**The Rebellion and Repentance of Israel**
The land of Israel had known peace under the leadership of Tola and Jair, judges who had guided the people with wisdom and strength. Tola, a man of Issachar, had risen to deliver Israel after the chaos of Abimelech’s reign, judging for twenty-three years before he was gathered to his ancestors. After him came Jair the Gileadite, a man of great wealth and influence, who ruled for twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, each riding upon a fine donkey, a symbol of their noble standing, and they governed thirty cities in the land of Gilead, which came to be known as Havoth-jair.
Yet, as the years passed, the hearts of the Israelites grew cold toward the Lord. Though He had delivered them time and again from their enemies, they turned away, chasing after the false gods of the nations around them. They bowed before the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the deities of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, and the Sidonians. They forsook the God of their fathers, the One who had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
The anger of the Lord burned against them. He lifted His hand of protection, and soon the Philistines and the Ammonites rose up to oppress them. The Ammonites crossed the Jordan, ravaging the lands of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. The Israelites groaned under the weight of their suffering—their fields were plundered, their women and children taken captive, and their warriors crushed in battle. For eighteen long years, they endured this torment, until at last, their pride shattered, they cried out to the Lord.
“We have sinned against You,” they confessed, their voices trembling with shame. “We have forsaken our God and served the Baals!”
But the Lord’s reply was stern, His words cutting through their hollow repentance. “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites? Yet when you cried out, I saved you. But now you have abandoned Me again and served other gods. Therefore, I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen—let them save you in your time of distress!”
The people wept bitterly, their remorse now genuine. They cast away their foreign idols, purging the land of their abominations, and turned back to the Lord with broken hearts. They fasted and prayed, acknowledging their guilt, and the Lord, in His mercy, could no longer bear their suffering.
Seeing their true repentance, He raised up a deliverer—a man named Jephthah, a mighty warrior from Gilead, though he was the son of a harlot and had been cast out by his brothers. Yet in their desperation, the elders of Israel sought him out, begging him to lead them against the Ammonites.
And so, the stage was set for another act of God’s redemption, for though His people had sinned greatly, His compassion was greater still. The Lord would once again prove that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, ready to forgive those who return to Him with all their hearts.
