In this chapter, you will find “five lords of the Philistines” (v. 3) and the king of Moab called “lord” (v. 25); but more importantly “the Lord,” meaning Jehovah God, is named fifteen times in these thirty verses. That lets us know who is really in charge. The Presbyterian missionary leader A.T. Pierson used to say that “history is His story,” and he was right. As He executes His divine decrees, God never violates human responsibility, but He does rule and overrule in the affairs of individuals and nations to accomplish His great purposes on this earth.
The early church prayed, “Lord, You are God!” and they gladly confessed that their enemies could do only “whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done” (Acts 4:24, 28, nikjv). Poet T. S. Eliot said, “Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen.”
God’s mercy toward His people (vv. 1–4). The tribe of Judah was not able to hold on to the key Philistine cities they had taken (1:18; 3:3), and as we saw in chapter 1, the other tribes failed to conquer the Canaanite nations. These surviving nations adopted a “good neighbor” policy toward Israel that eventually defeated Israel from within. Sometimes Satan comes as a lion to devour, but often he comes as a serpent to deceive (1 Peter 5:8; 2 Cor. 11:3).
God could have judged Israel for sparing the wicked Canaanite nations, but in His mercy He spared them because He had purposes for them to fulfill. Israel had committed a serious blunder in not trusting God to give them victory, but God sought to use their mistake for their own good. Romans 8: worked even in Old Testament days.
He would use the enemy to train Israel, to help the new generation learn the meaning of war (Judg. 3:1–2; see Ex. 13:17). Life had been relatively easy for the Jews in the Promised Land, and they needed the challenge of ever-present danger to keep them alert and disciplined. This is not to say God always approves of war or that participating in conflict always builds character. Combat experience might do just the opposite. The point is that the Jews had to keep some kind of standing army, or their enemies could quickly unite and overpower them, especially when Israel was at such a low ebb spiritually. In the years to come, both Saul and David would need effective armies in order to overcome their many enemies and establish the kingdom.
God also used the Canaanite nations to test Israel and reveal whether or not His people would obey the regulations Moses had given them from the Lord (Judg. 3:4). God had made it very clear to the Jews that they were not to study “comparative religion” and get interested in the pagan practices of the Canaanites (Deut. 7:1–11). It was that kind of curiosity that had brought divine judgment on Israel in the land of Moab (see Num. 25), because curiosity is often the first step toward conformity.
Of course, Israel should have been a witness to the surviving pagan nations and sought to win them to faith in the true and living God, but they failed in that responsibility as well. What a difference it would have made in subsequent national history if the Jews had won the Canaanites to the Lord instead of the Canaanites winning the Jews to Baal!
God’s anger toward His people (vv. 5–8). God had put a wall between Israel and her neighbors, not because Israel was better than any other nation, but because she was different. Instead of worshipping idols, the Jews worshipped the one true God who made the heavens and the earth. Humans did not devise the laws and covenants of Israel; God did. Israel alone had the true sanctuary where God dwelt in His glory; it was the true priesthood, ordained by God; and it had the true altar and sacrifices that God would respect (Rom 9:4–5). Only through Israel would all the nations of the earth be blessed (Gen. 12:1–3).
When Israel obeyed the Lord, He blessed them richly, and both their conduct and God’s blessing were a testimony for their unbelieving neighbors. (See Gen. 23:6; 26:26–33; 30:27; 39:5.) The pagan people would say, “These Jews are different. The God they worship and serve is a great God!” And the Jewish people would then have had opportunities to tell their neighbors how to trust Jehovah and receive His forgiveness and blessing. (See Deut. 4:1–13.)
Alas, instead of trusting God to change their neighbors, the gods of their neighbors changed the Jews, and everything Moses warned them not to do, they did. The Jews broke down the wall of separation between themselves and their godless neighbors, and the results were tragic. Contrary to God’s law, Jewish men married pagan wives, and Jewish women married pagan husbands (Gen. 24:3; 26:34–35; 27:46; Ex. 34:15–16; Deut. 7:3–4; Josh. 23:12). The idolaters gradually stole the hearts of their mates from worshipping Jehovah to worshipping false gods. King Solomon made this same mistake. After all, when you marry outside the will of God, you have to do something to keep peace in the family! (See 1 Kings 11:1–13; 2 Cor. 6:14—7:1.)
Is it any wonder that God became angry? Is it any wonder He humiliated Israel by using pagan nations to discipline His own people? Since Israel was acting like the pagans, God had to treat them like pagans! “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd” (Ps. 18:25–26 niv).
Jehovah is the God of all the nations, “for dominion belongs to the Lord and He rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:27–28 niv). Proud King Nebuchadnezzar had to learn the hard way “that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses” (Dan. 4: nkjv).
Four times in the book of Judges we’re told that God “sold” His people to the enemy (2:14; 3:8; 4:2; 10:7; and see 1 Sam. 12:9; 1 Kings 21:20, 25; Ps. 44:12). The Jews acted like slaves, so God sold them like slaves. Had the Jews been faithful to the Lord, He would have sold their enemies into Israel’s hands (Deut. 32:30).
The name of the king of Mesopotamia means “doubly wicked Cushan,” which may have been a nickname that his enemies gave him. We aren’t told where he invaded Israel, although logically the attack would have come from the north; nor are we told how much of the land he subjugated for those eight painful years. Since the deliverer God raised up was from Judah, it’s possible that the invading army had penetrated that far south in Israel when the Lord decided to intervene on behalf of His suffering people.
Charles Spurgeon said that God never allows His people to sin successfully. Their sin will either destroy them or it will invite the chastening hand of God. If the history of Israel teaches the contemporary church anything it’s the obvious lesson that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14: niv).
God’s salvation for His people (vv. 9–11). There’s no evidence that the people repented of their sins when they cried out to God for help, but the Lord responded to their plight and gave them a deliverer. It was the exodus experience all over again: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them” (Ex. 2:24–25). The word “knew” means much more than intellectual understanding, for God knows everything. It means that God identified with their trials and felt a concern for their welfare.
The deliverer He raised up was Othniel, the man who captured Hebron and married Caleb’s daughter (1:10–13). Bible scholars don’t agree as to the exact blood relationship Othniel had to Caleb. Was Othniel Caleb’s nephew—that is, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother—or was he simply Caleb’s younger brother? As far as the text is concerned, either interpretation is possible.
If he was Caleb’s brother, then why was his father’s name Kenaz instead of Jephunneh (1 Chron. 4:13; Josh. 14:6)? Perhaps Jephunneh had died, and Caleb’s mother married Kenaz and gave birth to Othniel. Thus, Othniel would have been Caleb’s half-brother. First Chronicles 4: indicates that Othniel was the son of Kenaz, but the word “son” is used rather broadly in Jewish genealogies and doesn’t always mean a direct father/son relationship.
Fortunately, we don’t have to untangle the branches in Othniel’s family tree before we can benefit from the example of his life and ministry. By blood and by marriage, he belonged to a family noted for its courageous faith and its willingness to face the enemy and depend on God for the victory. When God called Othniel, he was available for the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and empowered him for battle (Judg. 3:10).
“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4: nkjv). This was the secret of Othniel’s strength, as it was with Gideon (Judg. 6:34), Jephthah (11:29), and Samson (14:6, 19; 15:14); and it must be the source of the believer’s power today (Acts 1:8; 2:4; 4:8, 31; Eph. 5:18). One of the former directors of the Evangelical Alliance Mission, T. J. Bach, said, “The Holy Spirit longs to reveal to you the deeper things of God. He longs to love through you. He longs to work through you. Through the blessed Holy Spirit you may have: strength for every duty, wisdom for every problem, comfort in every sorrow, joy in His overflowing service.”
Othniel not only rescued his nation from bondage, but also served his people as judge for forty years. This meant that he exercised authority in managing the affairs of the nation, and it was his spiritual and civil leadership that brought rest to the land. Never underestimate the good that one person can do who is filled with the Spirit of God and obedient to the will of God.