The Mercy of a Divine Refusal Text: Judges 10:10-16
Introduction: The Revolving Door of Sin
The book of Judges is a brutal and necessary book. It is a record of a nation's spiritual vertigo. The pattern is stamped onto the pages again and again, a nauseating cycle of sin, oppression, crying out, and deliverance. Israel sins, God sells them into the hands of their enemies, they get miserable enough to remember Yahweh's name, they cry out, and God, in His inexplicable mercy, raises up a deliverer. And for a generation, there is peace. But as soon as the deliverer is in the ground, the people rush back to their idols like a dog to its vomit. It is a revolving door, and with each rotation, the nation spirals further down into chaos and depravity.
We modern Christians like to read this and cluck our tongues at the Israelites. We think ourselves so much more sophisticated. Our idols are not carved from wood or stone; they are ideologies, comforts, political saviors, and the great god of self. But the principle is identical. We want God's deliverance without God's lordship. We want the benefits of the covenant without the obligations of the covenant. We treat God like a cosmic vending machine. We ignore Him, we cheat on Him with every cheap god the world has to offer, and then when the consequences of our spiritual adultery catch up with us, when the bills come due and the enemies are at the gate, we run back and frantically punch the button for "deliverance."
Our text today brings us to a critical point in this cycle. Israel has been whoring after the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines. They collected gods like baseball cards. And as a result, God has given them over to the oppression of the Philistines and the Ammonites for eighteen years. The misery has finally reached a boiling point, and so, right on schedule, Israel cries out to Yahweh. But this time is different. This time, God says no. This is a terrifying and glorious moment. It is terrifying because it reveals the severity of their sin. It is glorious because this divine refusal is actually a deeper form of mercy, designed to break the cycle and provoke a repentance that is more than just a foxhole conversion.
The Text
And the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.” Then Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? Also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you. And you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” Then the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned, so You, do to us whatever seems good in Your eyes; only please deliver us this day.” So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and He could bear the trouble of Israel no longer.
(Judges 10:10-16 LSB)
A Correct but Cheap Confession (v. 10)
The cycle begins as it always does, with a cry born of misery.
"And the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, 'We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.'" (Judges 10:10)
On the surface, this looks good. They use all the right words. They confess sin. They identify the specific nature of that sin: forsaking God and serving idols. This is a theologically accurate statement. They have diagnosed their own disease correctly. They know the script. They have been here before, and they know what God wants to hear.
But we must learn to distinguish between the confession of a guilty man who has been caught and the repentance of a son who is broken over his betrayal. Their words are correct, but their hearts are still mercenary. Their cry is motivated by their distress, not by a genuine grief over their disloyalty to God. They are sorry they are suffering, but they are not yet sorry they have sinned. This is the kind of "repentance" that simply wants the pain to stop. It is a utilitarian repentance. They are not turning to God because they love Him; they are turning to Him because their other gods, the Baals, have proven to be useless in a pinch. Their confession is an attempt to manipulate the system, to say the magic words that will get God to pull the lever of deliverance one more time.
How many of our prayers are like this? We get ourselves into trouble through our own foolishness, our own flirtations with the world, and then we come to God with a technically correct confession, hoping He will bail us out so we can go back to our lives of low-grade compromise. But God is not interested in being our cosmic repairman. He is interested in being our Lord.
God's Righteous Refusal (v. 11-14)
God's response is a history lesson and a shocking refusal. He holds up a mirror to their treacherous hearts.
"Then Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, 'Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? Also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you. And you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.'" (Judges 10:11-14 LSB)
God does not immediately soothe them. He confronts them. He recites His resume of faithfulness. He reminds them of a long history of their distress and His deliverance. Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians, Amalekites, Maonites, the list goes on. Every time they got into trouble, they cried out, and He saved them. His faithfulness has been relentless. Their unfaithfulness has been equally relentless. "Yet you have forsaken Me."
This is the heart of the matter. God is a jealous God. He is a husband who will not tolerate an adulterous wife who only comes home when she needs money. Their sin is not just a mistake; it is a profound personal betrayal. And so He delivers the stunning blow: "therefore I will no longer save you."
And then He drives the point home with divine sarcasm. "Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress." This is the logic of idolatry laid bare. You have given your worship, your affection, your loyalty, and your resources to these other gods. You have served them. Now, in your time of trouble, go ask them for a return on your investment. Go see if Baal can stop the Ammonites. Go ask Ashtoreth for a military strategy. God is forcing them to confront the absolute bankruptcy of their idols. Idols are happy to take your worship, but they are powerless to give you deliverance. They are all take and no give.
This is not God being cruel. This is God being a wise and loving Father. Sometimes the most merciful thing a father can do for a rebellious son is to let him hit rock bottom. It is to say, "You want to live by your own rules? Go ahead. Let's see how that works out for you." God is withdrawing His hand of deliverance, not to destroy them, but to make them realize that He is their only hope. He is wounding them in order to heal them. He is pushing them away so that they might truly come back.
The Birth of True Repentance (v. 15)
God's sharp rebuke works. It cuts through their cheap confession and produces the first signs of genuine brokenness.
"Then the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, 'We have sinned, so You, do to us whatever seems good in Your eyes; only please deliver us this day.'" (Judges 10:15 LSB)
Notice the shift in tone. The first confession was a simple statement of fact. This one is a posture of unconditional surrender. They say, "We have sinned." And then they throw themselves entirely on His mercy. "Do to us whatever seems good in Your eyes." This is the language of true repentance. It stops making demands. It stops trying to bargain. It relinquishes all claims and all rights. It says, "We deserve whatever punishment you see fit to give us. We have no standing here. Our only plea is for mercy."
They are no longer trying to manage God. They are finally casting themselves upon God. They still ask for deliverance, "only please deliver us this day," but the request is now grounded in a recognition of their own bankruptcy and God's absolute sovereignty. It is the difference between an employee demanding a paycheck and a beggar pleading for a crust of bread. This is the turning point. God's refusal to accept their first, shallow confession has produced a second, deeper one.
Repentance in Action (v. 16)
True repentance is never just words. It is always accompanied by action. It is a turning, and a turning is visible.
"So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and He could bear the trouble of Israel no longer." (Judges 10:16 LSB)
Here is the fruit that proves the repentance is real. They did not just talk about their sin; they took a sledgehammer to it. They "removed the foreign gods from among them." They cleaned house. They didn't just hide their idols in the attic; they cast them out. And they did not just stop doing the wrong thing; they started doing the right thing. They "served Yahweh." Repentance has two parts: putting off and putting on. You put off the old man with his deceitful desires, and you put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).
And what is God's response to this genuine, active repentance? The text gives us one of the most tender and astonishing phrases in all of Scripture: "and He could bear the trouble of Israel no longer." The Hebrew says His soul was "shortened" or "impatient" over their misery. This is a profound anthropomorphism, giving us a glimpse into the heart of God. The very God who, just a few verses earlier, had refused to save them, is now so moved by their genuine turning that He cannot stand to see them suffer another moment. His heart is grieved by their misery.
This is our God. He is a holy God who will not tolerate sin and will not be manipulated by cheap confessions. But He is also a compassionate Father whose heart breaks for His children when they are in misery. His discipline is severe, but its goal is always restoration. His anger is a fire that burns away the dross, but His heart is a sea of mercy for the truly repentant.
The Gospel in the Cycle
This entire cycle is a picture of our relationship with God, and it points us directly to the cross of Jesus Christ. We, like Israel, are serial idolaters. We are constantly forsaking the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13). And our sin deserves God's righteous refusal. It deserves the verdict, "I will no longer save you. Go cry out to your money, your reputation, your politics, and see if they can save you on the day of judgment."
But the good news of the gospel is that God has done for us what He was not obligated to do for Israel. In Christ, God did not wait for us to cry out. He did not wait for us to clean up our act. While we were still sinners, while we were still actively serving other gods, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He took the divine refusal upon Himself. On the cross, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" He was forsaken so that we would never have to be. He was handed over to the consequences of our idolatry so that we could be delivered.
And because of Christ, our repentance is now possible. God sends His Spirit to grant us repentance (Acts 11:18). He gives us a new heart that grieves over our sin, not just its consequences. He gives us the power to put away our idols and to serve the living God. And when we do, we find a Father who, because of the finished work of His Son, can no longer bear our trouble. He runs to meet us, embraces us, and restores us. The cycle of sin is finally and definitively broken not by our resolve, but by His grace in Jesus Christ, our great Judge and Deliverer.