Great Responsibility Trivia Quiz

Answer: Major

We first hear of Othniel in Joshua 15:17 where we discover that he is the nephew of Caleb - you may recall Caleb as the man who left Egypt as a freed slave and entered the Promised Land as a leader. Before he was a judge, Othniel was given the task of taking the city of Debir, which he completed successfully and, in return, he was given Caleb's daughter, Achsah, to be his wife.

Othniel's place in the Bible is important as he became the first of the appointed judges. Judges 3:7 indicates that the Israelites began to worship false idols, which was a terrible sin in the eyes of the Lord. It displease him so much that he allowed the foreign king Cushan-Rishathaim of Mesopotamia to enslave them. Under this arrangement their nation was subjected to heavy taxes, forced to make tributes to the king, their lands became forfeit and they had to allow foreign troops into their homes. They (the Israelites) were treated so harshly that after eight years of this subjugation they beseeched the Lord to deliver them from this evil. Othniel became that deliverer. He waged war upon and defeated Cushan-Rishathaim, after which his nation would enjoy forty years of peace.

Answer: Major

Judges 3:12 describes how the Israelites, yet again, sinned against God. The Lord, in turn, strengthened the arm of Elgon, the king of Moab, which allowed him to take the City of Palms, placing the children of Israel under his punishing rule for the next eighteen years. After this time the Lord raised Ehud, the son of Gera, to be the deliverer of his people.

Ehud was left-handed, the sign of a deceiver, which enabled him to hide a short sword on his right thigh where it was not expected to be hidden. He approached the Moab king with the guise of paying a tribute, coaxed Elgon into his private chamber with the whisper of a secret message and, when they were alone, stabbed the king in his belly. The king was so obese that the entire sword, hilt and all, disappeared into his stomach. Ehud locked the door to the king's chamber and made his leave. When the king's servants found the door locked, they assumed that he was still relieving himself. This provided Ehud with time to make good his escape. He then raised an army and destroyed the leaderless Moabites, opening the door to the Israelites to enjoy eighty years of peace.

Answer: Major

Deborah's story is found in chapters three and four of the Book of Judges. At the time of her calling, the people of Israel had been suffering under the cruel rule of Jabin, the king of Canaan, for almost twenty years. He was able to maintain this subjugation through the iron hand of Sisera, both the leader of his armies and a highly feared individual.

Initially Deborah had given Barak the message from God to go up against Sisera's armies, but Barak was hesitant and suggested that he would only go if he was accompanied by Deborah (Judges 4:8). Deborah accepted but advised Barak in the next verse that, as a result of her presence, the glory would not be his. With God on their side the Canaanites were defeated and, symbolically, the mighty Sisera was brought down by the hand of a woman... on this occasion, the woman was Jael, who drove a tent peg through Sisera's skull while he was resting.

That symbolism is deepened by the fact that Deborah is the only female judge mentioned in the Bible, which begs the question as to why she was chosen. Some scholars argue that, by choosing a woman, God displayed his tender care for his people. Others will debate that, at the time, God saw that the the men of Israel were weak-willed and unfit to judge. They point to Barak's hesitancy as an illustration of this.

Answer: Major

Gideon is the fifth judge mentioned in the Bible and a number of scholars consider him to be the greatest of this group. They point to him as being a man of faith, a great warrior, a leader of strength and a sage diplomat. However, Gideon's story, which is told in chapters six to eight in the Book of Judges, is also a tale of the doubt that lives in men and the patience that resides in God.

On three occasions Gideon sought signs from God for assurance and, on each occasion, the Lord provided. Initially, Gideon sought proof that he was actually talking to God, and then he begged for signals that the mission he was assigned was true. Gideon raised an army of 32,000 to combat the Midianites, who had ravaged his nation for the prior seven years. God initially reduced this number to 22,000, and then to a mere 300 men. This was done so that the Israelites could not brag about their eventual victory as one that was borne out by their strength of numbers but a victory that came about by the will of God.

Gideon's 300 men were severely outnumbered, some say 450 to 1; however, they prevailed thanks to their faith and a brilliant piece of psychological warfare on Gideon's part. Splitting his company into three groups of one hundred men, he placed them strategically around the Midianite camp during the night. Following his lead, the men blew trumpets, smashed clay jars, held aloft torches and shouted the words "a sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" (Judges 7:20). The resulting noise made it sound like a much larger force was attacking the camp and the Midianites, in their confusion, fled in panic.

Answer: Major

There are three lessons we can take from the tale of Jephthah that appears in Judges' chapters eleven and twelve. The first is that God has no prejudice in respect to a person's background when he made his choosing. In the case of Jephthah he had selected the son of a prostitute, one that had been driven from his family due to his illegitimacy. God, however, still saw him as "worthy". The second lesson is that you should never make rash promises and, the third, despite doing the right thing, you will not please everyone and this too can lead to grief. More on those points later.

Jephthah was a mighty warrior, and this led to the elders of his home town, Gilead, to call upon him to help them defeat the mighty Ammonites who'd come against Israel in war. Jephthah's first reaction was to avoid a conflict and, to this end, he sent a message to the Ammon king. When this offering was rejected, Jephthah made the Lord a promise that he would sacrifice to him the first thing that came out of the door of his house if he would help him to defeat the Ammonites. Jephthah claimed the victory but, to his dismay, the first to greet him when he arrived home was not a servant or an animal but his only child, his dear daughter. Despite his despairing grief, Jephthah remained true to his vow to God.

Jephthah's victory, however, did not please the people of Ephraim, who were upset with him that he went to war without their help. This led to threats that they would burn his house down and, ultimately, war against Gilead. Gilead won that battle and 42,000 Ephraimites lost their lives.

The story of Jephthah is a little unusual in another way. Due to the length of his narrative in the Bible, he is, traditionally, treated as one of the major judges; however, his tenure as a leader of Israel was only for six years, which would normally be considered a hallmark of a minor judge.

Answer: Major

God's choosing of Jephthah as a judge showed that one's background had little weight in his selection process. His choosing of Samson is somewhat similar in that Samson was a flawed man. Samson was a Nazirite, but he constantly broke his Nazirite vows, and he easily fell prey to the temptations of the flesh. More importantly, he knew that what he was doing was wrong, yet God was still willing to use him as a leader in the Israelite's battles against the Philistines.

The Spirit of God revealed itself in Samson by imbuing him with great strength. With this power he was able to tear a lion apart with his bare hands, wreak vengeance upon the Philistines for stealing his wife, burn their crops and kill 1,000 of their men using just the jawbone of a donkey. It would be his womanizing that would bring him undone. Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah, not knowing that her people had bribed her to uncover the secret behind his great strength. When he revealed that it was his uncut hair that maintained his connection to God, she arranged to have it cut and Samson finally had to face the consequence of all his disobediences.

In the temple to their god Dagon, during the celebration of Samson's defeat, the Philistines brought the weakened warrior before them to provide them with entertainment. Samson beseeched his Lord to remember him and grant him one last boon and return the Lord's Spirit to him so that he could utilize his strength one last time. The Lord listened and Samson brought down the walls of the temple, killing all of those inside. By sacrificing himself Samson had completed the last part of his vow as a Nazirite and, in the process, killed over 3,000 Philistines. Essentially, he'd killed more Philistines with his death than he did during his lifetime.

Answer: Minor

There is only a brief mention of Shamgar in the Bible. This appears in Judges 3:31... "After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel." However, that verse, and a line from a song by Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:6... "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths" tell us something about the man.

First up, Deborah's song indicates that Shamgar's people, during his time, lived in fear. They stayed away from the main thoroughfares and traversed the backroads where they felt it was safer. We also see that Shamgar was a man of great strength in that he'd defeated 600 Philistines using nothing more than an oxgoad. An oxgoad is merely a cattle prod, a length of timber about eight foot long with a metal spike at the end. The Philistines were a renowned race of warriors and to take out 600 of them with just a cattle prod is a feat of strength that is almost Samson-esque in stature. That said, there is no mention in the above passage as to whether Shamgar defeated the Philistines in a single battle or a number of them. In the end, he too had liberated his nation from oppression.

Answer: Minor

Being a minor judge there is very little recorded about Tola. Judges 10:1-2 informs us "After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim."

Scholars can only guess at what "saving Israel" meant. The best theory is that his rescue may have revolved around the chaos that was caused by Abimelek (also spelt Abimelech) and the viciousness with which he attacked his own people in Shechem. Abimelek, whose reign is described in Judges chapter nine, was a son of the judge Gideon but, unlike his father, he was greedy for both riches and power and, as a consequence, his demise came rather quickly. His quest for power saw him attack and kill 69 of his 70 brothers. He repelled an uprising from Ga'al and, after driving the man from the town's gates, he then slaughtered thousands of his own people while they worked the fields, claiming that they had assisted the usurper.

Answer: Minor

Judges 10:3-5 informs us that Jair followed Tola and that he led Israel for a period of twenty-two years. However, we are not advised as to whether or not he delivered or saved Israel from any oppression. The fact that this may be so is also hinted at by the following lines from the above passage... "He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys. They controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth Jair."

What we can glean from the latter is that he was a man of both influence and wealth. This borne out by the control of thirty cities (a sign of influence) and the thirty donkeys (a sure sign of wealth). It is important to remember that, during these times, donkeys were the steeds of kings and a sign of prosperity. If we were to take this analogy into modern times... the man (Jair), essentially, had a thirty car garage. Whilst it hasn't been dictated within the passage, it appears that his sons rode about unhindered, which may indicate that Jair led his people during a period of peace and prosperity.

Answer: Minor

Ibzan's story is mentioned in Judges 12:8-10. He is the tenth judge of Israel, and he followed the turbulent times that marked the reign of Jephthah. From all indications, Ibzan, who ruled for seven years, did so during a time of relative peace and prosperity. He had sixty children - thirty sons and thirty daughters. For his daughters he imported thirty husbands from abroad and, for his sons, he sent them abroad to find wives for themselves.

The word "abroad" is rather loose, and it may have, simply, meant "outside of the clan". The genius here is that, as a judge, his children would have been sought after as partners by other people of influence and, in this way, Ibzan would have been able to forge numerous alliances that would have ensured the continued prosperity of his nation.

Answer: Minor

Once again, Judges is succinct in its narrative about a minor Judge. Elon followed Ibzan to be the eleventh judge of Israel. Judges 12:11-12 tells us that he was from the tribe of Zebulon. Zebulon was one of the sons of Jacob and head of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Zebulon was one of the smaller tribes, however, which serves to highlight that God's providence can come from various sources and it stresses the significance that every tribe of Israel held in his eyes.

Though Elon's reign lasted ten years it appears to have been a time of very little turmoil.

Answer: Minor

Abdon was a judge of extreme wealth, as evidenced by the fact that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons who, between them, rode upon seventy donkeys. Abdon, a member of the tribe of Ephraim, is revealed as Elon's successor in Judges 12:13-15. The "Jewish Encyclopedia" indicates that he restored order in central Israel after the events of the feud that involved Jephthah, the Gileadites and his own people, the Ephraimites. This was a significant achievement on the part of Abdon.

Jephthah was a major judge who presided over Israel for six years and led his nation to a victory over the Ammonites. This upset the people of Ephraim (Abdon's people) because they were not called upon to assist, thereby missing out on the rich spoils of the victory. They took umbrage with Jephthah, which led to a war between them and the city of Gilead. Some 42,000 Ephraimites lost their lives in that dispute and the fact that Abdon could put that behind and show equanimity in restoring order, speaks volumes about the man.