Judges 10

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 90:1-2
• Hymn — O God, Our Help in Ages Past
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 5, Questions 12–15
• Hymn 353 — Precious Lamb
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Judges 10:1-16
• Sermon
• Hymn 130A — Lord, from the Depths to You I Cry
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: The Full Picture of Your Salvation

Scripture: Judges 10:1-16

I. The Consistent Condition of People Who Need Saving

A. Our consistent condition of forgetfulness (vv. 3–14)

1. Jair's legacy — 30 sons on 30 donkeys over 30 cities named after himself — a picture of man parading in himself with little regard for God
2. God's sevenfold saving from enemy nations (vv. 11–12) contrasted with Israel's sevenfold service to foreign gods (v. 6)
3. The recurring cycle: forget God → serve other gods → oppression → cry out → God saves → forget again
4. The Lord's repeated command throughout Scripture: "Remember" — Deuteronomy 8, 2 Timothy 2:8, Revelation 3:3

B. Our consistent condition of Fallen misery (vv. 9, 16)

1. Israel is "severely distressed" — the Hebrew word for misery is the same word for toil in Ecclesiastes and suffering in Job
2. All creation groans under the Fall (Romans 8:22); "In this world you will have tribulation"

II. The Constant Character of the Lord Who Saves

A. The Lord is constantly just (vv. 13–14)

1. He sold Israel into oppressors' hands — his justice does not overlook sin (Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 18:30)
2. "I will save you no more" — a just verdict warning against presuming on God's mercy or treating him as manipulable
3. God is not tame; he will not be moved by empty words or lip-service repentance while the heart remains unchanged
4. The tragedy when people grow so accustomed to God's mercy that they despise it in the very act of seeking it

B. The Lord is constantly love itself (v. 16)

1. Israel's reversal: they put away the foreign gods and served the Lord — repentance moves from words to action
2. "He became impatient over the misery of Israel" — literally, his soul grew short; he could bear their suffering no longer
3. God is not moved by the purity of our repentance (always mixed in nature) but by his own overflowing covenantal love
4. Isaiah 63:9 — "In all their affliction he was afflicted" — the Lord is never distant from the misery of his people
5. God's impatience over Israel's misery points forward to Christ — who came to share in our misery and bear in himself the full weight of the Father's wrath in our place (Romans 5:8)