Judges 3:12-31

     The Central Idea of the Text is that Israel disobeyed God and worshipped idols, God punished them, they cried out to Him and He raised up Ehud to save them.

     Israel forfeited their rest from the Lord when they chose to disobey Him.  The Lord was the primary cause of Israel’s suffering as He employed a pagan king to afflict His people.  After eighteen years of oppression, God’s people cried out to Him and He raised up Ehud to rescue them and give them rest.  Suffering makes men cry to God who, otherwise, during peaceful times, would never seek Him.  Ehud may have been crippled in his right arm, but God’s victory depended on His power and not Ehud’s abilities.  God called Ehud to be Israel’s deliverer, but this does not mean He approved of all Ehud’s actions, particularly his deception.  After Ehud killed Eglon, The Lord used him to lead Israel in a military campaign against the Moabites and to defeat them. “God used a man whom others would have regarded as unusual, because he was left-handed, to affect a great victory. Ehud did not excuse himself from doing God’s will because he was different, as many Christians do. He stepped out in faith in spite of his physical peculiarity.”[1]

     Shamgar is a Canaanite name, perhaps implying he was half Jewish and half Canaanite, or perhaps a converted Canaanite.  The oxgoad was an unorthodox weapon, but used in the hand of God’s servant, it proved most effective.  Unlike Ehud who led an army into battle, God used Shamgar as a solitary deliverer to rescue His people.  Like Ehud, Shamgar was not a likely figure to serve as Israel’s deliverer (humanly speaking), but God often chooses the weak things of this world that His wisdom and power and glory will shine through (1 Cor. 1:26-31).

     God calls all sorts of men and women to serve Him.  None are perfect.  Yet, God uses imperfect people to accomplish His will.  If we desire His will above all else, then God can use us to effect real change and be a blessing to others.   The success of God’s plans ultimately rest upon the divine author who devised them, and it is part of His plan to include us, as weak and unworthy as we are, to share in His program for mankind. 

 

[1] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jdg 3:12.