3 years ago

The Book of Judges – Othniel
Fathom Church- Pastor Nathan Deisem
Judges 1: 11-15; Judges 3: 1-11; Romans1: 18

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• INTRODUCTION: Hey Fathom Church!
o Judges (300-350 years from the death of Joshua to the coronation of King Saul)
o Judges are Tribal – Regional – Military – Civil Leaders (Governor/Chieftain)The book of judges is a book of repeating cycles: (Decaying Cycles)
• Israel does evil in the sight of God
• God raises up an oppressive nation to discipline them
• The people repent and cry out to God
• God raises up a deliverer to deliver them
• There is a time of peace … (repeat)

DISOBEDIENCE -leads to- DISCIPLINE
REPENTANCE -leads to- DELIVERANCE

o Judges shows us what happens to society when they drift away from God
- Cultural/Moral Decline --- Societal Disaster (Political, Economic, etc…)
- Judges shows us that God uses Men (AND WOMEN) to be agents of Deliverance --- Even when they are very flawedo

BIG THEMES:
- Every man did what was right in his own eyes (Moral Relativism)
- There was no King in Israel (Disregard for God’s Authority)
- The Empowerment of God’s Holy Spirit
- This does not mean God endorses all of these people’s choices or actions!

o JUDGES IS VERY RELEVANT TODAY!
- It shows us that when God’s people walk away from God, then that which is anti-God can creep in and oppress God’s people. And repentance will (almost always) need to precede deliverance.

Judges 1: 11-15 (Also found in Joshua 15: 15-19)
11 From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir (Place of the Word). The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher (City of Writing). 12 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah ("Ankle Bracelet") my daughter for a wife.” 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 14 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

Judges 3: 1-11
1 Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.

#OTHNIEL
7 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of CUSHAN-RISHATHAIM (Cushan the doubly wicked) king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. 9 But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. 11 So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

1. OTHNIEL means - “God is my Strength”
A. God has appointed ALL of us to me messengers of His deliverance
1. Matthew 28: 19-20
B. He may empower SOME of us uniquely to be agents of that deliverance
C. It will only be by the Holy Spirit’s Enabling Power!
2. OTHNIEL (or any of the judges) were not held back by anything! A. Othniel was old (and maybe timid)
B. Many of the Judges were seriously flawed
C. God empowers and uses whom He chooses to carry out his Kingdom Plan! Don’t you want to be a part of it! (Send Me - Isaiah 6:8)
3. Repentance Precedes Deliverance
A. Think about this in the context of your personal life … (Sin)
B. Think about this is the context of our culture… (Godlessness – Idolatry)
4. God does not bring about periods of Deliverance/Revival/Spiritual without using his people!

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