Judges 3 (NASB)
7 The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.
12 Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So 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 to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and defeated Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees. 14 The sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
15 But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 16 Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. 18 It came about when he had finished presenting the tribute, that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. 19 But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he said, “Keep silence.” And all who attended him left him. 20 Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. 21 Ehud stretched out his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. 22 The handle also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out. 23 Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.
24 When he had gone out, his servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “He is only relieving himself in the cool room.” 25 They waited until they became anxious; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the floor dead.
Murder They Wrote - Ehud
Idolatry Leads to Servitude
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 17:6 NASB
Joshua led the nation of Israel defeating 31 kings, but Israel suffered a great failure. The people did not continue to serve God beyond the generation that had conquered the promised land. But the positive side was that God raised up judges, men and women of faith, unknown and unlikely heroes, who led Israel out of bondage.
THE CYCLE OF SIN:
APOSTASY: is the first stage: the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot God and turned away from Him to other fleshly and sinful pursuits. They replace their worship of God with worship of false idols and other false gods.
SERVITUDE: God sold the Israelites into the hands of Eglon, king of Moab. In this stage of the cycle of sin Israel was under God’s judgement for their apostasy. Moab was Lot's son by an incestuous relationship with his eldest daughter. (The Moabites lived across the Jordan to the south of Israel.) Israel served Eglon for 18 years.
OPPRESSION: Once the Israelites were subdued they were then raided, robbed and reduced to poverty.
SUPPLICATION: The Israelites cried out to the Lord for deliverance
SALVATION: God would raise a deliverer. These deliverers called all of Israel to return to the Lord and to reclaim their inheritance and freedom.
Observations about Ehud that can be applied to our lives.
1. Ehud wasn’t afraid to confront the enemy.
2. People are content to stay enslaved.
3. The result of turning away from our idols.
Sometimes it takes only one person to motivate many to righteousness.
ILLUS: WORLD's GREATEST PLAYER
A little boy was heard talking to himself as he walked across the backyard, baseball cap in place, ball and bat in his hands. "I am the greatest hitter in the world," he said. He threw the ball up, swung and missed. "Strike one," he said. But again, he told himself, "I am the greatest hitter ever." He threw the ball up again, swung and missed. He looked at the ball, and at the bat, and said, "I’m the greatest hitter that ever lived." He threw the ball up again and swung and missed a third time. This time he said, "Wow! Strike three! What a pitcher! I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”
ILLUS: “Muhammad Ali” was probably one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in the sport's history. Not only was he a skilled boxer, he was very good at self-promotion, and he’d use clever pieces of short poetry to catch the imagination of his audience. For example, before his fight with Sonny Liston he said he was: “gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. (Liston's) hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.”
But he also used that “poetry” to challenge others to do better. He once gave this message to a college audience in NY:
“Stay in College
Get the knowledge
Stay there till you’re through.
If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread,
They can sure make something out of you.”
ILLUS: A Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut wrote a book called "Rescuers: Portraits of Holocaust survivors" interviewed people who had harbored fugitive Jews in their homes despite the danger to they and their families.
What he found was that many of the rescuers had a history of doing good deeds before the war - some visiting people in the hospital, others, collecting books for poor students, still others taking care of stray animals. "They just got into the habit of doing good. If they hadn't perceived that pattern as natural they might have been paralyzed into inaction." They did what came natural.
That’s what God is looking for. People who have gotten into the habit of being faithful to Him.
CLOSE: Years ago I went to a secular college. My brother said I needed to just to be in their Glee Club and experience the things they could do for me. And since dad was willing to pay the tuition, I went. Of course, while I was there I wanted to take classes I thought would help me in being a better preacher, so took things like sociology, psychology and philosophy.
One of the classes offered in the syllabus was called “Religions of the West”. The description of the class said it would cover Judaism, Christianity and Islam and tell me about their background and cultures.
And I thought – this should be no brainer. This would be a great class to take. It would give me a leg up on my plans to attend Bible College a couple of years later.
But the teacher had no intention of really telling us about the nature of Western Religions. His objective was to attack and undermine the faith of his students. His first class was dedicated to attacking the Old Testament. He said that Moses didn't write the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
Now, bear in mind my total religious education consisted of listening to sermons and going to Sunday School. So I didn't have much to say… but I raised my hand anyway.
I said “That’s not what I've always heard.” (Which I’m sure impressed the teacher)
He smiled back and said “That may be so, but the majority of scholars agree with me.”
Then he proceeded to attack another Bible book, and again I raised my hand and offered a lame challenge, and again he declared that the majority of scholars agreed with him.
Years later I realized how I must have looked to the other students. They hadn't paid to hear me talk. They’d paid to be taught by this professor, and I was doing little more than embarrassing myself. But I was determined not to let the Bible be treated like that.
Now I wasn't real quick, but I began to realize that if this teacher was attacking the Old Testament, he’d do the same to the New Testament when he shifted his attention to Christianity. So I went to the Campus Ministry and asked if they had any resources I could read that would help me do a better job of defending the Bible.
Sure enough, when the professor got started on Christianity, his first words were that Matthew didn't write Matthew, Mark didn't write Mark and so on. But I was ready. I raised my hand and said “According to this scholar and that scholar he was wrong because of this that or the other thing” (I couldn't begin to tell you the arguments I used, but I remember feeling good about myself).
The teacher paused for a moment – I don’t think anyone had ever challenged him like that before – then he said “Well, the majority of scholars agree with me.”
And we were off and running.
He’d attack Scripture, I’d cite my scholars and he’d respond that the majority of scholars agreed with him.
Then came the test. I answered all the questions, but then I wrote at the bottom of the test: “I need to apologize. This is your class and I’ve been giving you a hard time. But you’ve been attacking something that’s very important to me.
However, you’re going to be teaching on Islam next… and I don’t care about what you say about them. I promise I won’t bother you any more.”
I was done with him. But God wasn't.
He no sooner got started in teaching about Islam than he began to talk about Black Muslims. Black Muslims got him to racial prejudice and racial prejudice got him to WWII. And he said that the reason we dropped the bomb on the Japanese and not the Germans was because the Germans were white and the Japanese weren't.
Now, I love history and I was pretty sure that wasn't right. But I’d made a promise and so I didn't say anything. The problem is, people tell me that when I get frustrated I sigh. And I must have sighed because he looked at me and said:
“Alright Strite, what’s wrong now.”
I hadn't said anything!
But there was no getting out of it. I responded “According to everything I've ever heard, we didn't have the bomb when the Germans surrendered.”
“We did too,” he came back. “We had it in 1942.”
Well, what did I know? We’d just come out of the Vietnam War. Nixon was president. The government lied about all kinds of things. Maybe they’d lied about this too. Once again, I was beaten down by a man who knew more about life than I did.
That’s when God played His card.
One back and 4 seats to my left, a girl raised her hand. “I’m sorry sir, you’re wrong. My father worked on the project and we didn’t have the bomb until after Germany surrendered.”
Now, notice what God did.
He set me up. He allowed me to make an absolute fool out of myself defending Scripture, all for the purpose of allowing that girl to expose that professor’s false thinking. In one fell swoop, He discredited everything that professor had said and made everything I had stood for have weight.
My point is – I wasn't all that impressive, and I wasn't all that smart, but God used me anyway.
