Judges Chapter 10 "The Ammonites and Jephthah." "The Evil Repented of [10-16]." "Deliverence by Jephthah [17-12:6]." This Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's transcription is provided by theseason.org The "judges" ruled over Israel before kings were appointed over them. This was the way that God selected to rule His people, and the judge was the intercessor between God and His people. The government of the Israelites was a theocracy, where by the control of the people was directed from these judges and the religious leaders. Gideon and his family are no longer in control of Israel, for Gideon or as his name was changed to Jerubbaal, was dead, as was Abimelech, as well as his seventy other children which Abimelech and his mother's family had murdered. 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." "Tula" in the Hebrew tongue means "a worm". The "tula worm" is a red worm that was used to make dye to color material. "Puah" means "splendid", while "Dodo" means "loving". We read in the first nine chapters of Judges where Israel continued to drift into apostasy and heathen religions once they had lost their judge or leadership. Now that Gideon is dead and gone, we see that God restored Tola to the Judge position, and he ruled well for twenty three years. When Tola gave direction to the Israelites, they followed. Tola was from the tribe of Issachar, but he lived amongst the tribe [mount] of Ephraim. Before Jacob died, he foretold each of this twelve sons what they would be like in the future years. Genesis 49:14 tell us what Issachar would be like; "Isaachar is a strong ass couching down between two burden:" [14] "And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and become a servant unto tribute." [15] Though the men of Issachar could work like a horse, they would be burdened with two burdens. So this is one of those prophecies of Jacob coming to pass. When we see God's Word coming to pass, this should strengthen our faith in Him. God's prophesies always come to pass exactly as they are written. The only prophesies that can be altered are those that are conditional, whereby when God warns you, "If you do this, then that would happen." The blessings or curses are all depended on what you do or say. So this is like a cycle with the Israelites as we have seen four prior times, when they lose their judge or spiritual leader, they lose sight of God and his laws and commandments and His love for them. The Israelites like to go and play around with spiritual harlotry when their leader is gone. 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 judge Israel twenty and two years." The name "Jair" means to "enlighten". There had been forty five years pass under the direction of these two judges, Tola and Jair. During this time the children of Israel remained true to God, and their leaders. Judges 10:4 "And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead." The name "Havoth-jair" simply means "the villages of Jair". We know that the number thirty in biblical numerics is the number that paid the price for our Lord betrayal, and the price paid to buy the potters field. It was a number dealing with betrayal. Judges 10:5 "And Jair died, and was buried in Camon." When Jair died, it marked the end a judge form of authority, and the children of Israel again were left to drift after heathen gods and religions. As we have seen in the past, here and now, or in the future, no matter what generation you are in, the children of Israel have continually drifted into apostasy. There is nothing new under the sun, that which has been, shall happen again, as far as types are concerned. God tells us this in Ecclesiastes 1:9. Ecclesiastes 1:9 "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." 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." This is where the children of Israel drifted right back to where they were prior to Gideon's rule. They had taken up the heathen religious practice of Baal and Ashtaroth. We discussed these two religious forms in detail under Judges 8:33, and it might be good to go back and review what Baal and Ashtaroth is all about. We will review Baal and Ashtaroth briefly. When you talk of Baal, you include the worship of Ashtaroh, for they are tied together as a unit. Where ever Baal worship exists, the groves are mentioned, as well as the word "Asherah". The word "Asherah" in the Hebrew is from the root word "Ashar", and it means "to be straight, erect, and upright". It is from this word that we get the moral reference, "to be upright", hense happy and prosper. The male part called "Asherah" [Baal] is distinguished from "Ashtaroth" the female goddess, yet the images are worshipped together. The Ashtaroth being representative of the productive (or passive) principle of life; and "Baal" or "Asherah" being representative of the generative (or active) part of the process for producing life. In other words this is using the sexual process in a form of worship, and the shaping of the trunks of the trees as the idols and images (groves) are done to excite the worshippers into the practice, and God hates the practice. It is from this form that the religious practices of "evolution" of today came, giving chance, and the reproductive processes of men and women the credit of creation and salvation for mankind. It leaves the Creator [God] out of the creation process, and man ends up worshipping the creation and himself, rather than the Creator, who is our Heavenly Father. Symbols mean everything in religious form, and the Ashrah, or the "phallus" becomes the symbol for the Baal worship. The forming of this symbol in their images, made from the topping of a tree, and shaping it becomes the image of worship. What started out to be the honoring of the origin of life, became corrupted into a form of worshipping of the organs that produce the life. These symbols, in turn, became the incentive to all forms of impurity, which in time turned into nothing but sexual orgies. This all started in the ancient Canaanite religions, which originated way back in Nimrod's day who was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah. Ham had four sons and their names were Cush, Mizriam, Phut, and Canaan, the father of the Canaanites who were the originators of the Baal, and Ashtorah. Nimrod was the son of Cush. It was for this reason that God gave the commandment to Israel that when they entered the promise land they were to destroy all of the Canaanites, and tare down their images and destroy their groves. That's right kill all the men, women and children, and even their animals. They did not destroy the Canaanites but mixed with them, and because of their disobedience to God, the Israelites have brought all their troubles to themselves. So when Jair the judge died, the Israelites not only returned to Baalism, but they turned to other forms of heathen practice. The "gods of Moab" were the worship forms to Molach, which included the practice of burning their children in sacrifice. The gods of Syria is given in Genesis 35:4; "And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem." The "gods of Syria" were charms which they wore in their ears, on their hands, and on their body. They made themselves charms and put their trust in these charms for their protection. Have you ever heard of a rabbits foot, a good luck charm and so on, well this is the sort of thing the Syrians relied heavy on. The "earrings" were part of Jacobs booty in the victory, and they were items made of precious metals. The "gods of Zidon" were also the worship of Baal, and Astarte which is the female part of Baal worship. Astarte had another name also for the name "Ishtar". It is from the feast of Ishtar that we get the celebration practice of "Easter" in which goes on today in most Christian church houses. What has happened is that the things and items of this feast of Ishtar, such as the egg hunt and rolling, the bunnies, the bonnets, the early morning bowing to the sun in their sunrise services, and other such items of worship, took on a new identity and Christians think that those things have been purified by their traditions. Rather then putting aside those items of heathen worship, the Christian world has hung on to them by redefining what they represent and their use. It is a game that many Christians play with God, thinking that somehow they can con God out of His hatred of those heathen images, symbols and what they stand for. The "god of the Philistines" was "Dagon" the fish god. We will read of Dagon in chapter twenty three, for it was at the feast to Dagon that all the Philistines gathered into one place, and Sampson brought down the house. Some six hundred years later than Sampson's time the people were brought to accept the teaching of Jonah and repent of their sins, when they thought Jonah was sent by Dagon the fish god. When the people of Nineveh witness and heard of Jonah being caste out onto the shore by the great fish that God prepared for Jonah, they wanted to hear all that Jonah had said. Their god was Dagon, and they thought Jonah's words were from Dagon that was sent to them through this messenger, and they were ready to hear and follow Jonah's words in detail. Jonah 3:5 "So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them." If you think that these gods aren't present today, stop and look around you. See what people are using to put their faith in and what strange thing they do in the name of religion. Remember there is nothing new under the sun, what was once practices and worshipped will return as a type later, however it may be in a different form. Our nation was established on the very principles of God's Word; His laws and commandments, and principles that are set forth in His Word. Yet today many of those principles, and even the laws and commandments of God are being replaced in our schools, courts and even our government. In the very laws of our land, our leaders are mocking God, and the sad part of it is that they think in their minds that they can get away with it. Their minds are set in the same mode of wickedness as our forefathers in the days of the judges. They tempted God by taking away His standards, and at the same time accepting the most hated forms of practices, such as Sodomy. They remove God and His Word from the schools and the public buildings, and then they wonder why our streets and filled with crime and children are doing the things that is going on today. Our constitution was formed from the laws and commandments of God, where by the people under that constitution would better serve God. It has taken our government only two hundred years to substitute a new form of government and exclude God from many of the basic elements of your life. They have taken away the absolutes of God's law, and replaced it with a different type of law, called the "law of precedent", whereby one court decision sets the example of how other similar court cases arising thereafter should be handled. The right or wrong of the case is determined by the man calling himself Judge, rather then the absolutes of God's Word. Law has become a game that these legal minds play which does two things, it makes them much money, and the outcome is in their hands and not God's. The law of today is like the spiritual games that the preachers and their church system play with the Word of God, and the outcome is the same. 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." Remember that their were many other peoples other then the Canaanites, Midianites, and so on, that were in the promised land, when the children of Israel took the land. The children of Ammon were one of those heathen, and the Philistines were two of those peoples that were in the land when Israel came out of the wilderness. These children of Ammon were the children of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. 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." These were the children of Israel of the tribes of Manasseh, Reuben and Gad that were on the east side of the Jordan river that were oppressed for the eighteen years. 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." In time these people of Ammon, the children of Lot through Ammon, came across the Jordan river and sought to take over all the land of the Israelites, to control them. When you give the enemy the foothold, in time they will try to take over everything. This is true even today, for as long as something doesn't affect them, they won't lift a finger to help his brother. As the Ammonites were suppressing the the tribes east of the river, the tribes west of the river could care less. However when they came against Judah, Benjamin and the rest of the tribes then the other tribes became alarmed. Little by little the children of Ammon took over Israel, and the tribes never became aroused until the Ammonites arrived on their doorstep. Stop and look at what is happening now in our land, little by little our rights are being taken from us, and the people sit back and sleep. The treaties are passed allowing our jobs to slip away to foreign lands, and the protection of our people through regulation of health laws are being bypassed for the sake of these treaties. The rights of our people are slowly and over many years being transferred from ourselves to our government, and onto an international one world system, and Christians today have no idea in the world what is happening. Our national parks, our military, and the duties of our governmental agencies are being turned over to the agencies of the United Nations, and all the time our people sit back and allow it to happen. We are allowing this takeover of our freedoms and wealth to go just so far before it will be time to wake up, and get control of things. This is the way that it has always happened all the way back to the time of the judges, and there is nothing new under the sun. Today is quite different though, for we are entering into another period of time like has never existed before, for we are entering into that time called "the great tribulation" [deception], in which Satan and his angels will be cast out onto the earth. The one world political system is being set up to prepare the way for Satan's one world religious system. When the political beast head received a mortal blow, then the religious beast head will heal and rise out of it. Revelation 13:3 "And I saw one of the heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly would was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." This is the political one world system, with all of the member nations around the world banded together as charter members in the United Nations. It is prophecy and it is also current events. This is the ten headed beast controlled by its ten agencies of power. The system will fall apart shortly, for a government dies when no one comes to respect it, and that is what is happening today. As the United Nations tries to set up their dynasties around the world that will give controlling authority to them, millions of people are killed and relocated. In time people will see the United Nations for what it is, the struggle of the Kenites to gain control and authority for their treaties and merchandising around the world. They are successful to this point because their agendas are hidden and all maneuvering is done in secret. Their control is done through their four hidden dynasties, that of Economics, Education, Politics and Religion. Most of the control of the Economics took place in the thirties, and during the second world war. The control of Education is done by legal means, and is done by controlling what shall be taught on the different levels of schooling. Even the press is part of it in seeking the control of these people, in trying to regulate the minds of what we accept as truth and reject. Economics produces and controls the flow the money that buys the politics of the different governments. Much of what the politicians do is controlled by the interest rates that are set by the private banking system called the "Federal Reserve". Most church systems of course have now been bought into the International "World council of churches", which is anti-God in nature, and goes against much of the teaching of God's Word. This system will fall very shortly at God's appointed time. Revelation 13:4 "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" When the political system falls, Satan will come here on earth with his angels, the locust army of the book of Joel. Satan will mend the difference and give power back to the fallen world government. In return for giving power to the government, it and all the people except God's "elect" will worship this dragon, who is Satan. Nobody wants to make war with Satan because they will all be worshipping him, Christian's alike because of their traditions. All except those with the seal or truth of God's Word hidden safely away in their minds. Have you ever wondered why the church isn't mentioned after Revelation 3? Their traditions say they will "fly-away", however, they will fly right into Satan's arms, for their traditions have taught them to run to the first Christ coming, that Christ is Satan, the false Christ. Satan will be an abomination to all of God's "elect". These are serious times, and it is important as to what you believe in your mind and do. 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." The children of Israel never seem to get around to crying to the Lord until things have gotten out of control. It is only then that our people seem to wake up and try to figure out why things god so far out of control. The Israelites finally figured out that they have forsaken God, and turned to serve Baalim. Once they recognized their sins, they cry out to God for forgiveness for those sins. They not only forsook God, but they played around with false religions. This is why God is hot against the people at this time. God is just as hot against His people today as He was then. God is ignored today by His people. 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?" When the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help, God is asking them, "Didn't I deliver you once before from these Egyptians, Ammorites and the Philistines?" The answer is yes. 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 hands." God is reminding the Israelites of all the times that they had been delivered, and yet they just wandered right back into the same degradation and sins that they had just come out of. The "Maonites" were not of the Canaanites, but they were a mixture of Moab and Ammon, much the way races mix today when they live in a same location. Families mix in marriage learn to get along, and in time they become one people. Both Moab and Ammon were sons of Lot. Each time the Israelites fell into sin and the worshipping of false religions, and they became oppressed, God delivered them. It happened over and over, and after they are delivered, in a short time they become sassy with God again and drift right back into the same position they were before. They make the same mistakes over and over. Judges 10:13 "Yet ye have forsaken Me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more." God is telling the Israelites that they have cause this upon themselves, and He is not going to bail them out this time. Judges 10:14 "Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation." It is surprising that God doesn't say this to our people today. God has prophesied that He is going to deliver us from the hand of Satan. We do have the victory when we are in Christ. However I don't blame God for what He says here, when the Israelites have gone back to the heathen ways time and time again. 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." The Israelites again humbled themself unto God, and it is right. This is the Israelites stating that what ever punishment that God gives to us, we have it coming. What ever you are going to do, do it, and then deliver us from these people this day. There is much heathenism that has been worked into church rituals today. Because of church traditions, most Christians don't know the difference between what is given in God's Word, and the traditions and customs of men that have been worked in through generations, and teachings that have been passed down through the years. However even with the traditions that goes against God's Word, when the people come to the point of crying out to God for help, He will help those that seek Him in earnest. 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." God loves His children and every time they turn from Him, it grieves Him for what they will go through. No matter what you have done that got you into trouble, God still loves you, and waits for you to call upon Him. Love is the most powerful force in the earth or in heaven. 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." The word "Mizpeh" means "watchtower". This place of Mizpah was the location where Jacob and Laban his father in law gathered stones to build a pile, or pillar of rocks that were to establish a covenant between Jacob's family and Laban's family, that neither family would do harm to the other. Genesis 31:45 "And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar." Genesis 31:46 "And Jacob said unto his brethren, "Gather stones;" and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap." Genesis 31:47 "And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed;" Genesis 31:48 "And Laban said, "This heap is a witness between me and thee this day." Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;" Genesis 31:49 "And Mizpah; for he said, "The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another." This is where the covenant was made between Jacob and Laban, and with God the witness. So we are at the same place, before those same stones that were placed about five hundred years earlier, to make another covenant with God. 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." So the people are gathered together to fight against these people of Ammon, but they are wondering who is strong enough or wise enough to do the job. If there is anything that we can learn from the book of Judges, it is that God does the choosing of those that are to lead His people. In the prior times of deliverance God used the younger brother of Caleb to chase out to Canaanites, He used the cripple Ehud to get rid of the fat king Eglon, and his overweight army. God used the woman Deborah, to lead His troops into battle; and the scared Gideon who was out in the orchard hiding from the enemy, to His trimmed down forces of three hundred men to go against hundreds of thousands of Midianites. God uses whom He chooses to fight the battles so that He gets the credit for the victory. These Israelites are all confused who they are to get to lead them into battle. What is the true answer? Our Heavenly Father, He is always with us, yet they refuse to allow Him to do the job, for they just have to have a man to take their orders from. This is why God uses men and women, just as He had in these times of the Judges. So the lesson that we are to learn from this is that God will chose whom ever He wants to, and He will do it His way in the leading of the people. In the next chapter God is going to chose a man named "Jephthah" to lead the people, and the name "Jephthah" in the Hebrew tongue means "Whom God [Ja] sets free [delivers]". The one thing that we see of Jephthah is that he continually talks with God, and listens to God's instructions.
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