Judges 10:14

There is confession, but God is faithful. He must show them that getting away from Him is one thing, and getting back is quite another. It is one thing to have left Him and to confess the power of the enemy. But mere confession is not going to undo my departure from God. After a long course of discipline God may bring me back to a sense of my sin. I may turn and confess it to Him with all my heart. Does that mean that I am going to regain all that I have lost at once? Ah no! We have to drink the water with the ground-up golden calf scattered on its surface. We have to reap what we have sown, and that is what Israel found, and it was pressed upon them. In solemn irony, God says, "Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress."

The Lord did not deliver them at once. He answered them severely. He reminded them that He had already delivered them from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the people of Ammon and the Philistines. The Sidonians, the Amalekites and Maonites had also oppressed them, and God had delivered Israel from them. Why should He deliver them any more if they give themselves up to false gods? Let them pray to the idols they have chosen. So God makes them think over how great their sin was in leaving Him.

In their trouble they might turn to God and say, "Arise and save us." But God challenges their gods to arise, if they can save them. They did not lack numbers — Judah had as many gods as it had cities.

What could Israel do? They knew their idols had no ability to help them. They could only confess their sin to God again. They showed themselves willing to accept any consequences God, as their ruler, might send. They only plead with Him to deliver them. At the same time they put away their foreign gods, and took the place of serving the Lord.

Yet they said not one word about the foreign gods they had been told to put away. It is always easier to say "We will serve the Lord" than to clear ourselves of idols. It is easier to decide to serve the Lord than to bury our household gods under some oak of Shechem. But God tells us first to bury our idols, and then serve Him. That is the order of what He asks of us, as He says, "cease to do evil, learn to do good."

But they kept on pleading and confessing. They put away the foreign gods. They began to serve Him again. He had denied their first cry, yet His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. What a compassionate Lord He is!