Lesson 11: Othniel in Good Company

Now we come to a part of the Bible that the layman and standard Chirstian knows absolutely nothing about. In my opinion this is a travesty for we find out much about governance under God, have mighty tales to regale our young men, and plenty of cautionary stories for our children. I suspect that this is not an accidental neglect. The stories in Judges are tales of vengeance, judgment, men falling away from excessive tolerance, and God’s mercy to those who follow him.

These narratives are an anathema to those who wish you to not fight them. To let them fleece, rape, and pillage your nations and people. Who wish for you to roll over, and die without a fight or without recovering a remnant for your people. They want you to join the dusty abandoned graveyard of nations where no memorial or mausoleum rests with the names of the deceased. They want you and all your descendants dead and your nations destroyed. Judges is the kind of book that teaches you how to pursue forgiveness for your sins, learn to follow God, and purge the evil in your ranks and those invading you.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.

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.

They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

Judges 2: 11-15

As we can see the Devil’s old pattern is back, and as the saying goes if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Using the survivors of the peoples who were spared by the Isrealites the Serpent slithers back amongst the God’s chosen people, and tempts them away from God just as he’d done with the golden calf at mount Sinai. And as the intro to Judges makes clear this was going to be a recurring pattern.

Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.

Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,

I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,

in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.”

Judges 2: 16-22

Israel would be tempted by the nations they failed to purge, and God would save them only when they cried out to him and repented. If we look we can see this happened within one generation of the founding of Israel as a nation since the first Judge, a strong man of God, who was called to save Israel and lead under God was Othneal Caleb’s younger brother.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

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.

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.

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.

So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Judges 3: 7-11

We don’t get to know much about this story other than the summary of a pattern that will become almost painful to watch. A generation of Isrealites will follow foreign Gods and be tolerant of their worship in their ranks thanks to the temptations of the Serpent and his fallen watcher cronies. God will turn against them, handing them over to the Devil and his minions, but not allowing them to be destroyed. The Isrealites cry out, and God raises up a righteous strong man to drive out the enemy and rescue God’s chosen people only to have the next generation fall away just as fast.

We will be exploring a few of these stories, especially ones completely ignored by the modern heretics in every denomination from the Catholics to the Southern Baptists known as churchians, but for now I want to concentrate on this theme. Burn it into your mind because it will be repeated even in the monarchy, the split kingdom period, and the time of the prophets when Israel is restored for a time. This is a blueprint of the Devil's tactics on full display.

God has given us the tools to know exactly how the Serpent and his dragons are going to come after us when we turn to God, and how to drive them from our ranks. Their first move, every time without fail, when they no longer have the strength to overwhelm you by force due to the Lord’s strong arm, is to sever your connection, and thus your protection as a people, from God. They do this through corruption and temptations which they are only able to accomplish through toleration of their practices, sin, and those peoples who act on these heinous acts through their religions and traditions.

We can see this in the United States' short history as well. When America was strong in their Christianity and will to burn witches at the stake they forced the evil within their ranks to remain in hiding, but once they became “tolerant” of these beliefs and practices their ability to fight evil or even recognize it as evil rotted away to nothing. Then they were tempted and sinned more and more until they were so twisted and immersed in evil that God will be forced to turn on them as well.

We are living in the days of the end of a cycle. The Devil has had his way with a fallen nation and Empire, and God is turning against them as a result. Soon all of the physical evil and the west will be given over to the instruments of God’s judgment, and remnants of various nations will rise to purge the evil in their ranks and create kingdoms again. The Devil will respond in force, some of these kingdoms will surely fall, but eventually he will be repulsed and when that happens the serpent's tongue will come again. This again is a pattern readily on display in the history of Europe and Christendom itself.

The question dear readers is this. Will you let the serpent have his way with your descendants again? Or will you finally learn from his tactics, and purge tolerance from your children and grandchildren’s ranks? Time will tell. So let’s dive deep into the history of the Judges over the next few lessons. For now let’s study how the mighty men of God saved Israel and served their creator as good and faithful servants, and let’s all work to warn our children and descendants of the coming snakes that will attempt to infiltrate the gardens we leave behind for them.

Question 1: Can you think of any more modern historical examples of the Devil’s cycle in action? How might things have been different if evil had been denied?

Question 2: Have you ever read the whole book of judges? Why do you think the book is ignored so much by mainstream fake Christianity and Sunday Schools across the West?

Question 3: With us being in a generational war with the servants of the dragon, can you think of ways you can pass this knowledge down to your children to continue the fight for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth?

I live stream every Monday, at 10:00 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time about each lesson. Click the boat below to watch the previous stream and click here to join the discord if you have any questions:  https://discord.gg/DfZ6CqZy