The First One

Unlikely, Part 1: Othniel and the ministry of nothing going wrong

Let me start with a test. Before Gideon, before Samson, before Deborah, there was a first judge. The prototype. Can you name him?

Don't feel bad. Almost nobody can. His name is Othniel, and I'd bet you've never heard a sermon about him. He's the first hero in the book of Judges, and he's the one everybody reads right past on the way to the famous ones.

So why is the model judge the one nobody remembers? Here's the answer, and it stings a little. Othniel is forgettable because nothing went wrong. No scandal. No rash vow. No Delilah. He was simply faithful, and faithfulness rarely makes headlines.

Raised in the Right Shadow

Scripture ties Othniel to Caleb. He was the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Forty years earlier, ten spies came back from the promised land terrified. Only Joshua and Caleb believed God, and the Bible says Caleb followed the Lord fully. Othniel grew up in that man's family.

Before he ever judged Israel, we get one snapshot of him. Caleb needed someone to take the fortress city of Kiriath-sepher, and Othniel stepped up and took it. He did the hard, unglamorous work in front of him long before anyone was watching.

That's almost always how it goes. The person God raises up in public was already faithful in private.

There's a word here for parents and grandparents too. Caleb never judged Israel. His faithfulness raised the man who did.

Five Words That Drive the Story

Israel forgot God, and for eight years they served a king named Cushan-rishathaim, a name that means something like "double wickedness." Then they cried out.

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. (Judges 3:9 to 10, NASB)

The text says nothing about his muscles, his strategy, or his charisma. It tells us one thing: the Spirit of the Lord came upon a faithful man. And that was enough. Eight years of double wickedness were answered by forty years of rest.

The Bridge That Never Collapsed

We love the dramatic testimony. The crash, the wreckage, the comeback. Praise God for every one of those. But there's another testimony the church almost never applauds: the life where the wreckage never happened.

The man who kept his word for forty years. The woman who prayed every morning for decades with no camera in the room. The marriage that stayed.

Nobody makes a movie about the bridge that never collapsed. But everybody drives across it every day. That's Othniel. God put the clean one first in Judges, as if to say, this is what it's supposed to look like.

The Faithful One

Even Othniel's forty years ran out. Judges 3:11 says simply that he died. The best human faithfulness has an expiration date.

That's why the whole Bible leans toward Jesus, the faithful witness who never once drifted. Your salvation doesn't rest on your ability to be Othniel. It rests on him. And faithfulness is listed as fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), not a personality type. If your record isn't clean, take heart. God isn't asking you to have been faithful. He's asking you to start.

Your Kiriath-sepher

Stop waiting for a dramatic calling and take up the undramatic one in front of you. What is the hard thing nobody will applaud? Take the first step this week, quietly, as unto the Lord. Then do it again next week.

Forty years of rest was bought by one man's daily, boring, magnificent faithfulness.

Pastor Josh

This post is adapted from Unlikely: The Heroes You Read Right Past. Join us Sundays at 10 a.m. at 501 S Main St in Sheridan. Plan your visit.