Scripture Daily

Context No. 3154 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 1:9-13: in context

9After that, the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. 10Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. (The name of Hebron before that was Kiriath Arba.) They struck Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. 11From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir before that was Kiriath Sepher.) 12Caleb said, “I will give Achsah my daughter as wife to the man who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it.” 13Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it, so he gave him Achsah his daughter as his wife.

As Judah presses into the hill country, old Caleb, still active in claiming the inheritance, sets a challenge: whoever attacks and takes the town of Kiriath-sepher will have his daughter Achsah in marriage. His younger kinsman Othniel takes the city, and so wins Achsah as his wife.

Amid the conquest narrative sits a small human story. Caleb, now aged, is still laying hold of what God promised, and his relative Othniel rises to the challenge and is rewarded. And here is the thread worth drawing out: Othniel will later become the first of the judges, Israel's first deliverer. His faithfulness and courage in a small, early test, taking one city at Caleb's word, marked out the very man God would later raise up to rescue the whole nation. Great callings often begin with someone proving faithful in a lesser challenge. The one who answered the call to take one city became the one called to save a people.

Am I faithful and courageous in the smaller challenges before me, out of which God may be preparing me for larger ones?

Sources