Last week we studied Ehud, the second judge of Israel. I’m wondering if this story had the same effect upon anyone else that it had on me. I kept thinking of Jesus. Did you?
Israel needed a deliverer. They had sinned against God AGAIN, and AGAIN they needed to repent and ask for God to help them beyond their sins. God sent Ehud to be their second judge. Ehud conquered the tyrannical king that was holding Israel hostage in the land of their own heritage.
ONE SHADOW AND TYPE
This is so much like how the Christian Church allows Satan to take over subtly until he rules their lives and God is nowhere to be found in the land.
It happens slowly and gradually, and before you know it, we all need to be delivered. Today we can turn to Jesus. He is our deliverer. We come to the end of ourselves and we begin to seek His forgiveness. He helps us to turn back to God. Jesus and Ehud both knew something similar.
They both remembered the memorial stones of Gilgal. For Ehud the thinking was to remember how the twelve tribes struggled to leave slavery, cross the sea, walk through the wilderness and cross the river in order to come into their inheritance. Each stone in Gilgal symboled the struggles of each of the tribes. They were proof of how God delivered them through impossible odds.
For Jesus the stones might have been symbolic of the twelve disciples who followed him through thick and thin. They were always by his side as he traveled the wilderness of the world. Each true disciple had faith to keep on following him. Even when Jesus suffered and died on the cross, the disciples, though afraid, still chose to follow and believe.
Yes; it took them a little time to ponder the truth and follow it; but they all showed up in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost expecting and anticipating what a risen-from-the-dead, ascended Savior of the World was going to do next.
He sent The Holy Spirit and they were all filled with God’s power. It started with “following him.”
FOLLOW ME
How many times did Jesus turn to the disciples and say those words “follow me?”
Did you catch the words that Ehud used to the men of Israel after he arrived back at Gilgal from destroying the tyrannical king who tried to keep Israel captive but failed? It is written down in Judges 3:28; “The LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands. Follow me!”
Like Jesus, Ehud had used those same words. Follow me! All who followed the One God put in charge of delivering Israel in that day were victorious.
The next scripture in Judges speak of the victory that happened. Judges 3:28(b) – 30 states: So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
REVERSING THINGS
Thinking of the times of Jesus, we can remember how the disciples came to understand that “from his belly flowed rivers of living waters.” This fact reverses the horrible scene of the death of the Moabite King Eglon when his bowels and entrails fell out of his stomach and he died.
With the deliverance of Jesus just the opposite happens. Rivers of Living Water bring life to those who decide to follow Him. This living water is healing and brings new life.
Fast forward to today. God’s Church must guard the gift of the rivers of living water that flow from God’s throne. It is the new life that Jesus brings to us.
CREATING A STRONGHOLD
This new life delivers us from the evil worship that the Moabites carried out. Such pagan things are still carried out even in our modern times. Idol worship has seeped into every day life of the people of the whole earth.
What once took place in Moab is global now. The evil is global. It is growing; but if we turn and repent and follow Jesus by being obedient to God’s ways; we can create a stronghold at the river of life that will ward off the enemies of God. God will again give His Church the victory.
ONE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Often all it takes to start this new beginning is the believing heart of one man. We need only one man with the bravery and tenacity of Ehud to give us all the strength to do the impossible.
That one man could be you if you allow God to take over your actions and control your actions. That was how Ehud set the events into motion that saved a whole nation and brought peace for 80 years to Israel. It could happen again!
SOUND THE TRUMPET
Ehud gathered the men of Israel with the sound of a trumpet. God has always used a trumpet to warn us of turning points in history. The trumpet is very symbolic of our own times. The new sound of a nation turning around, repenting, turning back to God must be heard. That is the sound of this new trumpet of our times.
One man can start the sound that will herald a whole nation of change.
With God’s help Ehud did this, and with God’s help we can too. Those memorial stones are our reminder. The sound of the trumpet is our warning.
CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN
Can you feel the time is near that Jesus will return and deliver us?
We can read of it in Revelation. Revelation 11:6-9 speaks these words: Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like the loud peals of thunder, shouting: Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding the Lamb had come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen bright and clean, was given to her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Then the angel said to me, “Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
GIVING GOD THE GLORY
Notice those words in this passage that say “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!” Where have we heard very similar words?
They are the Hebrew meaning of Ehuds name. Ehud in Hebrew means “Where is the glory?”
Ehud came to turn the path of Israel around from a pagan nation to a nation that gives God the glory. He was seeking the answers to produce this glory that had once been Israel’s power and might.
ONE MORE RIGHTEOUS
There is One who has prevailed and been stronger and more righteous than the judge called Ehud. His name if Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God and the Word is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Jesus came in more power and might than Ehud. He came to give God the glory! He came to turn the nations of the world back to the glory that had once belonged to Israel when they were obedient to God.
KILLING THE GOLDEN CALF
Ehud slay King Eglon the fat King of Moab. He has been related to “a fatted calf.”
When I hear this translation I have to think of the golden calf that Israel turned away from God and worshiped. The nations of the globe are committing this same forbidden sin even as I write these words.
The Golden Calf is back in town and it represents the idolatrous sins of the nations of this world. God had blessed Israel with the gold that was used to create and make the golden calf that ruined their nation. Nations have taken the blessings of God, of gold and silver and luxurious products, and used them to build another golden calf.
The people bow down and worship the wealth from these blessings from God. They sin to obtain them and they forget where their wealth came from. Instead of worshiping the source of their wealth and blessings; the people set themselves and their own ways under their own false power up as gods.
GOD IS TESTING US
Like in the days of the judges of Israel; God is testing us. He has turned away to let us find out what our sins will do to us. This seems the only way that we ever learn.
Some of us will wake up and repent, turn and trust God for deliverance again. Satan has so many deceived that they are often unaware that they are participating in their own demise.
Jesus is coming again, and similar to Ehud, He is wearing a secret message on His right thigh. He will bring judgment to the earth like Ehud brought it to King Eglon.
We know from the word written in Hebrews 4:2; The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
THE MAN ON THE WHITE HORSE
Ehud had that sharp two-edged sword that destroyed tyrants. Jesus carries a sword like this. We can read in Revelation 19:11-16 of his second coming and the judgment that will come to the earth on that day:
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no none knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he had this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
A NEW JUDGE IS COMING
Yes, a judgment is coming. The man on the white horse who brings it will be more righteous than Ehud. He will end the sins of the golden calf and the rule of all evil. His followers will stand and fight with him, just as the followers of Ehud did in his day. The secret message will be written upon his right thigh; KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Jesus, our Messiah will come to earth and become our King.
Finally, righteous judgement will rule in the land forever and ever.