Thank you for the question on God’s selection of fallible individuals, “Why did God used people like Samson: a promiscuous person, Jael: an inhospitable fellow and Ehud: an assassinator?”
As one reads the Biblical text more carefully, it is the choice of the Samson, Jael, and even Ehud to act in an ungodly manner. One must note that God never commanded Samson, Jael or Ehud to conduct themselves in that manner.
Let’s look more close at those three biblical characters:
A. Samson was committed to be a Nazirite (Judges 13:2–7).
An angel of the LORD came to Manoah and his wife declared that a son will be born to them. That child is to be set apart to be a Nazirite. It is through this child that the Israelites will begin seeing the deliverance from the Philistines.
Samson was willful and impetuous. He violated his vow. He lived a sinful life with Deliah. His arrogance and foolishness led him to be defeated by a woman. He knew that he should flee from her, but his passion controlled him. At the end of his life, he repented and sought revenge for the lost of his eyes and what they were doing to him. God could have ignored him. Because the Philistines were mocking him and his God, God granted him his prayer request.
There are no perfect, sinless believers. Samson’s sins were more grievous for his immorality and drunkenness. Samson didn’t get away with his sins for his sins found him out. It cost him his life.
In God’s mysterious ways, he can use even a sinful person to accomplish his will. God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians to discipline his people for disobeying his Word. God even used Jonah who fled from the Lord in refusing to go to Nineveh.
B. In regards to Jael.
Israel and the Canaanites were at war. Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite’s army asked Jael to lie. She was to say that no one was there. “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”(Judges 4:20).
Sisera was asking her to betray her own country so that he can escape and raise another army to attack Israel. She didn’t comply. As an enemy of Israel, anyone who found him could have killed him in the field. The Israelites were following his trail.
Certainly Jael could have let Barak and his soldiers capture and then kill him. They would have received the honor of capturing and killing him. Jael was commended for her bravery. She took her own life in her own hand by killing the enemy who has been raiding Israel for years.
C. In regards to Ehud,
As one reads the account in Ehud, God sent him on a mission to deliver the Israelites from the Moabites. They had been under subjection for 18 years. The text states that he made a sword. He presented his tribute to Eglon, king of the Moabites. Ehud did not kill Eglon as he was giving the tribute. He started to walk away.
It appears that the Lord told/guided him to return to Eglon with this message that he was to die. Ehud says to him, “ Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace[e] and said, “I have a message from God for you.” And then killed him.
Was it an assassination? One can view it in that matter. If God instructed Ehud to kill him for enslaving or subjecting his people to cruelty, doesn’t God has the right to pronounce judgment on him. The text doesn’t state that God told him Ehud to stab him in secrecy but more so that he will die. Ehud may have seized the moment to be alone and to kill him.
Ehud could have defeated and killed him in battle with the Lord’s help. It may have been that Ehud was fearful for his life and acted the manner that he did so that he can escape.
One must remember that the Book of Judges has the theme, “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” This included the Israelites as well as the Judges. They all acted according to what they thought was best at that moment.