Judges 3:8 - Meaning and Application

We now come to the accounts of the rule of the individual judges. The first was Othniel, and his story connects this book with Joshua. Even in Joshua’s time, Othniel had already become well known, which shows that Israel’s purity was corrupted, and therefore their peace was disturbed, not long after they settled in Canaan.

Those who have studied the Bible’s timeline generally agree that the Danites’ idolatry, and the war with the Benjamites over the abuse of the Levite’s concubine, though told later in this book, happened around this same time, under or before Othniel’s rule. Othniel was a judge, but he was not a king in the full sense, one who could keep people from doing whatever seemed right to them.

In this brief account of Othniel’s rule, we see the trouble Israel fell into because of their sin. God was rightly angry with them for tearing down the hedge that set them apart from other nations, and for putting themselves on the same level as them. So he also removed the hedge of his protection and left them open to their enemies. He handed them over like goods he was willing to sell, and the first to take them was Chushan-rishathaim, king of Syria in Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

This was likely a warlike ruler who wanted to enlarge his kingdom. He probably attacked first the two tribes east of the Jordan, since they were nearest to him, and then slowly pressed farther into the land. As he advanced, he forced tribute from them, demanding it harshly and perhaps even placing soldiers in their towns. Laban, who oppressed Jacob with hard service, came from the same country. Yet it was far away, so no one would have expected Israel’s trouble to come from there, which shows even more clearly that God was at work in it.

Next we see Israel turning back to God in their distress. “When he slew them, then they sought him,” the Lord whom they had ignored before. The people of Israel, at least the majority of them, cried out to the Lord (Judges 3:9). At first they thought little of their trouble and assumed they could easily shake off the rule of a ruler so far away. But when it lasted eight years, they began to feel the pain, and then those who had laughed at it began to cry under it.

Those who had once cried to Baalim and Ashtaroth, the false gods of the nations, now cried to the Lord in their trouble. It was the Lord’s justice that had brought this hardship on them, and only his power and favor could bring them out of it. Suffering often makes people call on God with urgency when they would hardly speak to him before.

Then we see God returning in mercy to deliver them. Though need drove them to him, he did not reject their prayers. Instead, he graciously raised up a deliverer, that is, a savior. Othniel was the man. He had married Caleb’s daughter and belonged to the older generation that had seen the works of the Lord. No doubt he had kept his faith and had quietly grieved over the nation’s turning away, while waiting for God’s call to act openly for their relief.

He was likely already an older man when God raised him to this work, but age did not keep him from usefulness when God had a task for him. His commission did not come from human authority, but from God. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him (Judges 3:10), giving him wisdom, courage, and power for the work, and giving others clear reason to know that God wanted him to take it up. The Chaldee version says that the spirit of prophecy remained on him.

Othniel first judged Israel. He reproved them, called them to account for their sins, and reformed them. Only then did he go out to war. That was the right order. Sin at home, that worst enemy, must be defeated first, and then enemies outside will be easier to handle. In the same way, let Christ be our Judge and Lawgiver, and then he will save us, and on no other terms (Isaiah 33:22).

He also had good success. He broke the yoke of oppression, and it seems he also broke the power of the oppressor, for it says, “The Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim into his hand.” Judah, Othniel’s tribe, was then like a lion’s cub rising from the prey.

The happy result of Othniel’s good service was that the land had rest, though it did not make further progress, for forty years, and some fruit of reform. That blessing could have lasted forever if they had stayed close to God and done their duty.