Phase 2: The Judges and Their Deliverance #2

Ehud: The Left-Handed Deliverer

Judges 3:12–30 KJV (WS)

12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. 13 And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. 14 So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab. 16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. 17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man. 18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present. 19 But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. 20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat. 21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly: 22 And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out. 23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them. 24 When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber. 25 And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth. 26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath. 27 And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them. 28 And he said unto them, Follow after me: for the Lord hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over. 29 And they slew of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour; and there escaped not a man. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.

Introduction

None of us are perfect are we?

Any perfect people here tonight?

No, I didn’t think so.

We all have flaws an imperfections.

In our physical bodies.

In our spiritual lives.

In our personalities.

Most of us don’t like to be exposed regarding our faults.

We will expend a lot of energy to try and hide our flaws.

We want to project the illusion that we don’t have any.

What if our perceived flaws and weaknesses are just reminders of our need for God’s help.

What if our weaknesses are open doors for God to show his power through our life?

Our passage tonight contrasts the difference between a life of pride and a life of humility.

The cycle starts over. vss 12-14

Israel sins, so God must judge them.

This time God uses Eglon king of Moab to punish the people.

Moab was a powerful enemy.

Eglon persuades two of Israel’s other enemies, Ammon and Amalek to join with him.

These three bully nations come in and smite the Israelites.

You know they loved beating up on God’s people.

For 18 years, the Israelites serve their occupiers.

During this time, Eglon sets up an outpost in the city of palm trees.

This is not LA, it’s Jericho.

Jericho, by this time was easy to take, but difficult to hold.

Why is that?

Because it had no wall.

Right here we see a glimpse into the type of pride that Eglon had.

So confident was he that Israel posed little threat that he settles in an indefensible city.

God raises up a deliverer name Ehud. vs 15

Ehud is a Benjaminite.

He is also left handed.

Being left handed has historically comes with a negative stigma.

In Latin, “sinister” meant both “left” and “unlucky” or “evil.”

The Old English word “lyft” meant “weak” or “useless.”

In French, “gauche” means both “left” and “awkward” or “clumsy.”

In Italian, “mancino” (left-handed) also implies “crooked” or “underhanded.”

Conversely, the word “right” often symbolizes correctness or righteousness in many languages, reinforcing the idea that being right-handed is the “norm.”

The way left-handedness is communicated in the Hebrew is also pretty interesting.

The literal translation is that his right hand was bound or unusable.

This would have been the usual way of describing a disability affecting the man’s right hand.

But not always.

In Judges 20:16, the Bible talks about 700 Benjaminites who were all trained to be marksman slingers using their left hands.

While it is odd that Ehud is left-handed, it’s not necessarily that he was born that way, it may have been an intentional condition trained into him by his parents.

Ehud’s left-handedness will play an important role in the rest of the story.

Ehud is sent by the people to deliver the tribute to Eglon. vss 16-19

We are told that Ehud made some preparations before heading out to see Eglon.

He made a dagger.

He strapped it to his right thigh.

Usually when a person is chosen by their country to represent them, it is an honor.

An ambassadorship, the olympics, or a spot on the ISS.

That is not the case with this appointment.

As if Ehud didn’t already carry enough shame from being left-handed, now he must bear the shame of his people to their Moabite overlord.

Here is where we get another bit of information that fills in some more of the picture for us.

The Bible says that Eglon was a very fat man.

Overweight people were rare in this time.

There are so many reasons for this.

You walked everywhere.

You had to pretty much produce anything that you wanted for yourself.

Also…everything was organic and natural.

But this is not the case for Eglon.

He gets to sit on his throne all day long.

He has people that serve his every whim.

He probably even gets carried by servants whenever he goes outside.

Not to mention, he’s eating all of the Israelites tribute food.

Contrast this with Ehud and the rest of Israel who are suffering from shortages due to Eglon’s tyranny.

While they are starving, he is getting fat.

Having to see this disparity must have been difficult for Ehud.

Especially since he knows he has that 18 inch dagger under his cloak.

But the time is not right.

Ehud delivers the tribute and leaves the palace.

Ehud sends the others back to their homes.

Their mission is over.

Ehud’s mission is only beginning.

Ehud turns back and returns to the king. 20-26

He regains an audience with the king.

To me, this is all super sketchy.

Eglon seems to be just a complete fool.

Check out some of these decisions.

Ehud brings a 20 inch dagger into the king’s presence undetected, not once, but twice.

Then, when Ehud tells the king he has a secret errand for the king, Eglon sends every one of his servants away.

Funny enough, when Eglon says keep silence, the Hebrew word is akin to us telling someone to HUSH!

So Eglon is suspicious of his servants hearing this message, but he trusts Ehud to be alone with him???

This leaves Eglon and Ehud standing together alone in a summer parlor alone.

This would have been a room designed to allow the wind to come in and cool the space during the summer.

Ehud tells Eglon that he has a message for him from God.

To this, Eglon rises which was the correct posture for receiving a divine message.

It also makes it easier for Ehud to do what he does next.

Ehud reaches across his body and removes the dagger from it’s hiding place.

He then covers whatever little ground separated him from the king, knowing that Eglon’s reaction time would not be very fast.

Ehud thrusts the dagger into the kings belly.

The kings body then closed in around the dagger so that Ehud could not remove it and instead he left it there.

Of course this makes a huge mess.

But, Ehud keeps his cool.

He leaves Eglon alone in the room.

As he exits, he closes the doors and locks them.

He then cooly walks out of the palace giving none of the servants any reason to be suspicious that something nefarious has taken place.

The servants even notice that the doors are locked but they chalk it up to the fact that the king must be taking a rest break.

So they wait, and wait, and wait.

Of course, all this time Ehud is getting farther and farther away.

Finally, they are so embarrassed about how long they have been waiting for Eglon to finish his business that they go fetch a key.

They open the doors and by this time, Eglon has died, and his assassin has escaped.

This isn’t the end of the story though.

Ehud calls out Israel to fight against Moab. vss 27-30

Ehud knows that Moab is now short one king.

He blows a trumpet and assembles the armies of Israel.

He tells them that God has given them the victory over Moab and they are to follow him now into battle.

Now, Ehud shows some good strategy.

The Bible says that rather than going to Jericho, they go to the Jordan.

The Moabites will not want to stay in a defenseless city now that they are without a king.

They will have to cross the Jordan in order to get home.

When they do, Ehud and the Israelites will be waiting.

This is exactly how it goes down.

Despite their weakened condition, Israel does not allow a single Moabite to cross the river.

They kill 10,000 moabites.

These Moabites were all well-fed, in shape, men of valour.

But not a one of them escaped that day.

God used left-handed Ehud to take down Eglon and usher in a period of peace that lasted 80 years.

This story teaches a very important lesson.

Here we see that weakness coupled with humility is greater than strength coupled with pride.

Ehud was so weak and unassuming that even his enemies didn’t take him seriously.

They couldn’t see that Ehud was strong because God was on his side.

Their pride in their own strength blinded them to the threat that was walking freely among them.

Application

It kind of reminds me of Jesus.

Isn’t he the ultimate example of strength hidden behind humility?

Some would call that meekness.

You think about the manner of Jesus’ birth, the city that he came from (Nazareth), the people he surrounded himself with, and even his death.

All of these features of Jesus’ life could be considered weaknesses, kind of like being left handed.

But, what people couldn’t see was that God was going to use each of these aspects of Jesus’ life to bring about great victory.

There wasn’t a more humiliating death, than to die on a cross, but what was the result?

The 11 apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, but with God, they were accused of turning the world upside down.

Why?

Whether it’s Ehud, Jesus, or us, when weakness is coupled with humility, God is more than capable of giving his people victory over those that are proud of their own strength.

This principle is still true today.

God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble

His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

We must never forget that without God, we are nothing.

We will all either act like Ehud or Eglon.

Eglon made many decisions that showed his overconfidence in his own strength.

Ehud operated consistently in humble confidence in God’s strength.

What do your actions say, I wonder?

I trust God?

I trust me?

If we want lasting victory in this life, it will only come through an admission of humble weakness and genuine reliance on God..

Conclusion

All of us have weaknesses.

All of us need God’s help.

Not everyone will admit it.

Pride stops God from getting glory from our weakness.

Humility opens the door for God to work despite our shortcomings.

Which will you choose tonight?