Judges 3 | Flawed People - Faithful God

In this episode, we walk through Judges 3 and explore the stories of Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar. Through the chaos, brokenness, and surprising deliverers of Israel, one truth becomes clear: the hero of the story is not the judges, but God Himself.

We talk about how God uses imperfect people to accomplish His purposes, why the Bible doesn’t hide the flaws of its characters, and what it means to trust a sovereign God in a broken world. This episode challenges us to stop comparing our story to someone else’s and simply be faithful where God has placed us.

No matter your weaknesses, failures, or insecurities, God can still use your life for His glory.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you, Michaela. Well, we're going to be looking at Judges chapter three. And before we get there, I'll tell you a little Adeline story real quick because every day with Adeline is a new adventure. And one of the things that my wife continues to find out every day with Adeline is she is much different than our other three. And I've shared with you before that my other three are naturally a little introverted, they're a little quiet, you know, they're they're they want to be as inconspicuous as possible. And so one of the worst things that I could do for my family is to drag them up on stage on a Sunday morning. I mean, there's not one of them that would feel comfortable outside of Adeline. So Adeline would love to be on the stage, and uh a couple weeks ago she said, Dad, when am I gonna get to go on stage with you on Sunday morning? And I said, Well, Adeline, I don't know. Why do you want to go on stage on a Sunday morning? And she said, I'm gonna preach. And I said, You are? I said, and I didn't want to create, you know, fix her doctrine at this point in time in her in her life, but I'm like, well, well, what are you gonna do up there? And she said, Well, she said, you're gonna preach, and then I'm gonna tell them you're right. And I thought, okay, I like this. This might not be too bad. And she said, and then I'll take my turn and I'll teach and I'll tell them about Jesus. And I said, Well, said I appreciate the heart behind it, but you're not coming up there anytime soon. And so let's just go ahead. But I just thought, you know, again, the striking difference in my household between if I tried to get any of my other ones up there, they'd be like, no, like the worst thing I could do to them is drag them up on that stage for 30 seconds. And Adeline's like, give me the hour, I'll be happy to take and do whatever, uh, whatever my little heart, and I have a firm belief and conviction that if we put a microphone on her little head, she would have no problem telling you something. Now that is the fear. I mean, if you if you think I can say things that I shouldn't say, ooh, I just marvel at what what little Adelaide might do. Uh the other night, she I really need a muzzle for her. Uh the other night, she had been playing with friends all day long. And so it was Saturday, and it was Saturday evening rolled around, and we were gonna celebrate Mother's Day, because that was when we could all be together. And so the kids and I cooked a meal for Renee, and she had been asking over and over again, can I go see this friend in our neighborhood? And I said, No, you can't. And so finally I'd had enough of her asking, and she she's very good at trying to find ways to get you to say what she wants you to say. And so finally I told her, I said, Adeline, if you ask me again, I'm gonna swat your little bottom and I'm gonna send you up to your room. I said, I've had it. We're not having this conversation anymore. And so one of her friends, and they live kind of across the fence and across the pond from us in our back, and they hollered, hey Adeline. So she runs up there on the dam of our pond and takes her hands like this, and before they can even ask her anything, she says, I can't play. My dad said if I play, he'll spank my bottom and send me to his room. Or to my room. And I'm like, that's not what I said. It has nothing to do with play. I can't play with you because my dad said he's gonna spank my bottom and send me to his room. And she's just bellowing this out for everyone to hear. And I'm just like, oh, that kid, if I thought the other ones were gonna give me gray hair, this one for sure will do it. That being said, Judges chapter 3. So we're gonna pick up in verse 1. Verse 1 is gonna bit a uh be a really kind of a recap of what we saw at the end of two. Uh, and then what we're gonna see here is these first judges that God is going to use. Now, I think one of the important things for us to realize as we look through these judges is that not all of them are great characters. Matter of fact, as we get to the final one and we see Samson, we're gonna see a very flawed character. And I think there's a couple of things for us to think about as we look at this. First of all, the ultimate deliverer in the book of Judges are not these people that God is using, but rather it's God Himself. And so we need to make sure that we don't look at the Bible and see these characters, these people that God is using to bring about his plan and will, and automatically say, well, well, these guys are superheroes, they're rock stars, because one of the things that we're gonna see is that every character in the Bible outside of Jesus is a deeply flawed person. They're sinners, they have problems, they have issues, they take matters into their own hands, they do things in the way they shouldn't be done. And so not everybody in the Bible is a model for us to model our lives after. Every one of them has flaws and character issues. Why? Because by nature they are sinful people. And one of the reasons I think that we can trust the Bible and see it is that the Bible doesn't sugarcoat that for us. I mean, even when we take a look at the lives of the early apostles, we see problems with them, we see character issues, we see lack of faith in their eyes. And I think one of the things that the Bible is doing is giving us a very real depiction about humanity, our ups-downs struggles, the reason we need grace, the reason we need God's sovereign work in our life, because ultimately the hero of the Bible is not any man other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, fully God and fully man. And so that the deliverer, the hero of the scriptures is God Himself. And so the first thing I think is important as we read through some of these stories and we see some of the stories of how God is gonna use men and a woman to deliver Israel, the focus really isn't on them at all. The other thing we're gonna see is that there's a variety of different types of people that God is gonna use and a variety of different methods that God is going to use. And I think one of the good things that we can take away from this is God can use even flawed people to do his work and to accomplish his will. And that's me. That's you, right? I mean, God uses us, he's invited us into this story that he's writing, and he uses us in our our good, our bad, and our ugly to accomplish his will. And there's no real outside of Jesus, no true prototypical character in the Bible that we can just look at and say, yeah, this is the prototype of what a Christian should be, because the reality is they all have strengths, they all have weaknesses, just like you and me. And one of the beautiful things is that God does use the ordinary to accomplish his plan and purpose. He uses the flawed. I mean, we've talked about this before, but if you were to take a look at the original 12 disciples, I mean, nobody in their right mind, if they were going to try to create a lasting global movement, would have created this group of guys. I was listening to the radio this morning, and one of the things they were talking about was the thunder and how there's a chemistry there and a teamwork there and how they complement one another. And as I was thinking about this, you know, and really there is a truth to that in good teams that work together. All of those things are important. Yet if you were to take the original 12 disciples, there's none of that there. I mean, they would have been at odds with one another, and I can only imagine some of the discussions and conversations that went on as Jesus was bringing this group together. And you think about the day that Matthew showed up into the fold and all of them looking at me and like, what is he doing here? I mean, why on earth did Jesus allow a guy like this in here? You think about the moments where James and John are wanting to call down thunder and lightning from heaven, bring down judgment on the very people that Jesus came to save, and you see these flaws in them, yet God uses them. And that gives us hope today. It gives us hope to know that in the midst of our problems, our insecurities, our insufficiencies, all of those things that God can and will use us. It's also gonna be proven to us that God to accomplish his will uses means that we wouldn't automatically think to be the best. And so God's gonna will and use some things, like Samson, for instance, as we get toward the end, he's gonna work through the sin of people to accomplish his purpose and will. And there's comfort in that to know that while we should not strive to sin, that grace may abound all the more, that even in our sin God is working and willing according to his good pleasure and his ultimate will. So that being said, let's take a look at verse one. These are the nations the Lord left in order to test all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan. This was to teach future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before. These nations include the five rulers of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanese mountains from Mao Bel Hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath. The Lord left them to test Israel to determine if they would keep the Lord's commands he had given their ancestors through Moses. But they settled among the Canaanites, the Heathites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The Israelites took their daughters as wives for themselves, gave their own daughters to their sons, and worship their gods. And so he's kind of refreshing what he said at the end of chapter two, and just reminding us why this is such a tumultuous, terrible time in the land of Israel. Their disobedience, their refusal to be subject to God, to follow his commands fully, has led them into this devastating, terrible period of time in the nation's history. Matter of fact, we see that they've broken many of God's commands and laws. And so he said, I left these people here to test you, to see, will you obey me? And the test was this: will you run them out? Will you be done with them? But instead of them being faithful and obedient, they've proven themselves to be disobedient. And it goes so far as to say the Israelites took their daughters as wives, speaking of these pagan people, which expressly went against the commands that God had given them. They uh gave their own daughters to their sons and worship their gods. So it was bad enough that the men said, you know what, we're gonna take some of these wives to be, or these women to be our wives, and our sons to take some of these women to be their wives, in the thought that maybe they could change and persuade them, but they became so intermingled they even willingly gave their daughters to be married to these pagan people. And what this does is one of the things that we see throughout the sad history of the nation of Israel, is that it led Israel to worship these other gods. We see this happen in the day and time of Solomon, right? That one of Solomon's biggest problems, even after he builds the temple as a place of worship for Israel, is he intermarries with all of these other women from these other countries, and what he does is then begins to create places of worship for them in Israel, and his heart is then slowly turned away from the one true God. And all of this, again, is just a picture of sin and what it costs and what it does and the extent that it goes. And so, verse 7 says this the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight, they forgot the Lord their God and worship the Baals and the Asheras. So think about this. God has called this people to himself, he has made them his very own, he's given them these divine blessings. In spite of their sin and rebellion, he's continued to love them repeatedly, delivers them from the hands of the Egyptians, takes them and gives them a promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. He says, Remember, when you're living in houses you didn't build, drinking water from cisterns you didn't dig, when you're eating food from vineyards and fields you did not plant, that you should not forget me, the Lord your God. Yet, in spite of all of that, look exactly what happens here. They forgot the Lord their God. And oh, how interesting is it that our fickle hearts are so quickly turned from the God who loves us and gives us every good thing, and quickly will love lesser things than Him. And is this not a battle that goes on in our heart all the time, and in big ways and in subtle ways? It's so easy for us to see all of the blessings that God has given us, yet quickly forget them, be tempted, lulled, seduced by lesser things, and quickly running to them and embracing them, and in doing so we become worshippers of them. So look what happens in verse eight. The Lord's anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to King Cushion, Arishathim of Aram, Naram, Harem, and the Israelites served him eight years. Now, what's interesting is the name of this guy is probably not his literal name. Uh he's he's King Cushion, but it's a play on words here that really says King Cushion could be translated the doubly wicked or the doubly evil. And so essentially it's a description of his name, not his real name. He wasn't born with that name, but it's Israel telling the story of him and saying, Because the Lord's anger burned against them, he handed them over to the King Cushion, who was doubly wicked and evil. Basically explaining that God's wrath has burned out, and now God is going to give Israel the outcome, the consequence of what they've deserved, and he is going to bring judgment on them. And this is again interesting how God will use sinful people and things to accomplish the good of his will. Now we see this all throughout the Bible, and it's something we have to cling to in a world where evil seems to prevail. That God is working in all things, even using things that he hates, even using sin that he can't stand to bring about and accomplish good for his people. So how do we see that? Well, let's think about the story of Joseph, right? One of the classics. At the end of it, he looks at his brothers and says, What you meant for evil, God meant for good. Now, did it please God in one sense that his brothers would sell him into slavery, lie about him to his dad, and accomplish these things? In one sense, no. Yet when Joseph took a look back at it, he said, You know what? I see, even in the midst of my brother's sinfulness, God was working in that to accomplish something greater than we could have ever comprehended. Their salvation came actually through their sin, because Joseph would have never been where he was apart from their wickedness. Now, does that mean that God applauds and likes wickedness? No. What it does mean, though, is God uses everything according to his plan and will, even things he doesn't like, to accomplish his perfect plan and will. Let me give you another example. Judas. Right? Judas is a perfect example of one who betrayed Jesus, yet was according to God's divine foreknowledge and plan. And we know that Judas was held accountable for his sin, and yet at the same time, God says, I'm going to use the sinful wickedness of a man to accomplish my plan and will. He does it throughout the entire narrative, really, of Jesus' crucifixion. He uses Pharisees and their sin, their hardened heart. He uses a pagan king in Rome to accomplish these things. And all of it is according to God's divine purpose and plan. Here we see again, God's going to use a wicked, doubly wicked king to bring about good. Now, what's the good? He's disciplining his people. He's correcting his people. He's looking at Israel and saying, Because I love you, and because I'm good and righteous, I am not going to let this wickedness go unpunished. And so I'm going to bring judgment upon you. Now, what's interesting is, and this is again just the mind and the sovereignty of God, he then is going to judge this wicked king, even though he's using them to bring about discipline and correction to his people. He's finally going to say, I've had enough of this cushion the doubly wicked. And so I'm going to judge him too. We see this playing out in a lot of the prophetic books where God will say, I'm going to raise up the Amorites, and they're going to be a hand of my judgment on you, Israel. And then what's going to happen is God's going to discipline the Amorites for their sin and wickedness against his people. Only the mind of God, right? But here's what it tells me, and this is why I have hope. That God is working in all things, good and bad, righteous and sinful, to bring about the purpose of his will, which ultimately exalts and glorifies him and brings about good for his covenant people. And he's working this way all the time. And to be honest, it's the only reason I can have hope in the midst of the world in which we live in. Where everywhere I turn and everywhere I look and all the stories that I seem to hear are stories of sinfulness and wickedness and stupidity and foolishness going on around the world. And if you don't have hope in a sovereign God, all you would have to do is look around and say, What's the point? I do believe it's one of the reasons that lead people to such depression and such, you know, looking as if everything's so bleak. How could you look at the world in which we live and see all of the atrocities going on? And if God is not sovereign and at work, come to any other conclusion other than this thing's never going to turn out better. Yet we see God working throughout history, even in the midst of the actions of sinful people and the wickedness of his own people, to bring about good in that. So the Israelites then cried out to the Lord. So they've had enough. And it's gone on for eight years. Now, now I think about this. You know, time does fly, but one of the things that we're gonna see in these narratives is these are extended periods of time. These aren't just like weeks that Israel is is going through a tough time. I mean, in this specific instance, the doubly wicked, uh Cush and the doubly wicked ruled and forced Israel to serve him for a period of eight years. That's almost a decade. I mean, you know, we've been in this quagmire, it seems, in Iran for what, about 60 days now? And it seems like a long time, but we're not going on eight years, right? And so, I mean, again, it's just a picture of how long this is going to happen, and it's gonna be worse at different times. But the Israelites finally had enough and they cried out to the Lord. Now, I think one of the things that we see in here is it's not necessarily hearts of repentance always in Israel that leads them to cry out, but what we are seeing is God's grace and mercy being displayed to his covenant people simply because God says he's gonna be good. And one of the reasons we know that it's not always repentance in their heart is because one, they just quickly turn right back to where they came from. As we've talked about already in this study, it's just that heart that doesn't want the pain anymore. So you're like, God, have mercy on me, alleviate uh the problems that we've called. But because God is gracious and merciful and is loving toward his people, he still intervenes on their behalf. And so here's what the Lord does the Lord raised up Othniel, son of Kinaz, Caleb's youngest brother, as a deliverer to save the Israelites. Now, who raised him up? The Lord did. So this is important in the story. He will use men and women, he will use the intelligence, the bravery, the shortcomings of men and women in these stories. But ultimately, when it's all said and done, the Savior is God Himself. So he's gonna raise up Caleb's youngest brother. Now, you don't ever want to read too much into these narratives of these stories, but I do think that there's always little lessons that we're learning along the way. By this time, Caleb is is gotten older. Uh, if we remember, Caleb was one uh who was a contemporary of Joshua. Matter of fact, Caleb was a man of great faith who was with Joshua when the twelve spies went in in the book of Numbers and and I think Deuteronomy both have an account of this. But essentially, when the other ten people of Israel said, We can't go in there, Caleb was the first to speak up and say, Wait, no, we can. God has given us this land. And then Joshua, after Caleb spoke up, echoed the same sentiments and thoughts. And so he was a contemporary of Joshua during the leadership and rule of uh Joshua. He he was in and out of that narrative, in and out of that story. Uh he was seen to be very faithful to lead in battle. Yet here comes a time now when God's going to use one of his youngest brothers uh to to be a part in this. And one of the interesting things that we look at and see, excuse me, not his younger brother, his nephew, his the son of his uh kennass Caleb's youngest brother, should be his nephew, but he's gonna use someone younger to do. This. And I think here is one of the things in life lessons that we learned, and I've learned this from older people in my life. There's a time to turn things over to another generation, isn't there? I mean, it's just the way that life rotates and works. And one of the things that we always have to be doing is being mindful of younger generations and preparing younger generations for leadership and handing younger things off. And let's just be honest, that's not always easy to do. It's not always easy to let go of things, but part of the nature of how God works and what has to work. And you know, I'm in that middle-aged category now. Now, you all still think I'm young, but but statistically speaking, I have crossed somehow into the middle-aged category in life. And I know that because I look around our church and see young adults, and they're a lot younger than I am. It's been a long time since I was doing that in there. And what does that mean? Well, there's a day in time that things transition and you raise up and you hand things off and you give them the responsibility. Why? So when the time comes, there are those who can stand up and continue to accomplish the work and do what God has called them to do. And so what we're seeing is Othniel is going to step up. God's going to use him. And so, verse 10 the Spirit of the Lord came on him and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and the Lord handed him over to King Cushion, the doubly wicked, of Aram to him. So Othniel overpowered him. Then the land had peace for 40 years, and Othniel, son of Kenaz, died. Now here's one of the interesting things I want you to see, and I think this is so important for us to understand in the biblical scheme of things. People come, people go, people die, and God keeps moving. One of the lessons that I've learned is my time in whatever I'm getting to do for the Lord is very short. And there's a day in time that it's going to be handed off, and no one will remember me no more. And that's okay. You want to know why? The story was never about us. I mean, think about the great Moses, maybe the greatest leader in the Bible. I mean, gosh, the things that he went through, the people that he led, the things that he did, and essentially he dies, and the next verse is just the story going on. I mean, like, there's no pause, there's no like, let's just all take a moment and write a chapter about the exploits and reminisce about him. He dies, they deal with him, and the story goes on. Now, why is that important? Because regardless of how important we think we are, we're just part of the story that God's writing, because really the story's about him. And we ought to just consider ourselves fortunate to be to be a part of it. This year, this August will be 27 years in some form of vocational ministry for me. I mean, so I think about that. Well more than half my life at this point has been been in that. And by the time I retire, whenever that will be, I'll have quite a few years, the Lord willing. And I often tell myself and wonder, how am I gonna handle it the first time I walk into a building and no one cares that I'm there? Now there's a part of me I think that's gonna love it. Like I'm gonna be love just being able to show up and you know what, walk in that door whenever I want and leave whenever I want. You know, one of the things that my mom has said to me, you know, being a pastor's wife and she's been at anything and everything, and one night we were having, oh, we were having the church family meeting, and she said, Mom, or she said, Charlie, I'm gonna eat lunch, then I'm gonna leave. Now, if you know my mom, you know that she's a very opinionated, she's gonna do what she wants anyway, but she said, you know what? I don't want to stay. She said, I want to go home and nap. I've been to enough of these in my life. And I said, Mom, you know what? You're right. You've earned it, just go. Just go. I can fill you in on anything you need later. Now, now, part of me wants to be a good church member, and so I don't want everybody to have that attitude all the time. But like, sometimes, you know what? I'm just gonna, I think there's gonna be a part of me that's gonna be like my mom one of these days. That when I retire and they're like, we're having a meeting, I'm like, you are, I'm not. Deuces, and on my way I'll go, just just because I can. But you know what the other side of that is? There's gonna be a day in time when no one cares about what my voice has to say. And and can we be okay with that? I remember sitting there in the back of a uh before worship service one time at my last church, and the band was practicing before church started, and and they were playing some songs, and we were talking, and and we were just saying, you know, what one of my friends and I were like, one of these days, these are gonna be the old songs. They're like, Yeah, you're right. And I said, Let's make a deal with one another. He said, What's that? I said, if we're in the same church, we're never gonna sit back here. And if they play a new song, we're gonna complain and say, you need to play some of the old songs. I said, We we gotta make a deal. Like, like I, if I do it, you call me out and I'm gonna do the same to you. But like it never will we be allowed to look at one another and say, why don't they play more of that Chris Tomlin? You know, because I mean it happens, right? It's just it's just part of it. And and I think one of the things to remember in this story is look how quickly it comes and quickly it goes. God says, I'm gonna deliver my people. Othniel, you're who I'm gonna use to do it. Othniel steps in, gets a big victory, and you know what? Overpowers him. The land had peace for 40 years, then he died. Story keeps going. Now I'm not being morbid, but isn't that the reality of life? Like how how quickly life comes, how quickly it ends, how quickly we die, and you know what? Story keeps going because it was never about us to begin with. Well, let's look at the next character. The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord's sight. Now, I'm just gonna warn you as we go through this book together, we're gonna hear this a lot. The Lord did what was evil, he gave King Eglon of Moab power over Israel because they had done what was evil in the Lord's sight. So here comes God's strict hand of discipline and judgment again. After Eglon convinced the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him, he attacked and defeated Israel, took possession of the city of Palms. The Israelites served King Eglan of Moab eighteen years. So we went from eight. Now, this is almost two decades worth of domination that's going to go on. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he raised up Ehud, the son of Gerah, the left-handed Benjamite, as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him with the tribute for King Eglon of Moab. Now, what's interesting is how Ehud is described here. Now, it could be speaking of a couple things. One, by being left-handed. It could mean that it's talking about he's literally left-handed. Now, the problem with that is it is oftentimes, and you'll see this in the Psalms and different things, that strength is talked about with the right hand. And so is it describing a guy who is just kind of weak, this left-handed Benjamin, this weaker guy. Some believe that what it is is he's left-handed because something is deformed or something's happened to his right hand. And so the majority would say probably what's happened is he's he was either born with some deformity or something's happened that he can't use his right hand, his strong hand, and so now he's forced to use his offhand. Some of you are old enough to remember that if you went to school trying to use your left hand, they wouldn't let you use it. I mean, you know, they'd be forcing you to use your right hand. And I think about that and I'm like, man, my left hand is about worthless. I mean, I can barely pick my nose with my left hand. I mean, I just am not ambidextrious when it comes to that. And I'm like, man, I cannot imagine going to school and every day them telling me, you got to use that hand. You got to use that hand because I would just be like, it's such a foreign. I mean, Adeline's a little bit of a southpaw. She rides with her left hand and all of those things. And I can't imagine looking at her and slapping it, be like, no, put that pencil back in back in the other hand. But you know, historically, being left-handed has not always been seen as a positive thing or a good thing. I tend to lend to believe that probably what's happened is that this is a guy who, for some reason, whether it be deformity or something has happened to him, he can't use it, which is basically speaking to his weakness. It's speaking to the fact that God is gonna use someone who's not perfect, not strong, to accomplish his plan and his will. Now, what we're gonna see here is that this guy has some methods that are a little, or not a little, they're they're very sneaky. And again, God uses all kinds of people, and so he's possibly physically weak, and so he's gonna have to become crafty with how he's gonna pull this off. And so essentially what's happened is he is part of a group who's been sent to bring a tribute, payment, gifts to this king that's dominating them. And there's some humility in this, and by humility I don't mean a good type, like it's humiliating. You're now being forced from this wicked king who's dominated you, and here you have to come representing your people, bringing a gift to him. So here's what Ehud does: he makes himself a double-edged sword, 18 inches long, and he straps it to his right thigh underneath his clothes, and brought the tribute to King England of Moab, who was an extremely fat man. Now, we're gonna see just how fat he is before the story's over, but but but historians say that there is a lot of humor in this that when the people of Israel would read this account, it's hard for us to see it in the language, but essentially there's make there's a lot of making fun of this king and referring to him. Now, we live in a day and time where fit and trim is the trend, like that's what you want to be. In this day and time, though, a lot of times the more powerful you were, the fatter you were, and part of it was a sign of your power. I don't have to do these things because I have so much power and control, I can just sit back and eat. Also, in a day and time and place where food was not always as plentiful as it was, the fact that you had the ability to uh have all of the food that you could eat and be heavy was a sign of your dominance over other people. And so, in one way, this fatness that he has is a sign of his strength and power, but it's also going to be a sign, uh, or not a sign, but it's gonna play to his weakness here in just a moment. Another example I would give that we live in a world today where tan is in, right? I mean, you want to have a nice dark complexion or tannin, but but there's been historically days and times where the whiter you are, the more fortunate you were considered, because it means you didn't have to get out in the sun and work. So it was a sign of your uh, you know, wealth and your being recognized as a person of prominence because, well, I don't have to get out in the sun. Now today we're like, let's let's bake ourselves so we can look dark. And back in then you're like, let's be as pasty as we can be, and uh we're better off. That being said, so he makes him a small dagger or sword, he's gonna strap it to the inside of his leg to hide it. He's going covert, and he's gonna bring tribute to King Eaglan of Moab, who is an extremely fat man. Verse 18. When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who carried it. At the carved images near Gilgal, he returned and said, King Eglin, I have a secret message for you. So just to paint the picture, he and the people that have come with him, they've gone back, they've headed outside of town, they reached the outskirts where the carved images and idols and things he would have been, and he tells his friends, You go on, I've got something else I need to go back and do. And so he's being very secretive, very covert. And so he goes in to King Eaglin, who has no reason to believe that there's anything wrong. This guy's already come, already brought tribute, but he says, I have a secret message for you. I've got something important you need to know. Now, this was a very paganistic religious type culture, and so they were always trying to find, you know, something that a seer might tell them, or some fortune or whatnot, and so he wants to hear it. And the fact that it's secret, he says, silence and sends all of his attendants out. Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone upstairs in an upstairs room where it was cool. And so, because of his wealth, prominence, he's got a place in the castle. More likely it was elevated, was able to get winds in there. It was a cooler place in this hot environment. So he's there, and Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And the king stood up from his throne. Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, plunged it into Eaglan's belly. Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eaglan's fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly, and the waist came out. Now, this is a sign of humiliation. This big fat man who thinks that he's in control and in power ends up getting stabbed with a dagger, 18 inches long, and his belly so big that it goes in and covers over it. So what a picture, right? I mean, wouldn't you like to see this in a movie? I mean, there's really some stories here in this in the Bible that you're like, you know, these would make great movies. I mean, these would be great, you know, uh stories. Like I think about the story of David and his mighty men of valor who stand in the middle of all these Philistines and, you know, fight and kill hundreds and thousands of them, and you're like, man, what a what a sight that would be to see. And I think about this, you know, if if if Netflix is needing some new material, we could get a story about Ehud and his dagger going all the way in the fat belly. And then the waste came out. So what does that mean? Well, he alleved himself. You know, we know what happens when a person dies. So Ehud escapes by the way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room behind him. Ehud was gone when Eglin's servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was relieving himself in the cool room. So they're like, Well, he must be tending to his business. Not to be crass and gross, but probably the smell coming out of the other side is like, ugh, he's probably taking care of his business. So they leave him in there. Uh verse 25. The servants waited until they became embarrassed and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors, and there was their Lord lying dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He passed the Jordan near the carved images and reached out and reached Sirah. After he arrived, he sounded the ram's horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hill country, and he became their leader. He told them, Follow me, because the Lord has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you. So they followed him, captured the fords of Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all stout and able-bodied men, not one of them escaped. Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land had peace for eighty years. So God's going to use this lame duck-looking guy who's going to use trickery to sneak in and take out the king, but then to be the leader of his people and to rescue them. So God can use all kinds of us, can't he? I mean, God can use the brave, the the soldier-looking fella all the way down to the deformed, weak person. And then just to end the chapter, after Ehud, Shamgar, son of Anath became judge, he delivered Israel, striking down 600 Philistines with a cattle prod. And that's all we get about him. So in three chapters, we we see the ups, the downs, the extremes. We see that through us we accomplish what God wants, we die, we move on, he uses somebody else. We even see that one guy's story is he his highlight is killing 600 Philistines with a cattle prod, which is which is pretty pretty big highlight, but that's all we get about him. God just using and working, and again, the point is this the hero of it all is the Lord. And so one of the things that we always have to remember when God is working in us, and he's working in all of us, when God's working through us, he's working through all of us, he has a purpose, a plan for our lives. He's given you a story. And your story is unique. Your story doesn't need to be anybody else's story. You don't need to try to build your life around somebody else's story. You need to see, God, how are you working in my life and how have you equipped me and what is the calling? And I do think a lot of times some of our problems come from the fact that we're focusing way too much on other people's stories and not enough on what God is doing in our life. We're too busy trying to model ourselves after someone else or expecting God to do in our life what he's done in someone else's life. And the reality is you've got your own story that God is writing for you. And simply just be faithful, be obedient, and trust that God in his right time is going to use you to accomplish the purpose that you have, he has for your life. And what a beautiful thing it is when you get to look back and just see how God worked and what he did through you. And can I tell you this? Sometimes the things that seem the most insignificant and the people who seem the most insignificant that God will use in some of the greatest ways. Just be ready when he calls your name and says, I've got something for you. Let's pray, and then we'll end. Next week, we'll take a look at the story of Deborah, which is a fascinating one. Uh seeing how God's going to work in through a woman during the time of judges. Father, we thank you. We love you, we praise you. Lord, would you remind us first of all that God, you are a God of grace and mercy. And when your people cry out to you, you hear them and you work. And Father, we're thankful today because God, we know that there is a waywardness in our hearts. Father, the old song that says, Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love is a battleground for every one of us. We know on our own there's an inclination to run after other things. And so, Father, we we pray and ask, God, would you take and seal our heart? Because God, if if our salvation is dependent upon us, Lord, we we know we have no hope. But God, because you've accomplished everything for us, Father, we know we can be secure. Father, we thank you that just as you raised up deliverers and judges in the time of Israel, that God, you raised up one final deliverer for us in Jesus. Father, we're thankful today that we've seen how you use multiple different types of people, but God, even in your using of us, Father, we're reminded that the story is really about you. Help us to live for you, your purpose, not for ourselves. God, would you just be with the group represented in this room, Father? All the things going on in their lives. Father, things we know about, things we don't know about, people who are sick, people who are undergoing treatments, people who are recuperating from surgeries. God, I'm aware of people who have gotten difficult diagnoses in the last few days. And Lord, I pray that you would comfort them and just help them to see and understand what you're doing in their life. Father, we continue to pray for our church that God, we would be a picture of a healthy biblical New Testament church. And that, Father, our greatest desire would be to know you and to lead other people to do the same. Father, thank you for loving us the way that you do. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.