Preacher: Edwin
Today, we are looking at Judges Chapter 3 verses 7-31. The title of today’s sermon is Unexpected heroes 意料之外
Let us imagine for a moment. You friend is swimming at the beach and suddenly he gets muscle cramp in his legs and are drowning. He was waving his hands and yell “Help! Help!” You saw that and rushed to the group of life savers who happened to be right there.
Which of these two life savers would you hope to be going out to save your friend? It is obvious isn’t it. Of course you would choose the yellow circled one and not the red circled one, who has almost the same body shape as me, but perhaps still quite a bit fitter than me.
If I were the life saver on the left, I would be jealous of the life saver on the right.
In fact in life, we would often be jealous of other people’s success in ministry, career, business, or talents, relationships, possessions, good look etc etc...
In today’s passage, we will see that we don’t need to be jealous of other people, and we just need to accept our God given gifts and circumstances and faithfully serve him and leave the rest to Him.
I divided today’s passage into three parts. Point one, A typical judge 典型士師 have 5 verses, while the second point, A leftie judge 左優士師 has 19 verses, and the third point A Cowboy judge 趕牛士師 only has one verse!
Now, judges of Israel in that particular period are not just magistrates like our judges today, but it means that they are the political and military leader of Israel as well.
In the Book of Judges, there are 12 judges mentioned. Now let’s look at the first judge, the Typical judge.
In the book of Judges, there is an obvious cycle that keeps repeating- like this…
We will now fill in the blanks of the typical cycle…
Firstly, in verse 7, The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served other God.
So the first step of the cycle we can see is they “did evil”.
Then in verse 8 we can see that the anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of king of Aram and they were subjects for eight years.
So the second step after “did evil” is “punishment” which is from God against the Israelites.
Then in verse 9, we can see the next two steps: But when they cried out to the Lord, He raised up for them a deliverer Othniel, who saved them.
So after they “did evil” God sent punishment, but when the people “cried out” God sent a judge to bring “salvation” to the people
Now before we look at the fifth step to complete the typical cycle. We shall look at an important detail of who the first judge is. He is described as Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
This Othniel was mentioned in Judges chapter one:11 From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher). 12 And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” 13 Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.
We can see that Othniel has two obvious characteristics here.
First, he is a highly successful military man
Second, he has a very important relative in Caleb, one of the great leaders in the history of Israel, not only Caleb is his uncle, he is also his father-in-law.
Now with that knowledge of the background of Othniel, when we see that God chose him as the judge and saviour of Israel, we will all praise God and say “well done, God” in choosing the perfect judge for Israel, right?
Then in the rest of the first paragraph we can see the fifth step to complete the typical Judges cycle: 10 The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. 11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
So the complete typical Judge cycle is this: Israel ”did evil in the eye of the Lord” in serving other Gods, then they got punished by being subjected to foreign powers for extended periods of time, then they ”cried out” to the Lord for help, Then God sent a judge to save them and then give them peace for a period until they “did evil” again and the cycle repeats.
Now 3:7-11 as we can see is a typical judge with a typical Judges cycle in display.
The question then is “what can we learn from the rest of the eleven judges”?
You know this game “Find the difference”? The right picture, for example has a very obvious difference of the yellow cross on the sword.
So here, we will be able to see that the Judges cycle start to deviate from the typical cycle.
And from the different personalities and circumstances of the different judges, we will learn theological truths and teachings.
12 Once 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 first step of the typical cycle again in full view here.
13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
Here is an extra information here that this time the enemies are united…
Actually earlier In chapter 1, the Israelites were united, but now the enemies are united.
In the very beginning of Judges 1: 1After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”
2 The Lord answered, “Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.” 3 Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them.
So In chapter 1, Israelites were united, but now the enemies are united.
In fact, if we are looking at the Book of Judges as a whole the typical cycle becomes worse and worse. It is not simply a repeating cycle but it is actually a downward spiral- the spiritual and physical condition of the Israelites were getting worse and worse.
In this 2nd Judges cycle the Israelites did cry out to the Lord and God sent Ehud this time, a so called left-handed man. What is the significance of left handed here?
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In present days, being left handed in not a big deal at all! All these sporing super stars are left handed. BTW, if you can name them all, it really shows your age. Probably most modern people would recognize Rafael Nadel, only us dinosaurs would recognize Phil Mickelson, Jimmy Connors and King of Soccer Pele, that’s right, king of Soccer is Pele and not Messi or C Ronaldo. But they are all left handed and got immense respect from people. So we do not blink an eye about Ehud’s left handedness.
But in here, a lot of Bible commentors noted that “left-handed man” actually means “right hand is useless man”
Like this, that the right hand is withered, un-usable. And the people of the time would have look at Ehud as a weak person.
And that’s why “The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.” If you are going to send someone to assassinate the enemy king, you would pick someone who is strong and capable. A weak Ehud would be perfect to bring tribute as King Eglon would not be threatened and be suspicious of the intention of the Israelites.
But we see here that Ehud is hatching his own plan. He prepares a short sword which he can hide easily.
So Ehud presented the tribute to King Eglon then at Gilgal, he sent the men who came with him back to Israel, but turned back to King Eglon. Note the author here mentions “At the idols near Gilgal” where Ehud turned back. And so when Ehud told Eglon that he has a secret message for the King…
The King sent away all his attendants and was alone with Ehud. Since Ehud turned back at the idols, the King must have thought that their Moab gods must have spoken to Ehud. But also as we have mentioned, Ehud was seen as a weakling, and so Eglon did not worry about being alone with Ehud.
“Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.”
“As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly.”
Why would the king be so foolish to be left alone with a foreigner?
Well, the king must have heard that Ehud turned back “at the idols near Gilgal”, so thought that their Moab gods must have spoken to Ehud.
NIV here says “22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. “ It seems strange and what does “the fat closed in over it “ mean?
But if we look at ESV, it says “the dung came out”. And we shall see the significance later on.
“23 Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. ”
“24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house.” “
You see they must have smelt the feces and thought that the king must be moving his bowel and so they waited and waited.
“25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.”
“26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ”
So the waiting was very important, it gave time for Ehud to get away.
Ehud was not a suicide bomber, but after the assassination he has to lead Israel to defeat Moab, so God’s hand was there to get him to escape.
Please note here at verse 26.
It mentions that Ehud passed by the idols and escaped. Why the mention of the idols again?
The author is mocking the false gods, the idols of Moab.
I don’t know whether you have been to the Philippines and if you have you would notice that there are security guards stationed at every bank branches, they are armed with shot guns.
Now it is as if someone walk up to the security guards, walk pass them then robbed the bank teller and walk out in front of the security guards and walk away successfully.
Here the author of Judges is saying “see, the idols are useless!” and make fun of them.
So then, in verses 27-29, we can see that Ehud led Israel to defeat Moab.
Then verse 30 “That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.”
The 2nd Judges cycle is completed.
In point 1, God chose a highly successful and well connected Judge in Othniel,
But in the leftie judge, we can see God’s hand at work, a weakling in the eyes of men was chosen and greatly used by Him to save His own people.
Then we come to the cowboy judge, described in a single verse.
“31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel. ”
Shamger the next judge used a oxgoad to save Israel from the Philistines.
An oxgoad was just a wooden stick to guide livestock, usually oxen.
So a cow keeper was the next judge.
Imagine for a moment that you are being held hostage by an armed terrorist, whom would you like to come and save you?
I think a SWAT team would be good, wouldn’t it?
Or at least a team of police officer would be alright?
But no, a lone Council ranger with his parking ticket booklet comes to save you. What would you think?!
So here, surprisingly, a cow keeper is the 3rd judge who saved Israel.
So here once again, an unexpected hero was used by God to save the day.
So the first judge shows us a perfect choice of a judge,
Then the following two judge choices were highly surprising, but that’s how God works.
In our conclusion, we shall have a look at what Paul has to say about the unexpected.
1 Cor 1:21-29
v.21 “21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. “
Then the latter part of v.24 ” Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. ”
v.26-28 “26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,”
God used Ehud and the cow keeper to save His people, God uses Jesus who has to die on the cross in apparent weakness to save us.
God’s ways are not as we expect, His wisdom can and sometimes does seem to us to be foolish, but He is the wise God and we are not.
v.29 “so that no one may boast before him.”
We shall remember that we don’t and cannot claim any credit for ourselves. And we don’t have to compare ourselves to others.
As we have mentioned in the beginning, in life, we would sometimes be jealous of other people’s success in ministry, career, business, or talents, relationships, possessions, good looks etc etc...
We might work hard and struggle to achieve success in those areas so we will be as good as anyone else.
But brothers and sisters, God’s way is higher than ours,
he graciously choose those who are despised,
those who are looked down on by others.
Let us put our trust in Him and not in those vain things and in reality pointless achievements.
Now, I am not saying we shall not strive to be successful in our lives,
But let us ask ourselves that as we work on our achievements, are we overly anxious and over burdened by that?
Let us put our trust in our wise God instead.
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