Judges 1.1-13 - Othniel
I am not sure how many of you have read the story of Othniel or even know who he is. Othniel’s name means God has helped me or God is my strength. Both of these reflect the character and life of Othniel. He was in fact the first of the Judges sent by God to deliver Israel from oppressors. In Judges 3.10 we read that he was sent by God to judge Israel for worshipping Baal and to free them from oppression by the king of Mesopotamia. An oppression that they had endured for some 8 years. Under his rule the people of Israel find rest from their enemies.
Let me set the scene to what we have read in Judges 1. 40 years earlier Caleb and Joshua had, along with 10 others, spied out the Promised Land. you know the story. Only Caleb and Joshua trust the promise of God that He would give them the Promised Land and that they, the people of Israel, should go up and possess the land. The other 10 spies report that it is a land of plenty but the people of the land are too mighty for them to conquer and so they advise that the people of Israel stay put. The result is that a generation wander in the wilderness for 40 yeas until only Caleb and Joshua are left. Then the people, under their leadership, go up and possess the land promised to them by God. Caleb has captured land of the Negev and Jerusalem. Now he comes upon a strategic enemy stronghold - Debir or Kiriath-sepher.
Kiriath-sepher - occupied a strategic position between Negeb and Shephelah. It was about 11 miles south of Hebron. Hebron was a confederacy of cities and peoples that were the enemies of the people of Israel. Kiriath-sepher means the city of books or records and it may well have had a library, again showing its importance.
As I said Caleb has won some important victories but now he sets an unusual challenge with an unusual reward for the one who completes it. His offer, verse 12, is that the one who captures Kiriath-sepher will be given Caleb’s daughter, Achsah, in marriage. In the ANE the normal practice was for the groom to pay his father-in-law the bride price in order to marry his daughter. Here the military victory over Kiriath-sepher is seen as the bride price being paid. It is quite a challenge and not something to be entered in to lightly.
Caleb knows what he is doing here. He has set a task that has both motivation and an incentive to follow his example from the capture of Negeb and Jerusalem. I think he also wants a husband for his daughter who believes in the Covenant faithfulness of God and trusts God for the victory over his enemies. He wants a son-in-law who exercises courageous obedience in response to the promises of God.
Well if verse 12 is Love Challenged verse 14 is Love Conquering. Judges states very simply and without any great detail that Othniel, Caleb’s nephew, captured Kiriath-sepher and wins the hand of Achsah in marriage.
Now let me pause here for a moment and make some suggestions to you that I do not think are too wide of the mark. I think Othniel was just waiting the opportunity to ask for Achsah’s hand in marriage. He considered the dangers of going to capture Kiriath-sepher worth the risk if he won Achsah as his bride. He preferred to die in the heat of battle than to live alone without Achsah. There appears to be no limits to where he would go and what he would do to make her his wife. Maybe, just maybe, he had been holding a torch for her for a very long time and when the opportunity arose to demonstrate his feelings for her he stood tall. Whole hearted obedience and whole hearted devotion are displayed in his actions.
So Love Challenged and Love Conquering but Love did not stop there.
Verse 14 - Achsah is a wise women. When she comes to Othniel she tells him to ask her father for a field and then we read in verse 15 that after she has dismounted from her donkey, a sign of respect before her father, she asks him for a further blessing - springs of water.
Achsah knows that the field given by her father to them is a generous gift but in a dry desert landscape it is of no use if there is no water with which to irrigate the land for a necessary harvest. By asking her father for this further blessing she is showing her desire and intention to take, to settle and to enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land.
The result of her request is the generous provision of not only a field but also springs to irrigate it. Such a gift would ensure the future prosperity of the family. I would appear that Achsah had beauty and brains. No wonder Othniel is willing to step in to battle for her hand in marriage. Achsah is a shrewd and wise women because the arid land of the Negeb was of no use without water. No doubt she also saw this request of her father as her dowry from him.
A nice simple love story but what do we learn from it? Let me suggest some applications to you, and I pray I am not stretching them too far.
Let me suggest to you that the New Testament parallel to this story is found in Matthew 7:7-11 - Where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, tells His hearers (and us) to ask, seek and knock. The promise in verse 11 is that God is a good father and will give good things to those who ask. Achsah asked for a blessing from her father and he gave generously. I suggest to you that we need to be like Achsah in prayer before our heavenly Father and ask for springs of living water that our arid lives might be fed living water (as promised by Jesus in John 4) and that our lives might bloom and bear fruit. We need to step down off our donkeys, that is humble ourselves before God, and ask for His blessing. It is no small thing to say: “God bless you.”
Secondly, I want to suggest to you that we need to learn from Othniel and step up in to the battle and to obey the promises of God. Are we prepared to take God at His Word and to as the hymn says:
Arise ye men of God
And put your armour on
Strong in the strength that God supplies
Through His eternal Son.
What a victory Othniel won. A city and a bride. What a blessing Achsah received by asking - a field and springs of water in a dry and arid land.
What a victory Christ has won and what a bride he bought with His precious blood. We are HIs bride and we need to humbly in prayer ask our heavenly Father to pour out His blessings on us. Remember the words of Christ - you do not have because you do not ask.
so Othniel - love challenged and love conquered. This morning has God challenged you to step out on the battle field for Him so that you might know the victory that you have in Christ. Further, we need as individuals and as a church to pray for God to open the floodgates of heaven and rain down His blessing of living water upon us.
So in Othniel we see a call to battle and a call to prayer.. Let us follow his and Achsah’s example.
Amen.
