After Pentecost Devotional - Day 65

“The Breath of Yahweh took control of Othniel, and he led Israel in a war against Cushan Rishathaim. Yahweh gave Othniel victory, and Israel was at peace until Othniel died about forty years later.” Judges 3:10-11

Judges is often referred to as a history of Israel's wars with its neighbors. It addresses the cycles of how Israel would fall away from Yahweh, be attacked by invaders, and Yahweh would raise up a “judge” to deliver Israel. We fail to recognize that the point in all of this was not Yahweh's desire for war. The point was teaching Israel how to live in peace.

The recipe set forth was simple. If Israel would be faithful to Yahweh, they would live at peace with their neighbors. Conversely, when they began to worship the idols of the nations around them, they would find themselves in competition with their neighbors.

Yahweh's instructions were about relationships with one another. They were about an abundance of agricultural production that would meet the needs of all. They were about being able to be generous with one another because of Yahweh's own generosity. They were about taking care of the poor, dispossessed, disenfranchised, immigrant, stranger, refugee, and otherwise disadvantaged. They were about allowing Yahweh to control the sun, rain, and wind without any need of human interference in Yahweh's will.

By contrast, the fertility cults of the people among who Israel settled were about finding ways to manipulate the gods to send rain, sun, wind, and fertility to their crops and herds. The fertility cults were based on human anxiety over the unreliability of the seasons and weather. Rather than trusting Yahweh, they devised methods to influence and attempt to control the forces of life.

This anxiety bled over into believing there simply were not enough resources to go around. They were based on the attitude that sharing with others is a luxury that cannot be afforded. It was a religious as well as an economic model which posited the scarcity of resources as a given. Rather than conceptualizing Israel as a land “flowing with milk and honey,” it deemed that food was a scarce commodity to be taken and hoarded against so much uncertainty.

Yes, Israel settled the land by driving out those who lived there. Their call by Yahweh, however, was to give evidence of a new economic structure which conceptualized a world of abundance that teemed with inherent fertility. This was a basic concept underlying Yahwism. It was the main counterpoint to the economic structures of fertility cult worship. It was also when Israel veered from a position of confidence in Yahweh's provision that they came into conflict with their neighbors, accepting the competing claim that there was not enough to go around.

In so doing, Israel lost twice. They lost their security in Yahweh. Then they struggled with their neighbors, accepting the claims of the fertility cults that generosity, hospitality, and sharing with those in need was dangerous. In circling their wagons, they brought conflict with others to their own doors. Othniel brought 40 years of peace. He accomplished it because the people returned to Yahweh as the bringer of generous abundance.

How closely do I rely upon a confidence in Yahweh's ample provisions?


"Lord, help me trust you to be sufficient that I might reflect your generous provision."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin

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