Scripture: Judges 3:12-30 (selected)
Lessons from Judges, #2
I believe that Courage and
Obedience are two of the most important attributes that every Christian needs. You might think that I would put faith at the
top of every believer’s “to-do” list, but the truth is that faith must be immersed
in our entire life, not just positioned as the first of many essentials.
But why “courage”? Why “obedience”? Why are these so important in our Christian
life? Can’t faith survive without
them? The truth is that the world is
totally committed to their brand of life, and advocates for it with
unrelenting tenacity! So, if God’s way
is to not only endure within us, but is to grow and flourish in our life, we
had better be just as committed and just as strong in the way of heaven as they
are in the ways of earth!
Today, we consider the
courage and obedience that one of the earliest judges exhibited, and how it led
him to be exactly who the LORD needed him to be, in benefit to the children
of Israel.
Read Judges 3:12-14
“Again the Israelites
did evil in the eyes of the LORD…” We aren’t told what this evil is, but it
might very well be the worship of foreign and false gods, but at the very
least, it could never be God’s way if Israel was being handed over to the power
of a king who did not worship the LORD God Jehovah! Talk about the appropriateness of the LORD’s
justice! And this is not some isolated
and distant issue that we don’t have to worry about today. In 1 John 2:15-17,
we read ”Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.” It’s that age
old issue of trying to be in the world and in the LORD
at the same time, and it will never work out to our benefit! Straddling the fence of faith is a losing effort,
and this passage from 1 John 2 also tells us that this attempt “comes not
from the Father but from the world.”.
And that is exactly where Israel was – looking to the ways of the world.
When we try to set the world’s
ways up as equivalent, or even compatible, with God’s, He will step back, and
let us discover just how ridiculous our decision really is. For Israel, the power and oppression of Moab
drove home the point, and was reenforced even further through Moab’s alliance
with the Ammonites and Amalekites. And
we also have to understand that when the LORD steps back from us, it doesn’t
last for only a day of two – in Israel’s case, we read that subjugation and persecution
lasted for 18 years!
Does it sound like enough
time to really get a sense of what choosing the alternative to God’s way will
do to you?
Read Judges 3:15-19
Apparently, it was
enough time for Israel to come to their senses and to want to come back to their
God! So a new Judge is raised up for
them – one who was left-handed. It might
be interesting to note that the Hebrew word Benjamin can be translated as “son
of the right hand”, which might imply that Ehud was an unusual man who
would soon be led to do unexpected things.
And since he was left-handed, he carried his sword on the right side of
his body – an unusual place when compared to most warriors of that day, and he
made an unusual weapon – short, about a foot and a half in length, and double
edged. And on top of that, it was hidden
underneath his clothing.
He had been chosen to
carry an offering, or sacrifice, to the king, which gave him the perfect
opportunity to also present God’s message to the one who had been carrying out
the hateful vendetta against the LORD’s people.
We also read that after Ehud had delivered the tribute to Eglon, he
passed by the stone idols that had been set up to honor the king’s gods. But in opposition to the required custom, he
never stopped to pay homage to them – he just sent his traveling companions on
home, and returned to the court on the pretext of carrying a “secret message”
for the king.
The “secret” nature of the
message meant that it was for the king’s eyes and ears only, so all of the
court’s attendants and advisors were dismissed from the throne room. Ehud was now alone with the king, and God’s
desire was about to be revealed. The
time for an end to Israel’s separation from the will of God was about to arrive. The LORD God Jehovah had heard the
people’s cry for help and was about to provide it through his chosen man Ehud.
Israel had experienced
their Jehovah Jireh’s provision throughout the years since Egypt, and should have
known that He was always there for them.
Do we remember the nurturing He has provided for each of us? Do we remember the loving kindness
that led us to His side and way? Do we
remember His divine majesty that is ever before us, working for our good? If we should ever forget, we may find
ourselves in the same mess that Israel was in.
But if we don’t, if we always remember, we will never have a reason to feel
that God has turned away from us!
Read Judges 3:20-23
And the “secret message”
that God had for the Moabite king? It
apparently was “Here is My tribute to you – the sword of My justice.” And the LORD’s judgment was upon him! Courage?
I should say so! For an Israelite
to kill a foreign king in his own throne room was an act beyond all
expectation, and to escape judgment from that nation was a slap in the face of
Moab’s guards and military.
We don’t read much about
Ehud before his selection as God’s judge, but the courage and obedience that he
showed toward the calling that Jehovah had placed upon this servant was
certainly exceptional, to say the least.
There was no deviation from the assignment, no hesitation, no
questioning of how it would be carried out – just following the mission as it
was presented to him.
If Ehud had asked for an
explanation on how this plan was going to play out, it would certainly have
been reasonable (from our point of view at least!), but there is no indication
whatsoever that there was any doubt as to what was to happen on the part of God’s
judge. I don’t know about you, but there
have been several times in the past when I seriously doubted God’s plan for my
life, and how he intended to bring it all together! But He always did, and in following His call,
I was always blessed beyond measure.
That is the way of our
glorious King – never erring, never mixing anything up, always knowing the
perfect way to include us in His will and way.
Read Judges 3:26-30
But the story doesn’t end
with the death of Eglon – the nation of Moab would also discover that Jehovah
God had a “message” for them, too! The
dominance that they had exerted over Israel would be reversed, and they would
now be the ones to suffer. And the point
that those Moabite solders who Israel defeated were all “vigorous and strong”,
can not be ignored. The power of God,
the power that He sends to us to carry out His plan in the world, is mighty
beyond anything that the people of earth can ever develop, ever imagine, ever
contrive, and their way will be nothing when compared to what the LORD
can, and will, send down.
So it would seem that the
courage that we are called to show doesn’t necessarily have to be our own, but simply
to be what God provides to those who obey His unexpected and unimaginable call
on our lives. Obedience and trust are
the key words for our lesson today. We’ve
all heard those 7 last words of the Church – “We’ve never done it that way
before!” – they are devoid of faith and trust in God, and can never be the word
for committed Christians!
When we obey and follow,
regardless of whether we understand or not, is all that will ever be asked of
us, unlike the way that the people of this world act. They need assurance, they need certainty,
they need confidence, that their leaders will do things exactly in the way that
we want them to. But that will never be
our Almighty God’s way – He is the LORD of the unexpected, the
unimaginable, the unexplainable, and always, LORD of the perfect victory!
Be part of His victory
today by giving Him your trust, and obedience, and love, and everything else
that you will ever need will be provided.
Isn’t that a far better
way than anything that we could ever come up with?
