Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble! (Judges 10:14)
God has been spurned by Israel. They have chose all gods but Yahweh, who can tolerate no rivals. Israel was to have no other gods before Yahweh. The old favourites are there (Baal and Ashthoreth), but now also the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines. (vv.6-7) It seems there was no idol the Israelites would not bow down to. And idols these gods were - made of wood and bronze and depicting an image of deity they represented.
Israel's disobedience led to inevitable and tragic consequences as yet again they became the victims of foreign raiders - this time the Ammonites and the Philistines. They cry out. They say they are sorry. Initially God refuses to help them. Why? Because they have not really repented. As they cry out to God, the shrines and idols of other gods are still evident in their life. Yahweh is just another god to cry out to in their distress. But then something shifted. They confessed again and they repented as they got rid of the foreign gods and started to serve God (vv.15-16). This is a critical turning point. Confession led to repentance which would then lead them to redemption and rescue.
The reformer John Calvin said, 'Man's nature, so to speak, is a factory of idols.' Calvin was saying that in our sinful state we have a creative 'talent' to create gods which we then worship rather than honoring the God we see revealed in scriptures and fully in Jesus Christ. We mass produce idols. An idol is anyhing that takes the place of God four our affections. A 21st century idol could be wealth, a big house, a comfortable lifestyle (materialism is the big 'I' Idol of our age). Idols drag our hearts and minds further from God, as the gods of the surrounding tribes captured the hearts and minds of Israel. If Calvin is right, and I think he is,we need to be delivered from bondage to idols continuously.
Here is the sobering challenge of Judges 10:15-16. Am I prepared to do more than confess my need for rescue from bondage? Am I prepared to take the next step and turn from idols, whatever they might be, and turn back to God - to repent? God is the one who saves, but he saves the repentant heart.
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