Judges 3 Here Comes the Judge

Intro

Read Judges 3:1-6

I. Lord Raises Up Judges vs. 1-6

God left these Canaanite nations behind because Israel was not faithful in driving them out.

One might rightly say that it was a combination of both their choice and God’s will.

The word test here is used in the sense of “proving.”

These nations would remain because God wanted to prove the faithfulness of Israel to Himself, and to improve their reliance on Him.

This was another reason why God allowed the Canaanites to remain where Israel did not drive them out.

God wanted His people to be warriors, and the presence of these dangerous neighbors would make it necessary for future generations to know war.

Israel was to be in a hostile environment for the major part of her history, due either to the pressures of the petty kingdoms which surrounded her or, at a later stage, due to her strategic position between the successive world-powers of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and Greece on the one hand and Egypt on the other hand.

Military prowess was a necessary accomplishment, humanly speaking, if she was to survive.

God named each of the pagan peoples that stubbornly stayed in the land.

After the same pattern, some could today make a specific list of “pagan territory” in the life of the believer.

Such a list may indeed be helpful in the way that it causes one to identify their enemy

That He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey:

The reason that God didn’t just eliminate these nations is again stated. It was to prove Israel’s commitment to God and His word.

If they were obedient to the word of God the other nations would not hinder them and they would grow strong enough to drive them out completely.

They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons:

Part of the accommodation of Israel to the pagan peoples surrounding them was their sin of intermarriage with the pagan nations in their midst.

They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs:

Their ungodly romances led them to the worship of the pagan deities Baal and Ashtoreth.

Jesus told us that following Him would require that we give up the things we love most (Mark 10:29-30).

Often an ungodly romance falls into this exact category.

II. Othniel vs. 7-11

God gave Israel just what they wanted.

They didn’t want to serve God, so He allowed them to be in bondage to a pagan king.

Israel reaped exactly what they sowed

The name of Cushan-Rishathaim is also suspect, for it reads literally ‘Cushan of double wickedness’, not likely a personal name, and it would appear that the historian has made a deliberate distortion to cast ridicule upon this oppressor

Eight years: It was many years of bondage before Israel cried out unto the LORD

It often takes many years of bondage and calamity before man looks away from self and looks unto God.

Othniel was the son-in-law of the great hero Caleb (Judges 1:12-3) and his wife was also a woman of faith (Judges 1:13-15).

We don’t know very much about Othniel, but this was enough to know.

The Holy Spirit empowered him for the job God called him to do.

Othniel lived the principle of

Zechariah 4:6 ESV

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Since Pentecost (Acts 2) a more general and permanent endowment of the Holy Spirit has been the privilege of every disciple.”

III. Ehud vs. 12-30

After God brought deliverance through the work of Othniel, Israel eventually drifted away from their dependence and obedience towards God.

Their victory did not automatically last forever; it had to be maintained

Moab, situated to the east of the Dead Sea between the Arnon and the Zered, was settled as a kingdom some fifty years before the Israelite invasion.”

Ammon, to the north-east of Moab, was established about the same time as Israel in the late thirteenth century B.C.”

The Amalekites, who were akin to the Edomites, were a nomadic race occupying the considerable area south of Judah, and were possibly Israel’s bitterest enemy (Exodus 17:8-16; cf. 1 Samuel 15:2-3).”

Israel’s sin brought them into bondage. They suffered 8 years of bondage before they cried out to the LORD in the days of Othniel.

Then they endured another 18 stubborn years of bondage before they cried out to the LORD.

Sin always brings bondage, though it comes to us deceptively.

The fish never contemplates the bondage of the hook when it goes after the bait; Satan snares us by making the bait attractive and hiding the hook.

Some great men have borne names which, when reduced to their grammatical meaning, appear very ridiculous: the word Eglon signifies a little calf!” (Clarke) In Eglon’s case, it was a fatted calf and was ready for slaughter

When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer:

This shows the mercy of God. When Israel repeatedly drifted from God, He had every right to cast them off completely.

Yet He still responded when they finally did call on Him for deliverance.

Ehud… a left-handed man:

In the ancient world left-handed people were often forced to become right-handed.

This made Ehud’s standing as a left-handed man more unusual.

“He is described as a left-handed man, literally ‘restricted as to his right hand’.

In the eyes of an Israelite, this was regarded as a physical defect and it appears often in connection with the Benjaminites, without affecting their prowess in battle

Israel had to pay this tribute money because they were under the domination of the king of Moab.

Ehud came to Eglon as a messenger or courier.

Ehud certainly told the truth when he said this.

The message was, “Those who oppress the people of God touch the apple of His eye and will be judged for it.”

F.B. Meyer set forth some thoughts from Judges 3:20, and Ehud’s statement to Eglon, I have a message from God for you.

God’s messages are often secret.

God’s messages must be received with reverence.

God’s messages leap out from unexpected quarters.

God’s messages are sharp as a two-edged sword, and cause death.

Because most men fought with their right hand, it wasn’t expected for a man to use his left hand with a dagger or a sword.

This shows how cunning Ehud was and how unexpected the strike was to Eglon

Some are troubled by this act of assassination; we cannot say that this event is a general approval or commission of those who would assassinate rulers who oppress the people of God.

It is significant that this was never suggested or even an issue in the early Christian persecutions.

“God did not necessarily approve of the method used by Ehud. It may be significant that the Spirit of the Lord did not come on Ehud and that he was never described as ‘judging Israel

Attending to his needs is literally “covering his feet,” a euphemism for elimination also used in 1 Samuel 24:3.

But the versions, in general seem to understand it as implying a certain natural act.

And he led them:

As much cunning and courage as Ehud had, he could not do the work by himself.

It was essential for brave and faithful men to rally around him. Ehud led, but he had to have followers.

In the same way, God lifts up leaders in the church, but they can’t do the work by themselves. The whole body needs to work together.

Follow me, for the LORD has delivered:

Ehud asked the Israelites to follow him, because he was their leader.

Yet he also encouraged them to look with faith to the LORD (for the LORD has delivered your enemies into your hand

And the land had rest for eighty years:

Ehud’s cunning and courage, coupled with Israel’s faithful following of a leader, brought Israel’s longest period of freedom under the 400-year period of the Judges.

Ehud is a dramatic example of how in the LORD, one man can make a difference, and how God will call others to work with that one man

IV. Shamgar vs. 31

Shamgar is one of six individuals we call “minor” judges, because not much is written about them.

Yet the work they did for God was just as important in their day as anyone else’s work

Shamgar was a man of great accomplishment, yet only one verse describes his work.

Shamgar is an excellent example of serving for God.

He simply used what God put in his hand - in his case, an ox goad.

An ox goad was a stick about 8 feet long, and about 6 inches around at the big end.

One end of the ox goad was pointy (for poking the ox), and the other end was like a chisel (for scraping the plow clean of dirt).

In the hands of a strong, skilful man, such an instrument must be more dangerous and more fatal than any sword.