So basically what we see is they're getting it from both sides, you know, because east are the Ammonites,
west, southwest are the Philistines, and they're being oppressed on both sides.
It says in verse 8, "That year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel."
But then it says, "Eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side, Jordan,
in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead."
So, the people that are on that east side of the river,
they end up having more problems than the ones that are on the west side of the river.
Now, if you remember, the actual promised land was the part west of the Jordan River.
That was where they were supposed to go and conquer the land,
and that was the land that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were going to inherit.
But if you remember when you're reading the book of Numbers,
there's that group of tribes that they don't want to go all the way in.
They don't want to go over Jordan.
They want to stay on that east side of the Jordan River,
and they say, "Hey, this is good for our cattle. We like it."
Of course, they haven't even been to the other place,
but they basically just wanted to settle for second best on this side of the Jordan.
And, you know, Moses warned them about it and everything,
but they ended up kind of making an agreement with God and Moses
that they're going to fight the battles and everything's going to be great.
So God allowed it, you know, God basically allowed two and a half tribes
to be on the one side of the river and for the other ten tribes
to be over here on the west side of the river.
But what you have to understand is that geographic boundary kind of cut off
those people on the east side of the river to where they were kind of fringe people.
You know what I mean? They weren't really in the heart of the nation.
And I believe that what that pictures is people who are kind of on the fringe of church,
they're kind of on the fringe of living the Christian life, they're not really all the way in,
they're kind of half in and half out, and that's a dangerous place to be.
Because when you study, for example, in the book of Numbers, you'll see where a plague hits,
or God sends fire among them, or fiery serpents, or any kind of an enemy attacks them.
It talks about how the people on the outermost part of the camp are the ones who end up dying first, right?
The ones on the outermost part, or the uttermost parts, they are the first casualties.
And so, you know, the warning is that if you're going to be on the fringe,
you're more likely to be a casualty than if you get all the way in.
I mean, it's just kind of common sense that if an enemy attacks the camp of the Israelites,
the people in the middle are the safest.
People on the very edges, the people that are falling behind and lagging behind,
are the ones that are going to get nailed, okay?
So we don't want to be half in, half out in the Christian life.
We don't want to be just barely in church, you know, we barely show up, you know,
Sunday morning only or just three times a month, and we barely read the Bible,
but we know we're still kind of in church, we're still kind of serving God,
we go soul winning once a month or whatever.
Well, you know what, you're likely to be a casualty if you're one that's a fringe person.
You know, get all the way in, get deeper in because it's a battle.
I mean, it's a war that's going on and so we don't want to be the ones on the edges getting nailed.
So, you know, the whole nation gets oppressed for a year, that year,
but the people on the other side of the river, they've been getting it for 18 years.
Does everybody see the difference there in that verse?
The people on the other side of Jordan, it says 18 years, those people got oppressed in that way.