Judges 3:7-5

A most joyous St. Patrick's Day to all!  

A theme that we already have covered several times involves a recurring cycle in the relationship between God and the Israelites. Despite all of the blessings they have received from Him, the Israelites offend God by turning away from Him--forgetting His laws and worshiping other gods. God grows angry and the Israelites suffer. Realizing that they have offended God, the Israelites repent and call out to God for assistance. God hears them and rescues them. Rinse and repeat.

In the story of the major judges, which begins with this passage, the cycle repeats itself three times. The Israelites' suffering is longer each time: Othniel delivers them after eight years of suffering; Ehud delivers them after eighteen years; and Deborah and Barak rescue them after twenty years of oppression.

The stories of Ehud and Deborah stand out as something ripped from the movies. They are so unlike the other stories we have encountered so far. 

First, Ehud (the second major judge) slays Eglon, king of Moab, who is very fat. The killing calls to mind a scene from the Godfather movie. It comes off almost as a bit of comic relief, for as Ehud plunges a hidden dagger into Eglon's ample belly:

The hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because [Ehud] did not withdraw the dagger from [Eglon's] body.

Years later, Deborah, prophetess and judge of Israel, teams with Barak to deliver Israel from Jabin, the king of the Canaanites. Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, flees in defeat at the hand's of Barak into the camp of Heber and his wife, Jael. When Sisera fell asleep, Jael:

got a tent peg and took a mallet in her hand. When Sisera was sound asleep, she stealthily approached him and drove the peg through his temple down into the ground, so that he perished in death.

Horrible, yet darkly comic in a way. Eventually, Jabin lost his grip on the Israelites and was destroyed, bringing 40 years of peace to Israel. Othniel, Ehud, Barak, and Deborah are referred to as judges, but their role is to save the Israelites from themselves--from the suffering they have brought on themselves by their disobedience and by their turning away from God. 

No matter how far--and how often--I stray from Him, God constantly sends people into my life to remind me of His love, and to try to set me (back) on the straight path. It is very humbling to consider this, as I am often reminded that, like the Israelites, I have done nothing to deserve this. God has simply chosen me for some reason--to create, to love, to forgive, to bless. All there is to do is to be thankful, and to show His love and mercy to others as best I can.