Last Saturday, in “the Time Before the Kings, Part 1”, we learned that sometimes when God doesn’t appear to be keeping His promises, it may simply be because His time hasn’t yet come. However, He may also be inviting us to join in the fight — to commit to some serious spiritual warfare; and sometimes, it is because there is disobedience in our lives…
Today’s lesson from the book of Judges comes to us from Judges 3. It is the story of a little known man, the first named judge of Israel, Othniel.
Although we don’t know a lot about the background of most of Israel’s judges, we actually do know something about Othniel’s family: He was the son of Kenaz, who was the youngest brother of the second most famous of Israel’s spies: Caleb. We also know that he was Caleb’s son-in-law, and as such, he was a mighty warrior; for in order to earn the hand of Caleb’s daughter, he was required to attack and capture the town of Kiriath-sepher, a feat which he accomplished.
Othniel lived in a time when, “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight.” When “They forgot about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles.” (Judges 3:7 NLT). As a result, “the Lord burned with anger against Israel…” (Judges 3:8a NLT), and “…he turned them over to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim.“(Judges 3:8b NLT).
Israel remained under the Aram oppression for eight years before they remembered their God and cried out to Him, but the moment they did, God, in His goodness and love, “…raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz.” (Judges 3:9b NLT).
Apart from these facts, the only thing we know about Othniel is that he was victorious in rousting King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim: “…and the Lord gave Othniel victory over him...” (Judges 3:10b NLT), and he judged Israel in peace for 40 years: “So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.“(Judges 3:11 NLT).
What, then, is the lesson we can learn from Othniel?
Well first of all, he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and worshiped God. This may not seem like such a big thing, but with all of Israel bowing their knees to the Baals and the Ashtorah poles, Othniel might have felt a bit out of place worshiping the One true God. Any weaker man might have been pulled in by the influence of his friends, family and neighbours! Othniel’s story is one that inspires us to stand up for what is right, even when it isn’t popular to do so! Little did Othniel know that in standing up for what was right, he would be rewarded by being Israel’s first named judge!
There is one more lesson we can learn from this story, however; one that is perhaps even more important… It comes to us from the first half of Judges 3:10: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge.“(NLT). Notice the order of the wording. It doesn’t say that Othniel was named judge, and then God’s Spirit came upon him; but rather, he became Israel’s judge because the Spirit of the Lord came upon him!
This is very much in keeping with callings given to us in other places in the Bible. God’s chosen leaders didn’t just declare themselves leaders. They were called, and not just called, but anointed! We see this in the story of King Saul and King David, we see it in the story of Aaron who became Israel’s first high priest. In fact, we see it all through the Bible: Leaders were called by God. And herein lies our lesson for today. Do you want to be in God’s service? You can’t just declare yourself a pastor or a leader or a teacher or a missionary or even a board member or elder. You have to take that role because you are called to do so, because God gives you His Spirit! Without that, none of us are equipped to be part of His army!
A calling by God isn’t necessarily for something that you have no desire to do. Just as Othniel, who already had a history of being a mighty warrior, was called to fight for the Lord, you may be called to do something that you are already good at. Other times your calling might be for something you didn’t even know you had talent for. Take, for example, the day I was called by God to lead a grief recovery group! I had NO experience with this, NO desire to do so, and to make it even worse, I was holding on to 30-40 years of buried grief myself! Yet God called … me …
The point is, in order to be a successful warrior in God’s army, we need to be called by Him and filled with His Spirit. When those two pre-requisites are in place, then we can be sure that, just like Othniel of old, we will be successful in whatever God has called us to do!
Do you desire to serve the Lord? Seek where He has called you to be, and then rest assured, that equipped or not, you will be successful! Skip that calling “step”, however, and you will be sure to fail!
Join us next Saturday for another powerful lesson from the historical time period of the judges.
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
(To access the entire “The Time Before the Kings” mini-series, please click here.)
