{"id":6314,"date":"2023-04-24T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T07:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/?p=6314"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:39:58","slug":"judges-1013-14-yet-you-have-forsaken-me-and-served-other-gods-therefore-i-will-deliver-you-no-more-go-and-cry-out-to-the-gods-which-you-have-chosen-let-them-deliver-you-in-your-time-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/?p=6314","title":{"rendered":"Judges 10:13\u201314: &#8220;Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israel cried out to the Lord, but God said He would not deliver them. Why was He so harsh with Israel? It seems that God knew the people would have to become completely sick of their sin before they would truly turn to God. He was patiently waiting for them to <em>really<\/em> turn around. Anyone who has children knows how easy it is to say &#8220;sorry,&#8221; without really meaning it. A few verses later we find Israel <em>is<\/em> truly sorry, in their hearts, not just in their words. They were finally sick of their sin, and realized the worst part of serving God Almighty was still so much better than the best part of serving idols. When Israel finally repented, not only in heart, but in action, then God had mercy on them and raised up a deliverer.<\/p>\n<p>Far too often, when believers are &#8220;crying out to the Lord,&#8221; it&#8217;s really just because they wish things were different; they don\u2019t like how things are going. God desires that our whole hearts be turned toward Him, and that in our undivided hearts we want Him to have control. God wanted from Israel in that day the same thing He wants from us today. He is looking into the very deepest part of our souls, the center of our beings, where nothing is hidden from Him, for a heart that will put its hand to the plow and not keep looking back (Luke 9:62). There is nothing worth following in this world except God. Simon Peter said it well: \u201cLord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life\u201d (John 6:68).<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Change my heart, O, God . . .\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<p>=============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judges 10 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.\u00a0\u00a0<sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. <sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.\u00a0<sup>4<\/sup>\u00a0And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which\u00a0<em>are\u00a0<\/em>in the land of Gilead.\u00a0\u00a0<sup>5<\/sup>\u00a0And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. <sup>6<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the\u00a0LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the\u00a0LORD, and served not him.\u00a0<sup>7<\/sup>\u00a0And the anger of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.\u00a0<sup>8<\/sup>\u00a0And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that\u00a0<em>were\u00a0<\/em>on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which\u00a0<em>is\u00a0<\/em>in Gilead.\u00a0\u00a0<sup>9<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. <sup>10<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel cried unto the\u00a0LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.\u00a0<sup>11<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto the children of Israel,\u00a0<em>Did\u00a0<\/em>not\u00a0<em>I deliver you\u00a0<\/em>from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?\u00a0<sup>12<\/sup>\u00a0The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.\u00a0<sup>13<\/sup>\u00a0Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.\u00a0<sup>14<\/sup>\u00a0Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. <sup>15<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel said unto the\u00a0LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.\u00a0\u00a0<sup>16<\/sup>\u00a0And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the\u00a0LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<sup>17<\/sup>\u00a0Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.\u00a0\u00a0<sup>18<\/sup>\u00a0And the people\u00a0<em>and\u00a0<\/em>princes of Gilead said one to another, What man\u00a0<em>is he\u00a0<\/em>that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel cried out to the Lord, but God said He would not deliver them. Why was He so harsh with Israel? It seems that God knew the people would have to become completely sick of their sin before they would truly turn to God. He was patiently waiting for them to really turn around. Anyone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6314"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16090,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314\/revisions\/16090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}