Without a King: & (Part 1) Rev. Ben Hentschke

Sex, violence, massacre, brutality and deceit do not seem to be friendly materials for us in the story of salvation, do they? Given the ’s subject matter: God and salvation; living well and loving deeply – naturally we would probably expect to find in its pages leaders who are good, noble and honourable.

In the , as we are going to discover together over the next six weeks, we find instead - mayhem and chaos.

And as we look at the judges Othniel and Ehud today, we are going to see that in their flaws and in their strengths they point towards the coming King, the one we know who lived and died and lived again, Jesus Christ.

But before we get too far into this series – we will start today with a bit of background. And to do that we are going to start at the end, and then work our way forwards.

The last verse in the book of Judges reads: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. (Judges 21:25). In many ways you could say that not much has changed in the three millennia since those words were written.

There are many parallels between our situation and the time of the book of Judges, which recounts the history of God’s people, Israel, between the time of Moses and , and that of the first kings – around 1200BC.

It was a time of spiritual pluralism. The society of Canaan, the land God had promised to give to his people, and where they were now living intermingled with other nations, was a mixture of believing and pagan people.

It was a time when God’s people daily faced the choice between looking to God as their Lord, or following the spirit and preferences of their age. The book of judges is mainly the story of how God’s people failed in this task – of how they constantly turned from knowing, loving and obeying God to do what was right, or fit in their own eyes.

Tim Keller in his commentary writes that ‘Judges can be described as “despicable people doing deplorable things” and as “trashy tales about dysfunctional characters.”

And so you can see that it is going to be interesting as we dig into this book and discover what God is saying to us over these coming weeks.

And the book we are looking at Judges, really gives us an impression that the judges were a group of people whose primary task was in the legal sphere, arbitrating in disputes. But this was really a subsidiary function of the characters we will be following each week.

The judges in a way were primarily the ‘saviours’ or ‘deliverers’ of their people from their enemies.

And there was really a common cycle that we see replayed over and over in this book, and it is described in chapter 2 of Judges where we read: After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the people around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. (Judges 2:10- 17)

In a nutshell, the cycle looks like this: It is really that the people rebel, God gets angry, the people are oppressed by their enemies, which leads them to cry out to God, salvation is delivered through the chosen judge, there is peace in the land, the judge dies, and then the cycle begins all over again.

And each of the judges that we will look at possess outstanding qualities of leadership which were considered to be the result of God’s Spirit coming on them. And this supernatural equipping of the judges helped them to shatter the yoke of an oppressor and deliver the people of God from their enemies.

So with that background in mind, over these coming weeks we are going to focus on the characters in this book of Judges: Othniel, Ehud, , , Abimelek, and .

Today, though, we are looking at Othniel and Ehud. And we find these judges in Chapter 3.

And the first judge that we will look at, Othniel, really is a stereotypical image of the judges cycle that we just spoke about, and you will be able to see this as we read: The Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. (Judges 3:7)

Now the words ‘forget’ and ‘remember’ in the Bible really have quite spiritual significance. To really say that the Israelites ‘forgot’ God is to pretty much to say that he was no longer real to them. They knew who he was, not unlike most people in our society, they know about Him, but they didn’t truly know Him, and so the Bible uses the term that they ‘forgot’ Him.

The reason that the Israelites go through this cycle as we will continue to see is because truths about God which were revealed to them that were once vibrant and real and the purpose for all they did, had, over time, been lost, and they started serving other gods, in this case the Baals and the Asherah’s instead.

Martin Luther writes in the catechism that to help us not ‘forget’ using this language, or to constantly remind ourselves of our baptism into the family of God that we should start each day with God’s name, reminding us of our God who is loving, who is gracious, and who is real.

So we see what the Israelites are doing – forgetting the Lord and worshipping idols, but then we see the focus turning towards God as the main director, as we continue to read: The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. (Judges 3:8)

God’s sends trouble. Why? We might think of this being terrible, but really, this is God acting kindly, because by bringing about suffering and difficulty, the people could now see their true position: how spiritually enslaved they were and what judgement they were facing. He doesn’t send them to suffer to pay them back, but rather, to redeem them.

And in a way this still happens today in the way that God allows us to go through things that ultimately, are so that we are lead back to Him and the love, grace, forgiveness and mercy that He gives to us.

And then the next step in the cycle we read: But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, ’s younger brother who saved them. (Judges 3:9)

You notice here that the only thing that the people do for their salvation was to cry out to the Lord, and so God sends them spiritual leadership, and this first judge cycle is really the ideal because as we will discover over the coming weeks, Othniel is really the only judge who isn’t explicitly flawed.

And in this process we continue reading: The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he because Israel’s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. (Judges 3:10)

It is worthy to note the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament right here. In Pentecost, we know, as we remember celebrating just a few weeks ago that God poured out His Spirit on all people, but in the Old Testament, it was always one at a time.

But as a result of this Spiritual renewal, through Othniel for the people we read: So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died. (Judges 3:11)

This was peace from physical oppression, but also from the self-inflicted spiritual oppression of idolatry, which had caused the physical oppression in the first place. And then Israel returned to a united obedience of God, until he died, and we will see the cycle take place once again.

But before we move onto Ehud, a few reflections on Othniel. The first is about Othniel himself, he was an older man of about 75 years of age when God raised Him up as a judge, and yet God used him to deliver an entire nation of people.

I wonder what God can use you to do. Maybe you’re not 75, maybe you’re younger of older, but if you are still breathing, which if you are watching, while I can’t see you, I will assume that you are – then God can still use you.

So over the coming weeks, continue to look for ways that God can and will use you to serve and show His love and grace and care to the community around you. We need to stop focussing on all the things we can’t do for God, and instead focus on all the things that we can do for God by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.

The second thing that I would like to highlight, building on that is that there was peace in the land, only until Othniel’s death. Unfortunately, too many people have been faced with death recently around the world. Whether it is from Coronavirus, through excessive brutality or force, or even through old age, people, loved ones die.

But for us as God’s people, to have hope of an unending peace and permanent restoration, we need a leader who does not die. The forty years of peace that Othniel brought before his death cause us, I believe, to truly thank Jesus Christ for the eternal peace that he continues to bring us beyond His death for us.

And with Othniel’s death, like I said, the cycle begins again. We read: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave king of power over Israel. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. (Judges 3:12, 14)

This time, the people were subjected to a term a decade longer than the one previous, but we see the same pattern unfold as we read: Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer – Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. (Judges 3:15)

The people cried out to God, and God sent them another judge, another deliverer: Ehud. But a great surprise in this narrative is that Ehud, the man that God used was ‘left-handed’. Now – I could insert any number of left-handed jokes in here, but I won’t, because I don’t think it is a good thing to be making fun of people with a disability.

But if you were to go through the references of ‘right hand’ in the Bible, you would find that it is used a symbol of power and might, Benjamin, my name, literally means in the Hebrew: son of my right hand. And until more recently, some of you might remember being rapped across the knuckles if you thought about writing in school with any hand but your right.

And in the same way, back all those years ago, you fought with your sword in your, you guessed it, right hand.

Ehud, was, if you dig into the original Hebrew, actually unable to use his right hand. It is possible that maybe it was paralysed or he actually had a disability.

But if we were to compare our previous judge Othniel with Ehud, we would surmise that Othniel is an obvious choice. He was a warrior type, he was strong, he was a leader, whereas Ehud, in society which was more cruel than a rap across the knuckles when you were trying to learn how to write, he would have been considered ineffective – not the obvious choice to follow Othniel, but he is God’s choice.

And the reality is that he is chosen by God because he is perfectly suited to the task of delivering God’s people. We read that The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Judges 3:15) In plain speak, Eglon is the king of the enemy, and Ehud is sent to him.

But then we get to read something that Eglon did not know, and that is that: Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. (Judges 3:16) His dagger is hidden, and with virtually the whole population of the time being right handed, if you are going to check the enemy for weapons, you are going to check their left side, the side where they carried their swords.

I am sure that Eglon’s security detail would have probably taken one look at Ehud, and if he had a physical disability, either not checked him at all assuming that he couldn’t use a sword if he could hold one, or checked the standard left side, and not worried about anything else.

And then we get into the guts, as we will find our literally in a moment, of the story as we read: He (that is Ehud) He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, ‘Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.’ The king said to his attendants, ‘Leave us!’ And they all left. Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, ‘I have a message from God for you.’ As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. (Judges 3:18-21)

Now we could read into the arrogance of king Eglon, and why he didn’t think that a left-handed person would be able to hurt him, or even the cunningness of Ehud in turning back after he had reached the stone images which suggest that his message from God was a revelation as he approached the idols, but it is Ehud’s left-handedness that actually allows him to strike down the tyrant king.

The story goes on though, because we read: Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.” They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead. While they waited, Ehud got away. (Judges 3:22-26)

Like, I said – we would get to the guts of the story. The translation here is a little bit polite, because if you knew what I meant when I said that the king dropped his guts – that would have been the smell that his servants would have had, and so they thought the king was relieving himself, giving Ehud time to get away and escape.

And in many ways, this was a necessary part of the story, because in that culture, there was no way that Ehud would have been in a position to lead God’s people into battle unless God, working through him had enabled Ehud to secure that by himself, by killing Eglon.

And it is a reminder to us that God does not always work through what we might call ‘normal’ or ‘obvious’ people or methods, I mean I look at me and look at you – God can work in and through anyone, not always those who are the most ‘normal’ or ‘obvious’.

But Ehud also points us to Jesus, because in a way, through his story we find that God used a left- handed deliver to save what you might call left-handed people.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth: Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)

We are not necessarily wise, or influential or noble, but rather we are foolish and weak, and that is what I love about God, and about this story of Ehud, because if we were wise or influential or noble, we have no need for God. Or we have a view of God who saves us because we are those things.

But we know that we have a God of love and grace, not a God of works. Paul goes on to say that God chooses and uses people that might be weaker socially, physically or even morally so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:29)

We can’t do anything to work our way to God because we ultimately have nothing to offer him. What do we have to offer a God who loves us to the point that He sends His one and only Son to die on the cross for our forgiveness, but then rises him from the dead so that we could have the hope of eternal life forever?

We have nothing to offer Him, but we can surrender our hearts, which is what he asks of us. And he asks us in response to his love and grace and hope and forgiveness to love God, love others and God and make disciples.

Because he has loved us, saved us and blessed us in the most unexpected way, through Jesus, and we are the most unexpected and unworthy recipients of his grace, but in that moment, the Spirit will open our eyes to realise that we can only totally depend on God, and we love to do that.

While Israel was without a King, we are not, because Jesus, the king of Kings has come and paved a way to eternity in heaven with Him.

As Augustus Montague Toplady writes in the hymn ‘Rock of Ages’: nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.

Let’s hide in God’s grace, clinging to our true King, Jesus, and what he has won for us on the cross: life, forgiveness and salvation.