Israel’s deliverance came through an unexpected saviour, one who was marked by a certain kind of weakness. He didn’t fit the standard pattern by which God delivers his people. But does God have a standard pattern for delivering his people? He delivers his people in surprising ways. That’s throughout the book of Judges; it’s here twice in this one passage, with left-handed Ehud and Shamgar the pagan. God can and does find a way in seemingly hopeless situations to deliver his people. Who would have thought that God would continue the line of promise through Tamar, a Canaanite who was more faithful to her culture’s standards than Judah was to his? Who would have thought that God would deliver Moses from infanticide by having Pharaoh’s daughter rescue him? Who would’ve thought that God would’ve saved Israel through a lefty assassin?

It is certainly true that Ehud was crafty, and therefore useful in that regard. But his careful plan could not have succeeded without God’s involvement. He depended on God for access to the king. If the palace guards had just happened to inspect Ehud’s other thigh and find his weapon, he would’ve been killed on the spot. The same would’ve happened if Eglon’s servants came in quicker after the assassination, catching Ehud before he could get away. Ehud is willing to take the personal risk, trusting in God for the success of the plot and therefore the deliverance of his people from their bondage.

God, in surprising ways, delivers his people from seemingly hopeless situations. If that’s true about his deliverance on a macro scale, why would it be any less true about deliverance on a personal scale, from the idols and sins that may be besetting you today?