He Saved Us

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

HE SAVED US

Judges 3:26-31

26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. 28 "Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. 30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years. 31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

NIV

We do not know much about this judge Ehud whom God raised up, but we are told that he too saved Israel. His name in Hebrew can mean, I will be praised or give thanks. It can also signify unity or undivided. God has been showing Israel they will always need someone to lead them so they will be at peace. So far, we have seen Moses and Joshua and here we have Ehud and Shamgar who also saved Israel. They are forerunners or a foreshadowing of Jesus. However, just as Ehud blew the trumpet, and commanded the Israelites to, “Follow me”, Jesus told Peter and Andrew, “Follow me”. Jesus has been asking people for generations to follow him. Jesus makes it clear his sheep listen to his voice, that he knows them and they follow him. We know the voice of our Lord and we listen only to his voice. There are many voices out there, just as there were in the time of the Israelites. However, they listened to other voices as they served other gods, but the LORD saved them whenever they were being held captive or oppressed. Although we did not know it at the time, before Jesus called us out of the darkness into his wonderful light, we were captives of sin, being oppressed by the evil one. Praise the Lord, his light shone into the darkness of our world and led us out into the light saving us and now we live in peace. In fact, Jesus gave us his peace, not as the world gives, which is just an illusion, but his peace, a real and everlasting peace, one that is deep within our soul. We can say, “Jesus is to be praised”, “we can thank him”  and “He saved us”.