Ehud
Joshua 3:15-30 - 12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.[a] 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit[b] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it.19 But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”
The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.
20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace[c] and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.23 Then Ehud went out to the porch[d]; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.”25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.
26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.
28 “Follow me,” he ordered, “for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped.30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
There are two things I want us to take from today’s reading. And neither of them is how to kill a fat king. So, if that’s what you were hoping for, I’m sorry you’ll be disappointed.
The first thing I want us to understand is that when we allow Him to, God can enter into our own scenario, so that we can be delivered.
You will notice that this passage opens up with “again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” This was a recurring pattern for the Israelites. God would save the Israelites, they would be faithful for a while, and then they would go their own way and desert the God who had delivered them.
From the very beginning. The Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt. They rejoiced at God’s work. Then Moses went up on a mountain side to have a little chat with God, and what did the Israelites do? They decided that they were going to put together a nice little idol to worship, instead of the God who had delivered them.
Throughout the book of Judges, again and again, passages start out, “and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” Again and again the Israelites would fall back into their old ways and abandon the God who delivered them.
How often do we do that? We get into trouble, and we cry out to God to save us or deliver us. You know, things start to go right for us, and we’re living a good life for a while.
Just before this particular passage, in verses 7 through 11 of Judges Chapter 2, Israel had fallen again into sin, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD. Because of their sin they had been subject to servitude of the King of Mesopotamia. For eight years, they served Cushan-rishathaim, the king of Mesopotamia. When they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a Judge named Othniel. He is described as a “deliverer,” in verse 9. Othniel saved the Israelites. He led them in war against Cushan-rishathaim and prevailed.
For 40 years, the Israelites were blessed and lived in peace. And then, Othniel died. And what do you think happened? Yep, the Israelites “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” It seems to me that the Israelites, though they called out to God, they did not put their hope and trust in God, but in the one whom God sent. They put their hope and trust in the “program” of deliverance, not in the One who actually provided for that “program.” And so, when that program went away, when that program failed them, their hope went away too. They went back to their old patterns of life, and forgot about the new life they had.
Guys, if you’re going to build you hope and your trust on a program or a person, you are going to be disappointed. If you are building your hope or trust on the program of Pennsylvania Adult & Teen Challenge, I hate to burst your bubble you are going to be disappointed. When we make a decision that is wrong, or we make some other mistake, when we make a bad programing decision, or whatever, your hope is going to fall. If you are building your hope on your Pastoral Mentor, or the Program Manager, you’re going to be disappointed. When he gives you a piece of bad advice, or he moves to a different position, or if he moves to a different job, or you are assigned a new PM, your hope is going to come crashing down.
So Israel continually puts their hope and trust in the deliver that God sends. Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, and Barak, and on and on are sent by God to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. And over and over again, after they are delivered, and their deliverer passes on or goes away, they fall back into sin. But the cool thing is, no matter how many times they fall away, no matter how many times they do the same stupid thing, when they cry out to God, he is right there waiting for them and ready to deliver.
No matter how many times the Israelites abandoned God, He was ready to deliver them.
In the same way, it doesn’t matter how many times we mess up, God is always willing to welcome us back with open arms.
I love the way the New Living Translation says this:
Romans 8:31-39, 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Guys, you can’t mess up enough, you can relapse enough, you can sin enough that God is going to abandon you. He is right there waiting for you, and calling for you to come back to him. He is ready to enter right into your scenario, right into your mess, right into your muck and guck and sin and suffering and deliver you.
The second thing I want us to take from this passage, is that God often delivers his people in unique, and unexpected ways.
The Bible mentions Ehud's left-handedness because that was what enabled him to kill Eglon, the Moabite king. As any king would, Eglon had guards who protected him and searched anyone who wanted to enter his throne room. Yet somehow, Ehud managed to get in with a sharp sword concealed in his clothing.
Normally, a right-handed person wears his sword on his left side, because it's easier and faster to draw his sword from the opposite side of his body.
The guards assumed Ehud was right-handed, and therefore only checked his left side. But as a lefty, Ehud kept his sword on the right side, and so it was overlooked. With the sword that went unnoticed, Ehud killed the king of Moab.
Why would the guards have assumed that Ehud was right handed? Well, there is evidence that nearly all ancient cultures were biased toward right-handedness. In ancient murals conquering armies were depicted as being all right-handed, while their enemies were depicted as being left-handed. As Ehud was the leader of the ensemble of tribute, and therefore someone of authority and power, it would have been assumed that he was right-handed, as no one left-handed could have risen to such a station.
God uses this bias as the key to delivering His people from oppression. God will often use biases and ignorance to achieve his goals. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 says, 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
God often delights in doing things that are unexpected, and that don’t make sense.
To the world it doesn’t make sense for you to place your hope and your trust in Jesus for recovery from Alcohol or Drug addiction. You need more counseling, or you need more medicine, the world will say to you. It’s alright for you to try to “find religion,” but you need this or you need that too.
This is because the world doesn’t understand the underlying problem. It’s not about drugs, and it’s not about alcohol, it’s not a bout porn, it’s not about gambling, it’s not about lying, it’s not about cheating. It’s about sin.
Next, in that same chapter we read: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one[c]might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…
God delights in entering our situation and using unexpected means of bringing us out.
The ultimate example is Jesus Christ.
From the very beginning God did the unexpected. He chose a little girl, from a little po-dunk town in the hills of a tiny province of Rome to bear the Son of God. He wasn’t born in some elaborate hospital or palace, but laid to rest in a manger, a feeding trough. And who were the first to hear about his birth? Was it the noblemen? The rulers of Israel or Rome? No, it was a group of shepherds, men often considered to be the lowest of society. And it was a group of pagan wise men from the East.
And then, this so-called deliverer didn’t even act like the deliverers of old, whom the Jewish people were looking for. They were looking for a man like Othniel, or Ehud, or Gideon to lead them to rise up against and defeat Rome. Now Gideon, there was a real deliverer. He pulled down the altar to Baal with two of his father’s bulls, and then, with only 300 men he defeated the thousands of Midianites.
But no, this so-called deliverer refused to pick up a sword. When confronted he did not strike back. As it says in Isaiah 53:7, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter.
This was the very reason that he was put to death. It was for this reason that he was overcome, instead of leading an army.
Jesus Christ, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead, he made himself nothing, and took on the form of a servant, having been born as a human. And then he humbled himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on a cross.
But what looked like defeat, what looked like Jesus’ ultimate failure, was the unexpected salvation of the world. Because Jesus didn’t stay dead, like all of the other revolutionaries, and all of the other deliverers who came before him. No, on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death once and for all.
As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, “Death is swallowed up in victory
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
Jesus on the cross was not a defeated Messiah, he was a victorious Messiah. The unexpected became the means for salvation for the world.
Because of this we can now rejoice. Because of this we can live our lives in confidence that, even though we may stumble and fall God is there to pick us up, and he is going to do so even in the midst of the worst circumstances and in the most unexpected places and unexpected ways.
Then we can look forward to the vision that John the revelator had in Revelations 21:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
This morning, as we come to partake in the bread and the cup, this is what we remember. That God came into the circumstances of this world, where it seemed that the world had conquered over His plans in Israel, and through the unexpected path of the Cross, has brought us victory.
If you haven’t experienced that victory today, or if you have experienced it, but have gone back to your old ways, God is here, ready to step into your circumstances and deliver you. There is no better time than now to cry out to the LORD, as the ancient Israelites did. For God promises, in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
All you have to do is ask.
Let us prepare our hearts to receive the Victory of Christ.
(Play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqQEcMLbF5E – My Victory – David Crowder)
(After the elements have been distributed)
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 New International Version (NIV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
