Alright. We are starting our third week in Judges in chapter 2, verse 11. We ended up in chapter 2, verse 10 last week. In chapter 2, verse 11, we see that Israel began a significant amount of false worship. Verses 11 to 23 could be called a brief summary of everything we see in the whole book of Judges. A similar scenario played out over and over and over again. And that is, there was a turn to idolatry, both in the acceptance and practice of it. So they accepted it, and many people practiced it. Then God's anger was stirred because of that false worship. And the people were allowed to suffer from an outside nation or group or entity. Punishment for their, punishment for their idolatry and their not worshiping God. And then the people responded to that and they cried out to the Lord for help. Help us, help us, help us, we're being oppressed. And then God demonstrates his mercy and raises up a judge or deliverer to help against those oppressors. Then Israel, or a portion of it, wherever they were, was saved from that oppressor for a time. And then the nation experienced some peace. They worshiped God for a little bit, and then they turned right back to their idolatrous nature. It just started back. They went back to worship idols again. It was kind of a rinse and repeat situation. It occurred over and over throughout the book of Judges. The nation had a continual tendency to become involved with idolatry. It had a continual pull on them. Why? We could speculate, but I tend to think there are a few factors that had an impact on these. These are not all of the factors, but they're some of the factors. And one of the factors is found in Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful. It naturally tends towards sinful activities. It's true with us. It's true with Israel. The other thing is Israel did not drive out the Canaanites as prescribed by God. Therefore, they were constantly pressured to accept as okay their patient pagan worship practices. They looked at the guy next to them who was a Canaanite. Nice family. Hey, they're pretty good people. They worship Baal. And after a while, well, they're still good people. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that exact sentence you just said about Mormons time and time again. Oh, they're great people. Yeah. And from a human standpoint, very true. But from a worshiping God standpoint, very wrong. Yes. Jeremiah 17.9. So this led not only to an acceptance of these alternate worship practices, but participation in it as well, especially if my son married to one of their daughters or vice versa. Well, then it's now ingrained more in the family. Have you ever heard the practice going, the statement going around today, and I've heard it many times, the phrase, Well, they worship the same Jesus for all kinds of different religions. Or, they love God, and we hear that today all the time. Okay? And what's that do? That drops down our fences that, no, these people are worshiping non-truth. Right? They are not worshiping God. They're worshiping their version of God or their definition of God. So it's not really that much different today than it was back then. Except that, you know, we're not Israel and That whole thing, but you can see how that could have got into there. Now the other thing that I think about of why this could have happened is that the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, cannot be represented by anything made with hands or by anything within his creation. And that's a hard thing to grasp. God is spirit. We want to be able to visualize. And we want to be able to visualize who we worship. And idols help you do that. You know, when the children of Israel, right after they left Egypt, built the golden calf, what did they say? This is the God who brought us out of Egypt. Now, if you really study that, they weren't saying it was a different God. They said it's Yahweh. Yeah, they were trying to represent God, which was horrid. But we want to be able to visualize who we worship. Just go into a Catholic church somewhere. There are images everywhere. When Connie and I were in Moscow, we went to the Russian Orthodox Church there in downtown Moscow, a beautiful building. And there were so many things and idols and images and stuff in that church, it'd make your head spin. You saw them, right? Yeah. And people would go up and they'd say they buy these little prayer things and then they go up and say a prayer and kiss the idol and go on, you know. And men have this desire to grasp what they worship. But John 4, 24 says this, God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And I think this is part of the conflict they had because we want to be able to see. You know, there's a proliferate. This is not in my notes, so this is just a little. Rabbit trail I'm taking but this week I was watching in many other weeks. I've watched a lot of these YouTubes of NAR type people who have been to heaven and come back All right, seeing Jesus and come back and people want what's it look like? What's it like? What's it like? It's feeding the same Desire of man to be able to see you know If God wanted us to know what heaven was like, he would have told us a whole lot more than he did. He tells us enough, right? And on and on. It's in our bent, and it's part of our sinful nature. Now, you start thinking about that, and I had to ask a question. This is another rabbit trail, but it's a planned rabbit trail. And that is, is it wrong to have pictures of Jesus? Some people would say yes. So I'm going to have a real long quote here, and this is really long, but I thought it was a pretty good answer. So I got it from Bruce's favorite website, gotquestions.org. And I just typed out, is it wrong to have pictures of Jesus? And it says this, when God first gave his law to mankind, he began with the statement of who he is. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, that's in Exodus 20, with the warning that Israel was to have no other God but him. He immediately followed that by forbidding the making of any image of anything in heaven above, on earth beneath, or the waters below. for the purpose of worshiping or bowing down to it. The fascinating thing about the history of the Jewish people is that they disobeyed this commandment more than any other. Again and again they made idols to represent God and worshiped them. Beginning with the creation of the golden calf during the very time God was writing out the Ten Commandments for Moses. Now, they didn't have the Ten Commandments when they started that, but they still knew it was wrong. Idol worship not only drew the Israelites away from the true and living God, it led to all manner of other sins, including temple prostitution, orgies, and even sacrifice of children. It goes on. Of course, simply having a picture of Jesus hanging in a home or a church does not mean people are practicing idolatry. It's possible that a portrait of Jesus or a crucifix can become an object of worship, in which case the worshipper is at fault. There is nothing in the New Testament that would specifically forbid a Christian from having a picture of Jesus. Such an image could well be a reminder to pray, to refocus on the Lord, or to follow Christ's footsteps. But believers should know that the Lord cannot be reduced to a two-dimensional image, and that prayer or adoration is not to be offered to a picture. A picture will never be a complete image of God or accurately display His glory, nor should never be a substitute for how we view God or deepen our knowledge of Him. And of course, even the most beautiful representation of Jesus Christ is nothing more than one artist's conception of what the Lord looked like. As it is, we don't know what Jesus looked like. If the details of his physical appearance were important for us, Matthew, Peter, and John would certainly have given us an accurate description. As would Jesus' own brothers, James and Jude. Yet these New Testament writers offer no details about Jesus' physical attributes. We are left to our imaginations. The one thing they said had no appearance that would bring people to him. You wouldn't have been put on a magazine saying, oh, this is the most beautiful guy in the world. Because he was just, he was normal looking. That goes on. We certainly do not need a picture to display the nature of our Lord and Savior. We only have to look at creation as we are reminded in Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge. In addition, our very existence, as the redeemed of the Lord, sanctified and made righteous by His blood shed on the cross, should have Him always before us. Going on, says the Bible, the very Word of God, is also filled with non-physical descriptions of Christ that capture our imagination and thrill our souls. He is the light of the world, the bread of life, the living water that quenches thirst for our souls, the high priest who intercedes for us with the Father, the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, the spotless Lamb of God, the author and perfecter of our faith. the way, the truth, the life, the very image of the invisible God. Such a Savior is more beautiful to us than any piece of paper hanging on a wall or any thing that's carved." And this is an interesting, this is how this finishes this statement. In her book, Gold Card, Gold Cord, excuse me, Missionary Amy Carmichael tells of Prina, a young Indian girl who became a Christian and lived in Miss Carmichael's orphanage. Prina had never seen a picture of Jesus. Instead, Miss Carmichael prayed for the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to each of the girls, saying, but who for the divine can show the divine? One day, Prina was sent a package from abroad. She opened it and eagerly pulled out a picture of Jesus. Prina innocently asked who it was. And when she was told that it was Jesus, she burst into tears. Not happy tears. What's wrong? Why are you crying? And here was her reply. I thought he was far more beautiful than that. That's quite a story. We have to be careful when we have pictures and those types of things, because they are not accurate representations of Christ. And we can have a discussion more on that, how you feel about it. I can tell you, I don't have any pictures of him. Anyway. That's what Israel was going through. So in verse 11, let's start getting to the passage now. It says, then the sons of Israel. Now, again, this is a this is a summary of what was going on. Then the sons of Israel did evil on the side of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed themselves to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Asheroth. the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them so that they could no longer stand before their enemies wherever they went the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them so that they were severely distressed now one commentator titled this group of verses, Calamity, the Diagram of Decline. And as you read through them, it's readily apparent. There's lines like, the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forsook the Lord. They followed other gods from among the gods of the people. They bowed themselves down to them, these gods, and they provoked the Lord to anger. Now, that's not a list that any of you would put down as your goals for life. Oh, I want to do those things. No. The generation following the one mentioned in verse six, who was following God, departed from following God. And as a result, they provoked the Lord to anger. You know, God allowed Israel to follow or not follow him. He didn't force them. The same with us. He does not force us to behave or believe in a certain way. Now we could get into a whole long discussion on the sovereignty of God and the will of man, but God doesn't force us to worship Him. Nowhere in Scripture do we see God controlling the choices of mankind. One passage that shows this is James 4, 7-8. where it says, Submit therefore to God. That's our command. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Each of us is individually responsible for our choices in submitting to God. Yes, God gives us the resources. He gives us His Spirit. He gives us His Word. But He does not force that choice upon us. We are responsible for our choices, even though He chose us before the foundation of the world. That's another, oh, three, four year study. Yeah, fun one. But one thing to remember that in verses 11 to 15, because Israel acted the way they did, God gave them into the hands of plunderers. He sold them into the hands of his enemies. God throughout history has used ungodly nations and evil people to inflict chastening on his people. Babylon. Syria two examples Babylon did not capture Israel for example because of their supreme strength Babylon captured Israel because Israel Did not worship God and that was a chastening of God upon Israel and It's also true that Israel did not succeed in getting to the promised land, which they are now, because of their strength. But God provided them victory after victory, starting with how he got them out of Egypt and all the way through. Now, this is true in our spiritual walk as well. Our strength is not in ourselves. but in God alone. And it's brought out in passages like Psalm 18, 1 and 2, where it says, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Ephesians 6.10, where we read, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And Colossians 1, 10 to 12. so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. It is God who gives us the power and the strength and the wisdom." It's not us, but we're still responsible to follow that. Yes? We do know that God disciplines what He loves. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, the treatment that God had of Israel for their failure to worship Him, God disciplines us as well for His glory, because that's what we need. So then what happened in verse 16? Judges 2 and again this is a summary this isn't a chronological statement we'll get that into more when we get into chapter 3 but then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them yet they did not listen to their judges for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves to them They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do as their fathers. So they got relief from whatever was driving them nuts, whatever was controlling them. And then as soon as they got relief, they went right back to what they were doing before. Verse 18. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of the enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. It's interesting that verse, even though they disobeyed God, He listened to them. He brought them out of that. because he was moved with pity for those who he loved, for his nation. And when you think of us, when we sin and get totally wrong in our walk with God, he will still forgive us our sin. 1 John 1, 9. Why does he do that? Because He's God and He loves us. Do we deserve it? Not anymore than Israel did. Verse 19, but it came about when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers. in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. And they did not abandon their practice or stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. And he said, because this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. In order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did or not. So the Lord allowed these nations to remain, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. So these nations, they're going to be there for a while. Yes. Yeah, we do. And we'll get to that as we get to one judge to another one. Yeah, yes. Yeah, yeah, you can. You can see this this downward trend in Israel as we look through the judges, and it's going to go like this. And boy, it sure looks our nation is just doing the same thing. You know what? What was being what was the battleground 100 years ago for Christianity? The battleground is so much farther down than it was then. And it started out, the battleground started out with the sufficiency of scripture and the accuracy of scripture. That's how it started. Well, you sure said that? Because once you take away that foundation, the house starts to crumble. And the house has crumbled a lot. I watched a couple of the, if you want to really get yourself sick, watch some of the presentations at the very recent United Methodist Church annual conference. These people were up there talking, and first of all, they made absolutely no sense. And second of all, it was absolutely diabolical. And just horrendous stuff. But a hundred years ago, They were fighting over here, and this is just the results of all that. It just keeps on going down. Where it's going to end, I don't know how much further down it can go, personally, but I'm sure there are levels. So this section moves us more into the one we just read, more into the pattern that we will see in the book. And the sequence is, the Lord raises up judges to deliver the portion of the nation that was being oppressed. And after the judge, with the power of God, brings relief. Because it was God that brought it, but he used the judge from the oppressors, the actions of the people that brought out the oppression. They didn't change. Their heart remained far from loving and pursuing the Lord. And this is so much like us today. And I was thinking about this. I was writing this. Remember the mood after 9-11? Boy, everybody was going to church. And people in the news, oh, our prayers, we're going to pray. No, they weren't praying to God. They were praying to whoever they worshipped. But prayer became commonplace. And how long did that last? Not very long. Not very long. And we are a whole lot more pagan as a nation 23 years later than we were at 9-11. As Fred was talking about earlier. So it's the same now. Man has got the same issues. Third thing is there was a following. The Lord was with the judge, it said in that passage, and delivered them from the hand of the enemies all the days of that judge. So that judge had some impact, and then he died, or she died, and the Lord was moved by pity because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. But once the judge died, They would turn back and you can underline that in your Bible if you want and acted more corruptly than their fathers. I can't remember exactly what verse that is in. It's verse 19. They acted more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and bow down before them. They did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways." So we have this gradual slipping into worsening conditions after the death of each judge. The nation was steadily moving further and further away from the commands of God. And I really see a parallel within the Protestant churches not only in America, but around the world in the last 150, 200 years. As modernism infiltrated the church beginning with the 19th century, then post-modernism coupled with ecumenism and the NAR word of faith, the overall state of the churches in the world who once taught the gospel is deplorable. And the gospel teaching has been lost to far too many congregations. We are getting more corrupt, just like Israel did. And in your notes, one commentary tried to visually show the decline of the nation during the period, and he drew that diagram, and you'll see it in your notes, where we have Othniel, which was the first judge. Now, not all the judges are listed here, but The decree of devotion to God just went down and down and down until it was the lowest point with the last judge in this book, which was Samson. But as a result of all these actions, God says, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left. So these Canaanites and the Philistines and the Midianites and all those people, they're gonna be dealing with them for a long time now. God's not gonna drive them out. So when the judges acted, The result was not to drive out the nations. We don't see any judge acting to drive out the nations, but they were trying to stop the oppression. That's different. When Joshua was working, drive out the nations. And at the first part of the book of Judges, Judah and Simeon drive out the nations. Now, Stop the oppression. So the influences of the pagan peoples did not go away. Rather, they subsided briefly to come up later in a different part of the nation or different area. Brings up a question. Were the judges successful? In some regard, yeah. But there was no completing of the charge God gave the to Joshua in rooting the land of the Canaanites and the Philistines and so on. Nor would there ever be. What did the judges accomplish? One commentator said this, the judges secured extended periods of peace in the areas that were oppressed. And while far from perfect, During the time of the judges, during the time of the judges, the nation was in a better state than it would be during the time of the divided nations of the kings. Think of Ahab and Manasseh and many, many more of the kings that were kings of Israel, northern or southern. During the warfare times of the judges in general The judges exerted themselves to prevent idolatry But these were short-lived and did not last past that time of that judge So we get to chapter 3 Hope there's your pretty little diagram you have it in your notes. I Judges chapter 3, and here we have actions that lead to servitude. The first six verses of Judges 3. Now these are the nations which the Lord left to test Israel by them, that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan, only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly. These nations are the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, and from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebo Hamath. They were for testing Israel to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord which he had commanded their fathers through Moses. The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took daughters for themselves as wives and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. Pretty sad commentary, and that's exactly what God said would happen if they didn't drive them out. Well, now we see that happening. From the Believer's Church Bible Commentary, it says this, the scene in Judges 2, 6 to 3, 6 is discouraging and simply disastrous. Disobedience not only occurs, but also becomes an infectious, all too familiar habit. Admittedly, during the cycle of disobedience, pain, crying out, and deliverance rings true to much of human experience. Yet to make matters worse, the Lord knows perfectly well beforehand that such a dismal outcome is a real possibility. Indeed, God allows the circumstances that enable all of this to take place. God leaves the Canaanites in the land to test and teach his chosen community. So that's kind of the backdrop, everything that's taking place as we get to the first of the judges. Now, Chapter 3 tells us the overall circumstances that will lead to the oppressions that came about. They're needing God to raise up a judge to lead the nation from these oppressions. And we have a list of the people groups that were still in the land. We have five lords of the Philistines, the Canaanites, Sidonians, Hivites, who lived in Mount Lebanon and living among the Israelites. We have the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. And verse six tells us of the issues. What did they do? They took their daughters for themselves as wives and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. They intermingled with them. This is the result of living those, among those who worshiped pagan gods. And it was foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 7 that this would happen. In Deuteronomy 7, Moses wrote therefore you shall not intermarry with them and you shall not give your daughters to their sons Nor you shall take their daughters for your sons for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods and Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will quickly destroy you They've been told They've been told and then in verse 6 why I shouldn't you do this for you are a holy people to the lord your god and the lord your god has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth so the israelites have been told keep yourselves pure so you can show the world what it's like when a nation worships god okay all of that We've gone a little over two and a half weeks, and we're finally gonna meet the first judge. We actually met him earlier, but now he's gonna be the judge. And starting in chapter three, we have this rolling out of the judges. Verse seven. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Asherah. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, that he sold them into the hands of the Kushan Rashathim, king of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served Kushan Rashathim eight years. So they were oppressed for eight years. Think of it for our term, two presidential terms. Okay. When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them. Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the Lord gave Cushon Rashathim, the king of Mesopotamia, into his hands, so that he prevailed over Cushon Rashathim. Then the land had rest for forty years. Eight years of oppression, Forty years of rest from that oppression. But then what do we see? Enothneil, the son of Kenaz, died. We were told earlier what happens when the judges died. I go right back to where they were before. So the first judge, God raised them up to free from their oppressors, such as in this case, the king of Mesopotamia. Now there are several things about this brief narrative First, we don't have a lot of detail. I mean, you saw all the detail we have. We don't know what part of the nation was sold into the hands of the Mesopotamians. We don't know how much the people were oppressed. We find out more in other judges of what the oppression was like. Or much about who oppressed them. We don't know much about Othniel. So what do we know? We do know this, that we really don't know the identity of the king of Mesopotamia, Kushan Rashathim. There are two basic views. One is he's from the area of the two rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates, or he is from Edom. And the word Rashathim has been miscopied, but that is very, very speculative. But some people follow that. But he ruled them for eight years. We know that. And it must have been difficult times because the people cried out to the Lord in some manner. How they did that, we don't know. Did they do that in mass? How all that came about? Did they wait till after seven years and said, we need to start crying out now? We don't know when. but we do know the lord heard them and the lord responded to them and he raised up all three on the here's what we know about all three he was the son of keen as brother so he was related to the family of katie joshua and katie the two spies that went in said let's take the land joshua fifteen thirteen to nineteen and then judges one 11 to 15 we are told that Othniel did lead the attack on Debir and captured it. So he knew that he was capable of leading some kind of army to attack Debir. And these two passages in Joshua and Judges tell of the same event. We also see the same historical events told in 1st and 2nd Kings and again in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. But the most important aspect about Othniel is found in verse 10. It's more important than anything else we can find out about him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel. And he went out to war. And the Lord gave Cushan Rosh Hashem, the king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. Remember, the reason there could be any victory is because the Lord was with him. The spirit of the Lord was present in Othniel, and therefore he was victorious. We don't have any specifics of the battle or battles, just the final outcome. And it must have been pretty decisive. Because after that battle was over, the land rested for 40 years. That's a long time in our matter of thinking. Then the text says, Othniel judged Israel. Now just a little review here. In our first week in the judges, we reviewed the role of judges. And one thing we reviewed was that we think of a judge as a person who sits in judgment over a court of law. You'll come to judge, you know? But we don't really think of judges as anything in a militaristic type of nature. The term to judge used in the book, the word means to lead, which describes the judges that are designated in this book. Judges covered in the book could be referring to military leaders, but it also refers to decision makers or governors, or in that day, a judge. So the Hebrew word for judge is a word called sapat. And there's two things it can mean. One is to rule or to govern or to exercise leadership. So you have to judge, which is to lead internal affairs. Because they had to have something to judge things that were going on internally in the nation. And the other thing it could mean, or it does mean, is to deliver, which is external affairs. OK? So we have that Othniel judged Israel. We do know that he led the external affairs as he led them to capture or to defeat those in Mesopotamia. But then he judged Israel which probably means also that he was leading internal affairs and making judgments. But then The rest didn't last forever. Yes? Does that definition apply to Netanyahu currently? I'd have to look into it. I don't think Netanyahu is judging Israel as a judge, as we would think of a judge, creating interpretations of law and those types of things. But he's definitely a leader and he, yeah. But I hadn't really thought about whether that, you know, I guess we have to go look and see if that's what they call, you know, what word do they use in Hebrew for, yeah. Hey, why don't you study that and come back with an answer for us next week? Next week. Yeah. Yeah, you have nothing to do all week. Is that true, Vicki? Well, if Vicki says you need two weeks, we'll give you two weeks. That's true. Bruce, so what do we know about the Holy Spirit that came on these judges? Was it the Holy Spirit? It says the Spirit came... The Spirit of the Lord? It doesn't really say, but it would make sense to me that it would be the work of the Spirit, not God the Father, and not a pre-incarnate Christ that we will see in Gideon, for example. Right. Yes? No. No, he didn't indwell them. But he was, Holy Spirit's been actively involved, and will continue to do that. He was involved in all that stuff. That was a good point, though, that surrounding them. So then in verse 11 we see, In oath, Neil, the son of Kenaz, died. And then, what was noted earlier in Judges 2.19, But it came about when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, more corruptly in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. So that's as much as we know about Othniel. But 40 years later, we can look ahead and cheat just a little bit. Right after the verse, right after Othniel, when he died, we have the following description of what happened in the land. And we won't get into it in detail today. I mean, the land had rest for 40 years. I remember year 32, they thought we got this thing whipped. Year 36, oh yeah, we got it whipped. Oops, year 40, not so much. Now the sons of Israel did again, again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. And then with Eglon, we're going to raise up the second judge that's mentioned in this book, and that's Ehud. I think it's real interesting. You have Gideon that people name their kids after and stuff. I've never heard anybody name their kid Ehud. But we're going to learn a lot more about him and a lot more information is given on Ehud's judging Israel than was Othniel. But that's next week. So we bow in prayer.