Unlikely heroes

Hey everyone.

The Hugheses are leaving in the morning for a grand vacation.  We are going to Illinois for my Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary, then to Texas for the World Discipleship Summit.  An exciting road trip.

Any way,  I wanted to share a little bit from what I have learned from Judges before I go.  Judges 3 tells two stories, Ehud and Shamgar.  Both saved Israel.  During Ehud's time Israel was being oppressed by the Moabites.  The Moabites oppressed Israel for 18 years before the Israelites finally cried out to God for help.  Ehud is God's chosen deliverer.  Ehud visits Eglon, king of Moab.  He tells him that he has a special message for hm from God that he needs to deliver privately.  Ehud stabs Eglon with a sword, and Eglon is so fat that Ehud shoves the sword inside him completely and loses the sword inside of Eglon and the fat closes over it.  Ehud escapes because Eglon's servants think that he is just taking a long time going to the bathroom.  The Bible says that they wait to the point of embarrassment before unlocking the room.  This time allows Ehud to escape and rally the Israelites who attack and turn the tables on Moab.  Here is something I found interesting.  Judges 3:15 says that Ehud was a left-handed man.  Several commentaries that I looked tell me that the word that was translated as left-handed could have also meant "crippled in the right hand."  It is not certain, but is quite possible, based on what I have read, that God's choice for deliverer was a man with a fairly significant handicap.

OK, now let's look at Shamgar.  The Bible devotes one verse to his exploits.  It simply says that he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad and saved Israel.  Pretty good.  Just so you know, an oxgoad was an 8 foot stick that was sharp on one end and flattened on the other.  The sharp end was for poking the oxen that pulled the plow, and the flat end was for cleaning dirt off of the plow.  Shamgar was likely a farmer.  The farmer became a warrior and saved his people.

Sounds like neither man was someone we might have selected to be the heroes of Israel, yet God chose them.  Why?  Because in a nation where very few people had much of a heart for God, they did, and that was all God needed in order to work.

Tom        

Determined

Hello everyone. 

I haven't written anything in a while.  It's been so long in fact that I finished my study of Colossians, and have started a study of the book of Judges.  As I am sure you know Judges picks up where Joshua leaves off.  So early in Judges we see the generation after Joshua and how things went for them.

Joshua's generation had been devoted to the Lord but did not completely drive out some of the nations in the Promised Land.  That remainder of the job was to be finished by next generation, but they did not seem to take the task too seriously.  Here is what is says regarding the Canaanites in Judges 1:27, "But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land."  Here is what it says in Judges 1:35, "And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim."  

If you asked an Israelite of the time why they allowed these nations to stay, he might respond, "Well, they were determined to stay."  But what isn't being said is that apparently the Israelites were not all that determined to drive them out.  If they at least had equal determination to the Canaanites and the Amorites, they would have driven them out, because they had God on their side.  The fact they allowed these "determined" nations to remain led to now end of trouble for Israel for generations to come.  Had they been more determined to be obedient to God, perhaps they would have had less trouble in the coming generations. 

But does this mean for us?  Realize that there are forces at work that are pretty "determined" to lead us astray or lead us into sin.  But if we are just as determined to stay out of sin, understanding that God is on our side, won't He give us victory? 

Any way, a little something to think about.
Tom