Commentary - Judges 10:17-18

Bird's-eye view

In these closing verses of Judges 10, we find Israel in a state of crisis that is entirely of their own making. Having been sold by the Lord into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites for eighteen years of grievous oppression, they finally cried out to God. After a sharp, and entirely deserved, rebuke from the Lord, they put away their foreign gods and demonstrated a measure of repentance. God's soul, we are told, became impatient over the misery of Israel. It is in this context of divine compassion meeting human desperation that the armies begin to muster. The Ammonites gather in Gilead, poised for war, and the sons of Israel assemble at Mizpah. The stage is set for a confrontation. But the passage ends not with the clash of swords, but with a question born of a leadership vacuum. The people and princes of Gilead are looking for a man, a captain, to lead them. This reveals the heart of the problem in the time of the Judges: covenantal apostasy always leads to societal disintegration, and a key feature of that disintegration is the absence of godly, courageous leadership. They are in a jam, and they know it, and the man who can get them out of it will be given the rule. This is a pragmatic offer born of fear, and it is this very offer that will bring the complicated figure of Jephthah onto the stage.

The central issue here is the relationship between repentance, deliverance, and leadership. Israel has turned from their idols, but they are still spiritually adrift. They need a deliverer, a judge in the pattern God has established, but their approach is entirely man-centered. "Who is the man who will begin to fight?" Their solution is to offer a reward, a promotion to the top spot. This sets up the tragic and tangled story of Jephthah in the following chapter. God, in His mercy, will provide a deliverer, but He will use the flawed, pragmatic process of the Gileadites to do it. This passage serves as a crucial link, showing us an Israel that is beginning to turn back to God but is still operating according to the flesh, looking for a human solution to a spiritual problem.

Outline

Context In Judges

This short passage comes at the end of a long and sordid cycle of apostasy. After the minor judges Tola and Jair, we are told in Judges 10:6 that the sons of Israel "again did evil in the sight of the Lord." But this time, their idolatry was an all-you-can-eat buffet of paganism, as they served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. In response, God's anger burned, and He sold them into the hands of the Ammonites and Philistines. The oppression was severe and long-lasting, particularly east of the Jordan in Gilead. This led to their cry of desperation (10:10), which was initially met with a divine rebuke reminding them of their history of faithlessness (10:11-14). However, when they put away their idols and served the Lord, God's compassion was stirred (10:16). Our text, verses 17-18, is the immediate result of this dynamic. The enemy is at the gates, Israel has gathered for war, but the consequences of their long rebellion are now laid bare: there is no one to lead them. This sets the stage perfectly for the emergence of Jephthah in chapter 11, a man who is himself an outcast, a reflection of Israel's own spiritual state.

Key Issues

The Leadership Deficit

When a people abandon God, it is not long before they find themselves bereft of genuine leaders. True leadership is a gift from God, and when a nation insists on serving other gods, the true God is under no obligation to provide them with men of wisdom, courage, and integrity. The situation in Gilead is a textbook case. They have been oppressed for nearly two decades. They have repented of their idolatry, at least externally. They are now faced with a military threat that could wipe them out. And when they look around for a man to lead them into battle, they draw a blank. The "people" and the "princes of Gilead" are talking amongst themselves, which is another way of saying they are having a committee meeting. "Who will be the man?"

This question reveals the depth of their decay. In a healthy, covenantal society, leaders would have been recognized and in place. Elders, heads of clans, men known for their valor and their fear of the Lord, would have been ready to step up. But sin hollows out a society. It erodes the institutions and destroys the character necessary for leadership. So now, instead of having a leader appointed by God, they have to go shopping for one. They are putting out a job posting, and the salary is the top leadership position in Gilead. This is the fruit of forgetting God; you also forget how to be men. God in His mercy is about to answer their need, but He is going to give them a man who perfectly mirrors their own desperate, compromised, and yet strangely faithful condition.

Verse by Verse Commentary

17 Then the sons of Ammon were summoned, and they camped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered together and camped in Mizpah.

The action begins with the enemy. The Ammonites, who have been oppressing Israel for eighteen years, are now mustered for a decisive battle. They are the aggressors, summoned and encamped in Gilead, the very land they have been tormenting. Their presence is the immediate physical threat that forces Israel's hand. In response, the sons of Israel also gather. They are not caught entirely flat-footed. They assemble and make their own camp in Mizpah. Mizpah, which means "watchtower," was a significant place in Israel's history, often associated with covenant-making and solemn assemblies before the Lord. Their gathering here suggests a certain gravity, a recognition that this is a make-or-break moment. The two armies are arrayed against each other, the board is set, and the pieces are in place. The crisis has come to a head.

18 And the people, the princes of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

Here we move from the external reality of the military threat to the internal crisis of leadership. The "people" and the "princes" are in this together. This isn't a grassroots movement bubbling up against the leadership; the leadership itself is admitting its own bankruptcy. They are all in the same boat, and the boat is leaking badly. Their conversation reveals two things: their desperation and their methodology. The question, "Who is the man who will begin to fight?" is an admission that they have no obvious candidate. There is no Joshua, no Othniel, no Ehud in their midst. The natural leaders are either gone or are unwilling to step forward.

Their solution is a pragmatic one, a deal. They make a public offer: whoever takes the lead in this fight, whoever is willing to be the tip of the spear, will be rewarded with political power. "He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead." This is a worldly solution to a spiritual problem. Instead of crying out to God to raise up a deliverer, as they had in times past, they are trying to incentivize one. They are attempting to buy the courage and skill they lack. This sets the stage for Jephthah, a mighty warrior, but also an outcast and a man who knows how to strike a bargain. They are looking for a hero for hire, and God, in His inscrutable providence, is about to give them exactly what they asked for, with all the tragic consequences that will follow.

Application

The church today should take careful note of the situation in Gilead. When we find ourselves in a state of spiritual disarray and compromise, one of the first and most obvious consequences will be a crisis of leadership. We will look around and ask, "Where are the men?" When the culture presses in, when false ideologies threaten the flock, when courage is required, we will find our leadership either silent, or compromised, or simply non-existent.

And in that moment of desperation, the temptation will be to do exactly what the men of Gilead did: resort to pragmatic, worldly solutions. We will look for the man with the most impressive resume, the most charismatic personality, the best fundraising skills. We will offer the "top spot" to whoever can promise to fix our immediate problem, without asking the deeper questions about character, godliness, and faithfulness. We try to hire a CEO when what we need is a prophet. We look for a manager when we need a man of God.

The lesson of Judges is that God is the one who raises up deliverers. Our first response in a crisis should not be to form a search committee, but to fall on our faces in repentance. The path to finding a godly leader begins with becoming a godly people. When we put away our idols, when we confess our compromise, and when we cry out to God to provide, He is faithful to do so. He may give us a leader who is rough around the edges, a man like Jephthah, because we are a people who are rough around the edges. But our hope is never in the man who leads the fight. Our hope is in the God who gives the victory. The ultimate answer to the question "Who is the man?" is the Lord Jesus Christ, the true captain of our salvation, who began the fight against sin and death and who will be the head over all things for the sake of His people.