I've been using our company's "6S" list as the basis of a morning work prayer. Had a meltdown today, right after deciding I should share it with you here. Today's bigger lesson- When you pray for spiritual guideposts, remember to add, "and brace me for Your practical tests"!
The Better Part, Day #184:
As you might imagine, today I really needed to pray about the car situation, and my mind didn't want to let me focus. So I did something I don't often do- I randomly opened the Bible for help. Here is what I hit:
Jon 2:2 ...saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. "
The Better Part, day #185:
I mentioned the "6S" prayer I use at work the other day. Let me share part of it:
Sort: At work it means putting away tools and materials you aren't going to use. For my prayer, it means to Ask that Jesus remove from my mind the distractions I don't need.
Set In Order: At work, this means to line up what you need for the job where you can easily get it. For me, it means move my mind and my thoughts, my actions and my mouth, in alignment with what I believe, not what I'm "used to".
Shine/Sweep: Work is obvious; for me much the same- forgive my sins, aim me away from them.
More tomorrow.
The Better Part, Day # 186:
The Better Part, day #187:
The second half of that 6S:
Standardize: At work, it means keep your tools, etc, in a logical order. For me, it means keep my walk with His walk.
Sustain: Pretty obvious either way. For me, though, it takes a whole lot more prayer than the average person is used to.
Safety: At work, you're consciously trying to achieve it; for me, it means consciously asking God to achieve it.
This is just not going to be a good Time Machine week. You'll see the planned post in its glorious entirety next week. But let's start this week with Tuesday. I was just going for the door to go to work when the Fire Dept knocked and said...
"...your car is on fire..."
Apparently an arcing wire caught the battery. Before you say, "How terrible," let's look at how good God was to us:
-We were home, not on the road, not at work.
-We weren't parked somewhere where someone else's car could have been damaged.
- We were up, so we at least had our usual night's sleep.
-Insurance and work were easy to work with.
We move on, after a lot of prayer by ourselves and others, to Thursday, which was "shopping day". I was nothing but nerves, but in my daily Bible reading, I hit this verse:
Psa 37:8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
Moments later, walking Misty, I felt God tell me, "Don't worry it; I've got it. Doesn't matter what car you get, I take care of you."
Which set my mind and soul at ease; my chest was still as tight as it's ever been. But it eased off when I heard the words, (Not from God, but the FCU): "I can't see why you wouldn't be approved."
Hours later, well, let's let Misty show you:
"Here's what they left me at home half the day to get..."
"It's a 2011 Chevy Cruze, gold, drives a lot like the Impala did (so Daddy tells me), so everyone's happy!"
God came through here, and Praise to the One who kept me from despairing the situation! However, when we got home, now I learned about the terrorist attacks in Kabul. On that, I have nothing to say, other than calling on the mercy of God for His help and comfort. However, it does drain the last dregs of my mental energy, so we'll put the massive undertaking known as Time Machine off till next week.
The Next story is of the judge Ehud- and this is one my pastor didn't like telling, because, well, it IS blood and guts....
Jdg 3:21 And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. Jdg 3:22 And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out.
But of course, that's skipping ahead, and I'll try to be a tad more delicate. At any rate, let's go to the beginning of the story...
Jdg 3:12 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD. Jdg 3:13 He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms.
Amazingly enough, there's a lot to be seen here. I want to point out that, unlike Cushan the Double-Wicked last week, Eglon had to be "strengthened by God for the Job. Why?
Jdg 3:17 ...Now Eglon was a very fat man...
In other words, we were dealing with a man of indolence, not a warrior. So to do God's will, he needed allies, hence the Ammonites and Amaelekites. Now, the Ammonites were "cousins" of Moab (both races sprang from Lot's incestuous daughters, and thus were- as my Dad used to say- 'shirttail relations' of Israel. But now Amalek? He is a real example of God's promises fulfilled. Look here...
Exo 17:13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. Exo 17:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."
And then, here...
Although Egyptian and Assyrian monumental inscriptions and records of
the period survive which list various tribes and peoples of the area, no
reference has ever been found to Amalek or the Amalekites. Therefore,
the archaeologist and historian Hugo Winckler
suggested in 1895 that there were never any such people and the
Biblical stories concerning them are entirely mythological and
ahistorical.- Wikipedia
Finally, we should note that "the City of Palms" has another, more famous name...
Deu 34:3 ...the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar...
So now we know the enemy and the places. Next we look at Ehud....
Jdg 3:15 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.
Notable here, he was a Benjaminite, and later in Judges this becomes not a good thing, but for now, being one was cool. He was also an official of sorts, the man that brought the yearly tribute to Fat Boy, which means he was no stranger to the Moabite court. Plus, he's left handed, which comes in handy in a bit. But next, we have to look at his "job prep":
Jdg 3:16 And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes.
The phrase "made himself" was key, because back then when you got conquered, one of the first things that got done was shutting down of metalworking. So not only was he a craftsman, he was a sneaky craftsman. And the right thigh? Well, most people were right handed and drew a weapon from the opposite side- the left thigh scabbard. Thus, combine the fact that security knew him well enough with his apparently concealed left-handedness, and you get a weapon that gets past security. Another perk of his familiarity in the court is that he could get away with this:
Jdg 3:18 And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. Jdg 3:19 But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." And he commanded, "Silence." And all his attendants went out from his presence.
Eglon, to some extent, trusted Ehud. Which gave Ehud the opportunity to do what he did in that first part I shared. I won't belabor that scene, other than to point out that the curiously translated "dung", which other versions translate 'dirt' and my paper Bible calls "his entrails" is one of those "only used once" words from the Old Testament.
Jdg 3:24 When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, "Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber." Jdg 3:25 And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. Jdg 3:26 Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. Jdg 3:27 When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. Jdg 3:28 And he said to them, "Follow after me, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand." So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over.
And that was the end of that 18-year cycle of punishment. But now, I want to jump ahead to a curiosity before we start the next cycle. At the end of the next judge's story, a song is sung that has this line...
Jdg 5:6 "In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. Jdg 5:7 The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.
Now, I'll come back to the Jael part of that next week, but I wanted to use this to introduce Shamgar, of whom all we see is this:
Jdg 3:30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years. Jdg 3:31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.
Note here: He is NOT named a judge of Israel- just a deliverer. There is a lot of controversy about him because of that. The Jews believed that his mention in the song meant that he was an oppressor, not a hero; they believed that his name got transposed with another, who- as killing a platoon of Philistines with a glorified long-handled shovel would indicate- also had great strength:
2Sa 23:11 And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. 2Sa 23:12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the LORD worked a great victory.
This IS a very similar story, from the lists of David's mighty men. And the Jews think somebody confused "Shamgar" and "Shammah". Another site I found had another explanation. Maybe you remember this line from last week:
Jdg 1:33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
So here we find Shamgar's father Anath established a house in the lands of Napthali, in the north. The site I found points out that Shamgar's name is not Hebrew, or even Semitic:
It turns out that Shamgar is non-Semitic, and most likely Hurrian. Toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age (sometime around 1550 BCE, more
than 200 years before the Israelite settlement) there was an influx of
Hurrians into Canaan, explaining how names like Shamgar arrived in the
area.
The site (Biblical Historical Context) goes on to give further evidence of this, and postulates that his short shrift in Judges is because he WAS a foreigner- and from the distance between Napthali and the Philistines, I wonder (my own thoughts here) if he was not paid to help the Hebrews. However, you'd think that he'd have come better armed had he been paid:
The ox goad, as now used in those parts, is an instrument fit to do great execution with it, as Mr. Maundrell (s), who saw many of them, describes it; on measuring them, he found them to be eight feet long, at the bigger end six inches in circumference, at the lesser end was a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end a small spade, or paddle of iron, for cleansing the plough from the clay...- John Gill's Exposition
To kill 600 men by himself with this instrument, I think, marks Shamgar as a man of supernatural strength, perhaps like Shammah and this guy...
Jdg 15:15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. Jdg 15:16 And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men."
The last curiosity I'll share in this story was the part where the Jews (from the Jewish Encyclopedia) found it unbelievable to accept his story, but on last week's debate on Othniel's parentage, they say, "Othniel's real relation to Caleb is plain if the narrative is allowed to tell its own story." So why is what's good enough for Othniel not good enough for Shamgar? Next week, we'll look at just why I started his story with that song clip, as well as the story of Debrorah, Barak, and Jael...
Misty shared some park time with her buddies Finn and Zeke...
After the workout, which was tamer than usual because (I assume) it was so muggy, we returned home to "visit the bunnies". Last week, Misty discovered that one of our Bunnies was "hiding some babies in our front yard! We have been going to check on them every day... somedays they are there, some not. Saturday, one actually squeaked at Misty! But Sunday... they took off!
This one ran right onto the street...YIKES!
This one was more curious...
Of course, we got the little runaway chased back up into the yard!
"Do you believe that your sins are forgiven and that Christ has made a full atonement for them? Then what a joyful Christian you ought to be! How you should live above the common trials and troubles of the world! Since sin is forgiven, can it matter what happens to you now? Luther said, “Smite, Lord, smite, for my sin is forgiven; if You have forgiven me, smite as hard as You will.” And in a similar spirit you may say, “Send sickness, poverty, losses, crosses, persecution, what You will. You have forgiven me, and my soul is glad.”
It takes a powerful Christian to pray that prayer. I hope one day to be up to it...
The Better Part Day #179:
Pro 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.
When this verse catches your eye first thing in the morning, and you think to yourself, "Hmmm... this kinda sounds like it's sinful for me to get upset when I have a good, efficient plan to follow at work, and something makes it derail..." You know this is going to be a derailing kind of day. God gives you a chance to pray about things beforehand, so you can handle them.
The Better Part, Day #180:
Words to the wise I heard a couple days ago, during a sermon on David's lack of actual response to Amnon's crime: Absalom at first did what was right- he went through channels, to the king. The king did not give justice. When you don't get justice from man, go to the King. After all, who ever had a more unfair trial than Jesus?
The Better Part, Day # 181:
Some time back, we got a new "motivational sign" in the restroom at work, reading, "If you want it, work for it." My initial- and unchanged until today- reaction was, "If only I could stick a paper saying, 'What are my other alternatives?' onto it!" But today, it struck me that this applies not just to work but to SEVERAL areas of my spiritual walk. So now, I'm reading it a bit different...
The Better Part, Day #182:
Psa 33:13 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
Psa 33:14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
Psa 33:15 he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
My Paper Bible translated that last verse with the word, "individually", which struck a cord with me. But none of my e-Bible versions did likewise; so I went to the commentators for insight.
"...and it may be the difference there appears to be between them afterwards, nay be owing to the make and constitution of their bodies, to their education, and different situation, circumstances, and advantages in life, whereby the hearts of some may be more opened and enlarged than others. Some render it "together", or "altogether"; which must not be understood of time, as if they were all made at once, but of equality; the one was made by him as well as the other; he is the fashioner of one and all of them, every whit of them; they are wholly fashioned by him, and all that is in them, all the powers and faculties of the soul; and by him only, and not by the instrumentality of another; for souls are created, not generated; they are produced out of nothing, and not out of pre-existent matter, as bodies; parents contribute somewhat to the bodies of their children, but not anything to their souls. "
So we all start with the same spiritual opportunity, it's what we individually make of it that matters.
Just 10 Time Machines after this one, and this week to spread out the choices a little more, I got the big idea of pulling something we've never done before- a 90s show! That's right, this week we applied the Volume 7 method we've been using to the Cashbox hot 100s of their last years- 1990-95- and got 11 songs that met my criteria. Wanting more, I then went through the Billboard hot 100s of those years and got 10 more!
Why is that all I've got? Well, honestly, the 90s were assuredly not my era- I spent most of it listening to country and alternative. So it was a little harder to get a good list... and doing it this way, since I did the Cashbox songs (which only had a top 50 at this point) first, the Billboard contingent won't have a chance at the final. So, I'll be mixing it all up before you get to your final picks... somehow... At any rate, I asked Nardole to get us someone big from the 90s to co-host this week, and... Elvis, why are you laughing?
EP: Oh, just wait'll you see this one... Bring 'im out, Noodle!
Ha ha, Hi, Kids! Uh... kids?
BARNEY? YOU GOT ME BARNEY?
Nardole: I don't know why you're shouting- he fits both of your requirements...
EP: 'Ceptin' the one you keep fergittin' about- has to do with music!
N: Sir, I thought you told me you were involved in music!
B: Huhhuh, well I am! I have 19 albums, and three made the Billboard 200! One even went to #9!
EP: 'Fraid he's gotcha, slim!
Well, if we're gonna go down, go down big, I guess! Alright, Barney, tell us about that big hit lp!
B: Well, it was called 'Barney's Favorites, volume one', and it had My intro theme at the start, and I Love You at the end, and gosh, 25 songs in between! My Buddy Bob West did my singing parts, and was also Chuck E. Cheese; Julie Johnson did my friend Baby Bop and went on tour doing a show called A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline!
Fan-tastic! So right about now, I would play our first debut, but, as luck today would have it, the M10 HAS no debuts this week! So maybe this would be a good time to look at what happened today in ONE of these years...
EP: I got it, Boss! Well in 1991, we were in day two of the attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev at the hands of a provisional government calling itself the State Committee On The State Of Emergency... trust me, it sounds just as stupid in Russian...
"We should have called it 'chto za kucha idiotov'..."
EP: An' whilst they was doin' that, Estonia declared independence...
B: I remember that! They were leaving the Soviet Union faster than raptors leaving Mexico before the meteor hit!
(Whispering to Nardole) This show is dying, and you're next!
N: Perhaps this will help, sir...
Let me see... seriously? this is the best you can..., oh well, might as well go with it! Barney! Front and center!
B: Yes, Mr Martin?
Here, Nardole has found a source for "kiddie songs that hit the Hot 100". Would you mind regaling us with it?
B: But Mr Martin, I haven't properly warmed up my voice...
No, do NOT sing them. Just. Read. The. List.
B: Huhhuh, of course! This list was compiled by Gary Trust, senior director of charts at Billboard, and these are the children's songs he found that charted....
He says that Julie Andrews hit #66 in 1965 with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...
My buddy Kermit The Frog hit #25 with Rainbow Connection in 1979...
Also at #25, Kenny Loggins and Return To Pooh Corner in 1994, a rework of his song House At Pooh Corner, which the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band charted in 1971...
I wouldn't necessarily call that a kids song, but go on...
Kermit's friend Ernie got to #16 with Rubber Duckie in 1970...
Idina Menzel sang the song Let It Go from Frozen in 2014, and it got to #5...
Ah, so that's why she made that Geico commercial! I knew she had to be famous for something!
And he named two songs by Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Christmas Song at #1 and Alvin's Harmonica at #3!
Wait, no Childrens Marching Song? No Snoopy and the Red Baron? No Puff The Magic Dragon? And no mention of one of my all time favorites...
N: Perhaps we should get back to the show, sirs...
Yes indeed! Barney, the list of songs, leaving off the 4 at the top and the two at the bottom!
B: Yes, sir! Huhhuh! And there ion alphabetical order, because that's special!
Sheryl Crow, All I Wanna Do from 1995...
Black Velvet, Allanah Myles, 1990...
Good, Better Than Ezra (aw, poor Ezra!), 1995...
Hold My Hand, Hootie and the Blowfish, 1995...
Janie's Got A Gun, Aerosmith, 1990...
Love Shack, the B52s, 1990... I might like that!
EP: Don't bet on it, Grapester...
B: Okay, Huhhuh! Mary Jane's Last Dance, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 1994...
Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm, Crash Test Dummies, 1994...(Must be a hum-along!)
Hey, here's those B52s again with Roam from 1990...
Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, 1993...
Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana from 1992...
What's Up? by Four Non Blondes, 1993... is this about Bugs Bunny?
Uh, no...
B: That's too bad, because Bugs is fun! Now, where was I?
Wicked Game, Chris Isaak, 1991... that doesn't sound like a fun game at all!
Scorpions, Winds Of Change, 1991...
and finally, Tom Petty again and You Don't Know How It Feels, 1995!
EP: All right, fat boy, giddoudda the way, it's time for Horace Bellbottom an' the 6D!
HB: Thank you for a most subdued introduction, as I prefer! The Last tune that my former employers, the Beatles, sang before a paying audience was Paul channeling Little Richard on Long Tall Sally. In a tribute to their time in Hamburg, the movie Backbeat, the real Paul McCartney was upset that this was sung in the movie by the singer voicing "John", the Afghan Wigs singer Greg Dulli.
I'm sorry, pardon me, Horace. I just got to slip in here and give the four finalists. Is it...
Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and the Blowfish, 1995...
Run Around from Blues Traveller, 1995...
Stay by Lisa Loeb, 1994...
...or Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1992? All right, carry on...
HB: I should have known something along those lines would happen. At any rate...
It should have been the one voicing his songs, one Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum. And Soul Asylum had the lowest song on its year's hot 100, their song Misery from 1993, with a hot 100 ranking of 99. Mr... er, Dinosaur... would you care to get the Overseas If You Please... er, if you please.
B: Why sure, Mr Beltbuckle! The second lowest song was the Gin Blossoms and Hey Jealousy at #95 on the 1993 chart, so we look at the songs at #1 around the world this week in 1993:
In Canada, it was UB40's cover of I Can't Help Falling In Love With You...
In New Zealand for just one week during the 11-out of-12 week run of UB40 there, it was Hammond Gamble's Red Nose Band with You Make The Whole World Smile! Oh, I LOVE that one!
In Australia, UB40 was in its 7th week at #1...
Sadly, we can't find anything for South Africa after 1989...
And in England it was Freddie Mercury with Living On My Own.
All right, thank you Barney the Purple Dinosaur! Now, let me knock out the M10 real quick:
10- Still hanging on after dropping 3, Gerry Rafferty and Slow Down.
9- And again, up one with Lost Highway.
8- Sagittarius gets stuck with In My Room...
7- Weezer falls from 2 with Tell Me What You Want....
6- Slipping one is Redspencer and Big deal...
5- Shooting up 4, Duran Duran and More Joy!
4- Also stuck, the Ventures and Theme From A Summer Place.
3- Up 3 is illuminati Hotties and u v v p.
2- Up one is courtship. and Fuzzy.
And holding on to #1....
... the Black Pumas and Wichita Lineman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And how about that final four?
EP: Yeah, how about it? You never gave it!
Crap! Again? Let me go back up and put it in...
Ok, there we go, and Horace isn't too upset! Read 'em off, buddy!
EP: Assuming we have an audience left...
Hootie was #18 on the 1995 chart...
Under The Bridge was #5 in '92, Run Around was #5 in 1995...
An' #2 in 1994...
Lisa Loeb and Stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All right, y'all, Chris's dinner just arrived, so see ya next week for the start of the final ten!
While Isaiah had some chapters to go, and several famously quoted verses, last week pretty much got the whole point of the book across. This week, I want to do something with Judges. A few weeks back, our Pastor preached a "fly by Judges" series, often admitting that it was a book he didn't like to preach. Because let's face it, there are two unpleasant circumstances about it. The first being, the seven cycles that Israel goes through- they stray from the Lord, they pay by being oppressed, they pray for deliverance, when they receive it, they celebrate (say, "Yay", as Pastor Denny put it), and then they stay- for a time; then they drift off again, and it starts over.
The second, is the violence of the era. Sometimes it's hard to get a grasp on how the same God that sent Christ to die for us condones and even orders this violence. But what you have to understand here is twofold. First, He is a Holy God, and can only put up with sin so long; and two, He purposefully kept the Hebrews out of the promised land until that point had been hit:
Gen 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. Gen 15:14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Gen 15:15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. Gen 15:16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
But now, that point had been reached, and God was bringing judgment on these peoples with the advent of the Hebrews into the area. In Judges 1, you get testimony from their own mouths of how bad it had gotten, and how they deserved what was coming:
Jdg 1:5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Jdg 1:6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. Jdg 1:7 And Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
But here's the main thing to draw from the first chapter: While they started out working together, and succeeding:
Jdg 1:2 The LORD said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand." Jdg 1:3 And Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you." So Simeon went with him.
-which led to the above victory against Adoni-Bezek, they didn't KEEP working together, with predictable consequences...
Jdg 1:29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Jdg 1:30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor. Jdg 1:31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, Jdg 1:32 so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Jdg 1:33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
And on it went- peoples who God judged and ordered destroyed were left alive. That they were enslaved made no difference; while they lived, they infected Israel with their pagan ways.
Jdg 2:10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. Jdg 2:11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. Jdg 2:12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. Jdg 2:13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
This is our object lesson: you can't live with sin and expect to stay pure. Even as you declare yourself its master, it enslaves you from beneath. So it wasn't long before God Himself called them out:
Jdg 2:1 Now the Angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, Jdg 2:2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? Jdg 2:3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you." Jdg 2:4 As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. Jdg 2:5 And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the LORD.
We need to understand the place names here. Gilgal is where the Israelites first crossed the Jordan, and the place was named Gilgal- "rolling" because it was there that God had rolled away the sins that kept them in the desert for 40 years. But now, they had piled their own sins on top of themselves, and God went from Gilgal to Bochin- "weeping". What could have been a string of victories under God was now going to be a cycle of failure. And God was even specific about their punishments:
Jdg 3:1 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. Jdg 3:2 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. Jdg 3:3 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. Jdg 3:4 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.
And that testing was about to begin...
Jdg 3:8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.
Cushan means black; these were African raiders aligned with Arabs, who plundered much of what would one day be Babylon in this era. the rest of the name means "double wickedness"; this was a violent, heartless enemy that they struggled under for 8 years, before enough of them got the good sense to pray for release. Enter Othniel...
Jdg 3:9 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.
Now, the 'Caleb's younger brother" part got me. Caleb was the same Caleb who had went with Joshua and the other ten spies into Canaan; still retaining his youthful vigor, at 85 Caleb had still been a force among the warriors. But... Caleb's father had always been named as "son of Jephunneh", so how is it that Othniel had a different father named? It became more confusing when you learn in the geneologies that Othniel had a grandson named Kenaz, and we never could nail down a spot where it showed Caleb and Othniel having the same parentage. However, we can guess what probably is the answer from this passage:
Num 32:11 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, Num 32:12 none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.'
And as Kenaz means "the Kenizzite", we see that Kenaz might = Jephunneh. At any rate, Otyhniel had already had a heroic past:
Jdg 1:11 From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. Jdg 1:12 And Caleb said, "He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife." Jdg 1:13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife.
Othniel's name means "force of God"- and he's about to become one.
Jdg 3:10 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. Jdg 3:11 So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
One thing we might get the impression of is that Samson was the only one who gained "super-strength" from God in this era- but I believe this is not so.I wonder if Othniel had been granted this strength to defeat the "Double-Wicked"- and we will later come upon a hero that surely also was gifted with it. But to Othniel, let's keep in mind- Caleb, by his own words, was 85 upon entering the Promised land. seven years conquering the land puts him at 92 when Joshua dies at 110. Even if Othniel was 20 years younger than Caleb, he's closing on 70 at this point, and you have to tack on the 8 years they were oppressed before he gets the call to defeat Cushan the Double-Wicked. So he had to be close to the age Caleb was when he entered the Promised Land, and Caleb found his condition a miraculous promise kept by God:
Jos 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. Jos 14:11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.
And, even if you back-date Othniel's period of judging Israel to his first battle, by the time he spent 40 years judging Israel, he had to have passed Joshua's 110-year life some time ago. Now, added to this, we need to remember what being a "judge" in this context meant. A judge wasn't a simple law-giver, he was a warrior, leading Israel into battle, and often doing the heavy lifting himself.
Next time, we are at least going to hit Ehud the Judge, and possibly another obscure (to the extreme!) character.
