and it was spoken by one of those incisive ironic preachers who were born from time to time among this strangely heathen, strangely believing people. It is in terms of earnest remonstrance he speaks, at first almost going the length of declaring that there is no hope for the rebellious and ungrateful tribes. They found it an easy thing to turn from their Divine King to the gods they chose to worship. Now they perhaps expect as easy a recovery of His favour. But healing must begin with deeper wounding, and salvation with much keener anxiety. This prophet knows the need for utter seriousness of soul. As he loves and yearns over his country folk he must so deal with them; it is God’s way, the only way to save. Most irrationally, against all sound principles of judgment they had abandoned the Living One, the Eternal to worship hideous idols like Moloch and Dagon. It was wicked because it was wilfully stupid and perverse. And Jehovah says, "I will save you no more, Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them save you in the day of your distress." The rebuke is stinging. The preacher makes the people feel the wretched insufficiency of their hope in the false, and the great strong pressure upon them of the Almighty, Whom, even in neglect, they cannot escape. We are pointed forward to the terrible pathos of Jeremiah:-"Who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare? Thou hast rejected me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee: I am weary with repenting." And notice to what state of mind the Hebrews were brought. Renewing their confession they said, "Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee." They would be content to suffer now at the hand of God whatever He chose to inflict on them. They themselves would have exacted heavy tribute of a subject people that had rebelled and came suing for pardon. Perhaps they would have slain every tenth man. Jehovah might appoint retribution of the same kind; He might afflict them with pestilence; He might require them to offer a multitude of sacrifices. Men who traffic with idolatry and adopt gross notions of revengeful gods are certain to carry back with them when they return to the better faith many of the false ideas they have gathered. And it is just possible that a demand for human sacrifices was at this time attributed to God, the general feeling that they might be necessary connecting itself with Jephthah’s vow. It is idle to suppose that Israelites who persistently lapsed into paganism could at any time, because they repented, find the spiritual thoughts they had lost. True those thoughts were at the heart of the national life, there always even when least felt. But thousands of Hebrews even in a generation of reviving faith died with but a faint and shadowy personal understanding of Jehovah. Everything in the Book of Judges goes to show that the mass of the people were nearer the level of their neighbours the Moabites and Ammonites than the piety of the Psalms. A remarkable ebb and flow are observable in the history of the race. Look at some facts and there seems to be decline. Samson is below Gideon, and Gideon below Deborah; no man of leading until Isaiah can be named with Moses. Yet ever and anon there are prophetic calls and voices out of a spiritual region into which the people as a whole do not enter, voices to which they listen only when distressed and overborne. Worldliness increases, for the world opens to the Hebrew; but it often disappoints, and still there are some to whom the heavenly secret is told. The race as a whole is not becoming more devout and holy, but the few are gaining a clearer vision as one experience after another is recorded. The antithesis is the same we see in the Christian centuries. Is the multitude more pious now than in the ago when a king had to do penance for rash words spoken against an ecclesiastic? Are the churches less worldly than they were a hundred years ago? Scarcely may we affirm it. Yet there never was an age so rich as ours in the finest spirituality, the noblest Christian thought. Our van presses up to the Simplon height and is in constant touch with those who follow; but the rear is still chaffering and idling in the streets of Milan. It is in truth always by the fidelity of the remnant that humanity is saved for God. We cannot say that when Israel repented it was in the love of holiness so much as in the desire for liberty. The ways of the heathen were followed readily, but the supremacy of the heathen was ever abominable to the vigorous Israelite. By this national spirit however God could find the tribes, and a special feature of the deliverance from Ammon is marked where we read: "The people, the princes of Gilead said one to the other, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead." Looking around for the fit leader they found Jephthah and agreed to invite him. Now this shows distinct progress in the growth of the nation. There is, if nothing more, a growth in practical power. Abimelech had thrust himself upon the men of Shechem. Jephthah is chosen apart from any ambition of his own. The movement which made him judge arose out of the consciousness of the Gileadites that they could act for themselves and were bound to act for themselves. Providence indicated the chief, but they had to be instruments of providence in making him chief. The vigour and robust intelligence of the men of Eastern Palestine come out here. They lead in the direction of true national life. While on the west of Jordan there is a fatalistic disposition, these men move. Gilead, the separated country, with the still ruder Bashan behind it and the Argob a resort of outlaws, is beneath some other regions in manners and in thought, but ahead of them in point of energy. We need not look for refinement, but we shall see power; and the chosen leader, while he is something of the barbarian, will be a man to leave his mark on history. At the start we are not prepossessed in favour of Jephthah. There is some confusion in the narrative which has led to the supposition that he was a foundling of the clan. But taking Gilead as the actual name of his father, he appears as the son of a harlot, brought up in the paternal home and banished from it when there were legitimate sons able to contend with him. We get thus a brief glance at a certain rough standard of morals and see that even polygamy made sharp exclusions. Jephthah, cast out, betakes himself to the land of Tob and getting about him a band of vain fellows or freebooter, becomes the Robin Hood or Rob Roy of his time. There are natural suspicions of a man who takes to a life of this kind, and yet the progress of events shows that though Jephthah was a sort of outlaw his character as well as his courage must have commended him. He and his men might occasionally seize for their own use the cattle and corn of Israelites when they were hard pressed for food. But it was generally against the Ammonites and other enemies their raids were directed, and the modern instances already cited show that no little magnanimity and even patriotism may go along with a life of lawless adventure. If this robber chief, as some might call him, now and again levied contributions from a wealthy flock master, the poorer Hebrews were no doubt indebted to him for timely help when bands of Ammonites swept through the land. Something of this we must read into the narrative, otherwise the elders of Gilead would not so unanimously and urgently have invited him to become their head. Jephthah was not at first disposed to believe in the good faith of those who gave him the invitation. Among the heads of households who came he saw his own brothers who had driven him to the hills. He must have more than suspected that they only wished to make use of him in their emergency and, the fighting over, would set him aside. He therefore required an oath of the men that they would really accept him as chief and obey him. That given, he assumed the command. And here the religious character of the man begins to appear. At Mizpah on the verge of the wilderness where the Israelites, driven northward by the victories of Ammon, had their camp there stood an ancient cairn or heap of stones which preserved the tradition of a sacred covenant and still retained the savour of sanctity. There it was that Jacob, fleeing from Padanaram on his way back to Canaan, was overtaken by Laban, and there raising the Cairn of Witness they swore in the sight of Jehovah to be faithful to each other. The belief still lingered that the old monument was a place of meeting between man and God. To it Jephthah repaired at this new point in his life. No more an adventurer, no more an outlaw, but the chosen leader of eastern Israel, "he spake all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah." He had his life. to review there, and that could not be done without serious thought. He had a new and strenuous future opened to him. Jephthah the outcast, the unnamed, was to be leader in a tremendous national struggle. The bold Gileadite feels the burden of the task. He has to question himself, to think of Jehovah. Hitherto he has been doing his own business and to that he has felt quite equal; now with large responsibility comes a sense of need. For a fight with society he has been strong enough; but can he be sure of himself as God's man, fighting against Ammon? Not a few words but many would he have to utter as on the hilltop in the silence he lifted up his soul to God and girt himself in holy resolution, as a father and a Hebrew, to do his duty in the day of battle. Thus we pass from doubt of Jephthah to the hope that the banished man, the freebooter, will yet prove to be an Israelite indeed, of sterling character, whose religion, very rude perhaps, has a deep strain of reality and power. Jephthah at the cairn of Mizpah lifting up his hands in solemn invocation of the God of Jacob reminds us that there are great traditions of the past of our nation and of our most holy faith to which we are bound to be true, that there is a God, our witness and our judge, in Whose strength alone we can live and do nobly. For the service of humanity and the maintenance of faith we need to be in close touch with the brave and good of other days and in the story of their lives find quickening, for our own. Along the same line and succession we are to bear our testimony, and no link of connection with the Divine Power is to be missed which the history of the men of faith supplies. Yet as our personal Helper especially we must know God. Hearing His call to ourselves we must lift the standard and go forth to the battle of life. Who can serve his family and friends, who can advance the well being of the world, unless he has entered into that covenant with the Living God which raises mortal insufficiency to power and makes weak and ignorant men instruments of a divine redemption? The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.