Chapter 83. Judges 3. Ehud.
BECAUSE of their sins, the children of Israel were not allowed to destroy all their enemies from the land. God wanted to prove them, and see whether they would give Him up for the nations’ idols. Alas! it did not take long to show what was in their hearts! They, soon forgot the Lord and served Baalim and other gods, and angered the Lord who allowed the different kings to make them their slaves. One of these, Chusham-rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia, had them serve him for eight years when the children of Israel cried to the Lord, and He sent them a deliverer in Othniel, Joshua’s son in law. He went out to fight Chushan-rishathaim, and God was with him and gave him victory. During forty years, he judged Israel and they had rest from their enemies. But at his death, the Israelites turned again from the Lord, who allowed Eglon, the king of Moab, to come against them.
The latter allied himself to the Ammonites and Amalekites and came to Jericho, the city of palm trees, and took it. For eighteen long years the children of Israel had to serve him. How fully they must have forgotten God and all their previous deliverances, to remain so long without going to Him about it, confessing their sins! But when they did (wonderful patience of God!) He sent them another deliverer, one named, Ehud, a left-handed man of the tribe of Benjamin. The Israelites wanted to make a present to king Eglon and sent Ehud with it. Ehud made himself a two-edged dagger nearly two feet long, and hiding it under his coat on the right side, he presented himself before Eglon and offered the present. Then he told the king he had a secret message for him and the king sent away all his servants and the two were left alone in the summer parlor. “I have,” said Ehud, “a message from God unto thee.” A solemn message it was—a message of death. No good news for that sinner. Let us thank God that his message to sinners now is, “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life,” and let no one despise it as unimportant, or to be delayed. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Prov. 27:1.
As Ehud pronounced these words he plunged his dagger into the king’s body with such force that the handle went in too, and the flesh closed in upon it, so that it could not be withdrawn, for Eglon was a very fat man. Then Ehud went out on to the porch, locked the &or after him and made his escape.
When the servants saw the doors locked, they thought their master was asleep, so they did not go in. Many hours passed and then the servants began to wonder why the king did not send for them; at last they took a key and opened the door, and found their lord stretched upon the ground, dead.
During this time, Ehud had had time to escape. When on Mount Ephraim, he blew a trumpet to call his people. He put himself at their head, and said: “Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand.” They went after him and took the fords of Jordan, and allowed no one to pass over. They slew there ten thousand Moabite warriors, and none escaped. Their masters were subdued and the land had rest eighty years. So God’s judgment falls on all those who despise Him.
After Ehud, another judge, Shamgar, the son of Anath, killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. A poor weapon, we would say, but with God’s help it was the means of delivering Israel. The Christian has one weapon, the only one we are told in God’s word, to use, and that is, that two-edged sword, “the word of God, which is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. Let us gird this sword about us, carrying it with us, ready for use, and it will be mighty against Satan, and God will give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
ML 02/11/1912