Judges 10:6

ISRAEL FELL INTO IDOLATRY AGAIN (Judges 10:6-9)

"And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Jehovah, and served him not. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. And they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years oppressed they all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Ammonites, which is in Gilead. And the children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed."

Beginning here, and through the end of the chapter, we have what some have called an expansion of the usual introductory paragraph recounting the usual cycle, of apostasy, oppression, crying unto Jehovah, and the sending of relief. The surprise that some have expressed at this is due to their failure to recognize the fact that we have here a double introduction: (1) There is the introduction to the judgeship of Jephthah and his deliverance of Israel out of the hand of the Ammonites, and (2) this chapter also is an introduction anticipating the conflict of Samson with the Philistines. "This also explains the fact that the Samson narrative, which is the second longest in the Book of Judges, has but a single verse introducing the story."[11]

Yates also agreed that, "This chapter is introductory to the Samson story (Judges 10:13:1-16:31), as well as to the judgeship of Jephthah (Judges 11:1-40)."[12]

"And Israel served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth ..." (Judges 10:6). In addition to these, they also served: (2) the gods of Syria (which are never mentioned by name); (3) of Sidon (Astarte); (4) of the Moabites (Chemosh); (5) the Ammonites (Milcom); (6) or Molech; and (7) the god of the Philistines (Dagon). As Keil noted, "Seven of these heathen deities are mentioned as being served by the Israelites."[13] Some writers express amazement at the repeated apostasies of Israel, wondering how a people so often blessed of God could again and again resort to idolatry, but, human nature being what it is, there is noting unusual about it. This is exactly the thing that always happens when a people is not diligent to cultivate and nurture the spiritual resources which God has provided.

This very day, America is threatened with a total relapse into idolatry. Oh yes, the old idols of antiquity are no longer visible, but the drunkards of our era are worshipping Bacchus no less than did the ancient citizens of Crete; and our sex-mad generation is worshipping Aphrodite Pan Demos no less than the wicked inhabitants of Corinth at the top of their Acro Corinthus; and the diabolical leaders of Communistic tyranny all over the world, such as the evil masters of Cuba, China, and Russia (until recently), these evil denizens, are worshipping Mars (the God of War) no less than did the ancient Romans.

Also, as William Jennings Bryan said a few years ago, "What about the gods of Fashion, Travel, Money, Power, Pleasure, Self, etc."? Are not millions worshipping these gods?

Carl F. H. Henry, editor of "The Christian Century," published an article November 5,1980, p. 32, warning America about the consequences of its current lapse into idolatry.

"God may thunder His awesome [@paradidomi] (I abandon them, or I give them up, as in Romans 1:24ff) over America's professed greatness. Our massacre of one million fetuses a year; our deliberate flight from the monogamous family; our normalizing of fornication and adultery; our shameful acceptance of homosexuality and other sexual perversions - all these things represent a quantum leap in moral deterioration, a leap more awesome than even the gulf between conventional weapons and nuclear missiles. Today, American has all but tripped the worst ratings on God's Richter scale of fully-deserved moral judgment."[14]

The awesome record of God's punitive judgments upon the antediluvian world, upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and upon many cultures and civilizations since them should be enough to warn America that:

There is by us unseen

A hidden boundary between

God's mercy and God's wrath!