The description is very graphic. He plunges this eighteen inch dagger, including the handle, and his hand goes right into his belly.
Well, Why does the Bible tell us this awful story? Why does the Bible tell us this awful and graphic story? Keep listening to find out. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and it's good to have you with us for this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
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Well, let's meet Ehud, a judge of Israel. Here's Dr. Thomas. Today We want to go to Judges chapter 3 and to the second judge, and that's Ehud. I'm going to read from verses 18 through 22 of Judges chapter 3.
And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, He sent away the people who carried the tribute, but he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal, and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence, and all his attendants went out from his presence. And how you would came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. and Ehud reached with his left hand took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly.
and the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade. For he did not pull the sword out of his belly, and the dung came out.
Well, that's a very, very graphic story.
Now it's set in a period when verse 12 of chapter 3, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. That's a recurring theme. Uh in judges. It occurs many, many times. telling you that the setting, the context here is one of apostasy.
God's people, God's covenant people, the children of Abraham, have rebelled. They've Turned against the Lord. They're walking not in light but in darkness. And God raises up these. Um judges.
And Uh we are introduced here to um a king King of Moab, there's some kind of alliance with Moab and Uh and Israel. and uh the king's name is Eglon. And Eglon has conquered part of the territory of Israel and has taken the city of Palms. That's uh a euphemism for uh Jericho. You'll remember, of course, the destruction of Jericho and Joshua, and how they circled the city seven times and so on, and the walls of Jericho came.
Tumbling down.
Well, all that was gained by Joshua has now been lost to this king of Moab, Eglon. And eighteen years have passed. And they cry to God for a deliverer and enter. Um Ahood. Ehud is described in this passage as being left-handed.
There's probably more to it than just the fact that he's left-handed. The fact that he's That scripture draws attention to it. He wouldn't have been the only left-handed person. Commentators suggest that probably his right hand. Uh Mm-hmm.
unusable, there was some kind of Deformity. And therefore, the choice of ahood may seem to be a little strange. This is a a period of time when such things were not treated perhaps with the respect uh that you would expect uh today. He's the son of Benjamin. He's from the tribe of Benjamin, and Ben is the Hebrew word for son, and Jamin is the Hebrew word for right.
Uh he's the son of my right hand. Benjamin, that's what Benjamin means, but he's a left, he's he's left-handed.
Now In verse 15, the people of Israel are crying out for a deliverer. They're sending tribute to Eglon, the king of Moab. Uh this is This is a tax. Uh that uh Eglon, the king of Moab, is demanding of Israel, and they're sending all kinds of silver and gold. And metal, and anything of value.
And Ahud brings. Um metal of his own. And he brings a dagger, and it's described in the passage as being 18 inches long. That's a substantial dagger. And Uh he has one intent.
He's planned it, he's thought it through. Uh Spoken to him. He has a task to perform, and that is to kill Eglon, the king of Moop.
Now in verse 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab.
Now Eglon was a very fat man.
Well, the ESV doesn't spare. Uh any detail here he was an enormous figure with a big belly, and that's going to be important a little later on. And uh Ehud's uh entourage. Bring the tribute. He dismisses them.
He tells. Uh the king that he has uh uh s something to say uh privately to him. Um Eg Eglon may be naïve to dismiss his men and to be found on the rooftop. alone with Ehud, perhaps because he was left handed and maybe somewhat crippled, he didn't see Ehud as a threat. And uh w what what does that uh tell you?
Uh that Uh This king thought that there was going to be something of value, something to gain, maybe a compromise. Or something like that. But then suddenly verse 21 says, Ehud reached with his left hand. He's got a sword strapped to his r right thigh.
So he would reach with his left hand and bring out this dagger. Uh and he stabs him in the stomach. And uh Uh Uh the description is is very graphic. He plunges this eighteen inch dagger Including the handle and his hand goes right into his. his his belly uh and Uh the dome.
Uh came out.
Well Why does the Bible tell us this? This awful story. Uh because It's the story that Ehud Told He's alone? There's no there are no witnesses, but he he would have told this story. And it's important because of what happens next.
Um Eglon is lying on the floor. Um There's dung. And it It smells. And uh Ahud. Um locks the door and manages to escape.
And uh when the servants come, Um well the They can smell it. From the other side of the door. And They think he's on the privy. And he's having a really bad time of it. And so they wait.
Maybe they wait for 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes, but eventually they. They knock the door down. and they discover uh their king dead on Uh the floor. And uh Ehud has uh has time to escape. And he blows a trumpet and calls on the men of Israel, it's a premeditated plan, and 10,000 Moabites.
Died. And the city of Palms. is once more in their hands. Jericho is once more. in their hands.
That's the story.
So what do you make of it? Why is it in The Bible Well It's in the Bible because It's part of the history of Israel. You you might be offended by it. You might think this is uh Sordid? What sort of story is this as part of the history of Israel?
And you notice that when Ehud does the deed, he says in verse 20, I have a message from God for you. That's uh pretty bold, isn't isn't it? He was doing God's business. He was a warrior. The first thing that we need to think about here is that this is Uh This is war.
Uh God's people are trying to inherit the land. that God had promised. to them. And so far that's not going well, as you can expect. And uh it was always going to be.
How would God's people ever conquer? uh the land of Canaan without opposition without war, without bloodshed. And um Uh there's eighty years of peace that follows. uh in the wake of this uh event. And uh God uses Well, he uses Messy.
Business. To bring about Good. And that's often The case, isn't it? Um Ah is more Uh then a judge. He is He's God's man.
For this Period. of history. He's a judge, he's a ruler, but he's also.
Well, he's also a military chief.
Some commentators try to allegorize the passage. And uh They talk about the sword of the spirit. Uh plunging into the belly of the Wicked and so on. And others try to moralize it. Don't be like Ahood.
Well, I think that misses the point. In verse fifteen we read that the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, And the Lord raised up for them A deliverer. Ehud is a deliverer. Let's use a different word. He's their Saviour.
He saves them from their enemies. He gives them The promise of God, a part of the promised land. Or does the Saviour We're in thirteen hundred B C What does a saviour in 1300 BC actually look like?
Well, the answer is He looks like Ehud. He looks like this. Judge. A man who takes on the enemy of God's People who's taxing them to the Uh to the point of of pain and hurt. And uh He restores Israel.
He defeats the enemy. and restores Israel.
Well, what is the gospel story? It's about God sending a deliverer. To conquer the enemy. The reason the Son of Man appeared, John says, is to destroy the works of the devil. To conquer.
Uh all the wickedness of of the devil.
Well, he's not Jesus. But He's God's instrument. He's God's Deliverer In this case, with a sword in his... And It's the unfolding narrative of the menu. Salvation.
The judges ruled. From 1400 BC to And what happens when God takes away everything that Abraham? longed for and that Moses Um Um pastorally believed in. delivering his people out of the bondage of Egypt. And into the Wilderness, and though he wouldn't see it himself into the promised.
Land.
Well the judges tell you. And it's not Well, it's not Pretty. Israel. Fails God. They commit apostasy.
uh they did that which was right in their own eyes. They lived a lifestyle to please themselves. And they forgot. The promises of the covenant, and God comes in judgment. But then God steps in.
And restores them and He sends deliver us, like Ehud. They pray to God. to send a deliverer. And God hears their cry and comes uh into their defense. And things go.
fine for a while and then there's an endless Um Cycle. Of restoration and apostasy and restoration and. Apostasy. What they But they need There's a king. What they need is someone like David.
or Solomon. And that's in their future. But for now It's all so very m messy. Most of our Christian lives have messy aspects. to it.
Dale Ralph Davis. uh tells the story of Uh the peanuts A cartoon, uh Linus and Lucy and Linus. uh is eating uh P B and J Sandwich. And uh He Um notices his hands and he Uh he begins to do what Linus often does and he Uh engages in some oratory and he says these I love my hands. He says.
These hands Build bridges. and they write novels. and they heal the sick. and they hit home runs. and they change the course of history.
And Lucy says They have jelly on them. And that's That's our life, isn't it? how it often is. Eyud's hands have something Other than jelly. Uh o on them as he makes his Escape.
He's a Well, he's a nobody. But God raises up. He's a figure. That you might want to consider as someone who needed. Um Um Uh help.
unable to use his right hand and and God places him Uh to restore Uh What Eglon, the king of Moab, and Eglon, the king of Moab, represents. Evil. It represents opposition, opposition to the kingdom of God, opposition to the people of God, opposition to the covenant. Uh Uh God. I imagine in a society in which we live where Um There is confusion about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil.
how evil should be uh treated and so on. Um But We are here, as so often in the Old Testament, in a theocracy. Uh we are Uh in a position of uh what we might call the just war. It was the great Augustine, Saint Augustine. who wrote a treatise on Uh the just war.
What what what is needed for war to be just and without these principles Uh the war is unjust, so there's There's just war and there's unjust war. And uh Uh There's a an an ethical p issue, of course. Um God Gives to his people, to the children of Abraham, the promised land. And that promised land is currently occupied by a whole slew of clans. We call them the Canaanites, but they're they're made up of all kinds of of people.
Um Moab is to the east of the Uh of the River Jordan. Occupy this land that God had given would involve Water Inevitably so. And Without a belief that this is God's. Command. The whole thing becomes an ethically difficult issue to deal with.
Um There's a text, a recurring text. that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. God says this to Abraham, that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. But there comes a tipping point. When The iniquity of the Canaanites or the Amorites.
is full. such a degree of malevolence and evil. that God says Enough. And he comes in his righteousness. Judgment.
using instruments like Ahud, the sleft, handed Judge, the second judge, In their history to do something. That Well it it This is not a story that you'd read to your Children at bedtime, perhaps. They would have all sorts of questions and and it The answers would be difficult, perhaps too, but to to provide in all Honesty. But this is This is history. This is the history of the people of God.
This is the history. of the church. And when we think of a hood, Um slaying Eglon, the king of Moab, And uh The the graphic detail of of the dung uh coming out on the floor. Uh This is This is part of the way God um delivered his people. It was precisely What Um Israel needed at that Time.
Uh this was no time for a peacemaker. This was a time of war. There was a declaration of war against those who would try to destroy Uh the people of God.
Well, there are going to be more or less less There's messy characters. In our study, but this is definitely one of the messiest in the history of. is draw. That was Derek Thomas from his new series, Who Are They? Lesser-Known Characters of the Bible.
And I appreciated doctor Thomas's comments today that most of our Christian lives have messy aspects to it. how a story like that of Ahud helps us honestly assess how the Lord works through and uses fallen, sinful, and complicated people. This new series is 12 messages, and you can gain access to all 12 of them right now. when you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org, or when you call us at 800-435-4343. In addition to the series and study guide being unlocked in the Ligonier app, We'll also send you a Renewing Your Mind notebook for all of your outlines, quotes, and notes as you listen to this series, other series on Renewing Your Mind, and perhaps the sermon on Sundays.
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You may have heard of the prayer of Jabez. But who was Jabez really? And what can we learn from His prayer? Don't miss Wednesday's episode here on Renewing Your Mind.
