Judges 3:12-30

Judges  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Introduction:

-A week or 2 ago, someone gave my wife and I a box of cards that were conversation starters
-Each card had a question on it, so you read it and then take turns answering the question on it
-So we were sitting in our living room last night after my daughter went to bed and we were asking each other these questions
-And one of the questions was: what was a movie or a TV show that you’ve seen that made you laugh until you cry
-And I think it would be interesting to hear what movie or TV show (or perhaps which Youtuber) you all like to watch when you’re in the mood to laugh
-For me, I enjoy a good standup comedy routine from comedians that I know are funny and aren’t innapropriate
-Tyler Trometer, one of our missionaries who was here a few weeks ago mentioned one of his favorite movies is “the emperor’s new groove”
-And perhaps you have a favorite show or movie you watch for laughs
-The reason I bring that up is most biblical scholars agree that our story today in the book of Judges is meant to be funny
-That doesn’t mean it’s not true, we know all of God’s Word is true
-But it does seem that it’s meant to be humorous
-In this story, the author use some play on words, some irony, an assassination, and some other interesting forms humor that you may not expect from your Bible
-So what I want you to do is to do your best to hear this story as if you were an OT Jew living in the Land of Israel
-Back then, very few people had their own copy of the Bible or even sections of it
-So they would probably gather together and someone would tell or read some of these stories, and a room full of OT Jews would have really enjoyed the humor of this story
-But the humor in this story serves a purpose
-I believe the author of Judges, through humor, is trying to show how utterly ridiculous it is to turn from God to idolatry
-So that’s our main point this evening, and the humor of the story serves the purpose of highlighting how absurd idolatry really is
-Now, as I said on Sunday, I don’t consider myself to be a very interesting or funny person necessarily,
-but I’m going to at least do my best to point out the irony and humor in the story so you can read it and understand it as a Jew living during this time might have understood it
-Furthermore, I’ve got this slideshow up here, because later on in the story, there’s a situation that comes up that I think would be helpful to have a visual for so you can understand the story a little better
**pray**

The Story:

-The story begins with Israel once again doing evil in the sight of the Lord (vs. 12)
-Despite having 40 years of peace from their captivity, the Israelites are not content to worship the One True God and to enjoy His blessing
-The leadership of Othniel seems to have no lasting impact on Israel, and they go back to their previous sins, which we know from the first few chapters of this book, is their sin of idolatry
-Because of this, the Lord strengthens a man named Eglon
-Now, the name Eglon sounds almost exactly like the word for “cow” or “bull”
-And I think the author here is setting up some of the humor for what’s going to happen later on in the story,
-But for now, when you hear the name Eglon, think “Cow”
-So, God strengthens this Cow King who’s the ruler over Moab so he can conquer Israel
-Why would God do this?
-Once again, because the Israelites have done evil in the sight of the Lord (vs. 13)
-Which is not just a sinful choice, it’s also a stupid choice to decide to leave the peaceful blessing of obedience to enter into the slavery of idolatry
-So, this Eglon makes some alliances with his nearby neighbors Ammon and Amalek, and they go and beat up on the Israelites and begin to occupy Jericho
-And now the Israelites are under the the thumb of Eglon and his hitmen for 18 years because of their idolatry
Now, before we move on, I think we should just take a moment to consider these truths for ourselves:
-The author of judges here wants to press upon the us the absolute foolishness of abandoning the True and Living God for worthless idols
-That transaction NEVER ends up going well
-Israel was under the Mosaic Covenant, which stated that if they served God faithfully and worshipped Him exclusively, God would bless them
-And if they chose to be unfaithful, God would bring chastisement on them and they would experience oppression and hardship, just like they were now experiencing under Eglon the Cow King
-Now, I want to be careful here:
-As NT Christians, there is no guarantee that if you are living for the Lord, He’s going to give you more money and better health and great relationships
-Or that if you’re living in sin, God’s going to make you lose your job, your health, and take away all your friendships
-God doesn’t necessarily promise you financial and physical blessings due to your obedience in the NT era
-However, the choice to worship something else other than God is just as foolish today as it was back then
-Why on earth would you or I ever choose to make our life all about our money, or our standard of living, or our popularity, or anything else?
-Is life more fulfilling and joyful for us when we pursue after these things than when we’re walking with God?
-Brother and sisters, please let me encourage you to remember the foolishness of idolatry!
-Don’t become discontent with serving the Most Loving, Gracious, Powerful, and Wise being in all the Universe to pursue life’s worthless trinkets
-It’s like leaving the most luxurious feast in all the world to go outside and eat mud-pies and bugs instead
Let’s continue:
-The Israelites decide to cry out to the Lord because of their misery, and God graciously responds:

15 But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them:

Who is this deliverer that God raises up?

15 Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man.

So we are given three pieces of information about this savior:
He’s from the family of Gera
2. He’s from the clan of Benjamin
3. And he’s left-handed
-Now those last two pieces of information are meant to be a little ironic
-The Hebrew word Benjamin means “son of my right hand”
-So Ehud is literally a left-handed “son of my right hand”
And furthermore, he’s the one who’s been tasked with bringing a tribute to Eglon
Notice how the tension builds in the next verse:

16 Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh.

At this point, we’re not told what Ehud plans on doing with his homemade dagger, which is about the length from your elbow up to your wrist
-We’re also not told if this is a well-planned conspiracy among the Israelites, or if Ehud is acting on his own
-But either way, Ehud makes himself this double-edged dagger and hides it under his robe on his right leg so that he could draw with his left
-Now, Ehud, all strapped up with his hidden dagger, goes to deliver the tribute to the Eglon the Cow King, and we find out something very important about this King (vs. 17):
What is it?
-He’s a very fat man
-Not just a little stocky
-But a very obese man
-And if you’re an OT Israelite listening to someone tell you this story, at this point, you begin to hear chuckles in the crowd as it becomes a little more obvious why this King’s name sounds a lot like Cow
-So, apparently Ehud goes in an entourage of other Israelites and they go to the king and present him his tribute
-So after they present the tribute, the King sends them all away
But, notice verse 19:

But he [Ehud] himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal

-Now, I just want you to notice the reference to these stone images for now, because it’s easy to gloss over as you’re reading
-They were probably idols and they’re mentioned here, and they’re also mentioned once again a few verses later
-The author intentionally bookends what’s about to happen with references to these idols, and that’s important, so just keep that in mind
-Now, Ehud goes back, and the humor and irony really begin to pick up
-He goes back to the oversized King and says,

“I have a secret message for you, O king.”

-The word for “message” there in the verse is the Hebrew word “davar,” which is a pretty common word that can either mean “word” or “thing”
-In other words, Ehud tells him, “Hey King, I’ve got a secret thing for you.”
-And if you were in a room of OT Jews, this is where the chuckles in the crowd become even louder, because we all know that Ehud indeed has a secret thing he’s brought in just for the king
-Now, how did Ehud get into the King’s presence twice with an 18-inch blade?
-Perhaps Ehud had been the tribute guy for a while, and so there was a certain familiarity with him that the King and his servants had
-It’s also possible that the King’s servants were used to checking and patting people down on their left side, since that’s where a right-handed person would keep their weapon
-Either way, the King’s servants weren’t paying much more attention to patting down the tribute guys than your typical Carowinds employee pays to whether your seatbelt is fastened securely for the roller coaster or not
-Now, Eglon falls for this head over heels:

He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out from him.

So now it’s just Ehud and the King
-So Ehud goes to the King, and the text says,

now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber

-As far as we can tell, this seems to be a private room that was shaded and cool, and also where the king would probably use the bathroom
-So, Ehud goes into this chamber and tells the Eglon,

I have a message from God for you

-As one writer commented, Ehud did indeed have a message for Eglon, and it wasn’t “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
From here, the next couple verses are almost like a slow-motion scene in a movie as the author gives us almost frame-by-frame detail
-The king rises up from his seat
-As he does, Ehud reaches across his body with his left hand, pulling out his dagger from where it was hidden on his right thigh
-Having grabbed the handle, Ehud plunges the blade of his dagger into the huge stomach of Eglon
-At this point, we realize that not only is Eglon’s name fitting because he’s fat like a cow, but he’s also about to be slaughtered like a cow would be for a meal or for a sacrifice
-And as Ehud plunges the blade into the king’s belly, the rolls of fat close in over the sword and Ehud actually loses his homemade dagger in the monstrous belly of the king
-The King is so fat, that it’s like his belly swallows the blade whole and Ehud simply leaves it in there
-As he does so, the king’s insides begin to spill out onto the floor
-Now, how is Ehud going to escape?
-We see in the next verse that Ehud finds a way out of the room and locks the door behind him without being seen
-But how does he actually get out?
-The details are a little fuzzy, simply because we’re not exactly sure of the architecture of the this structure, so it’s impossible to be dogmatic
-However, a plausible explanation has been put forth by several scholars and commentators that I think is as likely as any:
-You see on this picture that in a cooling chamber like this (used as a bathroom), there was probably some opening in the floor that was used as a toilet
-Underneath probably would have been some kind of room, perhaps even with a container underneath
-And this room underneath would probably have a door where servants could come periodically and clean out the contents
-And so Ehud could kill the Cow, lock the door, descend down the toilet, and then escape out the side door without people being able to see him

23 Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

Now, why isn’t he caught immediately?
-This is another of those parts where the laughter would be heard in a room full of OT Jews as this story is told
-You see, the servants come along and see that the door is locked
-So what do they think?

So they said, “He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber.”

In other words, the servants think that he’s sitting on the toilet
-Furthermore, this would explain why the servants don’t think anything of the nasty smell that’s coming from the room since the king just had his insides spilled out of him by Ehud’s knife
-And so they wait . . . and they wait . . . and they wait . . .

25 So they waited till they were embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room.

You can hear the laughter in the room from your fellow Jews as you’re all imagining the anxious whispers and confused looks that the servants are giving each other
Two servants are standing there and one says:
“Someone should go check on him.”
“Sure, you go do it!”
“Why me??”
“Well it was your idea!”
-And you can imagine that none of the servants want to be the one to burst in on the King as he’s sitting on the toilet
-And all this while, Ehud is running far away from the building!
-And so finally, they get a key, and they open the door . . . and the king is lying on the floor dead!
-Perhaps they bark out orders to bar the gates and keep everyone in the building, but by this time, Ehud is long gone and out of their reach!
And once again, we see the idols:

But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah.

-Now, let’s take just a second to ponder this:
-Anytime you’re reading narrative sections in the OT, you need to ask yourself: why would the author take the time to mention this detail?
-This isn’t a very long story
-It’s hardly more than 3 or 4 paragraphs
-So why take the time to mention the idols before the assassination and after?
-I think the author is trying to highlight the impotency of the idols that the pagans worshipped and that the Israelites had adopted
-These idols both “saw” Ehud coming, and “saw” him leaving, and yet they are completely powerless to do anything about it!
-They’re not able to save Eglon!
-They’re not able to come to the rescue of their people like God is able to come to the rescue of the Israelites!
-These idols are worthless
-They’re helpless
-They’re powerless
-Why would Israel ever turn to them in the first place??
-Brothers and sisters, God is all-powerful
-He’s Sovereign
-Whatever is going on in your life this evening, only God is truly able to help you
-Idolatry is when we deem something other than God to be the most valuable thing in our lives:
-Don’t be tempted to trust in your money, or your schemes, or anything else
-turn first to God
-Rest in Him and trust in Him for help
-And then act, but act in dependence on Him and in accordance with His will
So Ehud escapes past the lifeless, helpless idols
-And when he gets far enough away, he blows the trumpet, calling the Israelites to battle
And he says,

“Follow me, for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.”

And we see here that it’s God who not only has the power to give the Israelites over to their enemies, but He’s also the One who has the power to raise up a deliverer and save them!

So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

Just like that, 18 years of oppression ends
-Seems pretty easy doesn’t it?
-Pretty simple?
And guess what?
It is with God
-Israel’s oppression was never about military strength
-It wasn’t that they were taken over because of poor military strategy or the fact that King Eglon’s men were too many or too powerful
-It was because they abandoned God and were suffering the consequences
-And when God chose to deliver them, there was nothing that could stand in their way!

Conclusion:

-So, as we leave the imaginary room full of OT Jews and step back into our own time and space
-What does this story mean for us?
-How does the humorous story of Ehud and his assassination of a fat king affect me today?
-It’s something that I’ve been saying throughout, but the main point of this story is to show the absolute absurdity of worshipping anything other than the One True God
-Why on earth would we turn to anything else?
-Think of how foolish the Israelites were:
-They were in a covenant relationship with the Creator-God
-He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt with miraculous signs and wonders
-He had brought them safely across the Red Sea
-And He had given them the land that He’d promised to give their ancestors
-And yet, they wanted to ditch that so they could worship stone and wood
-Idols that couldn’t save their pagan neighbors, and certainly couldn’t save them either
-And brothers and sisters, we must be careful
-We too have been miraculously delivered from sin
-We have been transformed by the power of God
-And yet, we can so quickly become enamored with the things we used to be enslaved to:
-Money, popularity, social media, thrilling experiences, career
-And these things aren’t evil in and of themselves, but they’re so empty and meaningless compared with the worship of the One True God
-And so brothers and sisters, please let me encourage you to take stock of your life
-Are you loving Christ and worshipping Him?
-Are you pursuing Jesus as life’s ultimate satisfaction?
-Or are you becoming enamored with idols that have no ability to satisfy or last?
-We would do well to pray regularly to God that He would protect us from becoming enamored with the idols of our day
-We would do well to look around and see if we’re valuing something else more than we’re valuing God
-How can you tell if that’s the case?
-Usually the easiest way to tell what your idols are is to take stock of what gets you upset:
-Do you get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic? Perhaps you value your time too highly
-Do you get sullen and pouty when you have to pay for something unexpected? Perhaps you value you your money too much
-Do you get overly sensitive and hurt when someone tries to point out something you could grow in or ways that your idea can be improved? Perhaps you value your image too much
Brothers and sisters, let’s be in prayer and be watchful that God helps us to worship and love Him more than anything else
-Look ahead a little bit at chapter 4 verse 1 and you’ll see something we’ve already seen before, and we’ll see again throughout this book:

When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.

You see, Ehud was a savior raised up by God
-But he has the same flaw that Othniel had, and that all the other judges we’ll cover have: he eventually dies
-And when he does, the Israelites continue in their sin
-We need a Savior that never dies
-Someone who can permanently deliver from sin
-And we have that in Jesus Christ
-Why would we ever become enamored with anything else other than Him?
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