Today we will discuss the times of Judge Ehud. Ehud was the man who became the second judge of Israel. Once again; we must remember that the judges of Israel were not like the judges of today. Nearly all of the Judges of Israel have interesting stories about the times of their rullership.
Ehud is no exception. His story is very unusual.
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Thank you for joining us in our study of the Book of Judges. We are looking at Judges, Chapter Three today. Our goal is to cover the scriptures word-by-word and page-by-page from the perspective a child first learning the ways of an adored father.
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KING EGLON RULES MOAB
God was still angry and frustrated with Israel for worshiping foreign gods. The people of Moab worshiped one of the most disgusting idols called Baal. Israel seems to have fallen into this trap merely by association with the people living in the land.
You may recall how Israel defeated the two kings over Moab before they crossed over into the Promised Land. They were King Og, who was over Moab, and King Sihon who was King of the Amorites living in and around Moab.
Now, many years later a new king rose to the throne in Moab. His name was Eglon. He was just as bad as the previous kings of Moab.
The lazy and easy life of a king had made Eglon physically weak. He constantly enjoyed and lavished the rich foods from his royal tables. This caused him to be very obese. The stomach of this king of Moab was extremely large and layered with fat.
WEAK WITH GOOD ALIES
Though he was weakened in strength by his enormous fat; this greedy king gained more power for himself by getting the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him. They were strong alies. Their combined army came together to attack Israel.
The foes from Moab were successful. (God had no reason to keep protecting and delivering a disobedient Israel during this time, since they had given themselves over to the pagan gods again.) Israel remained in the uncertain circumstances of their times of testing.
The Moabites took over control of Jericho. King Eglon set up his chambers in that city.
EIGHTEEN MORE YEARS OF SLAVERY
The Israelites living in this part of the country became subject to King Eglon for eighteen years.
As they became slaves again; Israel suddenly remembered God.
Imagine that.
He had delivered them once before. They hoped God would have mercy and deliver them again.
The disobedient people of Israel put away their idols and cried out to the LORD once more. This time God used a man named Ehud who was the son of Gera The Benjamite to deliver Israel. Remember that the name Benjamin means “son of the right hand.” That might seem a bit ironic to you as the story of Ehud progresses.
GOD CHOSES EHUD
As Ehud rose up to become Israel’s new judge; it was strangely noted that he was left-handed. Ehud was a left-handed fellow from a tribe called right-handed. However; in battle being left-handed faked off the enemy. Most men fighting were right-handed and wore their swords on the left side. Ehud was different. He threw the usual balance of the military fighting out of order and produced enough chaos to confuse and conquor his enemies.
Ehud made himself a double-edged sword about eighteen inches long which he liked to use with his left hand. He kept this specially made sword strapped to his right thigh underneath his clothing. It was the left side that the enemies always checked for weapons, so Ehud often appeared to be unarmed when he wasn’t. This gave him great advantages over his enemies.
One thing that each landowner of Israel had to do in honor of this Moabite King named Eglon was to present him with tribute. They had to do this in order to continue to live in the land. The Israelites had to give King Eglon something of value in order to remain alive and able to continue living on their own property.
Stop for just a moment and let those facts sink in.
ANCIENT FORM OF PROPERTY TAXES
What we see happening here was the first of the ancient forms of property taxes.
In order to retain your own property legally in the land; you had to pay the leaders of the land money. If you paid the properly demanded price; you could continue to keep the use of your own land.
However; if you did not pay the tribute; the government of the day would come, throw you in jail or kill you, and take your property for their own uses and gain.
If you stop for even a moment to ponder this; you will realize that we still conform to this type of government today. Our taxes aren’t taken by force though, we vote in the community leaders who come to take taxes away from us. We have to pay property taxes to the local governing authorities in order to keep and maintain life upon the lands which we already own and have already paid for. We actually vote in the leaders who enforce these rules.
In many ways taxes have become the modern-man’s form of slavery. By allowing this to happen to us, modern society has given away its rights to the land it already has bought and paid for. Power lends itself to greed and more and more greed calls for more and more power.
YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY
Most people willingly fall into this type of enslavement because the people in charge promise to maintain roads, water and public property access to the lands and communities. In our day at least some people benefit by becoming gainfully employed by the local governments to help maintain the public areas and access.
Back in the days of the Israelites, nothing at all was gained from paying this tribute to the King.
You simply got to keep what you already owned. Hmmmmm……”you will own nothing and be happy” might have taken this ancient type of concept into their twisted logic for today’s new set of global thinkers. Note; I did include the word “twisted” while noting such words.
We have evolved into a much more complicated system of slavery than Israel ever had in their day; that fact is for sure. There is a way to have slaves who don’t even realize that they are enslaved. America has proven that point. Yet; we are supposed to be the freeist country on the globe.
HOW IT HAPPENS
The Israelites fell into another type of slavery because they did not honor or follow God’s commandments.
America suffers the same today; only worse. We have a well-written constitution that was designed to defend and help us maintan our freedom. It was based on godly ways and reinforced God’s laws in our land. Our present government is ignoring this constitution. The people of the land are letting them get away with this type of unlawful behavior. It is very similar to what the Moabites did to Israel.
We-the-people simply continue to pay their tribute and try to keep some type of peace within our own little private orbits.
Perhaps we deceive ourselves.
Getting back to the lesson though.
EHUD’S GREAT PLAN
The day came for King Eglon to receive tribute from Ehud. This left-handed Benjamite leader was sent to Moab with the tribute for the people of his area. Ehud presented the tribute to King Eglon personally. This presentation of the dispised and unlawful tribute was done with honor and respect. It was well received by a fat, lazy, weak King who loved the prestigue of being honored for no good reason at all.
After he had presented the tribute; Ehud sent the men who had accompanied him on this tax-paying mission on their way. He rode with them as far a Gilgal where the stone images stand, then turned around and went back to Moab.
HONORING THE MEMORIAL STONES
Remember why the stones were erected at Gilgal?
There were twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan River. They were stacked in Gilgal. Each stone represented one of the tribes of Israel who had crossed the Jordan River for the first time into the land of promise. Gilgal was on the other side of the river. Their Great God had helped them accomplish an impossible victory. The stones stood in Gilgal as a memorial reminder that The God of Israel could accomplish the impossible for His people.
If you would like to review the story of the stones of Gilgal; here are a few links from former lessons to review: __https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/twelve-stones-from-the-jordan-river/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-spiritual-side-of-gilgal/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/gilgal-to-golgotha/.
EHUD’S PLAN UNFOLDING
Ehud’s thoughts are not really given in the story; this theory that the stones made him think of a plan is purely a suggestion from my own imagination.
My own theory is that Ehud gazed upon those now old stones and remembered the reason why they were there. He must have realized how far Israel had strayed from their original course as a nation ruled by God.
Perhaps it was in that spot that Ehud decided he could correct the sins of Israel by asking for and trusting in the help of the God who could accomplish the impossible.
Ehud had his plan and he turned around to act upon it.
THE SECRET MESSAGE FOR THE KING
Ehud made his way back into the gates of the palace in order to see the King again. This entrance was accomplished by telling the king’s servants that he had a secret message to give to the king. Most people think Ehud told the king’s men he had received an oracle from God for King Eglon.
Of course the king, now trusting Ehud because of his polite and respectful and very loyal payment of tribute on a timely basis, was not only curious; but by now he had come to trust Ehud.
The King told his attendants to leave the room. Now King Eglon and Ehud were alone together in the palace’s upper chambered throne room. The king had trusted Ehud enough to allow him into his personal quarters.
Acting as if the walls had ears, Ehud approached the thone in the upper chambers of the palace and came close to the King in order to speak very quietly of this secret oracle.
When the king rose from his seat and leaned in further and closer to hear what Ehud was whispering to him, Ehud reached down with his left hand and drew the sword from his right thigh.
A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD WORN ON HIS RIGHT THIGH
Quickly he plunged the double-edged sword into the fat king’s belly.
So much fat covered the King’s belly that even the sword’s handle sank into his belly fat with the blade all covered in layer-after-layer of extra fat. The bowels of the king came rushing out of his body. The room must have smelled like a sewer.
Ehud did not pull his sword back out of the king’s body because so much fat still covered it. On first seeing this sight of the dead king one would only think his bowels had fallen out of his body. The fact that he had been stabbed to death would not have been evident as the sword had been swallowed up by all of his fat.
Ehud quickly locked the doors to the upper rooms. Then he escaped through climbing down from the porches of the upper rooms of the palace.
After Ehud had been gone for awhile, the servants of the king got suspicious.
They returned to the upper chambers of the palace and knocked on the doors which they found locked. The king did not answer or come out. All of his servants figured King Eglon was busy using the restroom (from the horrible smell in the air) and they supposed the king just did not hear them.
The servants waited an unusually long time before obtaining a key to one of the doors and unlocking the door.
A TYRANT KING IS DEFEATED
Once they entered the chambers, the king was found dead on the floors of the upper chambers of the palace. The king’s bowels lay on the floor beside him. Those rooms nearby and the room where the King lay dead reaked from a very unpleasant odor.
Ehud had been successful in riding Israel of paying tribute to this tyrant of a leader.
As he passed the stone images going back home, Ehud made his way into the area of the hill country of Ephraim. When he arrived in Seirah, he blew a trumpet. This loud sound was a signal for other Israelites to join him in battle.
THE TRUMPET IS SOUNDED
When the Israelite military arrived Ehud told them; “The LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands. Follow me!”
So they followed Ehud down from the hill country and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab.
The Israelites formed a stronghold at the river. After that no one was allowed to cross over the river without permission from Israel.
Ten thousand Moabites tried to break their barrier.
Those ten thousand Moabites were killed.
Not one escaped.
That day Moab was made subject to Israel. It was a great victory!
EIGHTY YEARS OF PEACE
After this great victory, Israel enjoyed peace for eighty years. Ehud rose as their faithful judge. He subjected Israel to God’s ways again.
For the lifetime of Judge Ehud, Israel had peace in the Land of Promise. Next week we will explore more of the meaning behind this reign/judgeship of Ehud which we find hiding here in The Book of Judges.