After Moses delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, he led them for forty years and then he died. Then his assistant Joshua took the Israelites into the Promised Land and he was their leader for another forty years. After Joshua died, Israel entered the time of the judges, where God raised up a series of fifteen individuals to lead and judge the people of Israel for a period of about 430 years until Saul was appointed the first King of Israel.
The key word to summarize the Book of Judges is “cycles”—“cycles of sin.” We will see same pattern over and over again—the Israelites fall into sin, God disciplines them by allowing a foreign nation to oppress them, they cry out for a deliver, God raises up a judge to liberate them, they experience peace until the judge dies, and then they fall into their evil ways again.
Let’s see how this cycle develops in the story of Israel’s second judge, Ehud—the disabled deliverer!
Israel Does Evil in the Eyes of the Lord (12-14)
The story of Ehud begins after Othniel, the first judge of Israel, dies. Under Othniel’s leadership Israel experienced peace in the Promised Land for forty years, but as we will see, “once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” This “evil in the eyes of the Lord” means that they turned away from God and worshipped man-made idols carved out of wood, stone, metal, and other materials. They turned their backs on God’s law and did what was right in their own eyes. They exchanged God’s truth for their own lies.
As Israel fell into sin this time, God made them to fall into the hands of Eglon, king of Moab. Eglon forged alliances the Ammonites and Amalekites, two of Israel’s arch-enemies, and together they attacked Israel. They captured the city of Jericho which was called the City of Palms. This was the same city that Joshua had marched around and defeated seventy years earlier. Now it was controlled by the Moabites. God disciplined the nation of Israel for its sin by making the people to live in subjugation to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
The pattern we see here should not surprise us. God has always dealt with his people in the same way. When we worship him and put him first, we experience peace and protection, but when we turn our faces from him, worship idols, and make other things a greater priority than him, he allows us to suffer. He does this to remind us of who is really in control. As a loving father, he disciplines us when we sin.
This is true on both a personal and national level. As individuals, when we don’t put God first, we should not be surprised when we suffer money problems, relationship problems, or health problems. I am not saying that every problem we experience is a direct punishment for sin, but I do want us to see that our relationship with God always affects the circumstances of our lives. When we act like we don’t need God anymore, he has ways of reminding us that we need him all the time. If Israel hadn’t done evil in the eyes of the Lord, he wouldn’t have allowed them to be oppressed for eighteen years!
This is also true on a national level today. When countries abandon God’s law and do what is right in their own eyes, it shouldn’t surprise us when governments and economies collapse and natural disasters occur. Again, I am not saying that every national problem is directly caused by sin, but I do want us to see that there is a relationship between personal and national faithfulness and personal and national crises!
If the nation of Israel hadn’t diverged into idolatry, they wouldn’t have lost the city of Jericho or have been oppressed by the Moabites for eighteen years. If we simply take God’s word seriously from the beginning, we save ourselves and our nation a lot of heartache.
Ehud: An Unlikely Deliverer (15a)
Well, eighteen years of Moabite oppression took its toll on the Israelites. Losing their land, their freedom, and paying a tribute to Eglon year after year finally convicted them of their sin, and they began to take God seriously again. They began to put him first again. They began to realize that they really needed him all of the time. So, they cried out to the Lord for a deliverer!
Just as a loving father disciplines his children and also hears them when they cry, the Lord heard the cries of his children. So, he raised up Ehud, son of Gera from the tribe of Benjamin. Now Ehud would have been an unlikely candidate to deliver the people from Eglon’s grip because of his disability. The text says that he was “a left-handed man”, but it literally says “bound or handicapped as to his right hand.” For some reason Ehud did not have use of his right hand. Moreover, the Benjamites were known for being ambidextrous, having equal ability with both hands. His visible disability in his right hand and his hidden capability with his left-hand provided the perfect strategy to liberate Israel from the Moabites.
So, Ehud’s disability actually becomes the centerpiece of the strategy to assassinate King Eglon. He was able to conceal a weapon on his right side where the king’s guards would not have expected to find a threat. Most warriors in the ancient world were trained to wield their sword with their right hand; therefore, they would not expect to find a weapon on the left side. The guards probably never even searched his right side.
God has a history of rising up disabled people to accomplish great things. He also has a reputation for turning disabilities into advantages. We must remember that God is not limited by human handicaps!
Think about how God has used disabled people to accomplish his plans in the Bible. Moses had a speech impediment when he freed the Israelites from slavery. David was a young shepherd boy when he killed Goliath! Paul suffered from an eye disease when he evangelized the world!
Think about how God has used disabled people to accomplish some of the greatest feats in history. The Greek poet Homer who wrote “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, two of the greatest classics of world literature, was blind! Beethoven composed his 5th symphony when he was almost deaf! Albert Einstein, the great scientist of the twentieth century had learning disability in his childhood. He could not talk until he was three and could not read until he was eight. Joni Erickson Tada, a quadriplegic, continues to preach God’s Word to thousands of people all over the world even today!
If you have some physical or mental disability, you need to know that God can use you to accomplish great things for his kingdom. He is not limited by your disability! Like Ehud, he may have given you your disability to serve some strategic advantage in his plan!
The Assassination (15b-25)
Ehud fashioned the perfect assassination weapon, a sharp 18 inch bronze dagger. It was small enough to conceal under his thigh but large enough to strike a fatal wound. Unlike most swords of the day, it was double-edged and meant for thrusting rather than hacking. This dagger was designed to deal a deadly blow quickly.
He also devised a perfect assassination plan. He gained access to the king without suspicion by gathering a commission of Israelites to deliver the annual tribute. The king expected and looked forward to this payment of wealth and goods from his Jewish subjects. After Ehud made the presentation, he and his men left the City of Palms. When they reached the stone quarries at Gilgal, he sent the men home, and he returned to King Eglon alone.
The fact that Eglon had already met Ehud, he was alone, and he was disabled in his right hand, he didn’t pose much of a threat to the king. Ehud was granted access to the upper room of Eglon’s summer palace because he said that he had a secret message from God for the king. Eglon probably felt proud that the God of Israel had a special message for him, so he dismissed all of his guards and servants so he could receive this message from Ehud alone.
As Ehud approached him, Eglon stood up out of respect for the divine message he was about to receive, and when he did, Ehud pulled the dagger from under his right thigh and plunged it into the massive belly of the obese king. Eglon was so fat that he could not defend himself. His flesh encompassed the whole dagger, handle and all, until the blade came out of his back, and the King of Moab fell dead on the floor.
After Ehud assassinated Eglon, he needed to buy himself enough time to escape without being detected. So, he closed and locked all of the doors of the private chamber, thus delaying the discovery of the corpse. As Ehud slipped away, the king’s servants eventually came to see if he needed anything. When they found the doors locked, they concluded that he was relieving himself in the bathroom. They probably joked among themselves, “The king must be sitting on his throne again.” So they waited. And they kept waiting! They waited very patiently. They waited until the point of embarrassment and then they finally got a key and opened the doors, only to discover their king on the floor bludgeoned to death.
Ehud Delivers Israel (26-30)
Meanwhile, Ehud got away and went to the wooded region of Seirah near the hill country of Ephraim. Using the ancient alarm system of a trumpet, Ehud quickly assembled the Israelites for battle. He knew that the discovery of Eglon’s death would throw the officials and soldiers at Jericho into confusion—an opportune time to attack the hated invaders and free Israel from Moabite oppression.
Ehud’s courage inspired a large following. He shouted, “Follow me! The Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” He led them into battle and they defeated the Moabite army at Jericho, ten thousand strong and vigorous men. They reclaimed Jericho and there under Ehud’s reign, the land experienced peace for the next eighty years.
Ehud’s assassination of Eglon and the war against the Moabites raises some interesting ethical questions for us. Is there ever a time when assassination is morally OK? Is there ever a time when war is right? How do we reconcile this story with the sixth commandment, “Thou shall not kill?”
For centuries, faithful Christians have disagreed on these difficult ethical questions. In general, I think that God wants individuals and nations to live peaceably with one another, but unfortunately, the reality of human sin doesn’t always allow for this to happen. Therefore, I believe that there are times when God ordains war and even assassination to liberate people from oppression. The story of Ehud and Eglon is one such example in the Old Testament.
A more modern example of this would be with Adolph Hitler in World War II. The Nazi’s engaged in prolonged oppression against the Jews, other European countries, and even against their own people. Many of Hitler’s abuses and atrocities are unspeakable. I think the world going to war against Hitler was morally justified. I think that even the almost 20 assassination attempts on Hitler’s life were morally justified.
We need to be very careful how we apply these ethical principles today? For instance, was the Vietnam War morally justified? The war in Iraq? The war in Afghanistan? Or even more recent, what about Gadaffi in Libya? I’m not sure! We need to continue to wrestle these difficult ethical dilemmas!
I would like to conclude by highlighting the real significance of this story. Ehud was an unlikely deliverer of God’s people. He foreshadows our Lord Jesus Christ, another unlikely deliverer of God’s people. With Jesus’ humble background, no one would have expected him to deliver God’s people from anything, but he was God’s son. He lived a sinless life and died a holy death to deliver us from the oppression of sin. The cross was the weapon that he used to assassinate the devil. When he was resurrected on the third day, he triumphed over the forced of evil and death.
Jesus’ death and resurrection has secured our place in the ultimate Promised Land. By trusting in him as our savior and deliverer, we will one day we can live in a land of perfect peace; not for just eighty years, but for eternity! Are you spiraling down in the cycle of sin? Have you called upon the Lord to deliver you? Do you want to secure your place in the Promised Land forever? Become a follower of Jesus Christ today!