Give us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
A scripture reading this morning comes from the Book of Judges, chapter 10, beginning at the first verse.
‘After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar. He lived at Shamir in the Hill Country of Ephraim, and he judged Israel 23 years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir.
After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years. He had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities called Havoth-Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Lord, you give us your word, and sometimes your word seems like enough; sometimes it seems very thin. Help us to understand what you teach in every character, in every line, and in every word that you have given to us because it is yours. It is truth, and it is given for our instruction, edification, and training in righteousness. Help us to hear you speak. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So after Abimelech, Israel needed to be saved again. Big surprise there, right? And guess what? They’re going to continue to need saving for a long while yet. But following Gideon’s heroics and the tragedy of Abimelech, we have only a few short verses describing these next two judges: Tola and Jair.
But this does not mean that they were unimportant. Scripture does not say very much about them, but the little that it does say takes on greater significance, and everything which is not being said also becomes rather important.
Now I expect you’re wondering what I’m going on about here, so let’s take a look together. What do you see here that is familiar? What elements do we see that we have also seen in the earlier narratives? We have, ‘After Abimelech,’ this tells us when in redemptive history we’re reading.
We have the who’s: Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, and Jair the Gileadite, telling us about whom we are reading. We have their tribal designations: a man of Issachar and the Gileadite, telling us how they relate within the people of Israel. We have a location in the Hill Country of Ephraim and in the land of Gilead, telling us where they judged from.
Lastly, we have durations: ‘He judged Israel 23 years’ and ‘who judged Israel 22 years,’ telling us how long they ministered. Then there’s the record of each one’s death, telling us that their service and ministry was ended. Each of those are very important and very relevant details.
The plain facts that are provided give us quite a bit of information because of everything else we know from Scripture. However, what is missing? What is noticeably absent from our story?
There’s one important detail not provided, which has been present with every preceding judge or savior in Israel, except for Shamgar. And there’s a second important element missing, which has been present with every single preceding judge and savior. Any ideas, any guesses?
The first? Who they were saved from. Yep, that’s the second missing element: who the name of Israel’s next foe was and who is oppressing them next. The other missing element is the common introductory refrain: ‘The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.’
Those two details are very relevant because their conspicuous absence tells us something extremely important. This was a time when Israel enjoyed relative peace, and Israel remained relatively faithful to the Lord.
After the death of their most recent savior, Gideon, Israel actually did not apostasize for a change. What a relief! That fact alone should give us a little bit of hope, reminding us that it’s possible for a person to live faithfully for God, that it is possible for us to live faithfully for Jesus, as imperfectly as we often do, even in the midst of an anti-Christian, pluralistic, and extremely pagan world.
The Lord then was accepted as their God, and they were his faithful, obedient people. However, if Israel was at relative peace, and if Israel did not have outsiders oppressing them, why then did Tola arise to save Israel? What or whom was he saving Israel from if no one else was troubling Israel?
If no one from the outside world was attacking and oppressing them, then the only ones whom they could need to be saved from is logically themselves. Tola arose to save Israel from itself. He arose after Abimelech, who, as we have seen, was a real piece of work and not very good for the health of anyone around him, nor was he good for Israel as a whole.
Following his father Gideon, who gave the land rest for 40 years, Abimelech only ruled for three years, and he made an extreme mess of things. Fratricide, he murdered all of his brothers, seized illicit power, and threw his weight around, upsetting everyone.
Betrayal: the men of Shechem conspired against the children of Gideon and then conspired against and betrayed Abimelech, whom they had declared king. Vengeance: Abimelech took revenge upon the entire city of Shechem and then tried to destroy another city in rage until he was stopped dead in his tracks.
So you see, the reign of Abimelech was a time of pure chaos, a time of lawlessness, a time when everyone was doing whatever seemed right to themselves.
And then there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua. He rescued Israel from the grip of chaos and self-destructive behaviors. He judged Israel for 23 years. He judged, he enforced justice, he brought and established order to Israel in the midst of chaos. He saved the people of Israel from their own worst inclinations. Thank and praise God! He served as a judge for 23 years—a good stretch of time.
This demonstrates the effectiveness and success of his rule. Israel, it appears, was finally becoming a more stable place to live. Then after him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel for 22 years.
Please note that Jair did not arise to save Israel; he arose and only judged Israel for 22 years. For almost as long a time as Tola had, Jair also had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities, an indication that Jair was prosperous.
He had 30 sons; each one had their own animal to ride, which is really a rather special and prestigious thing to have and do in a society that walked everywhere. Then each son was given their own city to rule, obviously under the auspices of their father’s authority. Jair was prosperous because Israel was also prosperous.
Thirty sons is certainly a sign of prosperity, and describing those sons as each riding upon their own donkey was a sign of a peaceful reign. Thus, Israel enjoyed 45 years of peace, prosperity, and order. Evidently, because there were no actions of divine judgment against them, it was a time of obedience and faithfulness to the Lord God.
Tola arose and cleaned up Abimelech’s mess while Jair enjoyed and expanded upon the peace and prosperity that he inherited. Surely this was a far nicer and better time to live as an Israelite than any time beforehand.
Time and life under the judgeship and guidance of men like Tola and Jair was the very opposite of life and time under the authority of Gideon or his son. Furthermore, we observe that Tola was an opposite character from Abimelech, despite certain similarities, and Jair was an opposite of Gideon, despite their similarity.
Tola was a man of Issachar, a tribe located in the northern end of Canaan, but he came and judged Israel from the Hill Country of Ephraim at Shamir within the territory of Ephraim. Abimelech’s father was from the tribe of Manasseh, but he chose to identify himself with his mother’s tribe, Ephraim. He had himself declared king by the people of one of the most prominent cities of that territory.
So both men were tribal outsiders exerting authority and judgment from a place where they would not ordinarily belong. They ruled from Ephraim because Ephraim was where the civil and judgmental authority of Israel seemed to rightfully and traditionally belong, following the historic tradition of Joseph, Joshua, and Deborah.
Abimelech ruled for only three years, while Tola judged for 23. Kings always rule by force, both by the use of overt force and by the constant threat of force. They take authority, keep it, and use it for as long as they can hold on to it.
But a judge rules first and foremost because of God’s call upon their life and their ministry, and secondly because the people seek out their judgments. They accept his judgments, they obey his judgments, and then they return again for his continuing judgments.
Abimelech ruled his territory according to the strength of his arm, with all the power that he could grasp, but when the people turned against him because of his abusive nature, it was all over. Tola judged and ruled with the consent of the people because they experienced the benefit from his authority, and so he continued to wield power until the end of his life.
Abimelech was clearly a bad administrator, while Tola was a good and better administrator than Abimelech. He left things in a better condition than he found them. Lastly, Abimelech seized his power; he stole his authority. He arose out of his own selfishness, but instead of taking power, Tola arose to save, and the Lord blessed his rule.
Next, let’s compare and contrast Jair and Gideon. Both men were from the split tribe of Manasseh, Gideon from the territory west of the Jordan River and Jair from the territory east of the river. Both men had many sons: Gideon had 70 plus one, while Jair only had 30. I mean, 30 sounds like a much more reasonable number of sons to have than 70, doesn’t it?
Gideon defeated the Midianites, and the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon, while Jair judged Israel for 22 years. Gideon was raised up to save Israel; he was not raised up to judge Israel. But Jair was.
Gideon gave the land and the people rest through military force, while Jair judged them, providing justice and order so that they might have peace. Gideon needed to be a mighty war chieftain to bring about Israel’s rest, while Jair judged during a time of existing peace and prosperity, preserving it and extending it.
The warrior Gideon subdued Midian in the Lord’s name. He united many of the tribes of Israel and displayed their strength before the nations, causing the nations to fear them, resulting in Israel being left alone for a time. However, the judge Jair ruled during a time of extended peace, and as often happens during prolonged periods of peace, the people became unprepared for war, their strength drained away as the felt need disappeared until they were ripe to become a victim once more.
Please note and pay attention to the fact that even during the chaos and confusion of Abimelech’s reign, Israel did not suffer at the hands of any external foe. The fear of Israel’s great strength, wielded by Gideon, was such that all of their many foreign enemies left them alone for almost 88 years. That is a very long time for any nation or people to be at peace.
The United States of America has not enjoyed such a prolonged period of peace. Even in our present relative peacefulness, many people fear now that we are not ready to face the challenges which lie ahead of us.
Then Scripture tells us that Jair ruled over a wide territory, effectively as a king. His thirty sons ruled thirty cities, just as the father ruled over his thirty sons. Jair’s authority was delegated to them, and so they expanded his influence throughout the land.
You see the irony of that situation? Jair and his sons did precisely what Abimelech alleged threatened and warned that might or could happen with his brothers when he questioned the people of Shechem, asking, “Which is better for you: that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?”
The thing that the people of Shechem feared might happen under the house of Gideon, fearing it so badly that they financed Abimelech’s murderous rise to power, actually happened under Jair. But instead of being a bad thing, it facilitated Israel’s peace and prosperity.
The final significant point of contrast between these two men was their relationships as fathers. Clearly, Jair had a great relationship with his sons, a relationship characterized by obedience and respect, and the limited description of his family seems to also demonstrate an air of equity, at a minimum, or full-on equality between his sons.
Gideon, on the other hand, unintentionally led his family into idolatry. He denied his sons the potential birthright of a political dynasty and kingdom while still exerting significant political influence. He exercised poor judgment and possible hubris in naming his son by a servant girl, ‘My father is king,’ an act which surely helped transform the family relationship into the sad situation it became.
So we observe that each person in these pairs is the opposite of their counterpart in all their positive things and in their negative things. Despite there being so little text devoted to the memory of Tola and Jair, this does not downplay their importance. Their inclusion within sacred scripture emphasizes that they contributed to redemptive history and thus to our salvation in Jesus Christ.
Not one word, not one single letter of scripture is unimportant; there are no flyover passages in the Bible that ought to be skipped. Every line of text in the Bible, the whole of the Old Testament, and the entirety of the New contains the plenary word of God and is therefore authoritative and instructive for our lives.
So we must be able to take something away from their record, and we do. It is not uncommon for us Christians to raise up Gideon as being a prime example of a godly leader and to highlight him as one of the great judges because that is how some parts of his narrative portray him—the entertaining and good story parts, the ones we especially like to use in children’s Sunday school.
Yet when we consider the wider narrative surrounding Gideon, beginning with him being called by the angel of the Lord through his prosperity, we see that just like each and every one of us, Gideon was a flawed human being. He was a failure, especially before the Lord.
Yes, he had moments when he exhibited great faithfulness and godliness, but he also suffered moral and devotional failures, as well as poorly responding to the extreme influences of anger and grief. He and we are not so very different because every one of us fails God each and every day in some way, shape, or form.
So we can take comfort knowing that the great heroes and saints recorded for us in the Bible really were no better and no worse than we are. If there is hope for Gideon to be received by our Lord and Savior, our God and King Jesus, because Hebrews 11:32-34 tells us, ‘What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.’
There in the roll of faith, then surely there is also hope for other wretched sinners redeemed by God’s grace, like us. It’s also not uncommon for Christians to hold up Abimelech as an example of our worst sinful impulses and evidence that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Yet his negative example is actually a net positive for us because he reminds us of, and demonstrates, the negative consequences of judgment that will one day fall upon everyone who abuses the authority they have been given. Remember that just as we are each under authority, whether in different spheres, different realms, and different kinds of authority—political, familial, congregational, divine, friendly, or occupational, just as a few examples—we also hold authority over other people in similar relationships.
So we each face the temptation to abuse whatever authority we have each and every day. Abimelech reminds us that judgment awaits us if we choose to lean upon our own understanding rather than trusting in the Lord. Instead of resting in and trusting Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit to help us overcome and abandon that temptation, meanwhile the record of Tola and Jair reminds us that we live in a world built upon binary systems: good and evil, light and dark, order and chaos, holiness and unholiness, righteousness and wickedness, love and hate—Adam and Jesus Christ.
Everything in creation has its own reflection, and everything has its own opposite because the Lord has decided that each pair is necessary according to His divine wisdom. Tola was the opposite of Abimelech; Abimelech was selfish to rule, while Tola was selfless to serve. Abimelech represented chaos and betrayal, while Tola represented order and faithfulness.
Jair was the opposite of Gideon; Jair enforced justice while Gideon sought revenge. Jair preserved peace through the application of wisdom and righteousness, while Gideon created peace through excessive force and fear. Gideon left Israel in a position of strength and power, while unfortunately, Jair left Israel in a position of weakness and endangered.
Each one of those four men was different from the other three in different and better or worse ways, but each one is remembered here in scripture—all of their good and all of their evil—and their memory teaches us about the ways in which we should go and the ways which we should avoid in our journey of faithfulness and obedience to God, to Jesus Christ.
One final thing to remember is this: although it’s very easy for us to raise up Gideon in praise and to tear down Abimelech in condemnation, Tola and Jair are actually better examples for us. Both were better judges, leaders, rulers, and authorities than either Gideon or Abimelech.
We know this precisely because so little is said about them personally in scripture. We saw a lot of good and a lot of evil in the stories about Gideon and Abimelech, but we observe very little of either in the record of Tola and Jair. Scripture demonstrates that the goodness of their service and their ministries as judges was memorable, but that they themselves were not.
They are worthy to be remembered, but not because of anything they themselves did. Their time of service was good because they allowed themselves to stay out of the way and let God, the Lord, do His thing.
It was like they were living out the lyrics of a TobyMac song as he sings to Jesus: ‘If you want to steal my show, I’ll sit back and watch you go. If you’ve got something to say, go on and take it away. Need you to steal my show; can’t wait to watch you go.’
So take it away! They let the Lord shine through them rather than putting themselves forward. Tola and Jair are memorable because God raised them up and because they cooperated with the Lord as He worked through them and in them.
So we see here, by everything that we do not see here, that they were good and positive examples because the narrative in scripture was not about them at all, but it was only about what the Lord accomplished through them. The record here was not their record; it is God’s record of faithfulness and of His love being shown to His chosen people and of their obedient response.
But sadly, this was not the happy ending of the story because so long as this fallen world remains, and so long as fallen sinful people retain dominion over it, every good thing will eventually come to an end because there is nothing new under the sun, and vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Yet God’s people, we don’t need to fear because we know in our hearts, according to the spirit of Christ within us, that while we live in evil times, the good days will come around once more and soon they will remain with us forever. Amen.
Please let us stand and say what we believe using the words of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended to hell; the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Alright, who’s got our next hymn? Nobody? 520.