The Judges Deliver (Part C)

It's important to the story of the show beginning in verse 26, but they're landmarks now. These fake images, these real images of fake gods, they're landmarks.

What has happened? This is Gilgal. This is where Joshua first set up the camp and the temple. From here he launched his invasion.

From here he saw the captain of the Lord's army. We've covered Gilgal on purpose. Now it's a pagan landmark. It's like going to a church that used to preach the gospel and now it's a mosque.

Something wrong has happened. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in Judges chapter 3 with his continuing study called, The Judges Deliver. Verse 10, the spirit of Yahweh came upon him, this is Othniel, and he judged Israel. He went out to war and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand and his hand prevailed over Cushan. Well, here it is that the word that stands out, he went out to war. Again, if he had an inferiority complex, as a little bit, we're going to get to Barak.

Barak had some of that. Deborah said, if I go with you, I'm going to steal some of that thunder. You had a chance here. And he was like, I don't care.

You coming. And so I find those things kind of cute. Some of you just, but it's okay, you know, the pastors are not supposed to beat the sheep, except when it comes to humor. All right, well, so he goes out to war, verse 11, so the hand, so the land had rest for 40 years and Othniel son of Knez died. What a great testimony. Of course, there's so much more to his life. Well, we got to get to Ehud because we've covered Othniel before, that old hero of the Jews, good leadership, and it's an essential ingredient to victory.

What is it on an individual scale? Making good decisions, wisdoms, wisdom, not being around the wrong crowd. Some people just gravitate.

They always go down. If there are bad boys and bad girls, they want to be in that group and not outside. The cemetery has taken in a few of those types.

That comes with a price. Jehoshaphat was a man of that kind. He was a good man, but he just could not pick the right friends. And God had to rescue him from death on several occasions. One of the prophets had to come out and rebuke him severely. The prophets would come out and say, what do you hate God and love his enemies?

What's up with that? So, remember that I think the Book of Kings and Second Chronicles, that historical account is really worse than the Book of Judges. The reason why I think we don't see it that way on the surface is because there are these heroes in Kings and Chronicles that really stand out. I mean, over the history of the Jews, still, there's always David and Hezekiah and Elijah. In Judges, you have the judges, and there's much to offer from them, but there's a lot of stumbling there, too. And you don't get so much of that with men like Elijah and others. That's my understanding.

We'll get to that later. So, back to verse 12, later, like two years from now, when we get to Kings. The children of evil, they did evil in the sight of Yahweh. Verse 12, so Yahweh strengthened Eglon, king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. So, Eglon, the king of the Moabites, was used as a scourge of God. God was going to use him to discipline his people, but there was a limit on that.

There is a note of frustration as this verse starts, and the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Well, you can either take a frustration and turn it into energy and fuel for the solution, or you can just let it make you suffer. I'm working on it, but I've made a lot of progress in the years I've been around. So, hopefully, you will, especially you younger ones, bookmark that in your head. Life is going to get frustrating.

Some of you have not yet met your husband or your wife, and that will introduce to you challenges that you never saw coming, and you can be frustrated and take that frustration and do something very useful with it, or you can just be frustrated and become bitter and things get worse for you. So, that outlook has to be associated with that up look. Anyway, this again, add to it the shameless evil committed right under the nose of God, a very serious condition. They did evil in the sight of the Lord right under his nose.

They had no excuse for this. This phrase, evil in the sight of the Lord, it is a dominant phrase in Judges 1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Verse 13, then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel and took possession of the city of Palms, that is Jericho.

Now, Jericho, the main city was destroyed, but because of the oasis at Jericho, all the water sources, you could build around it, and that's what he did, and anything near Jericho became Jericho. So, there's no contradiction. Joshua put a curse on that city, but Eglon, he rallied the support of those around him to go against the righteous.

That works both ways. The righteous can rally support to stand against the wicked also. If they have a standing army, and that's why Paul said, having done all to stand, therefore stand. He says here in verse 13, and took possession of the city of Psalms, again that is the oasis of Jericho, verse 14, so the children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, 18 years. That means they have to pay their crops, their monies, the portion of it went to him. That made life very difficult for them, and there were other things that were just oppressive because of this king Eglon, this unnecessary hardship if they just obeyed God, but they did not, and the righteous had to suffer right alongside the ones who were bringing us on them, their own people that were not interested. Somewhere, the system broke down.

It's not all about garrisons and standing armies. Where were the priests and Levites? They were entrusted with teaching the people the word of God and upholding the word of God. Somebody with an idol should have been taken out in stone.

That was the law. Who was to uphold that? Tribal leaders and their clergy, but they weren't. When the church doesn't uphold righteousness, when the church begins to surrender to the world, same thing happens.

The world wins every time. The priests, they were to not only officiate at the temple, as I said, they were to teach and uphold. Pastors are to do more than just bury people at cemeteries and do weddings.

They're supposed to be in the trenches where it's not so pleasant all the time. Well, we go on to verse 15. But when the children of Israel cried out to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a deliverer to them, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him, the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, we're getting into it.

Now, we've become animated. Ehud, the man who was going to do something and did it. He said, Ehud was the man like, I had about enough of this.

Because the spirit of God came upon him, which means there's more history to the man's life that we don't have concerning him and God. Now, most people are not left-handed. They live in England. No. I mean, who puts a stick shift on the left hand? That's just mean. Anyway, it's pointing to an advantage that otherwise it's really not an advantage. I mean, someone was telling me about one that's left-handed. When they write, the hand goes into the words that they're writing, as opposed to when you're right-handed, you're moving away. And if you're writing with charcoal, as most of us do, you smudge a lot.

So, anyway, the advantages, disadvantages is my point. Verse 16, now it heats up. And Ehud made himself a dagger. See, Ahnayal went out to war. Ehud made himself a dagger.

He's going to war too, but it's going to be real close. And it was a double-edged and a cubit in length, about 18 inches. That's really not a dagger to me.

But, you know, it's for close fighting and not a sword. Anyway, and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So this is a concealed weapon, and he's got good access to this now. You can know he's in the front of the mirror, drawing, practicing this. He's not going to go in like, no, let's see, where did I put that dagger? It's, he's checked this thing out. He's walked with it, he's run with it, so he's ready.

A concealed weapon. The eglom will wish he had a dagger detector, but there was none. And he's obviously, as I said, planning to get very close to his victim. Now, the lesson for us, we have to extract the violence and replace it with truth. As I was saying earlier, we have to get close to those who were winning to Christ. To slay the lies, you've got to get close. And, you know, if you try witnessing over mail or email, you're such a disadvantage. You miss gestures, you miss tones, you miss reading the other person's face, you miss so much.

When you're in front of a person, there's a lot of sparring going on, and it's very helpful. Well, he's dagger ready, this is going to be deliberate, verse 17, so he brought the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, Eglon was a very fat man. Now, I've said in advance, I'm not going to make any, you know, you know what I mean, I'm not going to do that.

But I can't help smiling a little bit, because I know what you're thinking. So, verse 18, and when he had finished presenting tribute, he sent away the people, and they carried the tribute. But he himself turned back from the stones, the stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, I have a secret message for you, O king.

And he said, keep silent. And all who attended him went out from him. So, Eglon was picked by his people, listen, you bring the tribute to him, and Eglon says, okay, I'm going to kill him. Because, Eud said this, because Eglon the king is such a successful king, that as long as he's alive, we can't beat the enemy. This one man is the kingpin, and we've got to take him out.

He's going to assassinate him. These, there's a lot here in these verses 17 through 19. So, he brings him the money, they present it, he leaves. Now, the city of Psalms is about a mile from Gilgal. These images, it's important to the story, they show up again in verse 26, but they're landmarks now. These fake images of, these real images of fake gods, they're landmarks.

What has happened? This is Gilgal. This is where Joshua first set up the camp and the temple. From here, he launched his invasion.

From here, he saw the captain of the Lord's armor. We've covered Gilgal on purpose. Now, it's a pagan landmark.

It's like going to a church that used to preach the gospel, and now it's a mosque. Something wrong has happened, and Eud is very conscious of this. Gilgal, look at it now. Verse 20, so Eud came to him. So, he goes to Gilgal, and he says, oh, I got to go back, and he goes back, and he gets to the king, and his intro is, oh, I've got a message. God spoke to me something for you.

And Eglon, of course, is eager to hear that, because these people were very spiritual, even though they were pagan. Verse 20, so Eud came to him. Now, he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber, and Eud said, I have a message from God for you. So, he arose from his seat. Now, he's eager to get this.

The chamber likely has windows to let the breeze come through, and this is certainly not facing the sun, and that will help for an escape if need be. Anyway, he gets up. He wants to hear this. This is going to be a judgment from God. As we read in verse 15, God raised up Eud for this thing. Verse 21, then Eud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

Even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly, and his entrails came out. Ghastly. What a mess. Somebody's got to clean this up, but he's going to be gone, and it's going to be a big mess.

The Hebrew, when the entrails, it's even more disgusting. We'll just leave it at the entrails came out. This had to be a hard thrust. I mean, he had to pull that dagger back and jam it in, and it was just sucked in, and he just, fine, keep it. I'll get another.

It's not an heirloom. So, again, Eglon, his leadership was impressive, and he had to go down. This is going to secure the victory. So effective is this battle going to be that they're going to get 80 years of peace, the longest in all of the period of judges, because of this one stroke of the dagger.

Verse 23. Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. When he had gone out, Eglon's servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, he is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. So Ehud kills them, and he locks the door, and of course he gets away. Well, his attendants, the king's attendants, Eglon's attendants, they're on the outside, and they think, well, he's using the bathroom, and they're going to wait so long and say, look, somebody's got to, this is kind of embarrassing, someone's got to go in.

So it's somebody in Eglon's court had to tell this story to somebody in Israel for it to be published. And that is probably because it's such an amazing story that, you know, you just can't keep some things in. You just can't wait to get home to tell them. I mean, have you ever had something at work? Maybe somebody dropped the water that goes in the cooler and made a mess, and you get home and, how was work? You won't believe it. Well, it was no different, people to people.

How was work? Eglon. I got to tell you what happened. I just mentioned the realness of the story to me.

I mean, they didn't learn it from a theologian. Verse 26, and Ehud escaped while they delayed and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah. Seirah was, we don't know where it is, but he's at least a mile away when he gets to Gilgal. So this is how long they were waiting, and it's a remarkable story. Ehud had to tell it. He's the only one that could have told his part of the story.

Someone put it together. Maybe Ehud did. Verse 27, and it happened when he arrived that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains, and he led them. And he said to them, verse 28, Follow me, for Yahweh has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands. So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. Well, again, going backwards, his plan, he identified the problem.

Eglon. He came up with a solution. Make a dagger. And, well, there's more to the story than just a dagger getting there to kill him. He made contact. It wasn't just a plan. He actually wasn't abstract.

It was concrete. He made contact. He eliminated those who would interfere. He executed his solution. He created a delay. And he left. Safely. Then, not done, he rallied his people and attacked the enemy.

And then he stole cars. They took the fords. It tells us that. You think I'm kidding? I wouldn't lie to you.

It says it right there. So, well, there were no Chevys, so they had to settle for fords. So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan.

There you go. Of course, the fords, for you who have to be serious, were the shallow part of the water where you could just like trot across. No bridge. You could just walk across. No bridge.

You could just walk across. And they they were cutting off the exits. See his plan. He cut the exit off. So those at the, in Jericho, Moab is on the east side of of the Jordan. The west side is where Jericho is. Well, if their people get home to the Moabites, they're going to bring a big army back with them.

So Ehud is going to eliminate that problem. And he cuts off their escape, and it is quite impressive. Brilliant, courageous, creative.

All these things. This is a good story to tell a kid. I mean, like a little seven, five-year-old.

Tell them this story. There's so many things that get the kid to thinking, look at that. There's planning that goes in. There's execution of the plan.

There's finishing the thing you've started. I mean, they see more gory things on cartoons, I think. Anyway, verse 29.

Some of you parents might be saying, this is a bit much for my six-year-old. He'll be making a dagger the next day. We'll have a problem. So maybe I'll stick to pastoral advice. Verse 29. And at that time, they killed about 10,000 men of Moab, all stout men of valor, and not a man escaped. So it was a slaughter. I like how they put in all stout men of valor. We weren't killing. No, these were ferocious men.

Yeah, if I'm telling the story, they're going to be very ferocious. Verse 30. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest 80 years. Again, the longest period.

So this was monumental. Verse 31. After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed 600 men of the Philistines with an ox goad, and he also delivered Israel.

Now, there's a lot here on Shamgar. His judgeship is challenged by some and not, I think, wrong. It's wrong to challenge it because it says after him. After him, after Ehud, Shamgar. Well, because he's not said to be a judge, some people raise flags.

And there are some other little ones, and I'll just cover them briefly. The fact that there was 80 years of peace and Ehud did not live all those 80 years and still the years before that, Shamgar is in there somewhere. Then he probably did not outlive Ehud, and that's why Deborah and Barak come on the scene at the death of Ehud, which we'll get in the next chapter. So clearly the third judge, and we don't read about the customary prelude to sin, you know, the people sinned, called out to God.

We don't have to read that. He still is a judge of the people. But what I like so much about this man, and he'll show up again in Judges chapter 5. Well, first, his name is not a Hebrew name, which leads some to believe, well, maybe he was, you know, converted to paganism and came out of that. Ah, speculation, but not a Hebrew name. Maybe somebody just said, you know, I kind of like that name.

I think I'm going to name my boy Shamgar. We don't know. And I say these things because maybe you're reading the Bible, study Bible along with your Bible, and I just want to correct them for you.

Don't, just remember this, they all don't agree on everything anyway. So, he killed 600 men, apparently in one battle. He had to get tired at about number 200, but Samson's going to, of course, eclipse this with an ox goad. It's a long stick with a metal tip at the end.

It's almost like a lance. The Philistines shut down their Second Amendment. The Jews did not have the right to bear arms.

It's true. I'm going to read it to you. Judges 5, verse 8, not a shield or spear was seen among the 40,000 in Israel. First Samuel 13, 9. Now, there were no, there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews get themselves automatic weapons. That's what it says. Okay, spears and swords, but it's the same thing.

Just hours reach a thousand feet and theirs did not. So, that's why he used an ox goad. How humiliating for him. He killed you with what? Well, it says he also delivered Israel.

He took a stick to a sword fight and won. That's what his story is, but the one who fights for God with what is in their hand is the one that's serving God. This is the lesson that just, we just, it's hard to learn it because we have bigger ambitions.

We want bigger fish to fry God. Two verses and we're done. Exodus 4, I love this one to Moses.

This is a topical. Moses answered and said, but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say Yahweh has not appeared to you. So, Yahweh said to him, what is that in your hand? And it was his staff, of course, and he put on the ground and turned into a serpent and Moses ran as far as Lebanon.

He didn't, but if it were me, I would have. But anyway, that was the same rod, of course, that Moses used to part the sea. And then there's Matthew chapter 14, verse 17, 18. They said to the Lord, when the Lord said, you feed the people. And they said to him, we have only five loaves and two fish.

And he said, bring them here to me. He's saying the same thing. What's in your hand? You don't have the best weapons. You don't have the best tools. You're not the smartest guy in the room.

You're not. Well, the Lord says, I'll use you anyway. That is so true, else I would not be standing here.

God still uses ox, ox goats and oxes. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. And we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross Reference Radio.