GOD WORKS THROUGH EHUD
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
JUDGES 3:15-23,30
Key Verse
“But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left handed”.
Judges 3:15
INTRODUCTION.
Sometimes someone gives you a glass container of candy and it turns out that the candy even though it looks so good is bad. Sometimes however you are given a jar of candy which contains beautiful sweet things but for some strange reason you choose the jar with the bad candy.
That is the problem that the children of Israel faced when they were in the land of Canaan. God had given them all kinds of beautiful things. They had moved into houses that they did not build, they had taken possession of lands with olive trees and grapes and beautiful fruit growing on it that they did not plant, and God had protected them from the enemies in the land of Canaan.
You would have thought that that would have been enough for them. But unfortunately that did not turn out to be the case for they did not show the proper extent of gratitude to God for the many blessings that He had given to them. God had promised Abraham and his children that his sons and daughters would eventually inherit the land of Canaan and God had fulfilled His promise.
But human beings sometimes tend to forget that God has been kind, merciful, and compassionate to them, and has fulfilled all his promises to look after them and to keep them in a good way. But often the people of Israel chose the jar of bad candy which looks good but it was bad. As a result of ignoring the warning of Moses and Joshua not to make that foolish choice of intermarrying and living with the pagans in Canaan and worshipping their false gods of wood and stone, which meant wanting and eating the bad candy, they suffered a great deal for the pagan people of Canaan turned against them, turned them into slaves, and took away whatever of value they had.
After long time of suffering they turned to God and cried to Him to free them. After a long time and many years of suffering they turned to God, repented and asked God to save them. So God in His mercy sent Judges or mighty warriors to deliver them. But after many years of suffering and many years of enjoying a life under the hand of the Judges they went back again to worshipping false gods and eating the bad candy. So they went into cycles of suffering after they disobeyed God, crying to God for relief from their suffering, and God sending a Judge or a warrior to fight for them and save them. That behaviour was crazy. They behaved that way knowing that God loved them and cared for them and would eventually come to rescue them.
That is the same thing that some of us do. So we encourage you not to be like the people of Israel in the time of the Judges when judges like Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar had to risk their lives to deliver the people from subjection. We encourage you to listen to what God is saying to you and follow Him at all times for that will be best for you. When you do that God will not have to send a Judge like Ehud to save you. So we beg you to avoid pain and suffering. Just follow what God says