Jg. 10: Let's Baal!

Judges 10:14 "Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!"

After Abimelech, there are a couple of judges mentioned who rule Israel. None of them are listed as particularly good or bad, and none really accomplish anything noteworthy. They were adequate to be used by God to lead the nation, however. Tola led for 23 years until his death, and Jair led for 22 years. Jair's main accomplishment was having 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys. Which is just awesome. I like how its not 30 golden stallions or whatever. Just donkeys. He also was well-liked enough to have land named after him...Havvoth Jair.

Then Israel falls back into idolatry pretty ardently from the sounds of it. They were possessed, overrun and shattered by the Philistines and Ammonites. Which were listed as the nations of whom Israel worshipped their gods. So just because they worshipped the same god as these other nations, that was not enough for these other nations to let them alone and do their thing. The same nations oppressed them. Israel pushes their Easy Button, calling on God to come and save them, saying that they repented, but God seems to have had it, as He says to call on the gods they were worshiping to save them. This would have made absolutely no sense in practice, as their oppressors would be worshiping the very same god. They repented, but still held onto their new gods. Which was not good. Only when Israel gave up their false gods would God step in and provide a way out.