The High Cost of Spiritual Adultery Text: Judges 10:6-9
Introduction: The Downward Spiral
The book of Judges is a brutal and necessary book. It is not a collection of flannel-graph heroes for Sunday School, but rather a stark depiction of a nation in a death spiral. And the engine of that spiral, the thing that keeps the cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance turning, is the persistent, adulterous heart of Israel. As one commentator has noted, the pattern is grimly predictable: sin, servitude, supplication, salvation. And then, they do it again, only worse this time.
We modern Christians like to think we are above all this. We read about the Baals and the Ashtaroth and we imagine grotesque statues in dusty, far-off lands. We don't have idols, we tell ourselves. But this is a profound failure of imagination. Idolatry is not primarily about statues; it is about allegiance. It is about whatever you serve in order to get what you want. An idol is any created thing that you look to for deliverance, for prosperity, for meaning, or for security. And by that definition, our nation is cluttered with more idols than ancient Canaan ever was. We have the idols of comfort, security, sexual expression, political power, and personal autonomy. We don't carve them out of wood, but we enthrone them in our hearts, and we sacrifice our children to them on the altar of convenience.
This passage in Judges 10 is a particularly dark turn in the spiral. After a period of relative peace under the minor judges Tola and Jair, Israel plunges headlong into the most comprehensive idolatry yet. They don't just pick one or two local gods; they go on a spiritual shopping spree, collecting the gods of every surrounding nation. This is not syncretism; this is a complete and total abandonment of Yahweh. They forsook Him. And when you forsake the fountain of living waters, you should not be surprised when you find yourself thirsty in a desert of your own making, surrounded by broken cisterns that can hold no water.
What we are about to read is the entirely predictable, entirely just, and entirely terrifying consequence of covenant infidelity. When God's people decide they want to serve other gods, a holy and jealous God will sometimes, in His righteous anger, give them exactly what they want, good and hard. He will hand them over to the nations whose gods they so admire, so they can learn firsthand what kind of masters those gods really are.
The Text
Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him. So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. And they shattered and smashed the sons of Israel that year; for eighteen years they did this to all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in Gilead in the land of the Amorites. Then the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.
(Judges 10:6-9 LSB)
A Buffet of Idolatry (v. 6)
We begin with the charge sheet, the detailed account of Israel's spiritual treason.
"Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him." (Judges 10:6)
The word "again" is one of the saddest words in this book. It speaks of a people who are not learning. Despite deliverance after deliverance, they return to their sin like a dog to its vomit. They did what was evil "in the eyes of Yahweh." This is the only standard that matters. Public opinion polls, cultural trends, and personal feelings are all irrelevant. The question is not "what is right in your own eyes?" but "what is right in His?"
And what was this evil? It was wholesale idolatry. They served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the standard Canaanite fertility gods. Baal was the god of storms and agriculture, the god you served to make your crops grow and your business prosper. Ashtaroth was the goddess of love and war, the goddess you served for sexual gratification and victory. Think of them as the ancient gods of money and sex. Sound familiar? But they didn't stop there. They went on to collect a whole pantheon of pagan deities.
They served the gods of Aram (Syria), the gods of Sidon (Phoenicia), the gods of Moab (Chemosh), the gods of Ammon (Molech, who demanded child sacrifice), and the gods of the Philistines (Dagon). This is a comprehensive rejection of the first commandment. They wanted to be like the nations, and so they adopted the gods of the nations. This is the essence of worldliness. It is an attempt to find security and satisfaction in the systems and powers of this fallen world, rather than in the Creator of it.
The verse concludes with a devastating summary: "thus they forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him." This was not a syncretistic blending; it was a complete replacement. When you try to serve both God and Mammon, you will eventually hate the one and love the other. They had made their choice. They had filed for divorce from their covenant Lord. And in a covenant relationship, infidelity has consequences.
The Burning Anger of a Jealous God (v. 7)
God's response is not one of detached disappointment. It is a holy, righteous, and personal anger.
"So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon." (Judges 10:7)
Our modern sensibilities are often offended by the idea of God's anger. We want a God who is a cosmic teddy bear, always affirming and never judging. But a God who does not get angry at evil is not a good God. A God who is indifferent to the spiritual adultery of His bride is not a loving husband. God's anger is the necessary expression of His holiness and His love. Because He is holy, He hates sin. Because He loves His people, He hates to see them destroy themselves with idols.
His anger is not a petty tantrum; it is a judicial act. "He sold them." This is covenantal language. They had broken the terms of the covenant, and so God, as the righteous judge, delivered them over to the consequences. And notice the terrible irony. He sells them into the hands of the very nations whose gods they had chosen to worship. "You want the gods of the Philistines and the Ammonites? Fine. You can have the Philistines and the Ammonites as your masters. See how you like their rule. See if their gods will deliver you." This is the principle of Romans 1 in action: God gives them over to the lusts of their hearts. The punishment fits the crime, because the punishment is the crime, taken to its logical conclusion.
The Crushing Weight of Servitude (v. 8-9)
The consequences of God's judgment are not abstract. They are brutal, tangible, and long-lasting.
"And they shattered and smashed the sons of Israel that year; for eighteen years they did this to all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in Gilead in the land of the Amorites. Then the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed." (Judges 10:8-9)
The language here is violent: "they shattered and smashed." This is not a polite political takeover. This is a crushing, humiliating oppression. For eighteen long years, the people in the Transjordan, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, lived under this hammer. Eighteen years is long enough for a generation to grow up knowing nothing but servitude. This is what happens when God removes His hand of protection.
But the oppression didn't stay on the other side of the river. The Ammonites, emboldened by their success, "crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim." The cancer of oppression was spreading into the heartland of Israel. This was a national crisis. The result was that "Israel was greatly distressed." The word for distressed here means to be in a tight spot, to be hemmed in with no way out. They had forsaken the God who makes a way in the wilderness, and now they found themselves trapped in a wilderness of their own choosing.
This distress is a severe mercy. It is the pain that tells you something is deeply wrong. It is the hangover that follows the drunken party of idolatry. God brings His people to this point of desperation not to destroy them, but to bring them to their senses. He corners them so that the only way they can look is up.
Conclusion: The Only Way Out is Up
This passage is a stark warning, but it is not without hope. The book of Judges, for all its darkness, is a testament to the fact that God's mercy is more stubborn than Israel's sin. This severe distress is the necessary prelude to their crying out to God for deliverance, which is what they will do in the very next verse. God's judgments are never merely punitive; they are always redemptive in their purpose for His people.
The application for us is straightforward and sharp. We must see that our culture is engaged in the same mad idolatry as ancient Israel. We have forsaken Yahweh and are serving the gods of sexual autonomy, materialism, and state power. And we are beginning to feel the consequences. We are being shattered and smashed by the very ideologies we have embraced. We are greatly distressed, anxious, divided, and fearful.
The solution is not a new political program or a clever cultural strategy. The solution is the same as it was for Israel. It is to recognize our spiritual adultery, to confess that we have forsaken the Lord, and to cry out to Him for deliverance. It is to put away our foreign gods, to tear down the idols in our hearts and in our land, and to serve the Lord alone.
The good news of the gospel is that God has not left us to save ourselves. He has sent a final and perfect Judge, a Deliverer who did not simply defeat our temporal enemies, but who defeated sin and death itself. Jesus Christ is the true Judge who breaks the cycle of sin. He took upon Himself the burning anger of God that we deserved for our idolatry. He was shattered and smashed for our transgressions. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver, so that we might be bought back from our slavery to sin. Because of His sacrifice, we can be forgiven for our spiritual adultery and welcomed back into a covenant relationship with the living God.
Therefore, let us learn the lesson of Judges 10. Let us not wait for eighteen years of oppression to turn back to God. Let us confess our idolatries now, forsake them, and cling to Christ, our only hope and our true Deliverer. For He alone is worthy of our worship, and in His service alone is perfect freedom.