The Bible: Judges Chapter 3

In this video listen to Judges 3 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.In Judges 3 we meet the first three of the twelve judges, Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar. The Israelites intermarried, which they were told not to do. They mixed worldliness into their lives and became weak. Earlier in Genesis we saw that God had sent the Israelites to Egypt to help solidify them as a separate cultural group.The Egyptians saw the Israelites as distasteful and generally wouldn’t mix with them, so it preserved them as a group. But now they are beginning to intermarry and it is causing problems. This does NOT inform the question of cultural intermarriage in today’s world.Paul writes in the NT that believers should not be unequally yoked, but he isn’t speaking of one’s ethnicity, but rather of faith in Christ. Here we learn not to mix worldliness in with our faith as it has an undermining effect. The first of the judges is Othniel who delivers Israel from Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. Then there is rest for 40 years.The second of the judges is Ehud who delivers Israel from Eglon king of Moab, after which there is rest for 80 years. The third judge in this chapter is Shamgar, but basically nothing is said about him. The periods of rest are multiples of 40 - a number which means testing.Christ was tempted 40 days and the Israelites in the desert 40 years. This chapter teaches us that when all is quiet and peaceful - that is actually a time of testing of our souls.