Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 25 – April 1982

 

Ehud, The Deliverer Of God

 

Sermon by Rev. M.P. Geluk on Judges 3:12,15,30

Scripture Reading: Judges 3: 12-30

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

If I were still a young boy then I would read this true story about Ehud with a glint in my eye because of its adventure and excitement.  But I do not think that Ehud enjoyed killing Eglon, the king of Moab.  He had to do it, for there seemed no other way to deliver Israel from this terrible tyrant.

It was a very risky operation and Ehud's strategy could have easily met with failure.  But obviously, Ehud had courage, determination, and he was able to fool the king and hide his left-handed skill until the moment to act was there.  And once he had disposed of the king and had successfully escaped, he was then able to muster Israel's troops and with their help drive out the hated Moabites.  He thus gave the people of the Lord peace and freedom.

A boy with a bit of adventure in his blood would probably regard the climax of this story as being the moment when Ehud's knife plunged and disappeared into the king's fat belly.  Perhaps the girls would find the whole thing quite horrible.

But this account about Ehud is of course not in the Bible to give boys a glint in their eyes or girls the shivers.

In fact, some people have even questioned God's wisdom and purpose in having those gruesome exploits of judges, like Ehud, in the Bible.  When missionaries many years ago brought the good news of salvation to the people of southern Europe for the first time, then they on purpose avoided teaching from Bible books such as Judges and Kings and even made a point of not translating these books when they gave them the Bible in their own language.  The missionaries reasoned that the tribes of Southern Europe were too warlike, and people like Ehud would only give them new ideas to try out.

So if you are one of those who think that the Bible ought to be a pleasant sort of children's book, to teach children to be good and nice because your idea of God is that He loves nice little boys and girls who are sweet to each other and don't play rough games or use rude words and always say 'please' and 'thank you', yes, then the story of Ehud can be a little upsetting, and you are confused why God even plays a part in it.

Some commentators come to a compromise and are quite happy about God here delivering His people from their enemies, the Moabites, but criticize Ehud quite severely for the way he handled the situation and call him a murderer and an assassin.  One commentator goes as far as saying that whilst the Spirit of the Lord was upon the other judges, He certainly was not on Ehud.  Their proof lies in the fact that nothing here is said about Ehud being motivated by God's Spirit.

Indeed, what you read about the previous judge, Othniel, about him having the Spirit of the Lord upon him (3:10), that is not said about Ehud.  But the interesting fact is that Othniel received God's Spirit in order to be Israel's judge and to go to war.  A judge in those days of Israel was a person who, generally speaking, had a two-fold task:

1.  to personally deliver Israel from enemy oppression; and usually that meant military action, bloodshed and violence; and

2.  to rule and administer justice.

God's Spirit came upon these judges to equip and help them to carry out this two-fold task.

Now Ehud is in that class too.  The Lord singled him out and gave him to Israel as a deliverer, a saviour.

The passage appears to make a point about Ehud being a left-handed man, and if that is an important point then we will see later on how that serves to bring out God's sovereignty also over this particular man in the history of God's people.  Ehud's successful plan in getting rid of Eglon, the Moabite king, was also part and parcel of God's reign over all things for the sake of the people of His covenant.

Ehud had apparently no difficulty in seeing himself as an instrument in God's hand.  He had no hesitation in saying to Eglon that he had a message for him from God (vs.20).  That could have been a trick on Ehud's part, I suppose.  Making Eglon think that he, Ehud, had an important message for him from Israel's God.  One commentator, who has his doubts about Ehud's moral uprightness, points out that Ehud used the more general name for God, Elohim, and not the covenant name of God, Yahweh, with which the Israelites were more familiar.

Yet, Ehud said that he had a message from God and Eglon found that particular message to be the end of his life as the oppressor of God's covenant people.

That Ehud killed Eglon out of obedience to God, should not surprise us.  Was not God's message for Canaan that all its people should be killed by the sword because their wickedness was no longer being tolerated by God?

And did not Joshua act as God's servant when he personally killed those five Canaanite kings whom the Israelites had disobediently spared in battle?

And did not the prophet Samuel act on behalf of God when he killed Agag the king of the Amalekites whom Saul was ordered to kill but had not?

Indeed, our conception of God may need some rethinking in the light of God's revelation of Himself in the Bible books, Joshua and Judges.

Anyway, Ehud did his terrible job and then escaped to the hills to call his fellow Israelites out to battle.  There too he had no doubt that the Lord was with him and great was his faith when he said to his people: "Follow me, for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands. " (vs.28).

Yes, great was Ehud's faith, for the odds were greatly in favour of Moab, humanly speaking.  But Ehud did not go by human calculations, for the Lord had specifically raised him up as a saviour for His people.  And for the purpose of delivering His people the Lord made a man of faith out of Ehud.

The Bible tells us that for eighty years after that victorious battle with the Moabites there was peace in the land of Israel.  In fact, chapter 4:1 says that after Ehud died, Israel again started to do evil.  This would seem to suggest very strongly that Ehud had been an effective judge for a considerable period of time.

No, his name is not mentioned in Hebrews 11, where many other Old Testament saints are listed.  But then Hebrews 11 was never meant to convey the impression that the names mentioned there constituted a complete list of all Old Testament examples of faith.

With all this we don't want to make it sound as if Ehud did not and could not do wrong.  He may well have done some things his own way, but on the whole it is clear that the Spirit of the Lord God had also come upon Ehud in his God-given task to be a saviour to God's people of that time.

But so far we have not really looked at the background of this whole passage in the book of Judges.  When we compare Scripture with Scripture, that is, look at other passages and statements that are connected with this passage, then we learn a few more things that help us a great deal, not only in understanding this passage more clearly, but we also come to greater admiration and faith in God as the faithful covenant Lord to His people.

We have singled out these three verses because we believe they are a key towards a proper understanding of this whole passage.  They are the verses 12, 15 and 30.  Verse 12 says: "Once 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."  Then some eighteen years passed and verse 15 says: "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."

Then after they were delivered, verse 30 indicates: "That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years."

Verse 12 indicates that once again the Israelites, the covenant people of God, had done evil in His sight and for that the Lord gave them over to the power of the Moabite king.

Now, does not that sound a bit strange, the Lord giving a heathen king power over His people?  Well, it would, if we think only of God as a God of love.  But there is also God's justice to consider, as well as the nature of Israel's sin.

If it was just any sin, then we might well think God to be more just by punishing His people some other way, at least differently than by using a king who is a tool of Satan.  But the fact is that the nature of Israel's sin invited the very kind of oppression that they experienced.

You see, the root cause of Israel's evil and faithlessness was their failure to completely drive out the Canaanites.  God had instructed them to do this, mainly for two reasons:

1.  The Canaanites had sunken so low in moral filth that God decided to punish them for their wickedness, and Israel was the means in God's hand in this judgment.

2.  Israel had to take possession of the land of Canaan but they were to have nothing to do with the Canaanites' false gods, the Baals and the Astarte, who were fertility gods.  And there was to be no inter-marriage.  Hence they had to get rid of all the Canaanite people.

Well, under Joshua, Israel began obediently but when it came to drive out those Canaanite people who had iron chariots and lived on the fertile plains, then they lacked courage and the fear of men replaced faith in God (chapter 1).

In fact, worse was to come.

A new generation of Israelites grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what He had done for Israel (2:10ff).  The people began to mix their religions.  The true worship of God was adulterated with the worship of Canaan's false gods.  Once that backward step had been taken, the next step did not seem so bad any more the taking of husbands and wives from among the Canaanites (3:6).

What we should be doing now of course is not to shake our heads and say those foolish Israelites, but to take the warning that is plain for all to see.  These parts of the Bible, like the passage we are looking at, are there for that very purpose, namely, to warn God's people of later years not to do the same foolish things these Israelites did.

Of course, we as the New Testament church have not been given a promised land like the Lord's covenant people of old.  We will receive a new heaven and a new earth, and that is our promised new land.  But that is not of this age but belongs to the age to come.  Yet the Lord is King now already over all the earth, and therefore we must as His covenant people of today establish His kingdom wherever God places us.  We are to be obedient to God and serve Him faithfully and not take over the sinful ways of the world or serve the world's false gods, and not marry people who do not know or believe the Lord.

The fact that a new generation of Israelites arose who did not know the Lord, neither knew His mighty redemption of His people from Egypt into the promised land of Canaan, ought to make us sit up straight.  It ought to make us realise how important it is to teach our children the true worship and service of God, so that they as the next generation are not lost to the world and lose their Christian identity through Christ-less marriages.

Well, the Israelites, after Joshua, went all wrong because of lack of faith and disobedience.  And so the Lord delivered them into the hands of those whose false religion and evil ways they had already absorbed and adopted.

The Lord pulled back His protective arm after His people seemed almost desperate to wriggle out from under His covenant love.  It only took one generation.  The parents had still experienced God's blessings – entry into the promised land, defeat of Jericho, Ai, and all the other cities and nations.  But the next generation had already forgotten these things.

And so enter Eglon, king of Moab.  He got the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join him.

And here is where a bit of Bible study brings interesting facts to light.  The Moabites were the descendants of Moab who was the grandson of Lot.  The Ammonites were the descendants of Ammon who was also a grandson of Lot.  If fact, both Moab and Ammon were not just grandsons of Lot, they were his own sons too.  Lot's daughters had gotten these children through their father, shortly after Lot and his daughters had escaped from the destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now these descendants of Lot, the Moabites and the Ammonites, lived east of Canaan, and on the way to the Promised Land Israel had left these nations in peace.  But that is not to say that Ammon and Moab were not worried.

At that time when Israel came past, Balak, who was then the king of Moab tried to persuade Balaam to prophesy doom over Israel, but God forced him to bless Israel instead.  Balak tried desperately to bring about Israel's undoing as the people of God, but God protected His people.

When Balaam failed and his curses turned out to be blessings, then both Moab and Ammon decided to send their pretty single girls to mix with the Israelites who were camped nearby.  It they could have Israelite men fall in love with heathen girls and persuade them to worship their false gods, then they would no longer be a separate people of the Lord.  But Moses realised the evil intent behind this sexual temptation and soon put a stop to it (Numbers 25:1ff).

But now, a mere 100 years later, Israel had backslidden into the very same trouble and Eglon, the king, saw his opportunity.  If Moab and Ammon could subdue Israel and strike at the cause of their power, the God of Israel, and have Moab's god, Chemosh, and Ammon's god, Moloch, reign instead, then they had it made.  Then there would be need to worry no more about the future.

Amalek too became a partner in this attack upon Israel.  The Amalekites were descendants of Esau; Amalek was Esau's grandson.  These Amalekites had earlier tried to destroy Israel and God vowed that He would extinguish Amalek for that.

Thus Moab, Ammon, and Amalek joined forces in the attack upon God's covenant people, all eager to keep them down in complete subjection.  But why were they so eager in this?  Why were they so keen to destroy Israel?

For the answer to this we have to look at the struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, God and Satan.  Indeed, can we see the strategy of Satan behind these hostile nations?  Can we see the mind of Satan at work here?

You see, God promised to bring salvation to mankind after the fall into sin.  Satan will not be the victor.  God will redeem His creation and His people.  He will do it through His own Son, Jesus Christ.

This promise of salvation, yes, the promise concerning Christ to redeem His people, went first of all to Adam and Eve, then to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  And through Jacob the promise came to his descendants, the Israelites.

The promise did not come to Lot, Abraham's nephew, and neither to Lot's descendants, the Moabites and the Ammonites.  Nor did the promise come to Esau, Jacob's brother, and neither to Esau's descendants, the Amalekites.

In the mystery of God's election, salvation came to Israel, so as to serve God's purpose in bringing Christ into the world to save many people from their sins.  But as God works out His plan of salvation then Satan is there continually to resist and undermine.  Satan is at enmity with God along every turn of the way of salvation.  Satan resisted Gods plan of salvation through Moab, Ammon and Amalek.  He influenced these nations to destroy Israel so that Christ's coming would be prevented.

At present he seeks to destroy the New Testament church through communism, socialism, humanism and the secularism of the world today.  Times and places have changed from those of Ehud but the contest is still there.

Now in that light we have put this passage from Judges and it is really the only way to see it.  We can now see that for the sake of His promise of salvation regarding Christ, God was punishing His people in order to bring about amongst them a repentant attitude.

And sure enough, after eighteen years they finally humbled themselves and cried out to the Lord: Lord, be merciful to us, for we are a sinful people.  Eighteen years of misery wherein they had to live a hard life in the hill country, for Eglon's hordes possessed the fertile plains.

Eighteen years of bringing yearly tributes from their meagre incomes to that fat king who became rich through them and had a summer palace with a special cool room to boot.

Probably Ehud had been part of those envoys who had to deliver the goods to the king.  Eglon had stationed himself in the territory of Benjamin and Ehud was a Benjamite.

But now to see God's sovereignty in all of this!  Yes, God in His grace and mercy listened to His people crying out to Him and He would deliver them.  Ehud was to be His instrument, the man who was left-handed.

Ehud's left-handed skill was not so unusual.  The tribe of Benjamin seemed to specialise in left-handed people, for at one time they had 700 of such fellows who by means of a sling could hurl stones at a hair and not miss (20:16).

But Ehud obviously did not let on that he was left-handed.  He may have acted right-handed.  When he brought the tribute to Eglon everything appeared normal.  Ehud and his men flattered the king and raised no suspicion.  They left, but Ehud returned alone and had Eglon finally all to himself.  Obviously, Eglon and his guards did not suspect Ehud to be a left-handed specialist with a knife.  Well, Ehud did his job quietly and could escape without raising alarm.

But we see that God seemingly uses unimportant things, like Ehud's left-handed skill to fulfil His plan of salvation.  And Israel could now take advantage of the confused situation in Eglon's palace, and leaderless Moab was subsequently trounced in the battle that followed.

God's people, as a result of all this, had peace again which lasted eighty years.  And peace meant freedom.  God's covenant people were again free to worship the Lord their God faithfully.  They could once again teach their children the importance of serving the Lord.  They were free again to obey the Lord as the King.  Free, to return to the Lord's ways.

But Ehud was only a temporary saviour.  He eventually died and again Israel drifted back into disobedience and lost sight of their unique place under God's rule.  Through their own fault they lost their freedom again.

In the meantime Christ has come and He is a better Saviour than Ehud.  He does not deliver His people by shedding the blood of others.  No, He shed His blood as He was crucified and taking man's curse upon Himself.  By paying the awful price for sin Himself, He brought freedom from sin's dominion and judgment to God's people.

And Christ lives forever, so as to always be a Saviour to His people.  He rules and delivers His people from all oppression caused by sin and Satan.  He no longer delivers His people by means of the sword or other weapons of war but through His Word and Spirit.

He also rules over all the nations.  Even in these days of nuclear armament and long-range missiles, He will overrule world leaders, including the most arrogant and atheistic among them.  He will have His perfect will done and bring in His kingdom in full.

He is the same covenant God, and obedience and faithfulness to Him still apply.  Come then, hear His voice today and be saved from all sinful oppression around you.  Let Christ break the evil around you and the evil within you.  He saves you now by forgiving you all your sins and ruling you through His Word and Spirit.  Your hearts are changed.

Yes, you may still be subject to pain and death, and still liable to fall into sin.  But salvation is also future in that Christ will come soon to establish His Kingdom in full.  Then salvation will be complete and Satan put down for good.

For the present you may enjoy the salvation that Christ has brought you.  Do not become enslaved to sin and so fall back into misery.  Serve God in your freedom and teach your children the ways of God.

Amen.