"...He Too Saved Israel"

My favourite book in the bible...or at least one of them, is the book of Judges. There's something about it that I love. It's frustrating, it's violent, it raises a lot of questions without providing a lot of answers...but it is very entertaining and, more importantly, it inspires me. Now, I know what you are thinking..."Judges inspires you?". Your probably thinking that Psalms would be a better choice, or any one of the Gospels. It doesn't inspire me in the same way the Sermon on the Mount inspires, or a good Psalm or a clever Proverb inspires...it's a real life sort of inspiration. Maybe it's just because I'm a guy and I enjoy the bloody violence that the book of Judges provides (cause there is a lot of that)...but there's more to it than that for me. What I like about the book of Judges, is the people that God uses. Let me explain.
Initially, I was going to talk about my 2 favourite stories in Judges, one of which you are likely familiar with and the other one you probably have no idea even exists...but then after thinking about it, I couldn't narrow it down. All of it applies to what I am trying to say in this blog (which I realize I am postponing in getting to). I will start with my 2 faves tho. Ehud, and Shamgar. I'll start with the obscure one: Shamgar. The story of Shamgar takes one verse. That's all he gets in the entire bible...and it happens near the beginning of Judges, so you forget about it by the time the book is over. It is found in Judges 3:31, ironically right after the story of Ehud. The story of Shamgar is as follows:
"After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel".
That's it. That's all we know about it. But it's what this implies that I love. Shamgar seems like just a regular guy. Probably a shephard, most likely poor, and according to commentaries, he may have not even been an Israelite. It's possible that he was Hurrian or Canaanite. Regardless, he saved Israel with an oxgoad. A stick. He killed six hundred of Israel's enemies with a simple stick. Pretty impressive. So that's the first story that I love...the second, as I mentioned before, is Ehud. Ehud is a bit of a longer story, so I will paraphrase it here. Basically, there is an evil king named Eglon (who is very fat), and Ehud (who is left handed) goes to the king, pretends to have a message for him, and kills him. That is a very brief paraphrase, but it sums it up fine. The main point of the Ehud story, is the fact that he was left handed. In biblical days, let handed people were seen as lesser people. They were essentially outcasts. It is also important, because when he went to visit the king, they looked for a weapon on him on his left side, when he kept the weapon on his right side. The fact that God used a left handed person is huge...for the plan to work, he HAD to have been left handed.
Now, here's what I'm getting at...finally. God uses the outcasts. God used a poor, foreigner shepherd named Shamgar to kill 600 Philistines. He used a left handed man named Ehud to free Israel from the grasp of an evil king. And the trend continues throughout the book of Judges. Othniel was a younger brother (typically the oldest would have been the most respected), Deborah was a woman (I'm not being sexist here..Women can do great things, but in that culture it was unheard of for a woman to be a "savior"), Gideon was the weakest person in the weakest tribe, and Samson was a Nazarite (albeit a very poor example of one). All through the book of Judges, God raises up people that no one expected. Not even ordinary people...outcasts. People that were looked down upon, cast aside, ignored, probably teased and made fun of. THESE are the people that God used to save Israel.
And when we move outside of the book of Judges, we see the same thing happening. Moses was a poor public speaker, Rachel was the "unwanted wife" of Jacob...and it is through her line that David, and Jesus come from. Speaking of David, David was the youngest, and a shepherd before he became king. Jesus was born to a poor carpenter, and a teenage virgin. The disciples were made up of tax collectors and fishermen. Saul was a persecuter of Christians before he became one of the greatest evangelists in history. God has a history of using unconventional people, in unconventional ways to do incredible things. That is inspiring to me. That is why I like the book of Judges so much. It reminds me that God uses the strange, the bizarre, the overlooked, the outcast, the sinner, the weak, the minority. God uses anyone, and everyone. That, my friends, is inspiration!