God who cannot bear our misery any longer
"So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer" (Judges 10:16).
What is the heart of Heavenly Father toward us? In particular, what is the heart of Heavenly Father, who is looking at us when we are in misery?
In Judges 10:16, Israel was in misery. Israel was greatly distressed (v. 9). The reason Israel was greatly distressed was because of God's anger against Israel and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites (vv. 7-8). The Philistines and the Ammonites afflicted and crushed the Israelites for 18 years (v. 8). And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed (v. 9). Then why was God angered against Israel? It was because the Israelites 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 (v. 6). So the Israelites cried out to God in their misery, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals” (v. 10). At that time God reminded them of the grace of salvation offered to the sons of Israel (vv. 11-12). Nevertheless, they forgot God’s grace, and again they forsook God and serve other gods (v. 13). So God told them, “I will no longer deliver you” (v. 13). And God said “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress” (v. 14). But the Israelites who heard it could never have cried out to the Gentile gods they chose. How could they cry out to the gods of the Philistines and the gods of the sons of Ammon, when the Philistines and the Ammonites were afflicting them and crushing them for 18 years? That was why the Israelites were forced to cry again to God: "We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day" (v.15). So when they cried out to God, they put away the foreign gods among them and served God (v. 16). In the midst of the distress caused by the affliction of the Gentiles, the Israelites repented their sins and turned to God and cried out for God's salvation. At that time, God could bear the misery of Israel no longer (v. 16). Here, the word “no longer” in Hebrews means “impatient” (Park Yun-sun). In other words, God could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
As I was meditating on this word, I thought about the Heavenly Father's heart to us, His children. When we repeatedly turn away from God and love and idolize the things of this world like the Israelites, I think God is patient with us for us to repent and return to Him. Although our God is the God who is patient with us for us to repent and return to God, we think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience (Rom. 2:4). In doing so, our God is no longer patience with us, but He is angry with us and disciplines us in love. And He disciplines us with the worldly things that we love and have idolized so that He makes us not to love and idolize them. And our merciful God makes us to repent our sins and cry out to Him. In particular, God who looks at our misery and cannot bear our misery any longer makes us to look to God and to long for God’s salvation. At that time, God, who cannot bear our misery any longer, sends Savior to us so that we can be saved by His grace alone. God who has heard His one and only Son Jesus Christ crying out to Him on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk. 15:34) and has not bore the Son’s misery cannot bear our misery that is the consequence of our sins. This is the grace and love of God. He is our Heavenly Father who hears our cries and answers them by delivering us out of our misery. So we must go to God and repent our sins because of this great grace and love of our Heavily Father who cannot bear our misery any longer.