The Role of the Judges in Israel

The Role of the Judges in Israel

As we begin to put information into our mental funnel, we want to quickly remind ourselves of how diverse the judges were. Hopefully, you have been reminded of that this week in hearing these great lessons. Some of you have been in this room at various times throughout the week hearing tremendous lessons about individual judges and you have been reminded afresh just how different each one was from the others.

Some of these differences are extremely obvious, such as Deborah being the only female numbered as a judge for Israel. But the differences extend to many other things besides one person being a female.[1]

Othniel had the unique quality of being related to another “worthy” of the Old Testament. Though there is an interpretive difficulty in whether Judges 3:9 means that Othniel was Caleb's younger brother or his nephew (because Kenaz was Caleb's younger brother), he would have known Caleb. In other words, Othniel was the judge who served as a type of bridge to the days of conquest under the leadership of Joshua. Further, he also was a decorated victor, having been the man who won the right to marry Caleb's daughter Achsah by winning a victory over the Anakim (Joshua 15:13-17).

Ehud was left-handed, but it is more than that. The Hebrew literally states that he was “hindered in his right hand.” In other words, he had to use his left hand, because of some difficulty with his right. He was a man of courage, but also seemingly fought to overcome some physically difficulty that could have led him to not be as effective, especially as a fighting man. Instead, he used this difficulty—coupled with his cunning—to his advantage.

Though only two verses deal with Shamgar in any way (those being Judges 3:31 and 5:6), we can learn from these verses that he was either a farmer or a trader. His weapon was an ox-goad, and to be able to wield that implement in such a way as to kill 600 individuals, Shamgar had to be well-versed in using that tool. So, we can know that he either used oxen to plow fields, or he led oxen along travel or trade routes. It is also possible that this indicates some level of cunning on his behalf, since the Philistines would not think of someone using this type of item ...