“Therefore the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Edom-Naharayim; and the people of Israel served Kushan-Rish‘atayim eight years. But when the people of Isra’el cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up a savior for the people of Isra’el; and he rescued them; this was ‘Otni’el, the son of Kalev’s younger brother K’naz.”-Judges 3:8-9
From verse 9, the pattern of how a judge operated is set down as follows:
FIRST, the people sin.
SECOND, God judges them as guilty of sin and punishes them by sending a gentile nation to conquer them.
THIRD, the people cry out for deliverance.
FINALLY, God has pity and sends a savior to rescue them.
This is the pattern we’re going to see repeated over and over and over again in the Book of Judges.
By the way, do you recall what the Hebrew word for “savior” is?
It’s YAHSHAH.
Sounds pretty darn similar to Yeshua, doesn’t it?
Well it should because they come from the same root word.
Here’s the thing.
Although the Book of Judges refers to these saviors as “judges” or Shophetim in Hebrew, first and foremost, their primary purpose was to save and rescue.
The judicial role of being an actual judge, like in a courtroom, didn’t really play out until after the so-called rescue operation was completed.
Let’s take a look at the first judge who the Lord raised up.
His name was Othniel.
He was the younger brother of Kalev and married Caleb’s daughter Akhsah.
He seemed like the best possible candidate to be chosen as the first judge of Israel.
Why do I say that?
Well, for a couple of reasons.
First, he was the hero who accepted the challenge to take the hill country in the south from the Anakim.
As a result, he won Akhsah to be his wife as the reward for his victory.
This was a big win for Othniel from a political perspective.
More than her beauty or good charms, acquiring Akhsah as a wife enabled Othniel to position himself to become the next clan leader after the current leader hung up his hat.
Another obvious point is that Othniel would have been many years younger than Caleb and thus possess sufficient energy, drive and motivation to personally lead an army against Israel’s current oppressors.
Remember, Caleb was one of the original 12 spies Moses originally sent out to reconnoiter the land and one of only 2 men who came back with a positive report.
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