If you please turn with me in your Bibles to Judges chapter 3 beginning at verse 12. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel, and they took possession of the city of Palms.
And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab 18 years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.
And they had made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bounded on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute, and he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O King.”
And he commanded silence, and all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber, and he said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat.
And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly, and the dung came out.
Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.”
And they waited till they were embarrassed, but when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they delayed and when he was beyond the idols, he escaped to Soraya.
When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the Hill Country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given the Moabites your enemies into your hand.”
So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong able-bodied men, and not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for 80 years.
This is the word of the Lord; thanks be to God. Let us pray. Lord, your word is filled with stories of your deliverance, the great acts that you have done and enabled, and used to deliver, and save, and rescue your people, Israel. Open our hearts and our minds to hear you speak to us. Help us to understand the great gift of salvation that you give, for you are our Redeemer and our deliverer. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. This will not be the last time that we read this expression in sacred scripture, for we know that the ancient Israelites never learned their lesson and they never remained faithful to the Lord for very long.
However, what we shall see over and again is God’s faithfulness to his chosen people and his Covenant. Again and again, the Lord raises up a deliverer, a Messiah, to rescue and to judge his people, becoming the hopeful promise for all of his elect, for all of us who are trusting in, reliant upon, and obedient to the living Lord and the Messiah, his Christ, Jesus.
It’s noteworthy that only during the time of Othniel, the judge we looked at last week, does scripture record the particular sins of evil, the evil which Israel did in God’s eyes: that they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherah. The great evil for which they were disciplined was idolatry, the breaking of the first and second commandments: you shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth.
Idolatry is the root and core of all sin, and when you stop to consider it, every sin which any person ever commits is truly an act, a sin against God, because it is at heart an act of idolatry. Every sin can be reasoned as a sin of idolatry. The Lord God is the only Sovereign God, the only God (capital G) and the only being worthy of our worship, praise, trust, and devotion.
The sin of Adam and Eve in the garden was not the act of eating from the forbidden tree, but was their mental and spiritual disobedience in believing that they knew better than God. Yes, Satan deceived them; yes, he caused them to doubt God’s word and authority, but they allowed sin into their hearts when they claimed a degree of sovereignty over their lives which is rightfully the Lord’s.
They placed themselves, their opinions and decisions, over the Lord’s will. They raised themselves up, holding the idolatrous opinion of themselves to become like God, elevating their personal autonomy to being before the Lord, breaking the moral intent of the first commandment as an idolatry of self. Therefore, every subsequent sin is born out of idolatry like this as well.
Murder is idolatry because intentionally killing someone elevates your desire to take and kill over and against the Lord’s will to give and preserve life. It also does intentional violence to a person made in the image of God, to another one of God’s created representatives, making it equal to violence against God himself.
Theft is idolatry and violates the eighth commandment with the Lord’s promotion of the good found in property ownership. It goes against his will that a person should possess something particular, so when you elevate your will and autonomy over and against God’s sovereignty, and you do violence and harm to another person by theft, you demonstrate a tangible form of idolatry by prizing the stolen goods over and above your relationship and obedience to the Lord.
Adultery is idolatry because it is the worship of sensuality over spirituality. It does violence to the marital union and relationships that the Lord has established for us.
So you see every sin that we do is born from idolatry of ourselves instead of the right worship of the Lord. There’s two things to take away from this important note in Judges: the great sin of Israel and the great sin of all mankind is idolatry, violating God’s Eternal and holy law.
So as we consider this book, we need not worry about how the particular house and what’s of their particular evil done in the sight of the Lord was, because we know their sin as the same sin as ours. Regardless, the particular sins of Israel don’t need to be listed since they are fundamentally the same, and each deserves the same punishment and reward of death, which the Apostle Paul affirms as, ‘for the wages of sin is death.’
All sin, whether great or small, is deserving of God’s wrath and justice and the judgment of death. However, the good news of Judges is that instead of pouring out his wrath upon all sinners, like those in ancient Israel and us, God shows his mercy by disciplining his children for our correction.
So this time, because of their evil, the Lord strengthened the Moabites, who with the help of the Ammonites and the Amalekites oppressed Israel and forced them into servitude for 18 years. Again, the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, a Messiah. This man Ehud was from the clan of Gera, descended from one of the children of Jacob’s son Benjamin. He possessed an ironic yet important trait: all of our English translations name Ehud as being a left-handed man.
And why is that detail so important? What relevance could that have to anything at all? What is the big deal about somebody being left-handed? Surprisingly, left-handed people are only mentioned in scripture three times: Ehud; later in Judges 20:16 with 700 chosen men who were left-handed, everyone who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss; and lastly in 1 Chronicles 12:2, with they were bowmen and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand, describing a group of David’s followers when he was a vagabond bandit king living in the wilderness.
Left-handedness is only mentioned in scripture three times, and each time they share one point of commonality: every left-handed person mentioned in the Bible comes from the tribe of Benjamin. Hence the irony, because the name Benjamin means ‘son of the right hand.’
Okay, sure, that’s an interesting little factoid and worth filing away for a future game of Trivial Pursuit, but really, so what? What’s the big deal? Now, Hebrew has two separate and unique words denoting right hand and left hand, but that specific term for left hand is not used to describe Ehud. Instead, a euphemism is used, saying that Ehud had a bound or restricted right hand.
This same expression is also used for the 700 men in Judges 20. Now, this does not mean that Ehud was crippled or physically deformed; otherwise, he would not have been ritually clean and not able to participate in much of Israelite life. If he were deformed, then he would not have been selected by the people to bring the Moabite king tribute, because his mere presence might cause the king offense.
Ehud, therefore, was surely a whole man and likely a trained and accomplished warrior. Now, there are theories about the tribe of Benjamin that they naturally had a large number of left-handed people because of genetics, but modern science has shown that left-handed proficiency is not conclusively genetic.
Instead, the greater likelihood is that their ambidexterity was a result of encouraging the use of the left hand—nurture rather than nature—and this practice could have been done for some perceived tactical advantage in battle. Much like we see today in baseball with the difficulty that right-handed batters have when hitting against left-handed pitchers.
Still, why is Ehud’s left-handedness so important? First, it’s critical for enabling his deception and victory over King Eglon, and second, because it demonstrates a certain character of self-reliance, of dependence on his own learned quality, his own skill and strength rather than the Lord as the source and means for Israel’s deliverance.
Ehud’s left-handedness is important for us to consider because the author of Judges highlights it here, and since there’s nothing extraordinarily beneficial or special about the left-handedness trait, its importance and relevance in the story must be greater than itself, especially if it was a learned characteristic rather than a natural one.
Ehud was chosen by the people of Israel to bring their tribute to the Moabite king Eglon, so he made for himself a sword with two edges and a cubit in length. Now based on this description, this would have been an unusual blade for this time and place. This was not a two-handed, you know, three-foot-long Scottish claymore or even a Western European broadsword like some Arthurian knight would carry.
Ordinarily, the common Near Eastern blade during the late Bronze Age had a single edge and was curved, which made it an excellent hacking or slashing weapon. But Ehud’s blade was a double-edged sword; it would have had a triangular shape pointed at the top, and while it could be used to cut and slash to the left or to the right, it was designed more for thrusting, for piercing flesh like a spear.
It was also shorter than normal, only being about 15 inches long from tip to pommel, whereas other common swords of the era were around 20 to 24 inches long. So this was an unusual and unexpected weapon; it was small and easy to conceal.
So Ehud, the left-handed, took this sword and bound it to his right thigh beneath his clothing. Sitting there as you are right now, place your closed fist on your knee and notice how far up your leg your elbow goes. This is where and how scripture is describing the length of Ehud’s blade being hidden. And remember, the ancient Israelites didn’t wear pants like we do; they wore layers of robes and tunics.
So it would be easy enough for a crafty person to conceal such a weapon and then access it quickly when needed. So, Ehud went to Eglon, taking the Israelites’ tribute with him. Now, the story doesn’t suggest that he went all the way down to Moab proper. So where did he meet with this enemy king? Scripture offers us a clue when it says that the Moabites took possession of the city of Palms.
And although we do not have a given city name, we are sure where that is during this time period: it was the cursed ruins of Jericho because the city of Palms was a descriptive moniker for Jericho, much like the Big Apple is for New York City. But why would Eglon collect his tribute among these ruins?
It was an easily defensible location; it was near to Gilgal, a place that had been a seat of Israelite power and authority during the Canaanite conquest and still retained great cultural significance. It was humiliating for the Israelites to be forced to pay obeisance to a foreign ruler upon the site of one of their greatest victories.
And there would have been no local population to bother or interfere with the Moabites whenever they came to collect tribute. King Eglon made the ruins of Jericho the site of his occupation in Israel to humiliate the Israelites, and because he had the power to do it, he did it for the psychological effect upon God’s people.
The same reason why Adolf Hitler forced the French to sign their 1940s surrender in the campaign wagon, the same rail car where the Germans were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1918, because of its mental and emotional effect upon a defeated foe.
Next, scripture tells us that Eglon was a very fat man in comparison to the crafty and intelligent duplicitous schemer in Southpaw, Ehud. Eglon was fat, very fat. He is described using Hebrew terms otherwise reserved for the fattened calves used when feasting or for sacrifice to the Lord, with an added intensifying qualifier meaning a great abundance. Eglon is not just fat; he has an exceeding abundance of fatness.
He is described as so much more than pleasantly plump; he is morbidly obese, probably wider than he was tall. This emphasis on his fatness is not mere Hebrew propaganda because it also speaks to his character. Eglon possessed such great wealth that he did not need to exert much effort; he was so great that he could just relax and receive tribute and glory from his conquered and debased foes.
His degree of fatness was considered a virtue during this time period; however, because of his fatness, he would also be slothful and slow, the opposite of a trained and crafty warrior like Ehud.
So, Ehud delivered Israel’s tribute to Eglon and then he left with the tribute bearers. But he turned back at the idols at Gilgal. Now, I do have to offer a quick sidebar and rabbit trail and defend the Israelites for a moment. The word translated here as ‘idols’ is ‘pestil,’ a word ordinarily used for idols and images carved of stone. But it may also be used to describe stone monuments like stele without religious significance.
So although the Israelites may have added images of Baal and Asherah poles to a prominent worship site near Gilgal, more likely this refers to the 12 standing stones that were set up at the Lord’s command and placed by the Israelites when they first crossed the Jordan River at Gilgal into the Promised Land.
Instead of being more evidence of their unfaithfulness to the Lord, Ehud turned back at Gilgal, sending the tribute bearers onward into safety within Israelite territory. He returned to Eglon, saying, “I have a secret message for you, O King.”
So Eglon called for quiet and secrecy, sending all the servants, attendants, court hearers, etc., away and out from the chamber, leaving them alone together. When Ehud approached the king, Eglon was in a cool roof chamber, a veranda-like shaded chamber atop the fortress structure, open enough to allow a cool breeze to pass through yet still allowing for personal privacy.
It was the perfect place for the prominent elite to rest and relax in total comfort, a perfectly guarded place where someone could also let their guard down. So, Ehud closely approached him in complete privacy, saying, “I have a message from God for you.”
He came in claiming to have a prophetic utterance for King Eglon, a davar Elohim, a word of God, a thus saith the Lord for him, and so Eglon arose. He stood up to receive Ehud’s oracle, much as we stand to receive the benediction at the close of worship.
And when Ehud came close, he reached beneath his garments with his left hand and drew forth the sword hidden upon his right thigh. How could Eglon’s guards possibly have missed this weapon? Was Ehud not searched? Were they delinquent in their duties or efforts? Surely he was, and surely they weren’t, but they were apparently a bit careless.
No ordinary warrior would hang a sword on his right side because he would be unable to draw it easily—only a trained ambidextrous fighter might do that— a left-handed fighter. And even today, left-handedness is a minority trait within our global population; only about 10 to 15 percent of people are proficient with their left hand.
So certainly, Ehud was searched because they would not knowingly allow a physical threat like that to come so near to their king. Most likely they neglected to look where they did not expect a weapon to be. Ehud’s offhanded deception was successful and allowed him to bring a weapon in close to the Moabite king, and then he thrust it into his belly.
The canny Ehud thrust 15 inches of sharpened bronze into the gut of the very fat king Eglon such that the whole hilt went into him, and the fat of his belly closed over the sword, trapping it inside of the king—eviscerated and dying, Eglon’s bowels let loose. While Ehud exited the chamber, locking the door behind him unchallenged, Ehud left the king’s palace quickly, affecting his escape back into Israelite territory before the assassination was discovered.
And after Ehud left and made his escape, Eglon’s servants went to check on their master to attend to his needs. Yet when they found the doors locked, they assumed among themselves, “Surely he’s relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” Because of course, such a great king must surely have his own private indoor bathroom on the roof.
Surely their assumption was reinforced by the smell of his bowel release emanating from within the chamber. Finally, once they decided that they could wait no longer, and they simply had to check on their king, they unlocked the doors and found him lying dead on the floor with his assassin long gone.
Meanwhile, when Ehud reached friendly territory in the Hill Country of Ephraim, he sounded the trumpet. He raised the alarm, he issued a call to battle, and led the people of Israel down from the hills to seize the forwarding points of the River Jordan. He cried out, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand.”
So they captured the crossing points and slaughtered 10,000 Moabite warriors, allowing none to escape. Thus, Moab was subdued that day, and the land had rest for 80 years.
End of story. Scripture tells us that the Lord raised up Ehud as a deliverer for Israel, but although God’s grace is evident in the story, faith and trust in the Lord and Ehud’s reliance upon divine providence is notably lacking. Instead, Ehud gains victory over the enemies of God’s people through cunning and craft, assassination, political murder, deception, and misdirection, born from his reliance upon the uncommon trait of left-handedness.
And whether the skill was gained naturally from the Lord or by the specialized training of his tribe, doesn’t ultimately matter because Ehud found his strength within himself, in his left hand, the culturally weak hand, instead of in the Lord, instead of the right hand of God’s favor.
And while scripture says that the people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab, suggesting that the tribute he brought was from more of Israel than just his clan or tribe, it does not say if anyone else in Greater Israel knew of or participated in or were aware of his plan to assassinate the fat king Eglon.
Were his plans and actions endorsed by the elders or blessed by the priesthood? Or was he just a lone wolf acting under his own authority, creating for himself an opportunity to take advantage of where the Israelite troops prepared and ready, already encamped up in the Hill Country of Ephraim—merely waiting to be summoned to battle against their Moabite oppressors?
Or is Israel delivered through the Lord’s divine providence, brought about by deception and murder committed by a sinful man for Ehud’s own personal sinful motivations, yet still resulting in the decreed will of God? Yes, Ehud led a massive Israelites in battle against the Moabites, and yes, he was raised up as a deliverer of the people of Israel, yet scripture does not affirm his methods or means.
It says the Lord does not count in its deception and murder. The inclusion of the story of Ehud cannot be used to justify sinfulness or God’s approval of it. Instead, what it does is demonstrate how our human freedom of will is used by God to achieve his decreed ends.
It shows how the Lord can and will turn our evil actions in this world for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, much like Joseph explained to his brothers: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
Even though Ehud was a Messiah, even though he delivered Israel, and even though the land had rest and quiet for 80 years, scripture speaks very loudly in its silence. The tale of Ehud has a very notable absence. Nowhere in his story does scripture say, “And he judged Israel,” or any other similar statement.
Ehud may have had the best of intentions when he went to Eglon. Ehud may well have believed that his actions were God’s express will, that he was acting on the Lord’s behalf and with his holy favor, but that is still not a justification for murder, even with the loftiest of intentions.
Even the murder of a wicked pagan oppressive king like Eglon is not justified by our faith in the Lord or Christ, although the Lord will use every human means to bring about his eternally decreed will and holy end. His divine end will never justify our means.
Ehud delivered Israel, but he did not judge Israel. He did not receive that power and authority because his trust was not in the Lord, but was in himself. This means he chose to affect Israel’s deliverance. The means he chose to affect Israel’s deliverance proved his unrighteousness, that he would not judge them with wisdom, justice, or faith in the Lord.
Still, even though Israel was unrepentant, the Lord is faithful, and he delivered them because of his covenant. Even though this time, their deliverance was affected through a sinful man’s unrighteous means, the Lord, who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, still God gave his people rest and quiet along with the continuing opportunity to repent and trust him by their faith and obedience.
The first judge, Othniel, he was a good and godly judge, empowered by the Spirit of the Lord, and although he was already an accomplished fighter and war leader, the victory over Cushan-Rishathaim was given to him through his faith and the anointing of the Lord, whereas Ehud’s victory came by way of deception and by a reliance upon his own human strength, his left-handedness, instead of God.
The Lord is the one who delivered Israel in both cases, as Othniel and Ehud’s secondary causes were used by him for the good of his people. So what should we learn from Ehud? What do you consider as your strength? What is your greatest asset? Is it something about yourself, something that you have learned or trained for? Or is your greatest strength found in your weakness?
Is your greatest strength found in your surrender, your reliance, and your dependence upon Jesus? Did Ehud trust in the Lord’s grace for their deliverance? Or did he have to provide the last little bit necessary to rescue Israel? Was the deception, and that was enabled by his left-handedness, necessary for God to perfect his deliverance of his people?
Or was their rescue achieved according to the Lord’s divine decree despite Ehud’s sinful contributions? Was Israel saved by God’s grace or by Ehud’s work? Is our salvation in Christ made complete by our finite and flawed contributions, or was it completed by Jesus’s work—his life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection unto glory alone—the benefit of which and the moral credit that we receive by God’s grace alone?
Ehud’s work, sinful though it was, was effective in God’s grace. Israel was still saved and delivered by God’s grace alone because of the Lord’s faithfulness to his people and covenant. Our salvation by God’s grace was affected by the unjust death, execution, and murder of the Lord Jesus.
Both times, the Lord turned human evil to the good of God’s people. The Lord raised up Ehud to deliver the Israelites. The Lord equipped him, gave him the skills in cunning to devise his deception, and Ehud was used by the Lord for this work of deliverance. But that does not make Ehud righteous or ensure his eternal salvation, because by his own choices and actions, Ehud violated God’s law to deliver Israel.
And just because Ehud invoked the Lord’s name when he led the Israelites in battle does not mean that he acted or spoke from faith in the Lord. There is no sign in the story that Ehud was acting in good faith or from any relationship with the Lord.
However, Ehud’s work did produce something good for Israel: freedom from oppression and 80 years of rest. But the good results do not justify his evil means. He was in many ways like the false teachers who claim to speak and act in Jesus’s name, doing many good works for show or other selfish and sinful reasons for their own glory, so that their idol of self may be worshiped.
They may still help to build up Christ’s Kingdom on earth and advance his cause even if they’ll never see it because Jesus will use them, even trapped in their ignorance.
So Ehud is very much like such false teachers who will say to Christ, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?” And to whom Jesus will then declare, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
No end ever justifies unrighteous means, even godliness. However, Jesus can and will use us and turn our sinful failures to his good ends. All of our mistakes and failures will ultimately be turned to God’s good, just as good works done falsely in Jesus’s name will still be used for his glory and his kingdom.
And we must hold on to hope and continue to trust that even the evil which is inflicted upon Christ’s people, the injustice we suffer in this world, will lead to his eternal good. Good or bad, God can and will use all things to bring about his good. Never forget that.
Just as Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, leading to his unjust execution and murder, was used by the Lord for the salvation of all of his elect, so too Ehud’s deception and murder of the Moabite king Eglon was used by the Lord with the deliverance of Israel.
So let us thank Christ that our God and heavenly Father can turn and transform our human evil into his Divine good. Amen.