Judges 3:1

Outline :

Chapter 3 :
The first 3 judges. Notable for the demonstration of the standard cycle of Judges, and for the author's explicitness that God's plan is not thwarted by Israel's sin.

Chapter 3 :

3:1-4

God's Purpose in Israels Sin The writer of Judges reveals that God left nations around Israel "to test Irael by them...only in order that the generation sof the sons of Israel might be taught war".
God had commanded the Israelites to clear the land of all other nations; Chapters one and two painted their failure to do so in terms of sin. Here, however, their presence is revealed as part of the plan of God.
The obvious question concerns reconcilling these differing intents; the normal tack is to attempt to explain the difference in terms of the 'perfect' will of God and the 'allowed' will of God. In other words, God does not wish man to sin; but, he knows that mankind will, and can weave the results of man's sin into his plan.

3:5-11

Othniel Sin -> Oppression -> Repentance -> Deliverance through Judge
Sin : Intermarriage with the locals, 'served their gods'
Oppression : Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, 0wnz Israel for a good 8 years.
Repentance : Israel snaps out of it after 8 years, cries out to the Lord,
Deliverance : God raises up Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of good old Caleb (one of the original 12 spies sent out by Moses into Caanaan; only Caleb and Joshua said to go for it...).
"and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel". No idea what it means by 'judged', but I'd guess that it has some connotation of forcing purity upon the folks...plenty of precedence on those counts (Aachan, Korah, etc...). Once the judging is done, they go to war, and manage to oust the Iraquis and their SCUD missles.
Result? The land had rest for 40 years.

3:12-30

Ehud Sin -> Oppression -> Repentance -> Deliverance through Judge
Sin : After some undefined period of time, Israel is bad again; they 'did evil in the sight of the Lord'.
Oppression : God sends Eglon, king of Moab, to knock some heads. He possesses the city of the palms (which sounds rather nice), and extracts tribute from the israelie scrubs for 18 years (tribute seems to be the arrangement, given that Ehud was on a trip to deliver tribute...).
Repentance : Isreal cries out to the Lord.
Deliverance : God raises up Ephod, a southpaw from Benjamin (notice that almost all the lefties are Benjaminites). Ehud gets tricky, puts a dagger on his right thigh, and when he is delivering his annual tribute (Eglon brings his army accross the Jordan to the City of the Palms or Gilgal or wherever, parks for a while, and waits for his yearly tribute...), Ehud asks to deliver a secret message to the king (notably, Ehud does not partake in the worship of the idols at Gilgal, which apparently seemed to be part of the annual tribute trip). Eglon falls for the oldest trick in the book (maybe it wasn't the oldest trick in the book back then), and Ehud shoves his dagger into his oversized belly. Ehud runs away, carefully leaving things so that it seems as though Eglon is 'on the pot', gathers Israel, and slaughters Moab at the fords of the Jordan.
This stunt bought Israel a good 80 years of peace.

3:31

Shamgar Nothing notable about Shamgar, excepting his name (80's metal would have loved this guy) and the fact that he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad (like I said, 80's metal would have loved this guy).

3:1-4
God's Purpose in Israels Sin	The writer of Judges reveals that God left nations around Israel "to test Irael by them...only in order that the generation sof the sons of Israel might be taught war". God had commanded the Israelites to clear the land of all other nations; Chapters one and two painted their failure to do so in terms of sin. Here, however, their presence is revealed as part of the plan of God. The obvious question concerns reconcilling these differing intents; the normal tack is to attempt to explain the difference in terms of the 'perfect' will of God and the 'allowed' will of God. In other words, God does not wish man to sin; but, he knows that mankind will, and can weave the results of man's sin into his plan.
3:5-11
Othniel	Sin -> Oppression -> Repentance -> Deliverance through Judge Sin : Intermarriage with the locals, 'served their gods' Oppression : Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, 0wnz Israel for a good 8 years. Repentance : Israel snaps out of it after 8 years, cries out to the Lord, Deliverance : God raises up Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of good old Caleb (one of the original 12 spies sent out by Moses into Caanaan; only Caleb and Joshua said to go for it...). "and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel". No idea what it means by 'judged', but I'd guess that it has some connotation of forcing purity upon the folks...plenty of precedence on those counts (Aachan, Korah, etc...). Once the judging is done, they go to war, and manage to oust the Iraquis and their SCUD missles. Result? The land had rest for 40 years.
3:12-30
Ehud	Sin -> Oppression -> Repentance -> Deliverance through Judge Sin : After some undefined period of time, Israel is bad again; they 'did evil in the sight of the Lord'. Oppression : God sends Eglon, king of Moab, to knock some heads. He possesses the city of the palms (which sounds rather nice), and extracts tribute from the israelie scrubs for 18 years (tribute seems to be the arrangement, given that Ehud was on a trip to deliver tribute...). Repentance : Isreal cries out to the Lord. Deliverance : God raises up Ephod, a southpaw from Benjamin (notice that almost all the lefties are Benjaminites). Ehud gets tricky, puts a dagger on his right thigh, and when he is delivering his annual tribute (Eglon brings his army accross the Jordan to the City of the Palms or Gilgal or wherever, parks for a while, and waits for his yearly tribute...), Ehud asks to deliver a secret message to the king (notably, Ehud does not partake in the worship of the idols at Gilgal, which apparently seemed to be part of the annual tribute trip). Eglon falls for the oldest trick in the book (maybe it wasn't the oldest trick in the book back then), and Ehud shoves his dagger into his oversized belly. Ehud runs away, carefully leaving things so that it seems as though Eglon is 'on the pot', gathers Israel, and slaughters Moab at the fords of the Jordan. This stunt bought Israel a good 80 years of peace.
3:31
Shamgar	Nothing notable about Shamgar, excepting his name (80's metal would have loved this guy) and the fact that he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad (like I said, 80's metal would have loved this guy).