Rebellion, Retribution and Rescue. If you were here last week you will know that those three words sum up the book of Judges.
Throughout this Old Testament book we encounter story after story that follows this same basic pattern. Sinful rebellion against God by Israelites provokes the Lord into an act of retribution against them – usually by raising up a neighbouring nation against them. In their distress the Israelites cry out to the Lord for mercy, who subsequently sends a rescuer to deliver them from their enemies. These rescuers are the judges after whom this book is named. And there are twelve of them – eleven men and one woman. The first of these judges was known as Othniel, of whom we are told relatively little. But the second Judge, Ehud, is the focus of our attention today. The story of Ehud reminds us that God not only moves in mysterious ways (as the saying goes) but also in the most surprising of ways as well!
The first surprise comes at the very start of our reading. Because verse 12 says “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil, the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.” The Moabites were actually close relatives of the Israelites. The people of Israel were descended from Abraham, and the Moabites traced their ancestry back to Abraham’s nephew, named Lot. The Moabites had their own land and their own king – they were not natural enemies of Israel, peaceful co-existence was the norm. Yet we’re told that, during the reign of King Eglon, God caused them to cross the Jordan, conquer the City of Palms (aka Jericho) and subdue the Israelites for 18 years.
It is ironic that with God’s help the Israelites had once been the conquerors of Jericho and the surrounding territory but now, because of their sin, God had turned the tables on them and given them ‘a taste of their own medicine’ (you might say). A very unexpected – and unwelcome – development indeed!
Ehud – A surprising saviour
But a further surprise comes in verse 15. Thankfully, God’s judgement on sinful Israel seems to have had the desired effect. We’re told in verse 15 that the people turned back to God and cried out to him for deliverance. The Lord heard their cries and raised up a judge to rescue them from Moabite occupation.
But the judge God chooses for this task was totally unexpected. He didn’t select a Tom Cruise type figure, a Hollywood-style hero or an action man. Rather, God raised up Ehud, a left-handed man from the tribe of Benjamin. We are not to think that Ehud was naturally dextrous with his left hand, like a minority of people still are today. Rather, the original Hebrew implies that Ehud’s right hand was disabled, deformed or debilitated in some way – so he had to use his left one! Ehud may not have been particularly dextrous at all with his left hand, but it would have been his only option!
Verse 15 of our reading goes on to tells us that Ehud was originally despatched to King Eglon’s palace as an emissary or envoy. Ehud was tasked with taking Israel’s tribute to Eglon, a sum of money that expressed Israel’s total subservience to their Moabite overlords. It may well be that his physical handicap especially qualified Ehud for the role of an envoy, since he would not have been able to wield a sword in his right hand, and therefore seen as less of a security threat to Eglon – or so the Moabites thought! Because as the story unfolds we are told that Ehud intended to give King Eglon rather more than mere tribute. He had strapped a short sword to his right thigh – a concealed weapon with which to assassinate Eglon when an opportunity arose.
Just such an opportunity was manufactured by Ehud when he asked for a private audience with King Eglon to share a secret message from God. This time the unwelcome surprise was Eglon’s, as Ehud plunged his double-edged dagger into Eglon’s enormous belly, killing him there and then. The way the author of Judges describes Eglon’s assassination is actually quite comedic, isn’t it? The narrator seems to stress the King’s obesity, to the extent that his belly swallowed up Ehud’s sword whole! The comedic tone continues when we are told that a locked door and the smell of discharged bowels led the king’s courtiers to believe that Eglon was on the loo! Their embarrassed inactivity at Eglon’s apparent ‘toilet trouble’ gave Ehud precious time to escape.
Once free, Ehud was able to go to the hills of Ephraim, blow a trumpet and call the Israelites to arms against their oppressors. Having rallied his troops, Ehud was able to lead the tribes of Israel to victory over the Moabite military. Our passage concludes by telling us that this great victory led to 80 years of peace.
Jesus of Nazareth – Our surprising Saviour
Ehud’s deliverance of Israel was a remarkable achievement. He deposed King Eglon from his throne literally single-handedly, and personally led the liberation of God’s people from their oppressors. As I’ve already noted, he was such a surprising saviour for God’s people – not the type of person anyone would have expected. But, as Christians, we know that this was not the last time that God sent a surprising Saviour. We have, after all, just celebrated Christmas – that season of the year when we remember the birth of our Saviour, Jesus – not in a palace but in a stable, not in a royal court but in a manger, and not to a king and queen, but to a carpenter and his wife.
I think we can all share Nathanael’s surprise in our reading from John’s Gospel that the Messiah should come from Nazareth. Jesus’ was brought up in this Galilean village, not a great city like Jerusalem or Rome. What’s more, just as God used a man with a crippled hand to save the Israelites. God would use the nail-pierced hands of Jesus to save us. Christ’s death on the cross was a source of mockery and scorn for the Jewish and Roman authorities of the day, a humiliating ordeal totally unbefitting for a king or conqueror in the eyes of the world. Yet conquer he did. Through his shameful death on the cross Jesus became our surprising Saviour. By his death and resurrection he would disarm the devil, conquer the grave and secure the salvation of all who trust in him. Just as Ehud ascended the hills of Ephraim to rally people to his side, Jesus has ascended on high and calls men and women of every nation to rally to his side, to join his church, to benefit from his great victory.
So don’t overlook Jesus of Nazareth and seek an alternative saviour, someone more impressive in the eyes of the world. Don’t judge by appearances. For the carpenters’ son from Nazareth was – and is – God’s surprising choice to save the world. That’s the lesson Nathanel learnt in our Gospel reading, and the one we should learn as well.