V.1-5 Two judges over Israel, in whose life God sees little worth telling us.
V.6 Israel sinks lower still. God tells us what He saw. He lists each god that they followed. He then sums it all up in the last two remarks. It was the Lord, or all these other gods together they were all grouped as one.
V.7 God turns Israel over to two of the nations, Ammon and the Philistines, to whose gods, Israel had turned! Were these nations kind and friendly to Israel because Israel had turned to their gods?
V.8-9 That year! And for 18 years!
V.10 To whom can they turn now? Their confession reaches God’s merciful ear. Is this the confession you make when you are in trouble? The Lord hears it if you do (1 John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)). He doesn’t make provision for us to go on carelessly, but He is merciful when we repent and confess our sins.
V.11-14 Again these two nations are mentioned, Ammon and the Philistines; God had before actually delivered Israel from them! And they have gone back and have worshipped their gods! We are doing exactly the same when we compromise with God’s Word.
V.15 What Israel does here is what we believers must do too. Unless we separate ourselves from teachings which we know are contrary to God’s Word, we are not going to grow in our soul.
V.16 God felt their misery more than they did.