The Judge Othniel

Welcome to the Rapid Bull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Othniel as the First Judge of Israel

The first of the judges that we're going to look at is Othniel. He will be seen first actually in Judges chapter 1, but mostly we see the account in the first 11 verses of Judges 3. Now he is of the tribe of Judah and he is the nephew of Caleb, which is an important character when we look at Joshua and Caleb were the two spies that were faithful.

He is his nephew from Caleb's younger brother. Now what we end up seeing is that there was 8 years of oppression here, but with him we ended up seeing 40 years of rest in the land. This was a time after the death of Moses and Joshua and Israel was looking for new leaders.

We see that his name means God is my protection. The thing that we'll end up noticing is, yes, that Caleb and him are uncle and nephew, and yet he ends up, Othniel ends up marrying Caleb's daughter because he ends up saying whoever would capture the city of Debar would be able to marry his daughter.

And so we end up seeing Othniel does that and has his daughter. Now Othniel is the first judge of Israel. He's a civil leader after the death of Moses and Joshua. He is the son-in-law of Caleb, as we mentioned, and which is one of only two men to have gone through the full wilderness.

And so it could have been natural for Israel to choose him as the first judge.