Let us now look briefly at each of these, with that thought in our minds. You have, first of all, in the third chapter, fifth verse down to the eleventh, the first bondage. It is to the king of Aram, or Mesopotamia. They served him. He was king of Mesopotamia, and his name was Cushan-rishathaim. Aram, you remember, is "Exalted," and the country of Mesopotamia was near to or connected with Babylon. The plain of Shinar was part of it, where finally Israel was carried into captivity. Here in the beginning you get them under the power of the king of exaltation. The very first thing that takes possession of God's people, that which is not Christ, the very opposite of Christ, is this exaltation, whose king is called Cushan-rishathaim. Cushan means "blackness," and rishathaim means "double iniquity." "The blackness of double iniquity," is a name that is dark enough surely to tell us how intensely evil this enemy must be.
How exactly the opposite of Christ he must be, if he has a name like that. Our Lord, when He was here, was meek and lowly in heart. He sought not great things for Himself. Trace the Lord from the time He leaves heaven's glory until He returns thither again, and His history is one of self-abnegation and lowliness all the way through. He humbled Himself, He emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation, and in all the progress from the throne of God to the cross it was one descent after another, the very opposite of Aram or exaltation. In the history of our own souls, and in the history of the Church, what is the secret of all blessing? Is it not this lowly mind, the mind that was in Christ Jesus? As long as His people are in a low place they will flee from the power of the enemy; but, alas, when we lift up ourselves, exalt ourselves, we are simply doing what the first great transgressor did, Satan himself; he exalted himself against God.
Pride is the first enemy, and it is the blackness of double iniquity; it is the intensest kind of wickedness; it is that by which Satan fell; he became dim by reason of his brightness. What a contradiction it is that his very beauty had a spot put upon it, because he sought to exalt himself by reason of his beauty. So when the Church of Christ, or an individual Christian, lifts himself up, and is satisfied with himself and filled with pride, you have there that intensest form of wickedness, because it is independence of God, it is the exaltation of self, and, therefore, the very opposite of Christ. We see much of this in Ephesus and in Laodicea in Revelation—the beginning and ending of the Church's history.
Next we have the deliverer out of that state. The enemy is what is not of Christ. In the deliverer we will see what is in Christ to deliver His people from this bondage, which is unlike Himself. Othniel is the deliverer, and we have seen that he represents that spirit of faith which counts entirely upon God. His name means "the Lion of God," the power of God brought in. Pride will never make use of any power save its own; it will never own its need of power. When Othniel comes in, you have, of course, the acknowledgment of weakness and bondage, and then as a result the power of God is exerted for us. Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. What is the real remedy for bondage to pride? what is the real remedy for bondage to self, bondage to all this wretchedness that put self on a pinnacle and degrades God? Is it not Christ the Lord Himself, Christ as the power of God, through whom alone come all things? And when you and I are ready, and when the Church is ready, to acknowledge that she has no strength of her own, that she has nothing of her own, and is willing to let Christ be all, you have Othniel the deliverer who comes in; and in that way he suggests Christ to us.
Of course, I do not mean to say that Othniel is what you would ordinarily call a type of Christ. As we go on, as you will remember, we found the judges are anything but Christlike, until at the close you find that which is the very opposite of Christ. It is the apprehension of Christ by faith in these characters that will give us practically the deliverance that was wrought here typically.