Judges 3:7-12
Judges 3:7
And
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD
their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
Once
the children of Israel had inter-married into the pagan groups, the next thing
was that they started to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
The first thing they did was to forget the Lord.
The word “forgat” carries with it the meaning of “to remove from
attention or memory.” They had
become so involved with idolatry that they literally removed the memory of the
true God and went and served the false gods.
The word “Baalim” is in the plural so they were not focusing in on just
one false god but were focusing in on many of them.
The groves are mentioned here which means they were also partaking in the
worship of Ashtaroth which was the Queen of Heaven.
The Hebrew word for “and the groves” is Asherah which is another
rendering of Ashteroth.
Judges 3:8
Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into
the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel
served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.
Once
again the anger of the Lord was hot or boiling against Israel for their dive
into idolatry and inter-marriage into the false religions.
Now the Lord sells them into the hands of the king of Mesopotamia and the
term “sold” shows that they were sold as one is sold in a slave market.
The king’s name Chushan-rishathaim means “blackness of Iniquities.”
This time the penalty for their disobedience was to serve this pagan king
for 8 years.
Judges 3:9
And
when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer
to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz,
Caleb's younger brother.
The
eight years have now passed and they cried unto the Lord.
The word “cried” in the Hebrew carries with it the meaning of “calling
out, shriek, or scream.” They had
prayed to the Lord in their crying that they wanted to be delivered.
The Lord had pity upon them and raised up a deliverer.
It was Othniel who was the nephew of Caleb.
Psalm 107:13 (KJV)
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of
their distresses.
Psalm 106:44 (KJV)
Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:
Judges 3:10
And
the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war:
and the LORD delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and
his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim.
The
Spirit of the Lord now empowered Othniel whose name means “hour of God” to judge
Israel and to go and bring them back from under the hand of the king of
Mesopotamia. It truly was “the hour
of God” in that He delivered Israel through Othniel and his hand was strong upon
Chushan-rishathaim and he prevailed against him and delivered the children of
Israel after 8 years of bondage.
One thing we must keep in mind is that when Israel is taken into bondage by
pagan kings, it is because they chose to mingle with the pagans instead of
remaining separate unto the Lord.
Many times we Christians are chastised for the very same reason.
We tend to go out into the world and see how close we can come to sin
before we engage in it but the problem is that once you have that intent to go
out in the world, sin will always take you farther than you want to go and God
will have to chastise us to bring us back to our spiritual sanity.
Judges 3:11
And
the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
The
land had rest for 40 years from the time they were delivered.
For this time period they must have regained their allegiance to God and
forsook the false gods and the false religion.
We can only rest in the Lord when we are walking in harmony with Him.
At the end of this period of time, Othniel had died which means they were
now left without a leader and you know what that means.
Judges 3:12
And
the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD
strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil
in the sight of the LORD.