This is where we pick up today, with the Lord's answer. "The Lord replied, 'When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to Me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!'" (Judges 10:11-14) Some ancient manuscripts have the word "Midianites" in place of "Maonites". There is no other known ancient writing which references a people called the Maonites and it would be strange for the Lord to omit the Midianites from the list of those from whom He delivered Israel. Midianite is probably the correct translation.
At first it appears as if the Lord is refusing Israel's request for help. But I think, at their first cry, perhaps many of the people do not realize the depth of their betrayal of the Lord. I think perhaps they had not all considered how illogical it was to forsake the One who has delivered them so many times in favor of foreign gods who've done nothing for them. Where is the proof that Baal ever did anything for anyone? Or Asherah? Or Dagon? Or Molech? Or Milcom? Or Chemosh? Or any other god of the heathen nations surrounding Israel? There is no proof anyone but the Lord ever did anything on behalf of mankind! The Lord reminds the people of His power, of His deliverance, and of His faithfulness. Then He says, "But you prefer the gods of the nations to Me. You have turned your backs on Me in favor of them. Let them come and help you." I think He says this to make the people confront the enormity of their error. He doesn't want them to say, "We've made the Lord angry by serving other gods besides Him. We must apologize to Him in hopes He will help us." He wants them to say, "We've forsaken the one and only God. We've worshiped that which does not exist. When we turned from Him to idols, we were turning away from the living God to worship useless blocks of wood and stone."
I believe the people get the point the Lord is making. They repent again but this time they do it wholeheartedly. They don't turn back to Him while hanging onto idolatrous practices at the same time. They cast their useless idols aside. "But the Israelites said to the Lord, 'We have sinned. Do with us whatever You think best, but please rescue us now.' Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And He could bear Israel's misery no longer." (Judges 10:15-16) True repentance has occurred and now the Lord can respond affirmatively to their pleas for help.
"When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, 'Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.'" (Judges 10:17-18) They say, "We will serve whichever man among us is able to lead the army and defeat the Ammonites." This is where the next judge of Israel comes in. The Lord is about to call an unlikely person into that role.
"Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior." (Judges 11:1a) You might be thinking he doesn't sound like an unlikely choice to lead the people; he's a mighty warrior. Chapter 11 does begin with a description of this man that sounds promising. But then the author continues, "His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. 'You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,' they said, 'because you are the son of another woman.' So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him." (Judges 11:1b-3)
Jephthah was the illegitimate son of Gilead. It would appear that Gilead was aware of the existence of this son and acknowledged him as his son. He may have supported him as a son and treated him the same as his other children. But after Gilead's death his legitimate sons ran Jephthah out of town penniless. He's living as an outcast, estranged from his closest remaining family members and his townspeople. He's been joined by a band of misfits and malcontents. Of all the sons of Gilead, he seems the least likely to become a deliverer of Israel.
But as the Apostle Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, the Lord doesn't always call those with the most impressive pedigrees or with the biggest bank accounts to do great things for Him. He often calls those whom we'd least expect to become mighty warriors of the faith. As Paul said, "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things---and the things that are not---to nullify the things that are." Why does God go about things in this way? Paul tells us it's so no one can boast about themselves. The Lord does things this way, as Paul says in another passage, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7) When the Lord does mighty things through the weak, and when He makes great leaders from the lowly, all the glory goes to Him and not to man. This is for our benefit, for if we do not acknowledge and glorify Him as God, we will acknowledge and glorify someone or something else (even ourselves) as a god.
In tomorrow's passage this unlikely hero steps up to fight on behalf of his fellow Israelites.
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