“So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.”
– Judges 10:16
So just to set the stage for why this verse is so important and so beautiful and how it leads us to pray. This is at the end of Judges 10, as we see yet another cycle in the book of Judges, of God’s people disobeying him, giving into all sorts of idolatry and immorality, and then experiencing the fruit of that, meaning consequences for sin and hurt and pain and misery because that’s where sin bleeds. Then they cry out to God, “Please deliver us.”
Sin is so enticing in our lives and yet it always leads to misery.
And then you have this verse. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And he, the Lord became impatient over the misery of Israel.
Sin Always Leads to Misery
So why is this important? Why is this beautiful? And how does that lead us to pray? It’s important because it’s a reminder that we need on a daily basis. That sin always leads to misery. Always, always, always. We think our ways are better. We think going about things according to our ideas and our flesh is better. It’s never better. It’s never better. Sin is so enticing in our lives and yet it always leads to misery. But that’s the enticement. That’s the deception that’s involved with sin because we don’t sin because we want to be miserable. We actually sin because we think this will be good for us.
This goes all the way back to Genesis 3, and it’s temptation, you and I will face today, to do things our own way, thinking we know what is best for us and this is where following Jesus as a call to daily, deny ourselves and to trust him. This is so important to remember. Sin always leads to misery and yet this verse is beautiful because God is delivering his people here at the end of Judges 10.
God’s Deliverance from Sin in Judges 10:16
By his grace and by his mercy, he is bringing them out from their worship of false gods and Judges 10:16 says, “He became impatient over their misery.” Meaning our God doesn’t enjoy watching us suffer the consequences of sin. Our God loves us. He is our father in heaven and just as I think about when my kids do something wrong and they experience the consequences of that, I don’t enjoy seeing that. I want them to come back from that. I want them to be saved from those consequences. God, I want them to experience life, and trust that when I tell them to do this or that, that it’s a loving for them.
This is the picture we have in a much greater way, a perfect way, because I’m obviously not a perfect father. But we have a perfect father in heaven who loves us and doesn’t want us to experience the consequences of sin. The misery that comes due to sin and in his mercy, he meets us at our point of need and he delivers us. So you just begin to see all the ways Judges 10:16 leads us to pray. So let’s do so.
Confession of Sinful Tendencies
Oh, God. We confess in each of our lives, our sinful tendencies, our tendencies to choose our ways over your ways. And God, we pray that you would save us from this today, all day long and tomorrow, all day long. God, that you would help us to walk in step with your spirit. Help us not to run after other gods in this world. Help us to live according to your word, we pray.
God, we pray that you would help us, Judges 10:16, to serve you in every thought, with every desire and every word, every action, God help us to serve you because we know this is where life is found. And at the same time, oh God, in light of our sinful tendencies, we praise you in a fresh way today for your mercy toward us, for meeting us in our sinfulness, for calling us back to yourself, ultimately, oh God, for the gospel.
We praise you Jesus, for taking our sin upon yourself on a cross, for meeting us at our deepest point of need and for dying on the cross for us, rising from the dead, so that we are no longer slaves to sin and slaves to ourselves, so that we can live in the freedom that you have bought for us with your blood; freedom from sin, freedom from bondage and slavery to sin and ourselves, and the ways of this world, that we might experience a life in you.
Judges 10:16 Praises God’s Patience
God, we praise you. God, we praise you for patiently loving us and for continually pulling us back from sin and ourselves. And God, even as we praise you for this in our own lives, God, we pray for people around us who don’t know this mercy, who don’t know your grace and your love and the gospel. God, we pray that you would use us today, tomorrow, to share the gospel with somebody else that they might experience your mercy in this way.
And God, we pray for people who’ve never heard this gospel. Today for the Hazara in Iran, nearly half a million Hazara in Iran, who don’t know your grace and your mercy, your love for them in Jesus, who have been taught all kinds of things that are not true about Jesus. God, we pray that you would show your mercy and your deliverance to them. That you would send men and women from the Iranian church from outside Iran, to make the good news of your grace known among the Hazara in Iran.
God, we praise you for the privilege of serving you. We praise you for your love for us, your kindness, your mercy, your patience with us that leads us to repentance. God, we pray that you would help us today, to put away all other gods and serve you alone, according to Judges 10:16. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
