June 27, 2019: Day 61 – Judges 3

We begin the journey of Israel through the judges.  We read about Othniel who was raised up first as a judge and as a  result was successful in his battle against Cushan-rishathaim.  Remember him from the bounty in chapter 1.  This is probably the same story from that one, but here we find out that he was given the role of judge over the people of Israel, as a result there was peace in the land for 40 years.  

Next came Ehud who drove a sword into a very well proportioned ruler.  That story has always intrigued me because it is by trickery that Ehud kills the ruler.  Of course the people of the ruler are in disarray and so the Israelites are able to take over and then there is peace in the land for 80 years under the rule of Ehud.  I always thought it was better to win by, well, being better.  But I guess there is room for trickery as well.

Next we find Shamgar, but besides being really good with an ox-goad, we don’t know much about him.  What exactly is an ox-goad and how do you kill 600 people with it? 

Okay, I guess that makes sense, but wow, that is quite a person who is able to do all that.

But look at vs. 7, and then again vs.12 and you see that phrase repeated which I told you about: “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  Just remember that these are words that we never want to hear in relationship to us.