Judges, Chapter 10 - When Heaven Hides | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of Judges chapter 10 brought to you by the Land [music] of Israel network at the landofisrael.com. And we've experienced now one of the biggest catastrophes in the book, Abimelech. And after the thorn bush, the fire, the millstone, chapter 10 opens up finally with something a little bit more tender. Two judges, quiet, faithful, they're not really known, Tola and Jair. No enemy armies, no miraculous battles, no clay jars and torches, just men who showed up and served. Tola for 23 years and Jair for 22. 45 years of stability. Of the kind of faithful, unglamorous leadership that holds a nation together even when there's no songs that are being written about it. You know, the old saying says, "Happy families, they pretty much all look the same." You know happy when you see it, but when things go wrong, there are a million different ways it can go ugly. And so in some ways these judges were the most successful. They just led Israel exactly the way we would have imagined a good life in the land. And so verse one reads, "And after Abimelech, there arose to save Israel, Tola." And the sages ask immediately, "Save? What are they saving them from? There's no war recorded." And the answer is he saved them from internal collapse. Because after the aftershock of Abimelech, the moral anarchy that just like who knows what could have been. And not every salvation is a war. And sometimes the greatest act is stabilizing a people after the corruption. And this invisible tikkun, this fixing, is really what sets the stage for a next possible redemption. And the text adds a detail that seems unnecessary, "Tola dwelt in Shamir." And why tell us where he lived? So some commentators connect the Shamir to the legendary Shamir, the miraculous worm that would cut stone without metal used to build the temple. And so there's a force that shapes what's hard and resistance through persistence, unseen pressure, not violence. And after a chapter of brutality and fire, comes a leader whose influence is like the Shamir, quiet, almost invisible, but shaping the nation what seemed pretty much unshapeable. And verse four says about Jair, "He had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities." So the donkey detail is a little bit more loaded than it appeared. The sages say, "Mashiach is described as ani verohev al chamor, a humble riding a donkey." Jair's sons ride the donkey as the sign of status. Mashiach rides the donkey as a sign of humility. It's like the same image, but a completely inverted meaning. And the spirit of the rider is everything. Yeah, and that's one of the most, I guess, countercultural ideas. Um definitely like in the book of Shoftim, right? This book is full of drama. Like we were just tortures and tent pegs and burning towers, and then suddenly Tola judged Israel 23 years and died and was buried in Shamir, right? No miracles, no battles, just faithful presence. Right? The Torah places these two quiet judges right after the chaos of Abimelech deliberately. Because after a thorn bush sets everything on fire, what Israel needed most wasn't another spectacular deliverer, it needed someone whose influence worked like the Shamir, right? Persistent and unseen, and just shaping that which is resistant with with like a gentleness, right? Tola and Jair maybe they're very underrated figures, I think, in the entire book. They're just overlooked, glossed over, but I think they're underrated. It's really true. And you know, eventually they move on. They die. And what happens? The cycle of Israel in the book of Judges begins again. Verse six, "Vayosefu bnei Yisrael lasot hara b'einei Hashem." The children of Israel did evil again in the eyes of Hashem. Again, it's like this time though, something's different. And the idolatry that we see now as we're getting further and further into the book of Judges is becoming worse and worse. It's like not just the Baal, the text lists seven gods, the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, and Canaan. I mean, this is not just like a drift away, it's a total spiritual collapse of identity. I mean, they're not just simply turning away, they're scattering themselves spiritually in every direction. Israel doesn't just forget God, they replace him almost systematically with everything else possible. And he sells them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites simultaneously. 18 years, two directions at once. The suffering spreads until there's no safe corner in Israel. And then what does it say, verse nine? "Vatetzar libnei Yisrael me'od." And Israel was very greatly distressed. And then Israel cries out, "We have sinned to you." Verse 10, "We have sinned against you." The right words, familiar words, the words that have worked every time before. But this time Hashem answers, but not in the way that he answers before. Not with a judge, not with comfort, but with a list. Hashem responses with the match that really is a perfect symmetry. Israel worships seven gods, Hashem lists seven rescues in return. Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, the Maonites. Seven gods abandoned, "Seven times I came." The Torah is counting, and the count is deliberate. Seven nations, seven rescues, "Every time you fell, I was there." And verse 13, "But you have forsaken me." "Therefore, I will deliver you no more." That's a first. Hashem is like, "I am done. It's time you learned a lesson." And then he says, verse 14, "Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you." You can just hear a broken heart. "If those gods matter so much to you, go ask them. See what they can do." Yeah, you know, it sounds like even a parent speaking to a rebellious child that's choosing their friends over the parent saying, "Okay, go ask your friends. They'll be there for you. They're not going to be there for you." Right? It's almost like this is the moment the entire chapter like turns on. For the first time in Shoftim, Hashem refuses. He's a he's heard this cry before. He's answered it before. And every time Israel went back and and Hashem is now asking the hardest question a loving parent can ask, "Is this repentance or is this just pain? Do you actually want me or do you just want me to fix your circumstances? Because those are not the same thing. And I will not be used that way anymore. I'm a you're maturing as a nation, and I'm expecting more of you." You know, and Israel hears it, and they actually listen. And they say, verse 15, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good in your eyes." I mean, that is not the cry of someone who wants their circumstances changed. They surrender. Like they're not bargaining, there's no more dictating the terms, they're placing themselves entirely in Hashem's hands. And then they act. They don't just say it, even though Hashem said he's out, they still are doing their best to try to fix their ways. Verse 16, "They removed the foreign gods from among them, and they served Hashem." And so notice the order. The sages emphasize first they remove the evil. Only then they serve. "Sur mera ve'aseh tov." The first step is to turn away from the evil, and then you can start to do good. You can't build a You can't build a truth on the top of idolatry. I mean, there has to be a clearing. It's not a speech, there doesn't need to be prayer, it's action, physical, concrete. It's the first step, and they need to start by fixing themselves. And then just the most extraordinary verse is right now. I mean, I just love the insight. This is verse 16. "And his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel." "Vatiktzar nafsho." His soul was shortened, constricted. It's as if the sight of Israel's suffering was too much to contain. It's as if the space inside Hashem's compassion wasn't large enough to hold the pain of his people any longer. He could not longer handle it. He just couldn't bear it. After everything, after seven gods, after 18 years, after saying I'll deliver you no more, Hashem looks at his people suffering, and he just loves Israel so much, he can't endure their suffering. Yeah, Jeremy, that verse that you just quoted, I think it really has it's one of the most beautiful and powerful statements about the nature of God in all of the Torah, I think, possibly. You know, he just said, "I will not deliver you anymore." And then his soul was pained, troubled, shortened. I don't know the right word in English by their misery, right? The anger of Hashem and the compassion of Hashem are not opposites. They're both expressions of love. The anger is because he cares too much to watch his people destroy themselves. The compassion is because he cannot bear to watch them suffer even the just consequences of their own actions. Both are love. No contradiction, just a love so so large and encompassing that it contains both. You know, and that's what we're left with. Hashem has an unconditional and unbreakable love for the people of Israel. And the chapter closes with Israel gathered. No deliverer, no judge, no name on the horizon, just a question hanging in the air. Verse 18, "Who is the man that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon?" Who is the man? And notice Yachin, begin, not finished, not succeed, begin. Redemption doesn't start with a complete solution. It starts with someone willing to take the first step. It's imperfect, it may be incomplete, but it's real. That's the hidden invitation. Who will begin? It's the question Hashem is always asking every generation. Not who will finish everything perfectly, but who will start? And that person's name is Iftach, and his story begins tomorrow. Chapter 10, you know, it doesn't have any battles, there's no miracles, there's no military victories, but it may be the most theologically honest chapter in the book because it shows us what real teshuvah looks like. Total surrender. "Do to us what seems good in your eyes." And then it shows us what Hashem does with that. His soul could no longer bear it. The heart of the entire book. That's the heart of the covenant that God has with Israel. No matter how far Israel drifts, when they genuinely turn back, they're always met by a God whose soul cannot endure their suffering [music] because he loves them so much. All right, my friends. Hazak u'barukh. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for [music] Judges chapter 11, the story of Iftach. >> [music]