Last week, we focused on the spiritual truth about how we need to fight not to forget God. Forgetting God is not just a benign state of mind. God takes forgetting him very seriously that he calls it doing evil. We fight not to forget God by learning to dwell in his love and by being saturated in God’s word.
Today, we go back to Judges 3:7-11. There was a great lesson to fight not to forget God. Today, we are going to learn what it means to be men and women of godly pursuit.
When the Lord raised Othniel up as a judge and empowered him by his Spirit, it didn’t matter how fierce, powerful, intimidating “Cushan of double evil” was. Othniel simply overpowered this evil king. Under Othniel’s leadership, there was forty years of peace.
What made Othniel an ideal judge was his attitude towards God and his promises. He was a man who aggressively went after God’s promises trusting in God’s unfailing steadfast love, faithfulness, and power. He was a man of godly pursuit.
In accordance with the Lord’s command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion in Judah-Kiriath Arba, that is
Othniel, Caleb and his daughter Acsah all belonged to the tribe of
When Caleb challenged the men of
And for Caleb to have challenged in this way tells us that Caleb too was a man of deep faith.
Forty five years before Caleb gave this challenge, he and Joshua were the only two spies who were fully confident that they could attack and capture the
The Land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.
How did the people respond to Caleb and Joshua’s plea to trust in the Lord? Verse 10 says,
But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.
Verse 2-4 reveals their hearts:
All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in
Was this true that God only brought his people out thus far only to destroy them by the sword, to have their wives and children be taken as plunder? This was not God’s promise. God’s promise was to give the
Because they treated the Lord with contempt and disbelief when they showed no confidence in God to deliver what he promised to them, God said in Numbers 14:21-23: as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fill the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt an din the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times-not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
But, about Caleb, the LORD said this in verse 24:
But because my servant Caleb had a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”
The Lord’s promise from this Numbers 14:24 to Caleb was fulfilled forty five years later when Caleb was eighty five years old. Forty five years later, Joshua 14:6-14 recorded what Caleb said at the age of eighty five years old:
Now the men of
Caleb continued in verse 10-14:
“Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while
This is the story of Caleb. At the age of forty years old, Caleb was more than ready to fight to possess God’s Promised Land. And, forty five years later, Caleb was passionate as ever before to pursue hard after what God promised him.
This Caleb as the father of his daughter Acsah, would not have any other way for his daughter except to give her into marriage to a man in his mold. Caleb witnessed what happened when the people of God gave into the fear of people, circumstances, when they walked by their sights instead of trusting in God’s promise and walking in faith. Forty years of wandering in the desert was the result instead of forty years of possessing the Promised Land with milk and honey.
The challenge to attack and capture Kiriath Sepher was to measure a person’s faith and devotion in the Lord. The man who would attack and capture Kiriath Sepher would have trusted that the Lord would enable him to possess the city, which the Lord himself promised to the tribe of
Othniel was that man. Just like his father-in-law Caleb, Othniel was courageous, confident because he wholeheartedly trusted in God for what he promised to him as inheritance. God allotted Debir as an inheritance to the tribe of
Now, let’s look at Othniel’s wife, Caleb’s daughter Acsah. Father like daughter, Acsah too was a woman of convictions. After getting married to Othniel, she urged her husband to ask Caleb, her father for a field. When Caleb asked her what he could do for her, she responded in Judges 1:15 and Joshua 15:19: “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the
Acsah’s asking for more could be mistaken for greed if we don’t understand what the land meant for the Israelites. Acsah was not a greedy woman. Far from it! She was an ideal of woman of God, just like her father Caleb was, just like her husband was. She was an ideal woman because she didn’t shy away from God’s promise. She pursued God’s promise aggressively. When Acsah asked her father for springs of water for the land, she was acting on her confidence in God’s promise to give good things to his people. She wasn’t going to sit on the sideline on this. She trusted in God’s promise and actively sought after what God promised as inheritance. This is why she was an ideal of woman of God.
In the Old Testament theology, not to desire, not to fight to possess the land the Lord promised is what made a person undesirable. The ideal people of God were people who didn’t let the fear of people and circumstances direct their actions. They trusted and acted confidently in God’s promise for them, in God’s faithful, loving, and good character. In trusting God’s faithfulness, they obeyed God’s command to enter into the Promised Land to possess it.
How does this relate to us Christians? Othniel, Acsah, and Caleb portray for us the ideal picture of what it means to follow Jesus.
1. Aggressively pursue love relationship with Jesus
For Christians, the promise of inheritance is not the physical land as it was for the Israelites. Instead, our inheritance is the promise of rest as Jesus talked about in Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Hebrews chapter 4 talks about entering this rest. Hebrews 4:8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”
Few observations from this passage: 1) Entering and possessing the land was not the ultimate rest. 2) A paradox exists between the call to enter God’s rest by resting from our own work and the call to make effort to enter that rest.
This Hebrew passage and the Matthew passage both point to the same conclusion. It is all about love relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In order to rest from our own work, we need to focus on love relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And, focusing on love relationship isn’t a passive actively; it means aggressively pursuing love relationship.
How do we pursue love relationship with Jesus? Psalm 75:1 says, “We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds.” We pursue love relationship with God when we retell again and again how God has saves us. And, we do this by mediation in God’s word. Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.” How do you aggressively pursue love relationship with God? This psalm tells us that it happens when we call on him, when we cry out to him for his sustaining, empowering grace.
Now, ask yourself this question. How are you making every effort to enter the rest Jesus gives that is enter into love relationship with God through Jesus? Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Elizabeth P. Prentiss wrote a beloved hymn called More Love To Thee. She wrote during a time of deep personal surrow of having lost a child in 1850’s and a short time later her youngest child also died. In her diary, she wrote, “Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences." What did she do? She sought comfort not passivley, but aggressively by meditating on the scripture. And, from that, she wrote this hymn.
More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee;
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee. More love to Thee!
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, Give what is best;
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;
This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee! [i]!
2. Aggressively pursue to become a person tested and approved in Christ.
The story about Othniel, Caleb, and Acsah is relevant to how we need to approach relationship between a man and a woman.
Don’t let this escape your attention. What made Othniel, Acsah, and Caleb ideal people of God was their conviction about relationship between a man and a woman.
One of the things that grieve the Lord was that the people of God didn’t obey God who told them they were not to marry the people of another faith or no faith.
For Christians, there should be no negotiation on this. If you are a Christian, you marry a Christian. But, it is not enough that a person calls himself or herself a Christian these days.
For Caleb, he wanted his son-in-law to be a person who demonstrated deep faith in God through concrete action. He raised his daughter up Acsah to trust in God and to pursue God’s promise. He wanted a godly man for her.
If you are interested in dating someone and if you are dating someone now, but you don’t know the person that well, your primary goal should be to find out what kind of love relationship the person has with Jesus Christ. And, if you are interested in introducing someone to your friend, make sure you know that person is really in love with Jesus and loves people. Otherwise, don’t even bother!
God wants you to pursue for the best in relationship. And, the best is a person who is in love with Jesus. People talk about chemistry between a man and a woman. I say that the best chemistry you want in relationship is not between a man and a woman, but it is the chemistry each of them has with Jesus and how that person loves other people.
When I was in the season of pursuing marriage relationship, what attracted me the most to my wife besides her beauty, humor, wisdom, was her love for Jesus and love for people.
I know that some of you feel frustrated because you want to be in relationship, but is not yet happening yet. God knows your heart. Be patient! Hope in Jesus for he wants what’s best for you.
In the mean time, instead of focusing on finding or getting that special someone, focus on becoming a special person who is deeply in love with Jesus.
For Othniel, the foremost challenge was not finding that someone to get married, to be in relationship. His foremost challenge was becoming a man of God who acted in deep trust and confidence in God’s character, God’s promise.
In Romans 16:10, Paul talks about a person named Apelles. He speaks well of this person by saying tested and approved in Christ.
Men of the church, women of the church, your goal ought to become a person tested and approved in Christ. This is what I mean when I tell you to focus on becoming a special person. Let the reviews about you give you the stamp of approval as a person of deep love, faith and action! Let your attraction be your love for Jesus and love for people!
This goes for me and those of you who are married as well. Our primary focus ought to be becoming men and women tested and approved in Christ, who are deeply in love with Jesus.
[i] Logos Hymnal, 1st edition. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995).
Yahweh’s grace is bestowed on individuals like Caleb, Othniel, Acsah and the Kenites. In each instance, this grace is specially given to non-Israelites… This theme… that God gives grace to non-Israelites- is developed through the Old and New Testaments. Those who are not expected to evince faith do, and those hwo should show faith do not (cf. Rahab contrasted with Achan [Joshua 6-7], Elijah and the widow of Zarephath [1 Kings 17.7-24], Elisha and Naaman [2 Kings 5.1-19], Luke 4-16-30). Such a lesson is great encouragement to “Gentiles” especially in the church age.
It is important to remember that the land in the Old Testament carried spiritual overtones. This is true here as well as in the story of the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 27.1-11, 36.1-13, Josh. 17.3-6). The actions of all these women are strongly commended. The story demonstrates that the claim of the descendants of Othniel and Acsah to this land is based on a legal bequest by the original recipient of territory. Acsah’s request is not transitory but generational in its impact. She emerges as “an image of ideal Yahwist womanhood.” In the more extended context of the book of Judges, Acsah served… (1) as a positive paradigm of a daughter being given to an ideal hero, she is juxtaposed to the notice of
Acsah’s request is also analogous in certain ways to that of Ruth. Both are non-Israelite women who have been “grafted” into the community of faith. Both have men who are outstanding in their personal qualities. Both make requests that involved God’s blessings of inheritance (as connected to the land). Both received their requests.
For the Christian, Acsah represents a woman who will not be denied her full inheritance. She is a model resembling the women of the Gospels, who sought out Jesus refused to be turned back by the crowds and by Jesus’ own disciples. As a result, they found salvation, healing, and blessing for themselves and their families (Matt 9.20-22, 15.21-28, 26.7-13, Mark 7.24-30, 14.3-9, Luke 2.36-38, 7.11-15, 36-50, 8.43-48, 13.10-17, 18.1-5). K. Lawson Younger, Judges, Ruth (The NIV Application Commentary), p. 93.
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