Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Year 7, Day 200: Joshua 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here


Today we meet Othniel, whom we’ll meet again in the first chapter of judges.  While we’ll study this story more deeply then, we can note one thing right here about this story.  Once more we see the repetition of a reoccurring theme.  Caleb’s faith inspires Othniel.

While we don’t know for certain that Othniel was a mentee of Caleb, we can certainly see that Othniel was in good hands.  Caleb is given an allotment of land in Judah.  He immediately sets out to conquest the land.  He does so in relatively short order.  He defeats a popular group of sons and then sets his will against the other inhabitants of his inheritance.

However, notice that Caleb does not do this alone.  He offers part of his inheritance – as well as a daughter – for the person who continues the work.  In other words, he wants to have a son in law who has seen his prowess and desires to imitate it.  He wants to have people living within his inheritance who are like him and who have the same kind of values. 

This is the same principle at work that we saw with Moses and Joshua.  Moses brought Joshua close to him because he was teachable and shared a common desire as Moses.  Caleb and Othniel are no different.

What I think is neat is that as the Hebrew nation sets up we see example after example of mentoring.  We see example after example of people looking for commonalities and then investing in them for the next generation.  Caleb’s work with Othniel directly affects the first judge of Israel and his ability to be used by God to protect his people.

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