12:9-11
Although it was the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land, they forgot the Lord. All this happened without a king, the evidence showed that the Lord was looking after them, yet they ignored the evidence. So the Lord “sold them into the hands of Sisera ... and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab”. Even so, when they eventually cried out to the Lord admitting their sin, the Lord sent Jerub-Baal (Gideon), Barak, Jephthah and Samuel. He sent them judges to rescue them. The Lord was incredibly patient and merciful.
12:12
It seems that the threat from Nahash had been around before the recording of his threat against Jabesh Gilead (1 Sam 11:1) was not the first threat. The response of the Israelites was to want a king “even though the Lord your God was your king”. We assume that the Lord is inactive, that he does not see what is happening to us, and even if He does, He will not do anything to help us. We would rather have a visible means of support, even if that support is fragile and unreliable. Sadly this is human nature. The Lord is an ever present help in times of trouble (Ps 46:1).
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