One of the most interesting Bible stories, ever!

We often play Balderdash as one of our games. Everyone is told some obscure word and has to write down a definition for it. We then read all the definitions, including the correct one, then everyone picks whichever they think it true. You get points if people guess your false definition or if you guess the correct one. We do the same this with a weird law too.

This week the word was: zufolo. Here are some possible definitions:

a) getting lost in a zoo

b) a musical instrument used in Africa

c) a flute used by shepherds and nomads

d) a chemical used in making Styrofoam

e) a small flute used for teaching birds

f) a disease you can get working at a zoo

Can you guess the correct one?

And then on to Judges...

 

The beginning of chapter 3 starts of with a bit of a recap of the first two chapters. Read verses 1-6.We are given more detail about God testing the Israelites. It was to test their obedience (or loyalty), to punish them, and to teach them warfare/fighting skills that they would not have known.

As we continue to read, we are going to see this cycle of the judges start to happen. In case you need a reminder of the cycle, you can see this one Mother and I made. Drew Squatch rotates around so we can keep track of where the Israelites are at in the cycle.

Read verses 7-11. We're not given much information about Othniel (except what we previously learned in 1:13). It's a pretty bare bones story in which we see all six parts of the cycle played out. Othniel is the quintessential judge. This is what all of the judges that follow him should be like. However as you may already know, that doesn't happen.
One other thing to take note of, in verse 10, it refers to the "Spirit of the Lord." This would be the Holy Spirit who acted differently in the lives of believers in the Old Testament than He does now. When we are saved, we receive the Holy Spirit who indwells us and helps us. In the OT, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon people to help them with special tasks, like judging the nation. We see this happen with both Saul and David in 1 Samuel.

Read verses 12-14. We see the cycle start over again. After 40 years of the land being at rest, Israel has started sinning and is enslaved. One this to take note of: God is in control of this. In verse 12, He empowers the Moabites to defeat Israel.

Read verses 15. Continuing on in the cycle, God has raised up a judge, Ehud, who happens to be a left-handed Benjaminite. (Benjamin means "son of my right hand" so that's a little ironic.)


Read verses 16-29, but be prepared for a rather interesting (and gross) story about how Ehud delivers Israel. Some details to take note of:

• It seems unusual that a foreigner would be able to walk into a king's private quarters with a sword. Well remember how he's left-handed, that was an oddity back in the day, so they would have checked his left thigh for a sword, not his right if they gave him a pat down.
• A cubit is measured from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, so generally about 18 inches. King Eglon is so fat that an 18 inch sword didn't poke through his other side but got lost inside him. That's a fat guy!
• Depending on your translation, in verse 22, it says entrails or refuse came out. The ESV translates most accurately when it says his dung came out. Ehud must've stabbed him low in his belly that the intestines leaked out of the would including feces (gross!). But that's why his servants thought he was going to the bathroom. That was the smell wafting through the air after being stabbed. Again, gross!

This story is interesting besides for obvious reasons. Ehud does all this stuff and it's not clear whether God told him to do so. I mean yes he was raised up as a judge to deliver the people but he did so by some rather shady methods. However, in verse 30, we see the land is at rest again. So questionable methods or not, God used Ehud to deliver the people.

Read verses 31. A quick little note about Shamgar. We don't see the whole cycle of the judges played out. Honestly, based on the commentaries there's much dispute over whether he was truly a judge or not. Whether he should be classified as a judge or not, we see that he saved Israel. And I'm not a scholar on biblical names, but evidently Shamgar is a foreign name, so we have a Gentile (who shouldn't even be in the land) that's the one who saves the people. Clearly God uses whomever He chooses for His purposes.

Now to end my lesson I had this quote from Priscilla Shirer: "God handpicked people for the job who were terribly flawed, then empowered them to fulfill these roles in spite of their shortcomings." Ehud, the left-handed. Shamgar, the foreigner. Yet both used by God to deliver His people.

But one of the teens asked a question that sent us a different route concluding the chapter. She raised her hand and asked, "Why didn't these people realize that they were in this cycle and just get out of it?" To which another teen responded, "Well, it happened over a long time, so they didn't realize it." So we flipped back and looked at the verses that mention years... 8 years of enslavement (v8), 40 years of rest (v11), 18 years of enslavement (v14), 80 years of rest (v30). So one person wouldn't have lived through all of that and therefore they may not have noticed the cycle.
Or... how easy is it to look at someone else and see that they're in a relationship that's bad for them? Or to see the destructive decisions they are making? Yet when you look at your own life, you don't see how your own decisions are destructive.
Just as the Israelites didn't realize that they were in this cycle of sin and rescue, we are all somewhere on that same cycle. We are desperately in need of deliverance from God too.