And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother (v.9)."
Message: The Model Judge
Time: Judges covers about 250 years from death of Joshua to birth of Samuel (1360-1110 BC). The people of Israel largely divided with different local triable judges. It was a period of stirring interventions by the Lord and also great disobedience on the part of the Israelites. Without a king, everyone did right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).
What the Lord is Saying: Judges is an interesting title for this book because in a way what God seems to be doing here in this book is challenging the Israelites, but in a rather natural way based upon their choices to not completely trust God after allowing non-Israelites to continue to inhabit the lands that they were promised by God in Canaan. Rather than wiping those people out, they allow them to stay. We do the same thing in our lives. We dance with danger. We try to have our cake and eat it too. We say we are surrendering to God and yet we let in those things that potentially could bring our faith down and make us ineffective. And then as we do this, we still go to God and ask Him to bless us. People marry people of different faiths or of no faith. We saturate ourselves in so many different types of entertainment and music. We make alcohol too much a part of our life and we spend much of our time with people that do not share our beliefs. And yet there are challenges even in me saying this as we are called to be in the world, but not of it. It is the world where people that are not of our faith reside and we need to go to them to bring them into the fold.
But the Lord God in His providence and sovereignty does something else - though the Canaanites remain because of the disobedience of the people in not conquering them when they had the chance, God also will now use this remnant to teach the Israelites that are now there about war - fighting and "God's extraordinary power and providence manifested therein (Joseph Benson)." A generation had fought previously under Joshua, but now a new generation is present and God needs to teach this new generation fighting and also dependence and reliance on Him. David Guzik writes, "These nations would remain because God wanted to prove the faithfulness of Israel to Himself, and to improve their reliance on Him." My obedience is for God's glory and something He wants not simply so my life will be better but because He wants my faithfulness. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)"
This is powerful and maybe something I haven't really noticed or realized before. That these words in Scripture are describing God and His ways and purposes. God is wanting to do something in me - for Him -- for His Glory. That it isn't first and foremost about my spiritual growth. It is about me being in Christ, in God. Because He wants a people that is dependent on Him. This isn't all about me and making me better, but it is about Him and making Him great.
In verse 1 of chapter 3, it says, "these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them." In verse 4, "to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord." In verse 5, "They took their daughters for themselves, and gave their own daughters for their sons." In verse 7, "The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." Evil must be defined by God, not man. All too often I think the danger we have as people is defining what is wrong by what we think is wrong. But, God wants us to uphold His word and look to it as our plumb line. The standard is His. Thus, the mark of a Christian or Jesus follower or one who really wants to obey the Lord is to constantly measure ourselves against what His word says is right and wrong.
Verse 9, "When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother." Verse 10 - "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and He judged Israel." Verse 11, "then the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died." Not much is written here about Othniel. It says the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and that seems to be all that is needed to describe him.
Thus, the first judge. The Lord provided. He judged them. He delivered them.
Summary: God tests Israel to prove they are a people relying and depending on Him. They serve other Gods and Othniel delivers and judges them and the land has rest for 40 years.
Promise: God delights to use people to accomplish His purposes, but we should take care to give Him the credit.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for teaching me these lessons and truths - that life is always and only about You and my obedience is what You are supposed to receive. I need to follow You all of my days. This life is Yours. Help me to keep that the focus and not on my own learning or focus. You are to be glorified.
No comments:
Post a Comment