Judges – Page 8 – Be Still…

Judges 3:7-11 – Remember Othniel?

In the first chapter of Judges, we read about Othniel. He had won the privilege of marrying Caleb’s daughter by conquering some land. Othniel was now both a nephew and son-in-law to Caleb. Had God been preparing Othniel for such a time as this? We hear “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” With the Lord’s help, Othniel was able to have victory over the King of Aram followed by 40 years of peace.

There doesn’t appear to be much to the story of Othniel reported beyond this. We do see the first instance of the 4-part pattern playing out here. God was listening for the cries of his people despite being angry with them. I think of a parent being on the alert to rescue their children at any age if there is a cry for help.

Judges 2:20-3:6 – Is It A Test?

Read Judges 2:20-3:6

getting an eye test with the vision machine

We see an angry God, very disappointed in his people. What was happening in this time and place was not good. The world was corrupt with sin. The people had not passed God’s “test.” “I did this to test Israel—to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did.” Interesting that God admits he was testing his people to see if they would stay true.

How would we do on this test? Would we pass with flying colors or would we need God to save us with a rinse and repeat kind of rescue? I’m looking forward to the chapters to come as God continues to reveal his great love for his people in sending these judges. We’ll meet some interesting folks. We might want to consider that what life throws at us is our test to see if we give in to temptations or turn to God.

Judges 2:10-19 – Rinse & Repeat

Read Judges 2:10-19

Today we learn the rinse and repeat cycle God will use to get the Israelite’s attention. There are four parts to this cycle. #1 – People go astray. #2 God turns them over to their enemies. #3 The people cry out to God. #4 God sends his rescue. God didn’t intend to leave his people abandoned. He will continue to send helpers to get them on track. From the sounds of it, his plan worked temporarily but didn’t sustain itself very well.

It’s interesting to note how the Israelites would always revert back to the other gods when left without a leader. It’s easy for us to make judgments on their behavior. Think of what a toddler can accomplish in just minutes when a parent is looking the other way. Or, the chaos of a classroom when the students are left to fend for themselves if the teacher leaves the room. We are curious by nature, always testing the limit. Does this help explain what is happening here and why the Israelites can’t keep their focus on God?

Judges 2:1-9 – Didn’t You Get The Memo?

Read Judges 2:1-9

yellow sticky note with the words "God bless you" written on it

The angel’s message from God was pretty clear. The Israelites had messed up by disobeying God’s command. Our last reading said they had “failed” to drive out the Canaanites. Did that mean they didn’t even try? Or is it that they should have tried harder and never accepted defeat because that meant they were ultimately “disobeying” God?

Sometimes in life we have to be prepared to read between the lines and understand what is intended. When we start to make assumptions that our actions are “good enough” without striving to be what God wants us to be, maybe we’re being disobedient, too. We can’t say we didn’t get the memo. We’ve got God’s word right here in our hands. Now it’s up to us to read it. He wants to bless us!

Judges 1:19-36 – Failure Will Come

Read Judges 1:19-36

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I hope you never put me in a group of doomsday thinkers for long. I’m just not wired anymore to see failure as anything but something to learn from. What we see happening in this passage is just the opposite of what we saw in the last one. You’ll recall how God’s victory continued beyond the life of Joshua. Now what happened?

We see Israel’s failure to remove the remaining Canaanites. As I mentioned before, the problem was not the fear of the Canaanite’s military might but their religious beliefs which ran contrary to God’s will. It wasn’t just one tribe affected either. We see nearly half of the tribes being unsuccessful in ridding their lands of these people. I can’t say “foreigners” because they were there before the Israelites.