Othniel, The First Judge

[0:00] Hello again. Good morning. We are going to be continuing in the book of Judges.

[0:11] We will be looking at chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. And the first judge, Othmeel. So that's what we're going to be looking at.

[0:23] Judges, chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. Father, we again thank you for this time that we have to be here and worship you.

[0:37] We hope that the worship that we were singing to you was for you and you alone. And that you were worshipped in that worship.

[0:49] And we ask now that as we turn to your word, that you would open up our hearts, open up our minds, and that we would hear from you what you would like for us to learn.

[1:05] And we say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, let's see. Just to recap. The judges were individuals raised up by God and enabled by the Holy Spirit to deliver God's people to secure rest in the land and promote obedience to the covenant.

[1:31] And the deliverances were not nationwide, but they were localized, territorial areas. We also noticed last week that there is a recurring pattern that happens in the book of Judges.

[1:46] And this is just to remind you that what happens when you do things that are right in your own eyes, that it first leads to rebellion, and then it leads to retribution, retribution, because God sends the enemy to oppress us, to correct us.

[2:11] Then comes remorse or repentance, and we at some point will cry out to God and say, Enough, uncle, give. All right, all right.

[2:23] And then the rescue comes when God sends a deliverer for us, and then we have rest, and then the deliverer is removed to see how we're going to do next time, and then it starts the cycle, repeats itself all over again.

[2:45] So, we learned that the Israelites were to completely remove or destroy the enemy as their part of the covenant, but instead we find them living among them.

[3:00] Not good. All right, I also gave some homework last week. If you remember, if not, don't worry about it. But you were supposed to read ahead chapter 3, and you were supposed to just read two little verses, one and two, and then see if you could discover what the meaning of the curious phrase that was in there of why the enemies were left in the land.

[3:26] We were told that they were left to test Israel, and then this is the curious phrase, at least it was to me. In verse 2, it says, In order that the generations of the sons of Israel might know war.

[3:45] So, I don't know if you pondered any of that, looked into any of it. It doesn't matter because you can get the answer today. So, at least how I discovered it anyway. So, we'll see how that looks.

[3:56] If you did take the time and you studied it, and the Lord showed you something different, I would be very interested to hear about it.

[4:07] So, after service, if you wanted to tell me about it, I'd love to hear it. So, I always want to know how the Lord has shown people different things, because I certainly do not see everything at all.

[4:19] All right, so let's, if you're able, let's stand and we'll read the Word of God. Judges 3, starting in verse 1.

[4:31] Now, these are the nations which the Lord left to test Israel by them. That is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan.

[4:43] Only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war. Those who had not experienced it formally. These nations are the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites, who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-Hermon, as far as Lebo-Hammoth.

[5:08] They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded their fathers through Moses. The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

[5:27] And they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Ashereth.

[5:48] Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that he sold them into the hands of Cushon Rishathim, king of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served Cushon Rathim, meaning eight years.

[6:05] When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

[6:18] The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the Lord gave Cushon Rishathim, I forget his name already, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands, so that he prevailed over Cushon Rishathim.

[6:37] And the land had rest forty years, and Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died. So reads his word. And again, Father, we just ask for insight.

[6:50] You may be seated. Test and know. When I was first looking at this, again, that phrase, to know war, to be taught war, and I was just going, what does that mean?

[7:08] I don't even know. Testing, I can, yeah, that's pretty simple to get across or to understand. In school, why do we take tests? Or if you're at work and they're trying to teach you something, why do you take a test at the end of the little whatever program thing or whatever, to see what knowledge you retained, what you know, okay, what's, yeah, I guess what, just keep it simple, to know what you know.

[7:38] And then, but more importantly, I think it also helps the teacher get to know the pupil or work to get to know who you are a little bit and how you answer and stuff or how quickly you pick up things.

[7:53] So it goes a little bit of both ways. Learning what you know or understanding what you know and then letting the teacher get to know you better.

[8:03] But since God is omniscient, he already knows what you know and he knows you. He tests you so you'll know what you know.

[8:18] I like this. He'll test you so you'll know what you know and then to see if and how you'll apply that knowing.

[8:30] I love all that knowing. All right, let's keep it simple. In verse four, it says it much easier. The nations are left. They were left there and then they were for testing Israel to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord which he had commanded their fathers through Moses.

[8:47] In other words, he tests your heart for your sake. Bring it down to the simplicity of it. I like the knowing of the knowing of the who knows who.

[8:58] That one got me. Anyway, so what is the testing all about? Oh no, we understand what testing is but again, getting back to what is verse two where that they would be taught war to know war.

[9:22] Why would God want us to know war? does he want us to know about tactics and maneuvers of that sort?

[9:33] Does he want us to know what the cost of war is? No, none of that makes any sense. So, it's got to be something deeper than that. And man, I'll tell you, as I delved into this, I had simple answer last week but I pondered it even longer all week long and I could quite literally give three sermons just on this topic if there was so much information.

[9:58] So, I will try to condense it all down here and give you the highlights of what I saw what was going on. First, God wants us to know that a war is going on.

[10:12] there is one all around us and he wants us to know who the enemy is. Ephesians 6, we all know this, we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[10:34] We've all heard that before. So, it's not the flesh, not the humans that we're worrying against, it's really what's going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm and the leaders in those spiritual realms.

[10:51] Again, this is elementary, we know this stuff. But, by knowing who the true enemy is, what do we know about God?

[11:02] We know what he doesn't represent. That's just something to think about. So, when you start thinking about what the enemy is, what he represents, what the enemy represents, you know that God does not represent that.

[11:16] So, if things are happening in your life, different attacks and stuff, and you say, well, the Lord is doing that to me, it can't be because he's the enemy. God is not. God does not think like that.

[11:27] And he does not operate like that. So, if things happen in our lives and it can be contributed to the enemy, then it needs to be contributed to the enemy.

[11:40] Just things to think about. It also causes us to recognize what makes God and his children distinctive.

[11:51] Why are we different? Why is God different? Again, these are just thoughts to think about. I had to condense all this down. And also, God becomes increasingly clearer as why he is the way, the truth, and the life.

[12:13] Through war, we get to know more about God. He is a jealous God. He's jealous for his people and doesn't want them playing the harlot, worshiping other gods.

[12:29] God is also faithful to his covenant relationship even when we are unfaithful. God is slow to anger. God is holy and just.

[12:41] He doesn't allow sin to go unpunished. And God is also quick to rescue us. We learn all this through war. teaches us to obey him, to trust him, and to rely on him.

[13:00] by knowing war, we know that, again, when we read all the different stories about war and the battles and everything, we learn that the battle ultimately belongs to who?

[13:16] The Lord. The battle belongs to the Lord. We also know that he raises up, delivers, and he empowers them. the power to conquer your foe does not consist in multitudes or bravery or of fighting men, but solely in the might of God.

[13:37] there are battles that need to be fought. We are to do our part according to his word, and God will do his.

[13:55] There are many things that God leaves in our lives to test us, things that we should have driven out, but instead we live among, and he will use those to test us, but more importantly, he's going to use it to teach us.

[14:19] He's not going to sit there and just beat us with it. No, he's going to, we're his children, he wants to teach us things through these trials, through these battles, through this war.

[14:32] war. We war with scripture as our guide. It's an open book test, kind of neat to be able to have, so when you're going through a battle, you don't have to try and figure it out.

[14:49] Look up scripture. It's all in there. If we do it in our own strength, yeah, we're going to make a mess. there is a way to enter into battle and conflicts and it isn't in our own strength, but trusting in him.

[15:08] Instead of getting so angry at a co-worker and blowing up at them in your heart, slow your roll and seek God on how it should be handled.

[15:20] Let him go before you to win the battle. We need to learn war. Alright, moving on.

[15:35] Verse 3. These nations, the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebel Hamath.

[15:51] So, we know that these are the different nations. This is actually interesting too these nations that are listed here because we can get the idea when we read some parts of scripture and we think to ourselves, how fair is that that God wanted or that he wanted to wipe out these nations completely?

[16:19] he didn't want them around. What was there about that? Is that what he wants to do with all nations and he wants just his children? He wants just Israel to have the stuff or the land and everything?

[16:33] It just seems unfair. Why would he do that? We can get into that mindset if we let ourselves, if we let the enemy come into our head and start thinking like that.

[16:45] Does he hate everybody else? He just wants to wipe them out? Is that his motive? Is that how he operates? Of course not.

[16:57] There's something else going on here. If you remember your history that when Abraham walked through this area that God promised him that he would have this land, that his descendants will have this land.

[17:16] But he also said it would take 400 years before that would come to fruition. Because there was other nations that were living in there, other peoples that were living in this land, and they were a nation full of debauchery and the practices that they did.

[17:43] And they were just still fledgling at it. They weren't full blown at it yet, but God knew that they would be. And so there was going to come a time when their time was at an end.

[17:59] That they, it was time to now judge them and God was going to use the nation of Israel that is being populated in Egypt at this, you know, during this time, the 400 years, and when they get freed and they're going to go into the promised land, that God was going to judge these other, these places, the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites.

[18:25] He was going to judge them for what they were doing. They were not a good people at all. And if you read the history of what they did, it would just, it turns your stomach reading this stuff.

[18:41] And it's, you can find that in Leviticus. You can find it in, you know, they're just also history books and stuff of what all these guys did. You know, we get the simple part here where it says that they served gods, other gods, and they were the Baals and the Asherah.

[19:01] But what were those gods? You know, the Baals were the gods of intellect. That doesn't sound so bad. What's so bad about the gods of intellect? We're going to learn more about them as we go through Judges.

[19:14] And the same thing with the Asherah. The gods of Asherah were the gods of sensuality. And they had, they planted trees and little groves and everything.

[19:29] And within that grove, they would worship this god of sensuality. And that's where they had church worship services to these gods.

[19:44] And they were doing just unmentionable things. You can imagine. And again, it's listed in Leviticus. And you would just go, what?

[19:56] What? What? No wonder why God was so angry with these nations and wanted them wiped out. He gave them time to repent.

[20:06] I don't know what He did, but it says that He did. Again, not here, but in other places. They were given opportunities and they chose not to. So it's not like He's just, oh, I'll just let them do whatever they want and then I'm going to get them later.

[20:22] No, He tried. He reached out to them in one way or another. So when you read about these different nations that were, God said, to wipe out, don't get offended by that or don't say, oh, you know, God's a mean God and stuff.

[20:40] Oh, no, there was an absolute reason for it. Learn your history about it. And I bring that up only because, you know, I used to read it like that and saying, golly, what's He doing?

[20:55] He's just a God of war. He wants to kill people. He wants to get rid of them. And again, not what it's all about at all. In Genesis 15, it says that God who is long suffering, he desires his creation to give him thanks and worship.

[21:14] The Amorites, the pagan citizens of Canaan, and idolatrous people, desired no such thing. Thus, God waited to give the promised land to Israel until the iniquity of the Amorites was complete.

[21:30] The Lord does not arbitrarily punish. He allows people to run themselves into hell, which makes his verdicts fitting. In Abraham's day, the Amorites had not yet become corrupt enough to lose Canaan, and so it does not go immediately to Abram.

[21:50] But it does. God uses his people Israel to carry out his sentence. And of course, that happens in the book of Joshua and somewhat here in Judges.

[22:03] Men can sin brazenly only for a short time. Judgment will surely fall when their evil works are complete.

[22:13] Let us not despair over our society's wickedness, for the Lord will judge it in time. Likewise, let us never sin boldly, for he will not indefinitely suspend his discipline.

[22:30] things to think about. Knowing this, the next thing that happens makes more sense in how God reacts in verse 6.

[22:45] And they took, so they're living among, did I go into verse 5? Yeah, so let me go back up to verse 5. The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

[22:59] And they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And how did God respond?

[23:11] Then the sons, oh, not yet, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. So verse 7, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[23:23] And it says that they forgot the Lord. How do you forget? God. It's got to be a conscious decision that you're doing.

[23:38] And the word forgot means to set to the side. So when they forgot the Lord, they simply set him to the side.

[23:53] We do that in our own lives. God. I mean, it's easy to read these stories and judge for ourselves how bad the Israelites, how could they be so bad?

[24:07] How could they do this over and over again? We're just as guilty in our own life. We at times set aside the Lord because we want to pursue this or want to pursue that.

[24:19] we want to watch a movie that maybe we shouldn't be watching. In order to do that, set aside to look at things we shouldn't look at.

[24:35] We'll get into that again in a second here. So they forgot the Lord. They set it aside. They did it so in order that they could serve the Baals and the Asherahs.

[24:47] And again, could you imagine them? Man, we never had a church service like this. You know, and it's all full of the sensuality and stuff.

[24:59] To the flesh, yeah. I mean, and it's what their neighbors were doing, the people they were living among, all the other people, hey, let's go over there.

[25:11] You know, all that temptation. You've got to remember, first they lived among the enemy, and then they became linked to the enemy through marriage, and then they became like them in worshiping their gods.

[25:30] You know what happens when you live among people. You get to know them, and you get at some point to begin imitate them. You begin to imitate their, and take on their ideologies and their cultural ways.

[25:45] You become comfortable around them. You compromise further, and further, and further, in your acceptance of their words that they use, their jokes that they give, movies that they watch, entertainment, their lifestyles.

[26:02] we let these things get paraded in front of our eyes, in our ears, and we just accept it.

[26:14] It's compromise. Not that we're told to go destroy them, because we're not. God wants that done, he'll raise up somebody, but he'll also, the battle is his.

[26:28] He will do it in his timing, and in how he wants. In the meantime, don't get discouraged of the world going the way it's going. It's got to. It's been foretold.

[26:40] There should not be anything strange to us. So, just pray for people that they would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's calling, because the Holy Spirit is calling them.

[26:57] And, like I said, he, is not just going to go destroy people. He's going to give chances first. We say to ourself, you know, when we're amongst the nation living among it, that I'm okay, I won't get sucked in, or pressured, I can handle it.

[27:20] There's a story told of a man who had a python. His name was Monty.

[27:33] And, that's funny. Come on, you guys can't know. That's okay. If you know Monty Python. So, a man raised a python, and he named it Monty.

[27:44] True story. And, he loved Monty. He fed Monty all the time and everything. and, and, he went on vacation.

[27:55] When he came back, it had been a few weeks, and Monty can usually survive that, you know, without eating. And, because Monty was pretty big. He was 20 foot long. And, big old python.

[28:09] And, anyway, he went to, after he came back, he, this is in the newspapers, it was back in 2013 that this happened. He, went to Monty, and was loving on him and stuff.

[28:22] Oh, I missed you Monty. And, Monty's wrapping around him, you know what happened. He can handle it. Yeah, there is no problem in that.

[28:33] He lived amongst a very dangerous snake. You don't know when. It's a snake. Come on. It's, I don't care how much you think you love it and stuff, and you're going to take care of it.

[28:45] No, it's going to turn on you. at some point. You just take those chances. Anyway, that's, what do we do with that, with our own sins, with our own temptations, and we pet them, and oh, I love you.

[29:02] You bring me such joy for a moment, and then it comes back to bite you or eat you. Not good. 1 Corinthians 15, 33 tells us, don't be fooled fooled for bad company corrupts good character.

[29:20] Don't be fooled by thinking that, oh no, I can change them. I'll just, I'll insert myself into their life, and it'll be okay. No, stay far away from it.

[29:35] Because they did what was right in their own eyes, and went down this path, verse 8 happens. And again, now we understand why God is, we'll read it, verse 8.

[29:47] Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that he sold them into the hands of Cushon Rithestim, king of Mesopotamia.

[29:59] Well, we're going to make this easy here in just a second. The name Cushon Rithestim means double wicked.

[30:10] That's his name. Can you imagine you have a baby, and hey, I'm going to call you double wicked. What a thing.

[30:20] This is what these people, this is how they lived. They embraced it. Double wicked, double darkness. Either one has got the same connotation.

[30:32] Double wicked. Oh my goodness. who would do that? So we got good old king double wicked, and God sold them into his hands to teach them, to show them, I'm not going to let sin go unpunished.

[30:51] What you're doing is abominable. Not a snowman. I don't know why I go there. But anyway, so, double darkness is oppressing them, and got them under his thumb.

[31:13] God, in other words, gave them over to their sins. And, we're told that they served double darkness for eight years.

[31:28] Eight years, what a long time. Hopefully, it doesn't take us that long that when we are being punished, corrected, that it does not take us that long to come around, to swallow our pride, to say, uncle, Lord, you're right.

[31:53] I was wrong. I did things that were evil in the sight of you. I went my own way. I did what was right in my own eyes. Which brings me to, because many people have asked me this morning already, how did it go with your co-worker that you talked about last week, that he done you wrong.

[32:19] You had a right to be mad at him. I did. I had malice in my heart and everything. I was going to, on Tuesday, when he came back to work, I was going to talk to him and tell him I was sorry for my feelings towards him.

[32:37] This is no way for, he knows I'm a Christian, there's no way for a Christian to act. And to give him the cold shoulder and stuff. So, Tuesday comes around and guess what I did?

[32:50] Nothing. I kept quiet. I didn't, I still could not get over it. I was still angry with him. I'm going, why won't I talk to him?

[33:04] No, I still have my right. I still, I was still stubborn. Stubborn. My other co-worker that knows I'm a Christian that had the fortunate privilege of bringing him to the Lord several years ago.

[33:23] He's saying, hey Mark, why are you treating him like this? And it's like, you know you're not supposed to. I know it, I know it. Just leave me alone, get away from me.

[33:35] And it's because I was trying to do it in my own strength. That's what was happening. I was trying to resolve this in my own mind, with my own way of thinking, still staying in that place where I was doing what was right in my own eyes.

[33:53] The Lord said, well you're not done with you yet. I still got to teach you. This is a battle. This is a war that you're going through right now. Because it was tearing me up inside.

[34:04] I'm not able to sleep at night, not that I'm able to anyway, but even less. Because I know the Holy Spirit was knocking on me and saying, Mark, you know what to do, you know what to do.

[34:18] But like I said, I tried to do it on my own strength. And so what it finally came down to at the end of the week is that he came to me, the guy did, because the Lord saw his heart.

[34:36] And not that he asked for forgiveness, but he, you know, in his own way, that's what he did. He was willing to, hey, Mark, these things that I've ignored or that I haven't, that I've done to, that weren't right to you, I want to make amends and I want to teach me this stuff, teach me about this, so that I can be a helper like I'm supposed to be here at work.

[35:02] That's basically what it came down to. So, the battle didn't belong to me, it belonged to the Lord, and I wouldn't give it over to him, and I wouldn't humble myself to apologize, so he showed me a non-believer will humble himself.

[35:19] It's like, wow, because the Lord worked on his heart. What a powerful lesson for me. and I share these things to my own disgrace.

[35:35] I don't share them obviously for kudos or anything like that, but I'm trying to be real with you. These are the struggles we go through, and when we're going through them, we're supposed to take it to the Lord and let him handle it, whether whichever way he's going to have us move forward, either he wants us to be humbled or that he's going to soften their heart.

[36:02] Again, whatever way it's going to look, everything is different all the time. I just want to encourage you that God will raise up a deliverer, and however that deliverer looks.

[36:14] In the book of Judges, they all looked different. enough about that. Deliverance was just waiting for them to cry out, because in verse 9 we read that the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

[36:43] So Othniel always been there, right? God could have all it, but for eight years of being oppressed, they just stayed in oppression, because they would not cry out to the Lord, they would not humble themselves.

[37:00] Eight years, again, well I hope again that it doesn't take you eight years, or me eight years, or even eight days next time. May I do it so much quicker.

[37:11] They cried out with intensity and passion, like Elijah did. If you remember the story when Elijah was praying for rain, how did he do it?

[37:22] He did it with his head between his knees, he was praying passionately, wanting, asking for rain, and you know, if you get that picture in your mind of praying with your head between your knees, that almost, that reminds me of giving birth, giving labor, or being in labor, and you're laboring over it, that you're crying out to the Lord.

[37:51] Again, I just get a picture of that. And so it's interesting to me that when we cry out to the Lord that we should do it passionately. And then what happened?

[38:04] God had compassion. He raised up the deliverer. And Othniel's name means strength of God or God's lion.

[38:18] So much better than double darkness. I mean, gee, what are you going to name your kids or grandkids? It's interesting to look up your own name and seeing what that means because it somehow connects to our personalities and stuff.

[38:34] And if you were named a bad name, don't worry. God can change it just like he did Saul and Paul, right? And Simon and Peter. So anyway, so interesting thing about Othniel, and we're not told here, but Josephus, everybody knows who Josephus was, but he was a historian and he tells us that Othniel was, get this, 91 years old at this time.

[39:03] that's pretty amazing. God calls a 91 year old man to go fight battles. Of course, he was raised up again with good stock, should we say, had Caleb, and they don't know for sure if it was his younger brother, his nephew, or whatever, the translation isn't real clear on that, but regardless, he was from good stock.

[39:30] In other words, he'd been raised up right, he'd seen things, and if you remember back in chapter 1, verse 12, Caleb gave a challenge and said, Caleb said, the one who attacks another king, or another city, and captures it, I will give him my daughter for a wife, and Othniel is the one who beat or defeated that city, and so he got Caleb's daughter as a wife.

[40:11] And if you also remember in that story that he was to ask for the upper and the lower springs of where they were going to settle as part of the deal, and Caleb gave it to him.

[40:25] So what does that tell us? So put these things together. Josephus says that he's 91 years old, and also he settled in the upper and lower springs, which means his life was very content, very easy for him, because he had it all.

[40:44] He was being blessed, his socks were green, how did that go? Blessing his socks off, there we go. I knew I'd get there.

[40:56] But you know what? Even in his comfort, even in his old age, he was still available, and God used him. Verse 10 tells us, whoop, come back over, verse 10 tells us, the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel.

[41:17] He went out to war. The Lord gave double darkness, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, so that he prevailed over double darkness.

[41:29] So, what was the key? What happened? It wasn't Othniel's strength, or wit, or strategies, or anything like that.

[41:39] It was the spirit of the Lord came upon him, empowered him to do it. So, when you're not able to do things, where are we supposed to be turning to for the power?

[41:53] Of course, it's the Holy Spirit. I also learned this, and I never saw this before, I heard it in another sermon that I was listening to, that in the Strong's dictionary, he must have one that does phrases put together, but he has it in there that when it says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, it's saying that the Spirit of the Lord agitates, agitated him, moved him.

[42:25] So, it wasn't just a, because I was thinking, how does it look, what does it look like when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you? He agitates your heart.

[42:36] He gets you, hey, you're just thinking about something, you can't stop thinking about it. And maybe when the Spirit came upon him, it was, hey, look at double darkness, he's bad, he's evil, he's oppressing the people, do something about it, I'm going to give you the strength to do it.

[42:55] Okie dokie, I'm available, I'm going to go, I'm 91, but I don't care, because I've seen how you operated with Caleb when he was 85 years old and he took on the giants, and you remember that story, and he won, and that's how he got his area, his territory, but anyway, I'm available.

[43:20] So, the Spirit agitates, he moves you, in some way he just, he won't leave you alone. He'll just keep, he what now? Takes you out of your comfort zone.

[43:31] Yeah, and he takes you out of your comfort zone. That's the agitation. Amen. So, if you remember also, not by might or by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

[43:45] That's how battles are won. Not by might, not by power, but by his Spirit. It wasn't about strategies or programs or disciplines. It's not about efforts or ingenuities.

[43:59] It is about humility humility and saying, Lord, we need you. I can't do this on my own.

[44:10] I've tried. It's not working. You cannot win a battle without the Holy Spirit. We will mess it up all the time, one way or the other.

[44:22] Othniel defeated the enemy, double wicked, because God gave him into his hands. that's the reason. Verse 11, then the land had rest for 40 years.

[44:38] So it wasn't until double darkness was defeated before then the land had rest for 40 years. What they mean by that is the people had rest.

[44:50] And because now they had a judge over them, a person in their area that listened and obeyed to God, obeyed God, and so he kept them in line, basically.

[45:03] But then what happens? Of course, 40 years, so that would make him 131 years old when he died. That's pretty amazing too.

[45:16] The people had been set free of their bondage, but then Othniel dies. And we read the very next verse. Now the sons, in verse 12, that we didn't get into, and will next week, now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[45:34] Just go back into that thing again, and again, and again. May that not be on your epitaph, describing who you were in life, that you just kept going over these cycles, that at some point you break it.

[45:56] anyway, Father, again, we thank you for your word. Whatever way that you were trying to speak to us in our own walk, in our own place with you, our own growth, that you would speak clearly to us, and that we would listen to you, and that we would change, that we would humble ourselves, and realize that you are God and we are not, and that you love us, and all you want to do is teach us to learn to walk in your ways, to obey your commandments, to please you.

[46:42] Well, that's all. We just want to be children that are pleasing to you. So be with us this week, as you are teaching us, and working on it more and more during this week.

[46:57] And thank you for that. Thank you for your love. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.