This chapter introduces us to the first judges. The first one is Othniel of Judah, the son-in-law of Caleb. He relied on the Spirit of the Lord for wisdom and strength. His reign set the standard against which all the other judges are compared and evaluated. Because Othniel relied on the Lord he was able to defeat a very strong and evil king whose name means “Cusan of double wickedness” from a land whose name means “land of two rivers” located between the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Although Othniel was a warrior and an obvious choice for judge, the next judge, Ehud, was not. The Lord often chooses unlikely men and women to carry out His work and Ehud was an example. The Lord delights to use people who the world scorns and disdains, people who are useless in the eyes of man.
Ehud was a left-handed warrior in a tribe whose name means “Son of my right hand.” Consequently he was an unlikely choice for leader. Yet his handicap turned out to give him an unexpected advantage over his enemy. The scene of his slaying of Eglon is related in a rather grotesque manner for it contains rather graphic and gory details as well as elements of derisive satire. Eglon was slain in his toilet chamber. His bumbling servants attributed his groaning to his natural bodily functions and only too late realize what had happened. The smell associated with the toilet is comparable to idolatry. Idolatry is a loathsome stench of vile decay in the nostrils of the Lord.
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