Judges Chapter 3

“Ehud made a sword for himself. The sword was about 18 inches long. He tied the sword to his right upper leg under his clothes.” Judges 3:16

Before I jump into chapter 3 there are some things that I might state as possible outcomes, but they are not always the case. As you read this blog it may seam like I contradict myself and that is not the case, I am just showing what the Bible says and share some other angles that you can look at.

As with the last blog we are going to be looking at section by section, I recommend that you read the section in your Bible first, and then read the section in the blog.

Verse 1-6

The chapter starts out by talking about the reasoning behind God not have all the nations wiped out when Israel came in. The text says that God wanted to test the people who had not fought in the wars to gain the property of Canaan. These people are most likely people that had been born after the Israelites had settled in the promised land and had not experienced the time when Israel was at war.

God kept them for the Israelites to learn how to fight. Now to me that’s sounds scary, how would you like it if your nation was kept around just so that another nation could learn how to fight. Those nations were also kept for another reason. To test to see if the Israelites would follow the laws that was given to Moses.

The problem is that they chose not to follow Gods laws, and to leave these people alone. The Israelites begin to marry those people and eventually they begin to worship their gods. What was Israel thinking? Or were they thinking?

Verse 7-11

Israel was not doing what they were supposed to be doing, and by so doing the ended up under the rule of a king from one of the other nations for 8 years. I ask my question again what were they thinking? They eventually did one thing right they called to God. God had mercy upon them and sent Othniel to come and lead them to battle against Cushan-Rishathaim king or Northwest Mesopotamia and defeating the king. As a result there was 40 years of peace in Israel.

Verse 12-30

This is one of the better known stories in the book of Judges.

“Again the people of Israel did what the Lord said was wrong.” Judges 3:12a ICB

One question that might be floating through your head at this point is: “Do they ever figure out that what they do is causing them to fall out of favor with God?” But they have no clue that they are doing wrong. Part of the problem is that they are not focusing on God. When you focus of God your life tends to be easier than when you turn your back on Him.

Because Israel is not doing what God has asked them to do God allows Eglon king of Moab the power to defeat Israel. The Israelites were under Eglon’s rule for 18 years before they cried to God for help.

Now lets look back the first time it was 8 years before they realized they needed help this time it was 18 years, it took them longer to realize the problem. To me it looks like the more times you turn your back on God the longer it takes for you to realize that you need Him.

God hears the cry of His people and sends Ehud to help. I want to point out something that the author chose to point out and that is Ehud is left-handed. If you look at statistics you will see that there are more right-handed people than left-handed. If you are making a contract between two people you shake on it with your right hand. (There are also a lot of other things that are symbolized by the two different hands I will let you look that up on your own.)

Ehud made a sword and attached it to his body, and when down to talk to Eglon about the payment that Eglon demanded. Ehud gave Eglon the payment that he had asked for.

The next several moves I see as an act of faith that Ehud had. He sent the men who brought the money home. Then he tells Eglon that he has a secret message. So Eglon sends every one out of the room so that he can be alone, this is probably the second worse decision of his life. The first being taking the Israelites captive.

The next few moments is the climax of the story. Don’t rush your reading of it. High drama on the big screen. Ehud comes close to Eglon like he is going to tell a secret. But instead Ehud grabs the sword from his leg and stabs Eglon into the belly and the sword it totally in Eglon, the sword blade which is 18 inches plus the handle.

Eglon is one fat dude. Let’s take a moment and look at culture. Those who are rich have nice houses, cars and a muscular body. That is some things you might say for our culture today. In the culture that this story is taking place is that the fatter you are the more money you had, in addition to the fat you would have numerous numbers of servants to do what ever you wanted.

Ehud leaves the sword in Eglon, first because he probably can’t get the sword out, two the sword would have all sorts of body fluid on it. Ehud locks the door and leaves.

Eglon’s servants come back some time latter and find the door locked, so the figure the king was reliving himself, he was going to the bathroom. After a several hours the servants begin to get worried so they get a key and open the door to find Eglon dead.

While all this is going on Ehud has gone to gather an army. Moab is taken captive by the Israelites for 80 years.

Verse 31

This is a short section, but it also shows that God is always in control and can do a lot with one person.

Shamgar was the next Judge after Ehud. Shamgar killed 600 Philistines with a sharp stick used to guide oxen.