THE memory of that genesis of Israel’s woes dawned on her anew.
Everywhere people gathered to talk, and every day that they assembled, the fallen nation pondered their giant fall.
And the stories of their downward slide was a thing too hard to handle.
Israel remembered everything now. Her audacious escapade, the sightseeing of everything obscene.
She remembered her ride down to the camp of heathens. The rebellious bow to the heathen gods, too.
Altogether with that unending slavery resulting from that bow.
It had been a few years now since Xarxus king of Ammon crashed into Israel gates via Gilead. A few years it was, too, since Jephthah was banished from home.
Now everything else didn’t matter again – whether to Israel or even to her border region Gilead. Everything else didn’t matter.
They’d fought and argued over inheritance and ascendancy in Gilead. But it didn’t matter anymore.
Yes, Gilead exiled his capable bastard, only to give his scepter of authority to a failed son. But neither of these things mattered still.
For now, Israel saw the genesis of the aliens’ invasions and she evaluated the cause of her suffering.
So every time that the nation gathered in the sanctuaries of worship, they fell on their faces and broke down crying all day.
They cried for their many sins. The sin of their youth as well as the trespasses of today.
They mourned that they forsook the God of their fathers and turned over to the idols the heathens worship. They lamented that they sold their freedom to enemies on a free platter of wanton pleasure.
No, they sighed and cried. Yet their tears couldn’t tear through the sky to reach up to God for mercy.
Everything was silent from heaven each time that Israelites gathered to pray. For there were no signs showing that God heard them or saw their tears.
The people tore their clothes in sorrows, begging the Almighty to end their woes. But neither priest nor congregation heard Him answer.
For they’d really grieved their Creator with their terrible ways. So when they cried and prayed for so long, they heard God’s voice at long last—but He didn’t speak any kindly to them.
It was the high priest who prophesied. It was during the annual festival of remembrance in Shiloh, the Feast of Passover.
But those words on that night of Passover. No, it didn’t scold them little.
‘Hear the word of YAHWEH, the Holy One of Israel!’ called the high priest:
‘“Did I not deliver you in the past from your adversaries—from the Egyptians and the Amorites?
‘“Also, the Sidonites and Amalekites oppressed you in the past and you cried out to me; so I delivered you from their power.
‘“Yet after these things you forsook Me and went over to bow down to worthless things. Idols who neither saved you from the land of slavery nor kept you in the land of your own.
‘“Therefore, I will deliver you no more,” says the Lord. “Go and cry out to the idols you have chosen and let them save you. Let them deliver you in this times of your distress!” says the living God.’
Those words were stinging lashes on the crushed hearts gathered at that feast of remembrance. So Israel crumbled within the core of their souls even more.
They teared up so much more. They turned and tore themselves in contrite tears. For, truly, they’d reached a dead end with their sufferings now.
‘God, have mercy! O have mercy! Have mercy!’
The Israelites repented with many tears that Passover night. Then by midnight several families hurried to their homes on foot and donkeys.
They planned to return before dawn, when the Feast of Unleavened Bread will follow the Passover feast for seven more days.
Thus, when the people got to their houses, they hurried to the idols and images they kept inside; then they took them out and burned them up.
Afterwards, the people hurried back to Shiloh before the morning sun had risen so high in the sky…
And there at the sanctuary, they worshipped God wholeheartedly in the following days of a solemn sacrament.
Indeed, all of Israel turned to the God of their fathers again with all devotedness. Even when the last response they got from heaven was all negative.
But the height of mercy which their flood of tears couldn’t reach. The mountain of judgement that their cries of sorrow couldn’t drown...
That impossible thing was what their true brokenness tore through now. And before the solemn feast had ran its full course, the clouds of silence broke once again.
And this time round, it poured down really comforting showers.
No, the God of Israel turned and churned in His giant seat of mercy. He looked at those feeble things having a hard time for their wayward lives. And His soul could no longer endure their miseries.
He pitied them and spoke a second time. Positive was the response this time. It was pardon at no cost at all—and deliverance, too.
But then, that promised deliverance came with an added clause. It was that the rejected builder’s stone became the corner piece.
It was that Jephthah should return and lead the war.
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