1. Judges 3:15 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Does the LORD's "raising up" of Ehud imply that all Ehud then did was virtuous?

Judges 3:15 (ESV)

15 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.

As the book of Judges makes plain that a judge’s being endowed with the Spirit is no guarantee of the judge’s upright behaviour (Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson were all empowered by the Lord's Spirit yet all three are presented as deficient leaders), so also here, Ehud’s being raised up by the Lord does not necessarily imply that all his actions were scrupulous and virtuous.1