Afternoon Wanderings

Honestly, I am not sure how I got there.  Or, why.  Nonetheless, I have been wandering around the last few days in the Old Testament book known as Judges.  The historical setting is after Joshua's death.  The people of Israel are entrenched in the Promised Land, but they are surrounded by tribes of people ruled by minor kings who have no desire to share the land with them.  In the centuries after the strong leadership of Joshua, the Hebrew people survive more like a loosely knit society without any centralized leadership.  In this political vacuum, the twelve judges appear one after the other.  

They are not judges as we use the term today; instead, they were military or tribal leaders upon whom the Spirit of the Lord more or less rested.  They were at best a strange lot.  The first one, Othniel, was one whom the "spirit of the Lord came upon" (Judges 3:10) and his leadership gave the land 40 years of peace.  The next one, Ehud, (Judges 3:15) was known as a left handed man who stuck a short sword in the belly of a fat king.  Another is remembered as one who killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.  The only female judge was Deborah.  Other than Samson, Gideon is likely the most well known.  All the rest are there on the pages of Judges, as Oliver Cromwell, said, "warts and all."   

To wander in the chapters of Judges is to wonder what God was thinking about if these flawed people were His choices for the leadership of His people. Some of them did terrible things.  I wondered about this until I ran into myself in the mirror.  Who among us can understand the mind of God?  Who among us can figure out why God uses such obviously flawed people to lead people toward His purposes?  Not I.  I do not understand.  Pausing there before the mirror only makes me wonder even more!