Judges 3:1-11 - Tested and Found Wanting

Judges 3:1-11

The Nations Remaining in the Land

1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan 2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), 3 namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. 4 And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.

Othniel

7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. 9 When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. 11 So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Because Israel left the LORD to serve the lifeless idols seen as gods in the nations meant to be driven out of the land (Exodus 3:17, 33:2) promised through Abraham to them, God saw fit to leave those ungodly (Deuteronomy 20:16-17) nations (Joshua 13:1, 3 - Philistines, Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites) in place to test the hearts (2 Chronicles 16:9) of those who had not lived through the initial wars when entering the land under Joshua.  God therefore left those to deal with to test if the people of God’s own were men and women after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) to hear and turn back to hearing and heeding His word once more.  Unfortunately, Israel chose to intermarry in idolatry and immorality by spiritual adultery against Him and did evil instead of what was good and acceptable (Romans 12:2, Titus 2:12, 1 Timothy 2:3-4) in His sight.  As God’s chosen children in Christ, we are also called to follow His word and keep our temples of personal worship free from unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 16, 17) to avoid being drawn away into their gods of philosophy, reason apart from God’s revelation in the scriptures, and from the immoral lifestyle that breeds and comes from such idolatry of the soul.  We are rather called to (2 Corinthians 7:1) fear God and wash ourselves clean from all such ungodliness in the body and soul because we have been washed clean in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5) and called out of the idolatry and immorality of this present evil age.  Sometimes it may take a person like the judge Othniel here to set us back on the straight path when we wander, through the teaching and preaching of the word we are to love by because of His deliverance of grace.  May we therefore not be tested and found wanting (Daniel 5:27, 1 Thessalonians 4:1) in living to please the Lord as those who came before us failed to make willful obedience the direction of their lives’ journeys out of sin’s bondage.