Reflections on "A Left-handed Judge: Ehud" Judges 3: 12-30

The sermon had two-parts -- an opening narrative that described the story in fuller detail and then an attempt to connect the story to our daily lives.  the first part was a lot of fun, and I hope made the biblical text seem more real to the listeners.

The second part was more difficult.  to distinguish each sermon may be more difficult than I imagined.  The stories are very different, but they also follow fairly consistent patterns.  Israel's messes up; God sends a judge to save (the judge or the story has some surprising elements to it); and then Israel is right with God for the moment.

This week I focused a bit on the call to repentance that is part of these stories (sometimes implicitly, other times explicitly).  Continued to focus on the theme of God working in surprising ways.

Sermon seemed to work better in the chapel service.  

“A Left-handed Judge: Ehud” Sept. 30, 2012; Judges 3: 12-30; Fall Judges series; FPC, Troy

Introduction: Overheard around the tents late one night as a group of Israelite men chewed the fat late around the campfire.

Jethro, did you hear what happened to fat, old King Eglon.

You mean the Moabite king. I heard he was killed. Wha'ts up with that?

You got to hear this story. You remember Ehud, don't you?

Let's see. Wasn't he the left-handed guy from the tribe of Benjamin?

Yeah, he's the one. You know what they say about left-handed guys. Something not quite right about them. Anyway, Ehud was sick and tired of King Eglon getting fat on tributes we had to take to him.

And I heard that old king was really fat. But I guess when you've been getting tributes from us for the past 18 years, you'd gain a few pounds.

Ehud decided to do something about it. He arranged to go with the others to take Eglon the tribute. After they left, he surprised everyone by turning around and going back to see the king.

Why did he need to see the king?

Well, he said he a secret to tell the king. And boy did he have a secret to tell him, or you might say give him. Ehud had made himself a knife that would fit down the right side of his leg.

Surely the king's guards didn't let him see the king while carrying knife.

You know how dumb those Moabite guards are? They only checked his left-side where most men would hide a weapon. But not left-handed Ehud. He had the knife strapped to his right side where he could get to it easily.

So he got in to see the king.

Yep, and would you believe the king was in the bathroom, sitting on the throne, so to speak, all nice and cool.

So what did Ehud do?

He opened the door and pulled his knife out and shoved it into Eglon. They say his knife went in so far that Eglon's fat swallowed it up. And then Eglon kind of exploded!

Gross. That's not a very pretty image. How did Ehud get away?

He locked the door and left. The guards thought he was just taking a long time in the bathroom, so they waited and waited and waited. Finally, they busted down the door and found Eglon dead. It was too late to catch Ehud. He was long gone.

Then Ehud led us to victory over the Moabites.

Thank God for that left-handed Ehud.

Yep. Thank God.

A kind of crazy story of how God rescued the Israelites in their time of need.

What do we make of it?

Move 1: God calls us to repentance.

a. As the Israelites tell this story, it begins with the defeat of the Israelites by the Moabites because the Israelites have turned away from God.

1. Admittedly, we understand the world a little bit differently than the Israelites did in the time of Judges.
2. We do not see something bad happen like a natural disaster or some evil event and say the people deserved it as punishment for turning away form God.

b. But let's be clear – the emerging pattern we see in Judges of God's people crying out to be saved begins with the Israelites finding themselves separated from God by their unfaithfulness.

1. There are stories of Israelites worshiping other gods and building temples in tribute to other gods.
2. The people have forgotten whose they are as they turned away from God.
   c. and part of what happens when God rescues the Israelites is that they return to right relationship with God.
   d. No surprise then that when John the baptist announces the coming of Christ, he does so with a call to repentance.
   These stories in Judges are about God's saving grace, but that not only means God rescues Israel from its predicament, but also that God calls Israel back into right relationship.

Move 2: We also discover again the God who works in surprising ways turning things upside down.

a. For example, we are told that the Moabites have banded together with Ammonites and the Amalekites to conquer the city of palms.

1. Jericho.
2. Remember the story of how Joshua defeated Jericho.
3. God told Joshua to march and then blow their trumpets and then the city would be handed over to the Israelites.
4. Jericho was a symbol of Joshua's leadership and God's presence with the Israelites in the Promised Land.
5. Now Jericho has come under Moabite rule. God's gift of Jericho undone by the Israelite unfaithfulness.
6. But now God will turn reverse that.
7. Ehud will lead the Israelites to victory over the Moabites and things between God and the Israelites are made right again..

b. Left-handed.

1. Right-handed was the norm. left-handed people were the odd ones. (sorry Mom!)
2. The position of power next to the king was to sit at the king's right hand.
3. A blessing was shared with someone by the laying on of the right hand.
4. So of course the judge who saves the day is left-handed.
5. Not only is he left-handed, but that is what gives him his advantage.
6. God working in surprising ways to rescue Israel.

c. King Eglon has defeated Israel.

1. From his position of power he reigns in his cool palace eating the tribute provided him by the defeated Israelites.

2. His overweight physique a sign of his wealth.

3. He even deals with his bodily functions in the confines of a cool chamber.
4. Eglon lives the life of luxury at the expense of and in contrast to the Israelites.
5. But, Eglon will become the sacrificial calf (his name actually derives from the Hebrew word for calf).
3. In fact, as the story of his death is told, how he was stabbed and where he was stabbed, the language used is the same way a sacrifice would have been described.
4. The one who abuses Israel becomes the sacrifice.

d. God turning things upside down – sort of like what God does in the life, death and resurrection of Christ

1. the all-powerful God who decides to come as a human.

2. not coming and forcing everyone to submit to him, instead humbly submitting to the earthly powers.
3. Ultimately, Jesus succumbs to earthly death, the sign of weakness and sin, but then God transforms death into resurrection and a sign of hope.

Move 3: what does it mean to follow a God who calls us to repentance and works in such surprising ways?

a. reminds us our continual need to assess what we are doing and where we are going.

1. To proclaim God's salvation means to follow the one who calls us to repent.
2. God not only desires to be in relationship with us, but God desires to be in right relationship with us.
   b. Look for God in the unexpected places.
   1. Think for a minutes about your lives of faith and the times you have known without a doubt that God was in your midst.
   2. I bet a lot of those times come when you least expect it or when God acts in ways that surprise you.
   3. We seldom get God to provide us with “aha” moments when we plan them; when God arrives and how God arrives in our lives and our world are at God's choosing, not ours.
   c. We discover God in our weakness.
   1. When do the Israelites discover God in Judges? When they find themselves weak and crying out to God.
   2. when do they get in trouble with God? When everything is going great and they are in control. Suddenly, they forget their relationship with God.
   3. Paul tells the early church that God chooses what is foolish in the world and God chooses to be at work in our weakness so that we might not boast of what we can do, but instead boast of what God has done.
   
   
   
   Conclusion: We read a bit of a silly story from Judges this morning. It makes you want to laugh.
   But as we laugh, we are reminded that the one who laughed in the face of death and resurrected Christ, calls us to repentance and sends us into the world to find God in surprising ways.