JUDGES 3
The unfaithfulness of the people was the original cause of their enemies being left. But we find here that Jehovah left them, and that He had a purpose in leaving them. Everything contrary to the truth that has had a place in connection with the people of God must have come in first through unwatchfulness, and want of zeal for God, but then God had a purpose in leaving it there.
It is suggestive that a generation arose that did not know [p. 127] Jehovah. There is a certain responsibility with us concerning the next generation. Paul was very concerned about the next generation, that there were not very many on whom he could rely, and we could not say it was from lack of parental care. He was a true father and mother, but there were not many of whom he could say that they were his true children in the faith. Timothy was one. There is an exercise as to the generation following, whether they are prepared to take up the faith of the parents. Our parents are not able to give us faith; we have to take it up for ourselves. They can bring us into the place of Christian privilege and instruct us, and pass on as teaching all they know, but they cannot give us faith. It is for us to take up what our fathers have left. It is an exercise for those of us getting old as to what kind of generation we leave behind; we should be delighted to see them with more definite purpose and faith than we have. It delights us to see a young brother or sister with more definiteness of heart to follow the Lord than we have. It humbles us about ourselves, but delights us to see it. If the Lord tarries, there will be another generation, and it is a serious matter that it should be a spiritual generation. Many times God has intervened, even in the history of the church, and there has been a remarkable movement of revival, but departure has come as soon as the vessel was removed. We see it all through Judges; deliverance comes in, but, as soon as the vessel of divine power dies, the spiritual movement ceases.
Things are left; it has not pleased the Lord to come in to remove all kinds of evils that have come in. He has left them there as a test, and the enemy is always on the ground; therefore conflict must go on to the end if things are to be maintained for God. There never will be a complete clearance of the enemy; he will not be cleared off the scene until the church is gone. When it is a question of dispossessing the enemy, we have all to learn war. We have to learn it. The battles fought by our predecessors do not deliver us; we have all to take up conflict. If we do not take up conflict we shall fall under the power of something evil.
We see in verse 6 that they took up unequal yokes. The principle of separation from evil is fundamental, and nothing is maintained for God except on that principle. Here we find that the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites; that is that they formed these links. People form these links [p. 128] because their parents are dwelling in the world, and the very thought of separation is given up; that opens the door. If there is not an inward spirit of separation, it opens the door for unholy links and associations. No temptation to take up an unequal yoke, or to give up separation, begins outwardly; it begins inwardly.
In verse 4 we read, “They were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of Jehovah, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses”. The commandment is a test of how we stand in relation to the Lord and His will. “If ye love me, keep my commandments”. If His commandments do not rule my affections, I have departed from Him inwardly. I may be walking perfectly before the brethren, but I am away inwardly and, if I am not restored, I shall eventually give up separation in some outward way.
The first departure was a giving up of the truth of the calling. In figure they were partakers of the heavenly calling, and the first departure was giving it up; they dwelt among the Canaanites. That is why Chushan-rishathaim comes up and gets power. He was king of the very country out of which God called Abraham, and if we give up in heart the heavenly calling, we shall fall under the influence of the place out of which we are called. Idolatry was there. What exposed the people to this was that they had idolatry among themselves; in verse 6 we read that they intermarried with the nations and served other gods. It makes one very anxious about the state of one’s inward affections. If they are not kept for the Lord, it is only a question of time before we get away publicly.
Here it was eight years before they realised the true position. They came under an alien influence for eight years. Saints may miss a great deal, and be a long time before they realise it, but when they do they cry to the Lord. Satan presents bondage as liberty; he says, You please yourself, do what you like; and he makes it appear as if it was liberty, and people often take long to realise that the line they are on is robbing them of the enjoyment of the land. When they do wake up, they cry to the Lord, and He raises up a saviour. There never was a saint who cried to the Lord about things that hinder from enjoying the inheritance, but that God raised up a saviour for them.
It would not be like God to leave us under bondage when [p. 129] we want to be free from it. If the people of God woke up to the fact that they were not enjoying the inheritance, and truly desired to, they would get deliverance from every enemy, whether Moabite, Canaanite or Philistine. We never have the same battles again; always some new, fresh phase has to be met, but in every case there is a deliverer. “And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah; and Jehovah raised up a saviour to the children of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother”. What an exercise he had to see the state of things, and yet it went on eight years before God could use him! God waits on the exercises of His people. You say, Why does not the Lord deliver His people from all the corruptions of christendom? Why do not they separate from it? He waits on their exercises; He waits for them to cry to Him for deliverance.
Othniel means Powerful man of God. A man of God would stand for God, and I believe he is the first man in Scripture of whom it was said that the Spirit of Jehovah was upon him. It is the Spirit of the Lord raising up a standard among the people. Othniel came of a good stock; he was a near relation to Caleb — he had taken Kirjath-sepher, the city of books; that is, the wisdom of the world. Kirjath-sepher becomes Debir — speaking, he is ready to listen to divine speaking. Othniel represents the kind of man God can raise up, and he has a good wife; his affections were rightly placed. He married Achsah, not a daughter of the land, but one thoroughly set for the south land, and for springs of water as well. A man like that was morally qualified to be a saviour.
Othniel was a disciplined man; he had to wait eight years. All the servants of God have to learn to wait for the exercises of the people of God. What a discipline to see the people of God suffering from unbelief, and to have to walk with them in their afflictions! Caleb had to wait forty years. Nothing tests us like patience; it is one of the greatest features we can possess. Caleb was a man who could wait forty years for the land.
What is the value of my having light if I cannot carry the brethren? I have not only to be true to the light, but to wait on the exercises of the brethren, and carry them. We cannot carry anything in an arbitrary way. These men felt the oppression, and when the time came they were available, and the result of their intervention was that the land had rest. We [p. 130] are not fighting all the time; God gives periods of rest. For the time being the enemy is held in check, according to the energy of faith and the state of the people. God waits for the exercises of His people, and those who have faith have to wait too. Those whom the Lord raised up as deliverers had the mind of the Lord for the moment. In the history of the church, when there was a readiness and exercise for it, God has raised up one and given spiritual light and leading, and has always been with that man whom He has raised up. If God has raised up a man, He will stand by him to the end, and never let him drop. If a man sets up to be a leader, or if people set him up, he will have a disastrous end.
The next oppressor was Moab. Moab was a people kindred with Israel; they were the children of Lot, and they represent the influence of what is natural. Lot had a wonderful opportunity, and he was what we call a true believer — the Spirit of God called him a righteous man — but he was influenced by what is natural. It says of Eglon that he was very fat. Moab represents a condition of things easily nourished, and that can soon acquire great proportions. Nothing is easier than to nourish what is natural until it becomes fat, but there is no liberty until the fat man is killed. There is no liberty for enjoyment of the land if we are under the influence of the Moabite. It represents the natural element that can work in the true believer. Lot was influenced by the natural to choose the well-watered plain, and that led him to Sodom. We are all in danger of that. I suppose nothing hinders the people of God more than their friends, acquaintances and relations. They keep on with what is natural. It is much easier to go on with people with whom you are in contact, and go on in a friendly way, than to take a definite stand for God. That is the influence, the oppression of the Moabite.
God raised up Ehud, a left-handed man, as deliverer from the Moabites. God takes up men that have apparently a good deal that hampers them. This book brings out the odd character of people that God can use. He uses unusual instruments, such as a left hand. Shamgar had an ox-goad — an uncomely weapon, but effective. Samson had a jaw-bone of an ass. God uses things one would not expect. The power is within, not with the instrument. Ehud knew what was needed at that time. The people were on wrong lines; they sent a present, showing the servile condition they were in — like people keeping [p. 131] up friendly links with those who are not the people of God. Ehud knew what was needed; he was not on the line of presents, but of a short sword. He knew the fat man must be killed, and he killed him. We have to kill the Moabite in ourselves. When he has killed him, he blows a trumpet, and gives a spiritual lead, and others are prepared to follow. That is the principle of leading among the people of God. Are we ready to follow when the trumpet sounds? They were ready to go, and they followed and killed ten thousand men, all fat men.
Many are exercised today, but they are held by friendly links, so they are not prepared to use the two-edged sword. We need to use the sword, so as not to allow ourselves to be robbed of the enjoyment of the inheritance by our acquaintances, or our relatives, or anything on the line of the natural.