Judges 3:12-30: “Ehud: the Left-Handed Judge”1 by Rev. Brian Cochran

Judges 3:12-30: “Ehud: The Left-Handed Judge”1 By Rev. Brian Cochran

Introduction

Who can forget those memorable words: “Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it. . .” An IMF agent would then receive instructions for an impossible mission and then 5 seconds later the message would self-destruct. This of course is the common beginning of the well- known TV and movie series Mission Impossible. One of the highlights of this plot-driven series was the suspense of how they were going to pull off the mission. In the end they always came up with some clever scheme that caught everyone by surprise.

Well if there was ever a mission impossible in the Bible, it can be found in the story of Ehud, the left-handed Judge. The story of Ehud is a story of clever deceit and trickery in order to pull off a stealth assassination mission. It is packed with suspense, satire and a surprising outcome.

But unlike most action movies, this story isn’t meant simply to entertain. This is a story with a message for God’s people. And even though it may seem graphic at times, we must remember that this is God’s word and that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And so consider with me the following theme and subpoints of our passage:

Theme: God’s Surprising Salvation 1. The Idolatrous People (v. 12a) 2. The Pathetic Oppressors (vv. 12b-14; 17b) 3. The Ingenious Plan (vv. 15-31)

1. God’s Surprising Salvation: The Idolatrous People (v. 12a)

Israel was an idolatrous people and so they deserved to be oppressed. Judg. 3:12 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD. You see the emphasis in this opening verse is that Israel is suffering oppression because of the consequences of their own sin. Israel was a stubborn and rebellious people, especially when they had no leader. The book of Judges begins where Joshua left off. Things had gone fairly well for Israel when Joshua was leading them. But their leader Joshua has just died at the ripe age of 110 and Israel quickly fails to complete the conquest of the land that had begun with Joshua by failing to drive out the Canaanites from before them.

Furthermore, instead of conquering them, Israel began to co-exist with the Canaanites, putting them to forced labor (Judg 1:28). Though this may have seemed like a good idea to Israel, it is the beginning of their downward spiral of sin and apostasy. Shortly thereafter, they would do what is evil in the sight of the Lord by abandoning him and serving the Baals and the Ashtaroth,

1 This sermon may be copied and distributed as long as the content is not changed, due credit is given to the author, and no money is made in the distribution. Copyright 2010, Brian Cochran and Redeemer Reformation Church (URCNA), Regina, SK. More sermon manuscripts and sermon audio can be found at www.redeemerchurch.ca. 2 the false gods of the Canaanites. Though the one true God had saved them and brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, they would go after other gods, and bow down to them. Though God had warned them and sworn to them that they would suffer severe consequences if they turned aside from serving him, they hardened their hearts anyway and worshipped idols.

Therefore, God did not drive out the Canaanites from before them, but instead he left the Canaanites in the land as a thorn in Israel's side, and their gods became a snare to Israel (Judg 2:3, 21). And God did this to test Israel's faithfulness to him, their covenant Lord, to whom they had sworn allegiance. And so in their first test they failed and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord (v. 7). And this is the common refrain throughout the book of Judges. Time and again we read, like a broken record: “and the people of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” And so throughout the book we see the downward spiral of Israel’s national and spiritual life into chaos and apostasy, showing the need for a godly king to lead them. Their sin and apostasy gets worse and worse so that the last verse of the book reads: Judg. 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Well God is a just and holy God who follows through on his promises of blessing and curse. And so it is no surprise then when we read that Israel is under the oppression of Eglon, the king of Moab. Indeed, we see that this is God's judgment on his people. For it is said in our text the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. (Judg 3:12). God is chastising his people through the Moabites. And not only is it the Moabites who overpower Israel. Eglon gets the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join and assist him in defeating Israel.

These three nations are iconic enemies of Israel throughout the OT. You may recall that the Moabites had previously tried to conquer Israel when King Balak hired Balaam to curse them (Num 22-24). The Ammonites, descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, joined with the Moabites back then as well in hiring Balaam. The Amalekites, descendants of Esau, are the ones that Israel faced when Aaron and Hur had to hold up Moses’ arm so that he could keep his staff raised high and Israel could win the battle. None of these nations were able to overcome Israel then, but now they easily overcome the Israelites together, in this evil alliance. This would have been demoralizing for Israel.

But once again, it is God who ultimately strengthens Eglon and his forces, who conquer Israel at the “City of Palms.” Israel then has to serve Eglon and the Moabites for eighteen years. The City of Palms is most likely Jericho, and thus the Moabite occupation in Jericho reverses the work of Joshua when he brought down the walls and laid a curse on anyone who would rebuild its walls (Josh 3-6; 6:26). These eighteen years must have been miserable for Israel. And we’ll see just how miserable it would have been when we consider Israel’s pathetic oppressors.

2. God’s Surprising Salvation: The Pathetic Oppressors (vv. 12b-14; 17b)

Not only did Israel deserve to be punished, but they were shamed by those whom God chose as instruments of his punishment. Not only were these Israel’s rivals, but the Moabites were a lame bunch of rulers. Eglon and the Moabites were not your typical intimidating force of foes. They could not even conquer the small nation of Israel without the help of other nations.

Furthermore, they are portrayed in the story as fat in physical appearance and as being thick headed. Eglon, the Moabite King serves as the stories prime example of stoutliness and stupidity. He is caricatured as such throughout the narrative. As memorable as Ehud is, Eglon is equally memorable both in his name and in his portrayal.

Eglon’s Name. Eglon’s name is taken from two Hebrew words. The first means “calf” or “bull.” The second means “round” or “rotund.” Thus, when put together his name meant something like “fattened calf.” The Israelites would not have missed this comical name.

Eglon’s Portrayal. Indeed, notice that Eglon is presented in the narrative as a “very fat man” (Judg 3:17). He is a lazy ruler who would rather spend his time in his vacation home in the “City of Palms” than at his home in Moab managing his Kingdom. He is also dimwitted and he shows his lack of intelligence when he sends his guards away, allowing himself to be alone with a foreigner. Furthermore, the term translated here as fat (v. 17), is a word that has sacrificial overtones (Gen 41:2ff; 1 Kgs 5:3; Ezek 34:3, 26). The irony of the situation is that Ehud brings a tribute offering to Eglon, but Eglon himself becomes the fattened calf, ready to be offered on the altar of poetic justice. He is eventually slaughtered, as it were, when Ehud drives the dagger into his belly. The dagger is enveloped in Eglon's fat (v. 22) which is a term typically used to refer to animal fat. (Exod 23:18; Ezek 34:3; 39:29). Thus, Eglon is portrayed in this story as a pathetic ruler, a very fat man, ready to be sacrificed as a dumb animal.

We also find out that his whole army is just as dull and portly. They are dumb enough to allow Ehud to be alone with the King, and when they return, their reaction is comical. First, they sit around clueless as to what has taken place, thinking that Eglon is using the bathroom. Then when they are utterly dumbfounded, they discover him dead on the floor. Finally, they themselves are also described as fat men (v. 29 “all strong, able-bodied men”; lit. “fat and strong”). Who wants to serve a King like this? As future generations of Israelites would have heard this story they surely would have been ashamed at the kind of a ruler Israel had to served for eighteen years.

Now surely this portrayal of Eglon and his army is meant to poke fun at the enemies of God, but it also serves to show the desperate spiritual condition of Israel. Eglon and the Moabites are indeed a pathetic lot, but the only thing more pathetic than them is the ones who have been conquered and ruled by them for 18 years. This should have shamed Israel. Eglon’s portliness is not just meant to bring laughter. It is also meant to bring shame, for it is indicative of Israel’s spiritual laziness.

But beloved this story was not just written about Israel. It is really about us as well. The book of Judges doesn’t just show us the sin and idolatry of Israel, it illustrates the sin and idolatry of humanity at large. Beloved if we were in their place would we have done any better? The Apostle Paul says, Rom. 3:10“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. How much idolatry has filled your life? What have you ultimately placed your trust in besides or instead of the one true God as he has revealed himself in his Word? Money? Covetousness? Your spouse or future spouse? A perfect house? A healthy body? Let me remind you that we all have fallen short of the glory of God.

Well the good news is that no matter how tragic Israel’s spiritual condition was then, and our’s is today, no matter how unfaithful they or we become, we see in the book of Judges that God remains faithful to his people. Though they had broken their promises to God, God would NOT break his promises to them for the sake of the covenant he made with their forefathers. And so let’s consider then God’s ingenious plan to save his people.

3. God’s Surprising Salvation: The Ingenious Plan (vv. 15-31)

After eighteen years of servitude, Israel has had enough. Israel cries out to God for deliverance in their distress and God raises up for them a deliverer. Now Israel's cry was not so much a cry of heartfelt sorrow for their sin, but rather a plea for deliverance from their circumstances. Nevertheless, God raises up Ehud, the left-handed judge.

The Man. Ehud is introduced as the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. Such details may seem insignificant to the modern day reader, but to the ancient Israelite there is much to learn about this man even from this seemingly insignificant introduction. To begin with, his name is made up of two Hebrew words, which taken together mean “Where's the glory or Where’s the Honor?” His name is indicative of the spiritual decline of Israel during the period of the Judges. Israel was meant to be the glory of the nations because the glory of the LORD was among them. But there is no glory when they turn away from the LORD and serve false gods.

Secondly, we see that Ehud is left-handed. Now this is an interesting detail, and often a common Bible trivia question is “who was the left-handed judge?” Well in Biblical narratives, no details are insignificant. We come to find out when we read the rest of Judges that this reference of left- handedness attests to his military skill. Later in the book of Judges, when the Benjamites are preparing for civil war with their brothers, we read the following, “Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss” (Judg 20:16 ESV). It appears that the Benjaminites were purposefully skilled to use their left hand in battle (ANE literature attests to this) i.e. They were the special forces of the Israelite army.

The Mission. Ehud's actions begin in verse 16 where we discover the opportunistic and crafty nature of his character. The people of Israel send tribute to King Eglon by Ehud. Seizing the opportunity, Ehud begins his secret mission. Being a specially trained military operative, he fashions a double-edged sword, more literally a dagger, about a foot and a half long without a cross bar so that it can sink all the way into Eglon. And being a left-handed man, he fashions the dagger to his right thigh where it would go undetected until he needed to use it.

Now that the stage is set for the perfect mission, the narrative moves from introductory matters to the telling of Ehud's mission. Ehud comes to King Eglon and presents the tribute. Then he sends away those who carried the tribute. He himself turns back at the idols near Gilgal and returns to tell Eglon that he has a “secret message” for him. Another point of humor and cleverness on the part of Ehud is the play on words that Ehud uses when he addresses Eglon. The Hebrew word for message can be translated not only as “message” but also as “thing.” Thus, Eglon thinks he is about to receive a secret message, and it is a message of sorts, but the readers know that it is really a secret thing, namely a dagger secretly hidden under Ehud's clothes. Ehud is a very clever man in his choice of words and he capitalizes on Eglon’s vanity.

As a result, Ehud is allowed a private audience with the King. Eglon commands his guards to be quiet and sends them outside so that he can hear the “secret message.” So Ehud is now alone with Eglon in his cool roof chamber, which would have functioned as the royal bathroom as well. This is made evident a few verses later when the guards return and think that he is simply relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. (v. 24).

Ehud then repeats that he has a message, only this time he says that he has a message for him from God. At this additional piece of information, Eglon stands up to hear the divine message leaving himself exposed. Ehud then seizes the opportunity, thrusts the dagger into Eglon’s exposed gut so that the fat envelopes it and he leaves it in there so that he does not make a mess. Then he locks Eglon in the bathroom and escapes.

When the guards return they think he is just taking his time in the bathroom. The doors are locked and they probably would have smelled the dung of Eglon that came out when Ehud stabbed him (v. 24). Eventually the guards find it a little too embarrassing that Eglon could still be in there going to the bathroom. So they get the keys and unlock the door only to find him dead on the floor.

Meanwhile in all the time that it took the guards to find Eglon, Ehud is able to escape to Seirah in the hill country of Ephraim so that he can blow the trumpet and summon the Israelites for battle. With the leader of the Moabites dead and with God’s help the outcome of the battle has already been decided. Thus we read the words of Ehud: 28 And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. 29 And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years. In other words, mission accomplished! After 18 years of oppression, the Israelites are delivered completely by the hand of Ehud (not a man escaped), and the land has rest for 80 years. But throughout this account we see that ultimately it is not the hand of Ehud that delivers Israel but the invisible hand of God.

Conclusion

The LORD is the one who is the ultimate hero of Israel. He is the one who gave them their deliverer: 15 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud. Though there are few references to God throughout the narrative, we are struck by how easily Ehud is able to pull off such a difficult mission where any number of things could have easily gone wrong.

For instance, when Ehud hides a dagger under his clothes, one would expect there to be a search by the guards, but there is no mention of a search. We never even hear of him having to pass through guards in order to get into the palace. Ehud simply appears in the next scene presenting the tribute. There is also no mention of how he ended up in the King's upper room, and even more, how he managed to lock the door. Then after escaping he is able to flee about 20 miles to

Seirah before the guards can catch up with him. This series of fortunate “coincidences” throughout the narrative leave us convinced that Ehud must have had help from God.

Indeed this is the message of the book of Judges: 2:18“Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.” And so as clever and skilled as Ehud was, when he rallies the troops he declares, “the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand." Ehud gives the glory to God alone for the salvation of Israel. But despite Ehud’s faith, we also see his flaws in the story.

Ehud is not the judge that Othniel was (vv. 7-11). Othniel was not perfect either, but he shows the least amount of flaws of all the judges and serves as the model judge in the book. Then as the book progresses the judges display more and more flaws and sins which correspond to the downward spiral of the nation as a whole. Already in this second judge we see flaws and weaknesses. It does not say that the Spirit of the LORD came upon him or that he judged Israel as it does of Othniel (v. 10). In addition, his actions are portrayed as deceptive and gruesome, even perhaps to a fault. They resemble the actions of a Canaanite King overthrowing another Canaanite King. The description of Othniel's war with Cushan-rishathaim is absent of any questionable tactics. Finally, Ehud shows his worst blemish when he passes by the idols of Gilgal twice (v. 19, 26) and doesn’t do a thing about them. He should have destroyed them as Israel’s leader but he leaves them alone as a defilement in the promised holy land.

And so as a result of his own sin he can only be a temporary savior for Israel as we read in Judg. 4:1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died. 2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan. While he was alive the land had rest for eighty years, but as soon as he died the cycle started all over again. The same was true for Othniel and the same was true for the rest of the Judges. Whenever the judge is alive the nation and the land have rest from all of their enemies. But whenever the judge dies the people once again do evil in the eyes of the LORD and are punished for breaking the Mosaic covenant.

Thus, from the book of Judges we learn that Israel needs a Godly King, one who exhibits perfect covenant faithfulness to the will of God and never dies. This beloved is the deliverer that we ourselves need, one who does not simply save from external circumstances, but from the very root and cause of those circumstances. You see, the deeper issue is not slavery to the Canaanites but slavery to sin and idolatry. In the words of John Calvin, “our hearts are idol factories.” We do not trust in God alone for all things necessary for body and soul. We covet every day! Apart from Christ we are in bondage to this present evil age, to satan himself, and to our own sinful nature. Wretched people that we are! Who then shall deliver us from this body of death?!

Thanks be to God that he has raised up for us a deliverer, Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the King that Israel needed and he is the King that we ourselves need. He perfectly obeyed the will of his Father in heaven never once bowing his knee to idolatry. He, like Israel, was hungry and tempted in the wilderness but he trusted himself to God the Father. He could have taken so many short cuts to glory but he didn’t.

Instead he fulfilled the ingenious eternal plan of our salvation. But He didn’t come and slaughter others on our behalf. Rather, He came in weakness and offered up himself as the sacrificial lamb and bore the just punishment of God on our behalf so that we might go free! What amazing love is this! God demonstrated his own love for us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

And the good news is that he saves to the UTTERMOST those who draw near to him, for he ever lives to make intercession for us. He is not like the judges of Israel who saved the people for a time and then died. He conquered death and was raised from the grave to be our eternal Prophet, Priest and King, being the rightful heir to the throne of David.

And the rest he brings is not 80 years, but an eternal rest in the new heavens and new earth. Beloved, this is your Savior and King! Turn from your idolatrous ways and look to Christ for salvation. Aren’t you tired of struggling with sin? Aren’t you tired of being oppressed by the tyranny of the devil? Aren’t you tired of being oppressed by the world? Thanks be to God that he has raised up for us a deliverer! Thanks be to God for his surprising salvation!

Bibliography

Amit, Yairah. “The Story of Ehud (Judges 3:12-30): The Form and the Message.” In Signs and Wonders: Biblical Texts in Literary Focus. Ed. C. Exum. Semeia Studies (Chico: Scholars Press, 1989), 97-123.

Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth. New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1999.

Davis, Dale Ralph. Judges: Such a Great Salvation. Focus On The Bible. Great Britain: Christian Focus, 2000.

Dillard, Raymond and Longman, Tremper III. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

Halpern, Baruch. “The Assasination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” Bible Review 4 (1988): no. 6:32-41.

______. The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long and Tremper Longman III. A Biblical History of Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003.