5 ✦ judges 3:7–31

SUMMARY These verses contain the story of Israel’s frst three deliverers, , Ehud, and Shamgar. In each case, Israel turns away from the Lord, suf‐ fers the consequences of its rebellion by feeling the blows of a foreign oppressor, and in the end is delivered by God’s grace from the painful diffculties caused by spiritual waywardness.

COMMENTARY 3:7 Israelites did what was evil in the LORD’s sight; they forgot the LORD their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. 8 The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.

The writer now introduces the frst “sin-cycle” of his book. These cy‐ cles always begin with Israel’s defection: The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. Their sinful actions lay not in commission but in neglect—a passive evil in which the sinner does nothing (that is the evil). A spiritual life that is not attended is like a garden that is not cultivated: it doesn’t improve, it degenerates. By defnition the wor‐ ship of the true God is active: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Israel, by contrast, simply forgot the Lord. The world system that sur‐ rounds believers makes a point of singing lullabies to us. It soothes us

59 to sleep with simple lyrics: “what you see is all there is.” There is no Creator. There is no great Lover beyond the matter in which we fnd ourselves encased. That is not to say that Israel did not worship. Being worshiping crea‐ tures by nature, they worshiped what everyone else worshiped: the Baals and the Asherahs. And when creatures adore the things that cannot help them, God sometimes shakes them awake by giving them a dose of divinely imposed slavery. Such was the case now: the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to King Cushan- rishathaim of Aram-naharaim. The latter term means “Aram [Syria] of the twin rivers” and refers to the territory from which the founder of the nation, Abraham, had come six centuries before. A Syrian king, a ruler of the people that Abram had left behind, began to invade the land settled by Abram’s descendants. Abram had left Aram-naharaim and his idolatrous kin behind (Gen. 24:10; Josh. 24:1-2). Now God was using their offspring to discipline his. They served him eight years. By this the author primarily conveys the notion of economic servitude. The Israelites were forced to pay taxes (probably in the form of a spec‐ ifed portion of their annual harvest) to a distant ruler who did noth‐ ing for them. Failure to comply risked confscation of the entire crop and the prospect of starvation.

3:9 The Israelites cried out to the LORD. So the LORD raised up Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s youngest brother, as a deliverer to save the Is- raelites. 10 The Spirit of the LORD came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and the LORD handed over King Cushan- rishathaim of Aram to him, so that Othniel overpowered him. 11 Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz died.

As a result, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. It would be wrong to draw the conclusion that this cry expressed sorrow or repentance for the wrongs they had done the Lord. The Lord was simply another pos‐ sible source of help for them. If they were to proft spiritually from the bitterness of their condition, someone would need to point that out to them, and someone did. The reader now sees a familiar face in the story. Othniel, Caleb’s nephew and victor over Hebron, is the frst great Israelite deliverer. The writer carefully points out that the dramatic rescue to come be‐

60 gins with divine enablement: The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel became his nation’s rescuer in more than one sense. First came the physical: Othniel went out to battle, and the Lord handed over King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram to him, so that Othniel over‐ powered him. It is probably to be understood that Othniel did not face Cushan and his raiders by himself, but it is unlikely that Othniel en‐ gaged in a simple act of conventional warfare. He did not recruit addi‐ tional troops so that he could outnumber the Syrian invader. Rather, the Spirit of God (and perhaps a few good men) were all that were needed to send Cushan’s armies away and end the oppression. After that, the land had peace forty years. And so ends the frst deliverance of the .

3:12 The Israelites again did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He gave King Eglon of power over Israel, because they had done what was evil in the LORD’s sight. 13 After Eglon convinced the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him, he attacked and defeated Israel and took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites served King Eglon of Moab eighteen years.

Did Israel learn the lesson that God intended from the experience? No. The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and a new enslavement began. This time the enemy came from close by, from the land of Moab, from a much smaller country. In fact, King Eglon found it necessary to recruit two neighboring monarchs to join him in the project of enslaving Israel: Eglon convinced the Am‐ monites and the Amalekites to join forces with him. Nor did the trio try to conquer the whole land, but only a fertile part of it close to Moab: he attacked and defeated Israel and took possession of the City of Palms. The last expression typically means Jericho (Deut. 34:3; 2 Chron. 28:15), the city destroyed under Joshua. Apparently its fa‐ vored location, water supply, and warm climate had already begun attracting settlers to the site of its devastation, and Eglon saw it as a suitable base for collecting revenues from a subdued nearby popula‐ tion. The Moabite oppression would last for eighteen long years.

61 3:15 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them. The Is- raelites sent him with the tribute for King Eglon of Moab.

The Israelites again cried out to the Lord on the basis of their misery (again, no mention is made of repentance), and the Lord responded. He raised up Ehud, a left-handed Benjaminite as a deliverer for them. Unlike Othniel, who apparently met the Syrians in open confict on the battlefeld, Ehud achieves his goals by stealth, deception, and as‐ sassination. He is described here as a left-handed man; literally, “a man restricted with regard to the right hand.” Whether this restriction came merely from lack of skill with the right hand, from a birth de‐ fect, or from some other cause is not immediately clear. It is no doubt ironic that “Benjamin” means “son of the right hand,” so Ehud was certainly a non-standard Benjaminite.

3:16 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes 17 and brought the tribute to King Eglon of Moab, who was an extremely fat man. 18 When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had carried it. 19 At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king said, “Silence!” and all his attendants left him. 20 Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his upstairs room where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne. 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. 22 Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And the waste came out. 23 Ehud escaped by way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room be- hind him.

Ehud’s left-handedness explains why he had made himself a sword… that he strapped to his right thigh for easy access. Ehud’s access to Eglon may have been made easier by his collaboration in the oppres‐ sion of his countrymen. Ehud apparently was a tax-collector, a mem‐ ber of Eglon’s staff, appointed to convey the tribute or tax money of Israel to the king (3:18). That he delivered the tax money before ob‐ taining a second audience with the king may have caused Eglon to

62 relax, since he must have been encouraged by the arrival of these funds. The people who had carried the money were soon dismissed, and Ehud took his leave as well. However, Ehud was soon back in Jericho. At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The references to these images poses a question: Why did Ehud turn back upon seeing them? At least two possibilities: (1) Perhaps they served as a fresh reminder to Ehud of Israel’s defection, a re‐ minder that proved unpleasant to the deliverer, whose conscience probably was weighing on him. After all, he was a collaborationist, a man who had in a signifcant way betrayed his country. Further, Gil‐ gal, where these images had been placed, marked the original loca‐ tion of God’s ark and the point from which the conquest of the promised land had been launched. The presence of idols at Gilgal would then represent one phase in the Canaanizing of Israel, and would serve as a reminder of how far Israel had fallen spiritually. (2) The idols may have represented the extent of Moabite encroachment into the promised land. Since Gilgal was not far from the Jordan River, it showed Moab’s modest hold on the people and thus invited attack. At any rate, Ehud found conditions relaxed. His appeal for an audi‐ ence was not only granted, it was given privacy, and once the servants had departed Ehud unsheathed his blade and struck Eglon a killing blow. He then locked the door from the inside and made his way out through the porch in some way not specifed.

3:24 Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was reliev- ing himself in the cool room. 25 The servants waited until they became embarrassed and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the up- stairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors—and there was their lord lying dead on the floor!

Ehud’s escape mechanism combined with the royal attendants’ reluc‐ tance to interrupt their master provided the time that the deliverer needed to call Israel to battle. Ehud was gone by the time Eglon’s ser‐ vants came in.

63 3:26 Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He passed the Jordan near the carved images and reached Seirah. 27 After he arrived, he sounded the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Is- raelites came down with him from the hill country, and he became their leader. 28 He told them, “Follow me, because the LORD has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you.” So they followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all stout and able-bodied men. Not one of them escaped. 30 Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land had peace for eighty years.

The death of Eglon meant little in and of itself, however. Soon another Moabite king could arise to continue the oppression unless Ehud could somehow arouse Israel to action. Escaping to Seirah in the mountains of Ephraim west of Jericho, he sounded the ram’s horn to call the Ephraimite residents of the hill country to battle. He saw him‐ self as God’s instrument: Follow me, because the Lord has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you. Ehud’s battle plan was innovative. Moab probably had no resident army, and he knew that the Moabites who had been assigned to Israel would be primarily concerned with survival. He and his men captured the fords of the Jordan leading back into Moab, and challenged the Moabites as they arrived. The episode issued in the deaths of ten thousand Moabites. These were not incompetents but were all stout and able-bodied men. Their defeat also meant a reversal of fortune in the relations between the two nations: Moab became subject to Israel that day (see map below), and the area around Jericho, apparently the only portion of the promised land that had been under duress, enjoyed peace for the next eighty years.

64 The topography of Ehud’s movements.19

3:31 After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath became judge. He also deliv- ered Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with a cattle prod.

In addition to the seven major deliverers of the book, the writer of Judges also includes brief references to a series of minor judges, be‐ ginning here with Shamgar son of Anath. The oppressors in this case were the Philistines, of whom he struck down six hundred with noth‐ ing more than a cattle prod, a blade placed at the end of a long pole. That Shamgar could deliver Israel from such a formidable enemy with nothing more impressive than a common farm implement strongly suggests that his victory was due not to weaponry or some human cleverness but to God’s involvement with him. However, these verses supply the sum total of what is known of Shamgar except for the brief note in Judges 5:6 that explains how the roads were not safe for travel in the days before his judgeship became effective.

65 SIDEBAR: EHUD AND THE ETHICS OF JUDGESHIP Ehud in his work of judgeship emulated neither Othniel’s more con‐ ventional approach as a military leader nor Shamgar’s use of an un‐ orthodox weapon. His actions seem at a cursory reading to be less born of military necessity and more akin to personal vengeance. This bothers the critics:

By even the most elementary standard of ethics [Ehud’s] deception and murder of Eglon stand condemned. Passages like this, when encountered by the untutored reader of the Scriptures, cause con‐ sternation and questioning.20 Perhaps so. Nonetheless, ignoring the content of the passage and the teachings of the rest of Scripture cannot be expected to yield an in‐ formed opinion of the events described here. A number of critical is‐ sues should be brought to bear on the testimony of Judges 3:12-31. 1. The purpose of the story is to emphasize God’s rescue of Israel, not to show the divine approval of the methods used: “When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite” (Jdg. 3:15). This language is virtually identical to the description of the judgeship of Othniel in Judges 3:9, “When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a savior for the chil‐ dren of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz.” Both men were God’s instruments. One fought Israel’s enemies conventionally, the other unconventionally. 2. It is highly dubious to describe Ehud’s actions as murder as in the previous quote. That term is reserved for the carrying out of a person‐ al grudge which is by no means evident here. Ehud may have used unethical methods (this point is debatable), but the account is in Scripture to extol God’s gracious release of his people from an oppres‐ sive foreign invader, not to provide a philosophical basis for human behavior as a whole. The report in Judges 3 is true but does not in‐ clude an information about how God perceived of the methods used. 3. God is the giver of life and is ever just when he chooses to take what he has given (Gen. 18:25). That he acts persistently in grace to‐ ward fallen humanity is unquestionable. That he owns the right to act justly as well is unchallengeable. Gracious action on his part does not create an obligation to be ever gracious and never just. Jesus ex‐

66 plained this carefully to some Jewish patriots in Jerusalem in Luke 13:1-9). Human behavior being what it is, people give God reasons every day to terminate their lives because of their indifference to him and their rebellious actions (see Deut. 32:35-42, esp. vs. 39). That he rarely does so exhibits his mercy but does not preclude his justice. 4. The fact that God “raised up” Ehud (Jdg. 3:15) did not compel him to approve everything Ehud did as a deliverer. God also raised up Pharaoh and Cyrus (Rom. 9:17; Isa. 44:28–45:2) but did not approve all their actions. 5. Ehud’s deeds form the opening salvo in a new phase of the war be‐ tween Israel and her oppressors. Ehud moved from being a traitor to being a deliverer by his decision to kill the local king of the Moabites. By taking action against the head of the monster, he insured that the rest of the animal would pose less resistance. His removal of Eglon was the basis upon which he inspired others to join in the rebellion of Israel and led to the expulsion of the Moabites from the Jordan Valley. 6. With regard to Ehud’s “deception” of Eglon, two issues must be posed: (1) Did Ehud deceive him at all? From the technical point of view of the words involved, he did not. Ehud asserted that he bore a message from God for him, and he did. God’s message was this: “Peo‐ ple who oppose me are deserving of death.” Still, the question re‐ mains as to whether God had actually dispatched Ehud with such a message, or whether it was merely an inference that Ehud drew on his own (probably the latter). Assuming that Ehud was acting on his own, however, there still re‐ mains (2): Did Ehud step outside moral conduct by deceiving Eglon? Here the water is less clear. Deception in war is a commonplace and is as much a weapon as cannons and tanks are. Winston Churchill is re‐ ported to have said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” God repeatedly uses de‐ ception to advance his own ends and has the results recorded in Scripture (see, e.g., 1 Samuel 16:2). insisted that people owe the truth only to those who do not hate it, and recognized that God acted accordingly. “You prove to be loyal to one who is faithful; you prove to be trustworthy to one who is innocent. You prove to be reliable to one who is blameless, but you prove to be deceptive to one who is perverse” (Psa. 18:25-26, net bible).

67 POINTS FOR APPLICATION The account of Israel’s failure during the era of the judges opens with the observation, “The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs” (3:7). The word forgot in this context bears the favor not of a mental mis‐ take but rather a failure of faithfulness. It edges close in this context to the notion of forsook. A great many of the most serious blunders and defections hinge on the forgetfulness of the people of God. God repeatedly warns his peo‐ ple never to forget him: “Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today” (Deut. 8:11). The Lord is forgotten when people abandon the truth that he gives them to live by. Commands, ordinances, and statutes were given in part to persuade the obedient believer that the Giver of such wise ethical guidance has their best interests at heart. David recognized that God’s laws were a mark of grace on God’s part. God loved Israel too much to let them drift into paganism, and his teaching was the chosen instrument of making them different (or to use the biblical term, holy): “Keep me from the way of lying and graciously give me your instruction” (Psa. 119:29). Israel’s schedule through the year involved celebrations in the form of 7-14 day festivals in which God’s faithfulness was remembered. The people shared times of relaxation, good food, good fellowship, and ceremonies designed to help them remember the many occasions that God had rescued them from disasters. During these days they were encouraged to take God’s laws seriously by committing them to memory. David at least knew the value of making the text his internal and very personal property: “I have treasured [i.e., stored up as trea‐ sure] your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you” (Psa. 119:11). God uses the word remember 18 times in the book of Deuteronomy, and eight of those uses include the phrase, “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt…” It helps us remember who God is when we compare ourselves to our condition before conversion. In the New Testament, the central event of faith is celebrated as a reminder: “He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ ” (Luke 22:19).

68 A good memory is one of the most effective instruments of godliness. In a fallen world, however, all too often even the death of Jesus for our sins recedes from our consciousness. It is wise to make a regular prac‐ tice of considering and meditating on his work. It helps us know who he is and reminds us as well of who we are. The failure of Israel in the days of the judges lay partly at the feet of the previous generation, who had not taught their children about how God had been faithful to them in the past. In other words, they did not give their families reminders of how good God had been to them. J. H. Jowett once observed in a devotional entitled The Witness of Yesterday: Our yesterdays are to be the teachers of our children. We are to take them over our road, and show them the pitfalls where we stumbled and the snares that lured us away. And we are to show them how we found the springs of grace, and how the Lord made Himself known to us in daily providence and care. We are to relate His exploits, “His wonderful dealings with the children of men.” We must make our life witness of God to our children, and when their minds roam over our road they must see it radiant with the grace and mercy of the Lord. The best inheritance I can give my child is a steadfast witness of my knowledge of God. The testimony of a light that never failed may give him the needful wisdom when his own way becomes troubled with clouds and darkness. And what a story it is, this sto‐ ry of the deeds of our gracious God. It is full of quickening for weary and desponding souls. It is a perfect reservoir of inspiration for those whose desire has failed, and in whose lives the wells of impulse have become dry. Let us bring forward yesterday’s wealth to enrich the life of today. “Do ye not remember the miracle of the loaves?”21

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