Othniel

We have a period of almost 400 years of loose central authority, which is the period of time of judges.

where various people appear and to save the Jewish people from threats, people like Deborah and Ehud and Othniel and Dvorah and Samson.

And then we have the great prophet who is Shmuel, Samuel.

He is the transitional leader who brings us into what is the monarchy and Saul being the first king of Israel from the tribe of Benjamin.

Earlier deliverers, there have been three of those.

There's Othniel, the first of the judges.

There's Ehud, the one with the left-handed sword, if you remember that, and Eglon.

And then there is Shamgar, who only gets a very brief mention.

Judges 2.16. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

Judges 3 verse 9, Othniel was raised up by the Lord.

Judges 3 verse 15, Ehud was raised up by the Lord.

Deborah was raised up by the Lord.

And Caleb said, He who attacks Kiriathsepha and captures it, I will give him Ashash, my daughter, as wife.

And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it.

And he gave him Ashash, his daughter, as wife.

When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field.

And in effect, Caleb's household is all affected.

The household of Caleb treats the promises of God in a different way.

When Othniel is asked if he can go and fight, win a city, and he would marry Caleb's daughter.

You guys are like, who is it? Which city? God fights and defeats and he marries Caleb's daughter.

But 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.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel's judge.

He went to war against King Cushan Rishatham of Aram, and the Lord gave Othniel victory over him.

So there was peace in the land for forty years.

Then Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.

Once again the Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight, and the Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel because of their evil.

Eglon enlisted the Ammonites and Amalekites as allies, and then he went out and defeated Israel, taking possession of Jericho, the city of palms.

We'll see that in a moment.

And my suspicion is she probably said, oh, I like the look of Othniel.

He actually means Lion of the Lord, by the way.

That name means Lion of the Lord.

Make sure that good men and women in the church actually think he's gonna be good for you, right? So this is the story, just a little side note.

I hope that's okay.

So when Aksa married Othniel, She urged him.

So she's got a mouth on her.

But we're told that we know Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year.

In my yeshiva in Othniel, we would spend the entire day fasting and dancing.

We would literally, I was like, talk about tipsy.

We're like, we're like fainting because we're so thirsty and hungry.

From there they went to fight against the people living in the town of Debir, formerly called Kiriath-sepher.

Caleb said, 'I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the one who attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher.' Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz, was the one who conquered it.

So Acsah became Othniel's wife.

When Acsah married Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field.

As she got down off her donkey, Caleb asked her, 'What's the matter?' She said, 'Let me have another gift.

You have already given me land in the Negev.