Salvation by the Sword

Judges 3:12–31 NLT

Once again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel because of their evil. Eglon enlisted the Ammonites and Amalekites as allies, and then he went out and defeated Israel, taking possession of Jericho, the city of palms. And the Israelites served Eglon of Moab for eighteen years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord again raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man of the tribe of Benjamin. The Israelites sent Ehud to deliver their tribute money to King Eglon of Moab. So Ehud made a double-edged dagger that was about a foot long, and he strapped it to his right thigh, keeping it hidden under his clothing. He brought the tribute money to Eglon, who was very fat. After delivering the payment, Ehud started home with those who had helped carry the tribute. But when Ehud reached the stone idols near Gilgal, he turned back. He came to Eglon and said, “I have a secret message for you.” So the king commanded his servants, “Be quiet!” and he sent them all out of the room. Ehud walked over to Eglon, who was sitting alone in a cool upstairs room. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you!” As King Eglon rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled out the dagger strapped to his right thigh, and plunged it into the king’s belly. The dagger went so deep that the handle disappeared beneath the king’s fat. So Ehud did not pull out the dagger, and the king’s bowels emptied. Then Ehud closed and locked the doors of the room and escaped down the latrine. After Ehud was gone, the king’s servants returned and found the doors to the upstairs room locked. They thought he might be using the latrine in the room, so they waited. But when the king didn’t come out after a long delay, they became concerned and got a key. And when they opened the doors, they found their master dead on the floor. While the servants were waiting, Ehud escaped, passing the stone idols on his way to Seirah. When he arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, Ehud sounded a call to arms. Then he led a band of Israelites down from the hills. “Follow me,” he said, “for the Lord has given you victory over Moab your enemy.” So they followed him. And the Israelites took control of the shallow crossings of the Jordan River across from Moab, preventing anyone from crossing. They attacked the Moabites and killed about 10,000 of their strongest and most able-bodied warriors. Not one of them escaped. So Moab was conquered by Israel that day, and there was peace in the land for eighty years. After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath rescued Israel. He once killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad.

Introduction: Mike Gave us the Pattern of Judges and encouraged us to Run to Jesus, not away from Jesus.

The Pattern is Sin, Suffering, Supplication (Repentence), Salvation.

Our story is one of a number of Judges stories that fit that pattern.

Ehud is one of the good judges....It spirals down from here. (Othneil, Ehud, Shamgar, Debrah) - It starts going down at Gideon.

21 - We Forget God.

Forgetting is not a memory issue, but more about abandoning following God.

Eglon represents the foreign gods that Israel has a tendency to want to follow.

Describe the Worldview of that day. lower case gods (Baal, Ashteroth) were assigned the nations. The Kings of those nations did the gods bidding. - Screwtape letters lower-archy.

“But behind this record of a nation which had lost its first love, vision and purity there is the unmistakable picture of a righteous God. It is true that the low standard is accounted for in part by the absence of authoritative human leadership, with every man doing ‘that which was right in his own eyes.’ But the editor underlines the fact that the misery which overtook the people was due to their forsaking of a holy God. Their sin was not an insignificant thing, to be passed over lightly; it was an affront to God’s righteous being and as such was visited by stern and painful judgment. A nation that forsakes the Lord, or lowers and compromises his standards, cannot hope to prosper in any ultimate sense” (Arthur E. Cundall and Leon Morris, Judges and Ruth: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 7 [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968], 46–47).

– If you want to rule your own life, lets see how that works out for you.

God Strengthened Eglon against Israel - Here let your idols have there way with you. That is what you want isn’t it.

Israel’s Story is our story - No human, and No Nation is immune from forgetting about God.

Read some journal entries where I realize, I have not been spending time with God. - When I felt things were out of kilter with my relationship with the Lord. I wrote this, “Jesus has been tugging at my heart, do you ultimately find your joy in being in Christ. Do you Love me?” I realized that in the business of ministry and life, I was skipping out on time spent with God. I was serving the Idol of my own self-sufficiency. My plan was to get back on track with spending time in the Word, and prayer, and praying throughout the Day.

We may serve other things in our life - money, doom scrolling, - How do we kill these idols. - So many things can cause us to Forget God.

Sin:

1. I’m chasing the wrong thing right now.

2. I have mixed up priorities.

3. I have an addition or an addictive personality and it has captured me.

4. I keep mistreating other people.

Oppression:

1. My relationship with God has been affected.

2. I am destroying my relationships with others.

3. It is affecting or will affect my physical and emotional health.

4. It is affecting or will affect me financially.

Repentence requires that

22 - We Remember God.

911 Church attendance rose for a short period of time.

Commentary note - Crying out is not the same as repenting.

“The Israelites Cried out to the Lord. Out of Sheer Grace, the Lord responded to their cry for help and gave them a deliverer - Ehud, a left-handed man.

What is the difference between Remembering and Repentence? Remembering is, “Oh yeah, maybe there is a God. God if you are out there can you hear me?” Repentence is a change of mind and heart. “God, I have sinned and abandoned following you, I am turning Back to you to follow your ways.” Israel did not do that at first. The Remembered, They Cried out, Supplication.

What might be important to note here is often Repentence comes after the Grace - 80 years of peace.

What we learn from the text is God is Gracious

23 - God Saves When We Rely on Him.

The Structure of the Heidelbergh Catachism - Grief, Grace, Gratitude.

How does God save through Ehud. - Here are some things you want to know that will help bring the story alive.

Vs. 10 - the spirit of the Lord was upon Othniel - He raised up Ehud.

He had a plan going - He made a double-edge sword - N.T. - sword represented the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit - In hebrew the words - When Ehud says, I have a secret message (word/thing)

After paying tribute he passed the stone idols outside of Gilgal.

24 - 25 - Talk about the Map

Many Gilgals in the Bible, but probably the one that the Israelites encamped in right after crossing the Jordan - I imagine this brough Ehud courage. He remembered how God saved them, and brought them into this land, only now to go backwards and fall back into slavery.

26 - Gross and humorus telling of the story....

The book of Judges is not meant to provide ethical and Christlike characters that will help us mature, rather it serves to emphasize who God is and what he is doing to bring about his will in the world (at this time, keeping Israel with the promise that one day Jesus can come through her lineage).

Ehud’s lone achievement adorns the glory of Yahweh and becomes the property of Israel as he proclaims to Israel that (lit.) ‘Yahweh has given your enemy, Moab, into your hands!’ He musters the people, who employ a clever stratagem, capturing the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, who, like their king, are substantial, well-provisioned men of war. The generalization of Ehud’s victory to all Israel links the true hero to the community” (Lawson G. Stone, “Judges,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, ed. Philip W. Comfort, [Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012], 246–47).

How does this story teach us to live?

27 - Killing our Idols.

- There is a brutality to the book of Judges that can be difficult to grasp for those who know the rest of the biblical story. The judges are not meant to be archetypes that Christians can emulate. We are supposed to be like Christ. As we study the various stories in the Old Testament, it is important to see that God is the deliverance of his people even when they sin. Discussing the story of Ehud, Steve Mathewson writes, “As a result of what God does (he delivers his people from hopeless situations in surprising ways), the human condition appears to be a lack of courage or a despair when circumstances seem to be hopeless. So, the exhortation for believers is not to give up on the mission God has given us when we face discouraging, hopeless situations. I will also address nonbelievers and remind them that their greatest need—as reflected in the storyline of Judges—is deliverance from their sins. God’s story is the story of deliverance, and his ultimate deliverance comes through Jesus” (Steve Mathewson, “Preaching the Gospel in Judges,” The Gospel Coalition, February 27, 2011, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/preaching-the-gospel-in-judges/).

Need to draw out that Israel Served Eglon like he was a God.

I think of Deitrich Bonhoeffer who joined the resistence and plot to assisinate Hitler. - Bonhoeffer was at times leaned towards being a pacifist. But in the face of great evil he had to participate like Ehud.

For us this is the very, very rare case. Even in the book of Judges the time spans are great - 100 years this story takes place. - And this would be the last, last, last resort.

Jesus’ way of salvation was through the cross - Our battle is not against flesh and blood ----- We fight with the Sword of the Spirit

Jesus - Those who live by the sword will die by the sword

Ultimately for us, I believe these stories call us to repentence.

We must be fierce with our Idols and kill them with the word.

Repentance:

At this stage, you identify you’re in sin or oppression, so you have two choices:

1. I am not ready to come clean with God.

2. I am ready to come clean with God right now.

Conclusion:

Deliverance:

Out of a broken heart of repentance, God can deliver us. God keeps taking you back. How many would be willing to say, “I have experienced God’s deliverance”?