Judges 10 “Bad Publicity”

Judges 10 – Brandon Hatmaker “Bad Publicity”
Austin New Church – South Austin Cares
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

“After the time of Abimelech a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. “He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys. They controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth Jair. When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.” – Judges 9:1-5

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. That it doesn’t matter if someone says or writes bad things… as long as your name is out there, it’ll do you some good. While that may be true for the business world, I don’t think it translates to the people of God.

Publicity is about fame and being known. Our goal is to make His name famous and His name known, not our own.

I’m both encouraged and challenged today as I read the beginning verses of chapter 9. Chapter after chapter we read about the selfish conquests of corrupt leaders. Then in a couple of quick verses, we quietly hear about two men, one who scripture claims literally “saved Israel”. They led for a combined total of 45 years. And that’s it. No fame. No glory. It just says they led, where they led, how many sons and donkey’s they had, and then where they were buried.

Although he was only mentioned in two verses, I think I’d rather be known as Tola than I would Abimelech who was mentioned throughout chapters.

One more thought from this chapter:

Even after 45 great years, once again Israel turned to other Gods. Scripture shows us that God had literally had enough, “ The LORD replied, "When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”

Yet His love and mercy endures. Although the Israelites begged God to rescue them, the kicker was when they put God back on the throne of their lives and got rid of what had become their gods. When that happened… it simply unlocked God’s compassion.

“Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.”

We can learn a lot from that move.