Some have argued that the book of Judges is a support for the monarchy in Israel. Throughout the book, the author laments that the oppression of Israel happened because there was no king in Israel. Israel wanted kings. They believed that if they had a king to unify them, all their troubles would be solved. But if the time of the judges was a problematic phase in the history of salvation, the time of the kings was not any better, as 1 and 2 Kings reveals. In Samuel's day, Israel asked for a king, and the Lord gave them Saul. With David it was better, but the kings could never solve any of Israel's problems. Israel still fell into idolatry and were still oppressed by their enemies.

The problem was that Israel continued to trust in man for deliverance. Throughout the entire book of Judges, Israel regularly and continually relied upon men to save them, instead of the Lord.¹

Judges 3:11 points us to the problem with every human leader of God’s church. However Spirit-empowered an office-bearer may be, whether elder, deacon, or minister, he is woefully unable to meet the needs of the flock. It’s easy for us to look to our leaders to satisfy our needs, to take care of us, to lead us. But it is only the Lord who can do these things, even while using human instruments. And at a time of his choosing, he calls any and all of them to himself. And so, Judges 3:11 teaches us to fix our eyes on the Lord.

For it is in the Lord that we find the model Saviour, the real and true judge. Christ Jesus fits the profile of the perfect, the unfailing, the unfading judge and Saviour of his people, of whom Othniel was but a shadow. Like Othniel, the Lord Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. But unlike Othniel, the Lord Jesus was also from God. And so he came as both Lord and servant. He came as the true Israel to fulfill the law that idolatrous Israel, and we, failed to fulfill, and he did so as one filled with the Spirit. And he came to save God’s people not merely from a city whose leader was a menace, a tyrant. He came to save us from the spiritual forces of this dark world, the prince of this world, the greatest menace of all, Satan-Infinitely-Wicked, and all his cohorts.

And just how did he save us? He saved us not apart from his death, but precisely by his death. That is what was needed in order for our idolatry to no longer be held against us. The cross was where sin and self-worship as lords and masters of the lives of God’s people were crucified. Jesus came to be the greater deliverer, the greater saviour than any judge or king that was raised up in those centuries. And by his resurrection he has secured our rest, a rest we now enter into by faith now, and by sight, by physical touch later.