Judges 3:12-30

All righty. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We're going to be talking about he hood He's left-handed And he's got a sword And you've got a frog in your throat, yeah, all right. Well, let's have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word You want some coffee? Oh, OK, that's enough. That's enough. All right, let's pray.
God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for time together. We thank you for your word. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would please help us, be with us as we read your word. Please teach us what we are to learn. Please teach us to walk in your ways. In Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Since you've got a frog in your throat, why don't I read? OK. And we're going to start at verse 12 and we'll go down to verse 30. OK. And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.
So what's happening is the stories of judges are right. God delivered them into the land of Canaan. They go and they start marrying and idolatry and doing idolatry with the people. And so God raises up pagan people to oppress them, to rule over them. That happens for a number of years. They get sad. They cry out to God. God hears their cries and sends them a deliverer. And then they have peace for a while after the deliverer gets gets them out from underneath that oppressive power. And this is a cycle that happens again and again. So that's what's going on here. So they've been they've been at rest for 40 years.
Now they they again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab against Israel. I always think that's a fun name, Eglon. because they had done evil in the sight of Jehovah. Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the city of Palms. So the children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, 18 years. You haven't even been alive 18 years. Yeah, by the way that city of palms that's another name for Jericho All right. So, all right. Well what happens after that verse 15?
But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord The Lord raised up a deliverer for them from for them Ehud the son of Gera the Benjamite a left-handed man by him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab and Now Ehud made himself a dagger. It was a double-edged, and a cubit in length, and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So he brought the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.
And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. He said, keep silence. And all who attended him went out from him. The Ehud came to him. Now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber. Then Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. So he arose from his seat.
Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took his dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. When the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, he did not draw the dagger out of the belly, but his entrails came out.
Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. When he had gone out, Eglin's servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, he's probably attending to his needs in the pool chamber. going potty so they waited until they were embarrassed and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room therefore they took the key and opened them and there was their master fallen on the floor dead But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Syrah.
And it happened when he arrived that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains, and he led them. Then he said to them, follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. So they went down after him.
These, the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. And at that time they killed about 10,000 men of Moab, all stout men of valor, not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for 80 years."
All right, so we need to ask ourselves, eh? What's this about? B, what's the best pose to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? All right. So what's this about? Right. So we have Ehud. Why do you think it mentions that he's a he's left handed and puts a dagger on his right thigh? He goes like this. Yeah, would some would not people be normally expecting somebody to pull a dagger out from their left side? Well, from there, from their left side, pulling it out with the right hand. But he's from his left hand, pulling it out.
So this is actually one of the things that we'll find again and again in the Bible is that there's men of Ephraim who are left or sorry, men of Benjamin who are left handed. And so he's a Benjamite. Ehud is a Benjamite and Benjamites are able to sling stones or they're like mighty fighting men and they're left handed.
Right. So they're they're good as spies and fighters because people don't expect it. Right. So most people fight with their Right. But he's with his left. And so maybe they don't inspect him or maybe they only pat down his one side, checking him. But he's he's been at home forging his own metal. He's made himself a dagger, a cubit long, right about the length, this length. So we might think of that as a short sword, right? And he straps it to his thighs. He hides it. And he goes in and what's he do with this egg lawn fellow? Yeah, right. What's Eglon like? Eglon's a big, fat, cool. Yeah, yeah. I think like a Jabba the Hutt type character, right? Like the big, the big fat dude from Star Wars. Right. So he thrusts with his left hand into his belly.
And what happens? Yeah, right the fat like fills over over the sword and off Neil does or sorry He hood doesn't even pull it out It just gets like in there and it is his entrails come out his intestines come out of his stomach All right. That's a gory scene, isn't it? So he escapes and What about the servants outside?
He's going to the bathroom yeah they thought he was going to the bathroom so we'll let him alone until they get to the point like they've been waiting so long he's not come out they get kind of embarrassed and they open up the doors and oh gross but where's ehud he's already escaped yeah he's escaped nowhere to be found right he's gone he gone he's escaped and he goes and he goes into ifrim and what's he doing blows the trumpet and calls the army together they and then they i like to think of it as like they um they get around the Moabites, right?
So, so the Moabites, all their people are going to be over on the Eastern side of the Jordan River. But I think what they're doing is they're at the City of Palms, they're at Jericho. And I think they kind of get in between and they stop them from being able to get over the fords of Jericho and, or of the Jordan. And they, they stopped them from being able to return home. Well, that was gross. I don't have any issues in here, so you're just going to have to deal with that for a minute. OK, so so is all of this ultimately about. You heard an egg on. What's it about? Yeah, it's about God who sent Ehud. That's right.
So the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil on the side of the Lord, right? It's the Lord who had given Eglon this ability to oppress the people. It was the Lord who in his providence strengthened his position.
But when the people cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer, a savior, a helper. Interesting, Ehud isn't called a judge. He's called a deliverer, or a helper, or a savior even, but not a judge. It's just one of those interesting things that we like to call these guys judges, but Yehud says that the Lord has delivered your enemies.
So it's the Lord who's done this, right? It's the Lord's doing. They were supposed to be following the Lord. And I had rest for 80 years. Okay. What was in the best verse in my Bible? I have right here Daniel I have verse 12 and verse 15 underlined in my Bible Let's talk about seek calling.
Alright, so what are you called to do? Are you called to make a dagger and put it on your right thigh start training with your left hand? Maybe maybe are you called to go find? Some super overweight dude and shove a sword into his belly if he oppresses God's people No, right our war is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of the air, right So no, no, I don't think that's what we're called to do So what are we called to do?
To when that's Guy who's blessing people to to play to God. Yeah, so we can cry out to God, can't we? Absolutely, we can cry out to God when there's oppression, when somebody's lording it over someone, even unjustly. Absolutely, we can do that. What about this whole cycle of idolatry, oppression, crying out to God? That God always helped. Yeah, right. God hears the cries of this people, doesn't he? Yeah, but even is he setting things up that are hard in our lives so that way, even though we may suffer, he's doing it for our good.
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think that's one thing that's going on here. So I think you're right. We can definitely cry out to the Lord. He hears us. Interesting. This word deliver. But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them. Thunder and lightning. The word there is Moshia.
So it's very similar to what would liturgy, so anointing, messiah, right? And so a little bit different of a word, but I wonder. I haven't looked into the etymology. I don't know if the root word is the same as messiah, but I just thought it was interesting. Moshia. Don't want to read too much into that.
But the point is, God raised up Ikhud to deliver. Who delivers us? Jesus. Yeah, Jesus delivers us. Jesus has done this battle, even against Satan himself, against sin and death. And he's a conqueror. He's gonna defeat Satan. No, Yehud couldn't defeat Satan, but could Jesus? Yeah, absolutely.
Are you ready to pray? All right, let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for giving us the story of Yehud. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to know you. Cry out to you. Thank you for sending us a deliverer even better than Yehud could ever be. Lord, thank you for giving us peace, not just a peace that would last 80 years, but 80 times 800,000 years. Lord, we thank you for giving us the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses all understanding. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, may God bless you as you look to the greater ehood in Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.