Oppression of Philistines and Ammonites
10 Now after Abimelech died, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to save Israel; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.
3 After him, Jair the Gileadite arose and judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities [a]in the land of Gilead that are called [b]Havvoth-jair to this day. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
6 Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. 7 The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. 8 They [c]afflicted and crushed the sons of Israel [d]that year; for eighteen years they afflicted all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan [e]in Gilead in the land of the Amorites. 9 The sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.
It seems that the one thing Israel needed to stay on track, was leadership. Now surely, in all the tribes, there must have been those that could have lead Israel to serve God.
But those folks did not step up to the task, and instead they let their brothers follow whatever way seemed best, and inevitably, it seems that was a path of destruction, and serving other gods.
Likewise, we need leaders in our lives to help us keep chasing after God. They don’t force us, or even guarantee that will happen. But we need to have role models that push us to be better, to seek God. We also need men to rise up in their families and challenge their family members to serve God.
It is far to easy for men to sit back, relax, and not take a leadership role. But that’s not what God has called us to. God has given us the ability, but we must step out, risk vulnerability, risk failure, and take on the mantle of leadership, if we want to see our friends and family follow God’s ways.