Recipe for Disaster - Judges 3:1-11

Copyright April 29, 2018 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

Last week we began our study of the book of Judges by looking at the first two chapters. This morning we will look at a few verses as we look at the first Judge, a man by the name of Othniel.

Let’s put the book of Judges in context. God created the world. He chose Abraham to be the leader of the nation that would represent God. Abraham had a son Isaac, who had a son name Jacob, who had 12 sons (and at least one daughter) who became the twelve tribes of Israel. They made their way to Egypt under Joseph and eventually were enslaved by Egypt. God sent Moses to lead them to their own land. After Moses died, Joshua took over and the conquest of the Promised Land began. The people didn’t finish the job. That is where the story of Judges begins.

At the beginning of Judges 3, verse 2, we read:

These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan.”

In verse 4 we read something similar,

“These people were left to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors through Moses.”

If you are like me, you find these words odd. Let me give you my paraphrase on what I believe is being said, “Since Israel refused to drive out the nations as God said, He left the nations there to do two things: to toughen them up (we learn most in times of trial), and to see if they would be able to maintain their commitment amid the pagan influences.” God knew exactly what the Israelites were going to do. He told them earlier. Israel to see how they would do in the test. The Lord wanted Israel to cry out to Him. They would not do this until they saw their need.

God often lets us do things our own way to see how foolish our ways really are. We are SURE we can “HANDLE IT” no matter what that “It” is. It may be the friends who are always engaged in reckless behaviors, the immoral surroundings, the filthy influences, the pagan values. God say, “OK, let’s see what happens when we do this your way.” Eventually we find ourselves saying, “God, why did YOU do this to me?”

In verse 7 we are told what happened.

The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles.

They did not destroy all the people as the Lord commanded them and by not doing so the people were drawn away into sin. What God said would happen is exactly what did happen.

They Forgot God

The Israelites didn’t forget God in the sense that they forgot He existed. They knew the facts, but those facts no longer impacted the way they lived their lives. Their faith became superficial. It was empty knowledge. They would have acknowledged the facts about God were true but it was academic, not practical.

This same thing can happen to us. Our knowledge of God can become like our knowledge of math or science, history or economics. It is information we've learned but it doesn't have any bearing on everyday living. That was not God's plan when He made us.

The children of Israel bowed before Baal and Asherah. Baal was the most popular of the Canaanite gods. The Canaanites had gods that ruled over various parts of creation. Baal was the god over the storm, fertility and war. Asherah was regularly represented by a wooden pole (think totem pole). She was a fertility goddess. Sometimes the pole depicted a naked female. These and other gods were reverenced in the land of Canaan.

Canaanite worship was imitative. In other words, you worshipped the gods by behaving as they would. So, in the worship of Baal there would be: temple prostitution, fertility rites, orgies and other perverted acts. They even worshipped snakes and sometimes engaged in human sacrifice. The worship of Asherah was much the same. This form of worship was one of the chief reasons the Lord concluded they had become hardened to a point beyond recovery.

The Israelites not only tolerated but also embraced some of the perverted rites of the Canaanites. They tolerated what they should have destroyed. They accepted and embraced the very things God hated. They followed the ways of Canaan instead of the way of the Lord. Sometimes they combined the various forms of worship. I am sure they thought they were being very intelligent and open-minded. Unfortunately, they were so opened minded that they lost their sense.

God Turned Them Over

8Then the Lord burned with anger against Israel, and he turned them over to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim. And the Israelites served Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

These are frightening words. God was angry at being treated as less significant than the non-gods. He gave Israel over to these other nations as His way of waking them up. In each of the stories the people were in subjection for many years. It was as if God was saying, “You choose to worship the gods of other lands? You will be subject to these gods and their people. Go ahead and see if it is a better life."

This indictment of Israel reminds us of the book of Romans which talks about the sinful depravity of men.

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:28-32)

When God abandons a people their behavior becomes self-absorbed. Everything becomes about their needs, their rights, what they want, and they become the measure of whether something is good or bad. When people become self-centered, conflict, divorce, violence, and all kinds of depravity are inevitable. We are seeing this played out in our country and sadly, also in the church. Even in the church (not this church) there are times decisions are made based on what will bring people into the church instead of what is true and appropriate in God's eyes. When this happens, we are no longer serving the Lord, we are serving ourselves. We are guilty of making success, pleasure, or even "being the best and biggest" our god.

The Israelites were subjected to this King with the really long name who ruled over a place with another really long name and nobody is quite sure where this place was located. The point was: if Israel was not willing to serve the Lord, they would serve someone else.

The People Cried Out

9But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz. 10The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the Lord gave Othniel victory over him. 11So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died. (Judges 3:7-11)

The people cried out in their oppression. This is probably not a cry of repentance. As I understand it, the Hebrew would have been different if they had truly repented. This word means “groan”. They cried out in anguish because of their subjection. They were not saved because they repented, they were saved because God extended grace. The real message of the story is the relentless love of God. This is the central focus of the story. God refused to give up on Israel.

God also refuses to give up on you. You may have drifted far away. You may have made horrible mistakes in your life. But . . . God still waits for you to come home! If you will do so, He will welcome you enthusiastically.

In response to the cry of the people God raised up Othniel. This Judge was a military leader. We read about him also in chapter 1.

12Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the one who attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher.” 13Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz, was the one who conquered it, so Acsah became Othniel’s wife. (1:12-13)

From this brief introduction, we know several things about Othniel.

He was an experienced and successful military man.

He was the brother of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz.

The Kenites were Hebrews by choice but not by birth. They were related to the father-in-law of Moses, Jethro. They were faithful foreigners! They were foreigners like Ruth and Rahab. They embraced the Jewish faith, they were not born Jewish.

We are told God’s Spirit came on (or strengthened and inspired) Othniel. This was different than the coming of God’s Spirit we read about in the book of Acts. The people of the Old Testament did not have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. This did not happen until Christ sent the Holy Spirit after the Resurrection. When a Judge received the power of the Spirit, it meant God's presence, power, and authority, were placed on the Judge (in this case Othniel) for a particular task, for a limited amount of time. We have been given this same Spirit living in us every day and hour. It is a staggering blessing we take for granted.

God empowered Othniel and he went to war against the King and was victorious. We are not given any details about the battle (as we will get in some of the other stories). It is a very straightforward account.

Divine Deliverance

Othniel was the person God used, but do not forget, it was GOD who saved Israel! "The LORD gave Othniel victory!" He equipped Othniel and led him. It is fair to ask the question: “Why would God rescue these people who continually scorned and forgot Him?” The short answer: He loved them and wanted them to be His people.

Perhaps you have a child who keeps getting into mischief. Each time, you hope it is the last foolish choice they make. At times, you are angry. At other times, you are embarrassed. You provide negative consequences hoping to of wake them up. You may send them for counseling. Perhaps you put them in a treatment program. But the one thing you don't do . . . is give up on them! You continue to long for a true relationship. You keep wanting the best for your child.

It is probably a good thing we aren’t God. There would be no one left on the earth! I would find myself saying, “Fine, you want to ignore me? God ahead and destroy yourselves!”

God is not like that. We are fortunate He is not. How many times have we run to Him for forgiveness only to commit the same sin again? How many times have we promised devotion and gotten distracted by other things or “forgot?” How many times have we bargained with God in a tough situation only to forget our part of the bargain when the situation was resolved? Yet, His love endures forever. When we call, He is there to answer. When we are ready to come home, His arms are open.

Don’t miss the sad postscript because you will see it often in the book of Judges: there was peace and then the Judge died and the people forgot once again. Is it coincidence that there was peace for 40 years? That is about the length of a generation. Second hand faith seldom remains vital. This is another reminder that we need to have a firsthand experience with God to flourish.

What Are We to Learn?

The most difficult question we will face as we study the book of Judges is this: What are we supposed to be learning?

First, we see the corrosive effect of sin. We have used the illustration before: sin is like a deadly disease. The goal is to get rid of it COMPLETELY. Any remnant of cancer is seed for the cancer to return . . . perhaps with a vengeance.

We must deal decisively with sin. We can’t compromise or peacefully co-exist with it. If we are content to only go part way in our commitment to Christ, we will find ourselves on the downhill spiral that we see repeatedly in Judges.

The question I hope you are asking is: how do we do this? Let me give you some ideas.

Refuse to negotiate the clear commands of Scripture. When the Bible tells us we are to put Him FIRST that doesn’t mean we put Him first AFTER we fulfill our other commitments. It means PUT HIM FIRST! When He tells us to forgive, don’t rewrite the command as: forgive people who haven’t hurt you very much! The same would hold for honoring your parents, stealing, lying, and so forth.

Confront the lies you are telling yourself. The biggest liar we have to contend with, is us! We sooth our conscience often by telling lies to ourselves. Things such as,

I’m doing the best I can (when you know you aren't)

I have to look out for #1 (and we don’t mean God)

I’m not hurting anyone (but you are)

It doesn’t matter (that is like saying “a few remnant cancer cells don’t matter!)

I am just standing up for the truth (often used as a pious excuse for blasting away at someone in anger).

If we can’t tell ourselves the truth, we will never survive.

Obey immediately. Delayed obedience usually results in no obedience. When God, through His Word, or His Spirit, prompts you to act . . . do so immediately. If you put off obedience you have taken a step or more toward disobedience. Haven't you see that in your own children?

Tim Keller says it clearly:

How can we know if Christ is Lord of every area of our lives? First, we need to identify the false gods of the society around us. For Christians in the west, a statue which promises us fertility is unlikely to attract us. But if a believer lives in a city where commerce is not just a practice but a functional god—providing people with identity and security—the danger is that the Christian maintains his or her doctrinal beliefs and ethical practices, but divides heart worship between the Lord and money/career.

Second, we need to look honestly at each area of our lives—our families, our careers, our possessions, our ambitions, our time, and so on—and ask two questions of them:

Am I willing to do whatever God says about this area?

Am I willing to accept whatever God sends in this area?

Where either answer is “no,” there is the area of our lives and hearts which we have opened up, or already given over, to an alternative god.[i]

The Book of Judges does not summon us to live like the Judges. Some of these people were deeply flawed. We are called to learn from the mistakes of Israel and realize that the Lord is King and He alone. It is a message that reminds us that no matter how badly we have messed up, He is waiting; waiting to embrace us and restore us. And hopefully we learn that is better to do this sooner rather than later.

Why spend our days in bondage when the Lord offers us His peace?

[i] Keller, Timothy. Judges For You (God's Word For You) (Kindle Locations 462-472). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.