The story of Ehud involves the same typical cycle that often characterizes what happened during the period of Judges. The Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord responded to change the course of their action by giving Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. When they cried out for help, he gave them a deliverer, in this case Ehud. Ehud single-handedly killed the king of Moab and led the Israelites to overcome Moab’s oppression.
Ehud cunningly concealed the weapon of his choice, a short sword just made for the risky mission to take down the king of Moab. He was chosen by the Israelites to lead a group to bring the tribute to Eglon. Ehud first had his encounter with the king when he brought the tribute. After leaving and sending away the rest of the people who brought the tribute with him, he went back to the king.
Ehud managed to get a private time with the king when he told the king, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Having received a nice tribute from the group led by Ehud and Ehud showing up alone, Eglon had little reason to suspect any foul play.
Excited to hear something special, he ordered the attendants to be quite. This was perhaps a signal for the attendants and the officials to clear out the King’s upper room of his summer palace. They left the room, leaving the king alone with Ehud.
Ehud told the king, “I have a message from God for you” in verse 20. Expecting to hear a divine message, the king got up to show his respect only to meet Ehud’s dagger. The king fell to the floor dead.
How did Ehud get out? While the attendants and officials waited outside the doors, Ehud snuck out of the porch locking the doors of the upper room behind him. The king’s attendants and officials thought the king was attending to his bodily need.
They waited until they weren’t sure what was going on any more, only to find their king on the floor dead.
Ehud having successfully assassinated the enemy’s king, went back to the Hill country of Ephraim, blew a trumpet and gathered the Israelites. And, then he gave his pep talk! “Follow me… for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” Well, the rest was history! Verse 29 says, “they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.”
Reading the story of Ehud is like watching an action flick. It reminded me of House of Flying Daggers that I recently watch on DVD. Well, it is one thing to watch and be entertained by the movies like House of Flying Daggers, but it is another thing to read a story like this in the Bible and glean spiritual insights for our lives.
Hebrew 4:12-13 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubled-edged sword, in penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give account.”
So, this morning, I pray that this scriptural story gets applied to us as the living and active word of God.
1. Who’s driving your life vehicle?
Judges 3:12 says that Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. It doesn’t say what they actually did. But, there are few clues. When Ehud returned back from delivering the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab, verse 19 says at the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back.”
And, verse 26 says Ehud again passed by the idols when he escaped to Seriah somewhere in the hill country of Ephraim. This again close to Gilgal.
you remember what was in Gilgal? In Gilgal were the twelve stones that the each tribe of Israel carried from the bottom of the Jordan River bed when God miraculously stopped its flow to allow the Israelites to safely cross it. The pile of these twelve stones were to be the lasting reminder to the Israelites what God had done for them.
But, what we see in verse 19 & verse 26 is that along side of the twelve stones monument in Gilgal were the idols.
God very specifically prohibited the Israelites from making idols. Deuteronomy 4:15-18 says, “You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.” And, God gave them specific instructions as to what they should do when they came across the idols. Deuteronomy 12:3 says, “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and bur their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.” Another word, they were to “purge the evil.” So often the Lord commanded the Israelites, “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deut. 13:5, 17:7, 12, 13, 19:13, 19, 21:9, 21, 22:22, 24, 24:7. & Judges 20:13). Another way to understand this command is to picture sweeping away.
Our dinning room area gets dirty very quickly because it is a high traffic area close to where Rocky our dog stays and our dinning table sits in it. The floor accumulates dirt, Rocky’s dog hair, food crumbs from the table very quickly. We either need to sweep away or vacuum away the unwanted elements from the floor few times each day.
God did not want the Israelites to tolerate any idol in the Promised Land. But, this is exactly what the Israelites did. They either tolerated the idols made by the native people of Canaan or they themselves built the idols with their own hands.
What are idols? Idols are anything that tries to substitute God.
Instead of relying on God for help, an idol is trying figure things out on our own.
Psalm 33:10 says, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
Proverbs 16:1 says, “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.”
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
God is very clear on this. His purposes, his plans, his steps will succeed. His call is for us to come to him and cooperate with him to accomplish his purposes, his plans, and his steps with his ability, his strength.
There are many things that make our hearts anxious, but one great source of anxiety must be when we think about our future. As students now, some of you think about what you will become, as working people, you think about how you might progress through the ladders at your business, out of school now, you are looking for a job, career direction, you are single and you want boyfriend, girlfriend or you want to get married.
I remember talking to Shannon’s mom when she visited our church a day before his departure to Guinea. When I asked her how she was doing, she chocked up. She tried really hard to hold her tears. I told her that it was hard for me to imagine how difficult it would be to send off my child to far away land where basic living condition is so poor.
Well, we had our moment when Abby got on that Big Yellow school bus for the first time to go to her kindergarten. Our first daughter, for about three hours each weekday she will not be with us. After Abby got on the bus, I asked Lyn how she was doing. I wanted to record a video clip on how mom felt for sending Abby off to school. She chocked up and cried! Well, you better believe we pray hard that week for our kindergarten student! Instead of giving into anxiety and fear and try to control our daughter’s destiny, what we are learning is to trust God knows what he is doing.
He says in Jeremiah 29:11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.”
So, next time you feel anxious and fearful, impatient, unhappy when you think about your life, where you think it is heading, I want you to see who is driving your life vehicle. Because the field of life is filled with rough terrains with dangerous and unexpected turns and obstacles, you want your life vehicle to be driven by the professional. You would like to think you are well capable of navigating your life vehicle, but you are just an amateur. You need to hire the big name professional! Not just any one, but the best of the best. And in the universe, there is no one with the better credentials, better track records of successes, better skills and knowledge to our life vehicle than Jesus. And, by the way, you don’t need to hire him, because he offers you his super-professional spiritual service to you at no cost. Only thing that he asks of you is for you to get off the driver seat and let him navigate for you! Another word, trust in him!
2. What do you do when you are downcast?
Let me take you back to the story of Ehud. I wasn’t sure how this rather gory account of Ehud using his sword to get the enemy’s king would apply to my and your lives. I got some help from K. Lawson Younger who wrote a commentary on Judges.
We don’t face warfare situations like Ehud as Christians. So, the question he asks is, “How are we to wage spiritual warfare against those who abuse, exploit, and persecute the church?”[1] More general question I would ask is, “How are we to wage war against Satan who wants to discourage us?”
If Satan tried to take our Lord Jesus down when Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, you better believe Satan is out to take us down!
If it is not with the physical sword of Ehud, what is that we are to use for the spiritual warfare? K. Lawson Younger connects Ehud’s sword to the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. In Ephesians 6:7, Paul calls us to take up the arm by picking up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
This past week, I was overwhelmed with deep sense of discouragement. My wife was feeling it too. Although the weather was bright and warm, our hearts were downcast. I didn’t know how to shake off the discouragement.
That is when the Lord presented me with his sword, the word of God from Psalm 42:5-11:
Why are you so downcast with me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon- from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
Over fifteen years ago, I was able to see Niagara Falls with my family. We took the tour boat at the bottom of the falls. Wow, the roars of the waterfalls completely drown my hearing, I could hardly hear myself. The falls from above doesn’t look so bad, but where the falls hit the water, you feel so small and powerless. The roars of waterfalls drowning all your senses, it feels chaotic. Have you felt like that in your life?
Have you felt like someone is saying to you, “Where is your God?” God feels distant and far.
God put this psalm 42 in the Bible to let us know that we will go through the times of great confusion, chaos when we feel powerless, insignificant, out of control, discouraged.
What do you do? You take up the sword of the word of God and you begin to preach to yourself, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
[1] K. Lawson Younger, NIVAC on Judges, p. 126.
Ehud cunningly concealed the weapon of his choice, a short sword just made for the risky mission to take down the king of Moab. He was chosen by the Israelites to lead a group to bring the tribute to Eglon. Ehud first had his encounter with the king when he brought the tribute. After leaving and sending away the rest of the people who brought the tribute with him, he went back to the king.
Ehud managed to get a private time with the king when he told the king, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Having received a nice tribute from the group led by Ehud and Ehud showing up alone, Eglon had little reason to suspect any foul play.
Excited to hear something special, he ordered the attendants to be quite. This was perhaps a signal for the attendants and the officials to clear out the King’s upper room of his summer palace. They left the room, leaving the king alone with Ehud.
Ehud told the king, “I have a message from God for you” in verse 20. Expecting to hear a divine message, the king got up to show his respect only to meet Ehud’s dagger. The king fell to the floor dead.
How did Ehud get out? While the attendants and officials waited outside the doors, Ehud snuck out of the porch locking the doors of the upper room behind him. The king’s attendants and officials thought the king was attending to his bodily need.
They waited until they weren’t sure what was going on any more, only to find their king on the floor dead.
Ehud having successfully assassinated the enemy’s king, went back to the Hill country of Ephraim, blew a trumpet and gathered the Israelites. And, then he gave his pep talk! “Follow me… for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” Well, the rest was history! Verse 29 says, “they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.”
Reading the story of Ehud is like watching an action flick. It reminded me of House of Flying Daggers that I recently watch on DVD. Well, it is one thing to watch and be entertained by the movies like House of Flying Daggers, but it is another thing to read a story like this in the Bible and glean spiritual insights for our lives.
Hebrew 4:12-13 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubled-edged sword, in penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give account.”
So, this morning, I pray that this scriptural story gets applied to us as the living and active word of God.
1. Who’s driving your life vehicle?
Judges 3:12 says that Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. It doesn’t say what they actually did. But, there are few clues. When Ehud returned back from delivering the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab, verse 19 says at the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back.”
And, verse 26 says Ehud again passed by the idols when he escaped to Seriah somewhere in the hill country of Ephraim. This again close to Gilgal.
you remember what was in Gilgal? In Gilgal were the twelve stones that the each tribe of Israel carried from the bottom of the Jordan River bed when God miraculously stopped its flow to allow the Israelites to safely cross it. The pile of these twelve stones were to be the lasting reminder to the Israelites what God had done for them.
But, what we see in verse 19 & verse 26 is that along side of the twelve stones monument in Gilgal were the idols.
God very specifically prohibited the Israelites from making idols. Deuteronomy 4:15-18 says, “You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.” And, God gave them specific instructions as to what they should do when they came across the idols. Deuteronomy 12:3 says, “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and bur their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.” Another word, they were to “purge the evil.” So often the Lord commanded the Israelites, “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deut. 13:5, 17:7, 12, 13, 19:13, 19, 21:9, 21, 22:22, 24, 24:7. & Judges 20:13). Another way to understand this command is to picture sweeping away.
Our dinning room area gets dirty very quickly because it is a high traffic area close to where Rocky our dog stays and our dinning table sits in it. The floor accumulates dirt, Rocky’s dog hair, food crumbs from the table very quickly. We either need to sweep away or vacuum away the unwanted elements from the floor few times each day.
God did not want the Israelites to tolerate any idol in the Promised Land. But, this is exactly what the Israelites did. They either tolerated the idols made by the native people of Canaan or they themselves built the idols with their own hands.
What are idols? Idols are anything that tries to substitute God.
Instead of relying on God for help, an idol is trying figure things out on our own.
Psalm 33:10 says, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
Proverbs 16:1 says, “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.”
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
God is very clear on this. His purposes, his plans, his steps will succeed. His call is for us to come to him and cooperate with him to accomplish his purposes, his plans, and his steps with his ability, his strength.
There are many things that make our hearts anxious, but one great source of anxiety must be when we think about our future. As students now, some of you think about what you will become, as working people, you think about how you might progress through the ladders at your business, out of school now, you are looking for a job, career direction, you are single and you want boyfriend, girlfriend or you want to get married.
I remember talking to Shannon’s mom when she visited our church a day before his departure to Guinea. When I asked her how she was doing, she chocked up. She tried really hard to hold her tears. I told her that it was hard for me to imagine how difficult it would be to send off my child to far away land where basic living condition is so poor.
Well, we had our moment when Abby got on that Big Yellow school bus for the first time to go to her kindergarten. Our first daughter, for about three hours each weekday she will not be with us. After Abby got on the bus, I asked Lyn how she was doing. I wanted to record a video clip on how mom felt for sending Abby off to school. She chocked up and cried! Well, you better believe we pray hard that week for our kindergarten student! Instead of giving into anxiety and fear and try to control our daughter’s destiny, what we are learning is to trust God knows what he is doing.
He says in Jeremiah 29:11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.”
So, next time you feel anxious and fearful, impatient, unhappy when you think about your life, where you think it is heading, I want you to see who is driving your life vehicle. Because the field of life is filled with rough terrains with dangerous and unexpected turns and obstacles, you want your life vehicle to be driven by the professional. You would like to think you are well capable of navigating your life vehicle, but you are just an amateur. You need to hire the big name professional! Not just any one, but the best of the best. And in the universe, there is no one with the better credentials, better track records of successes, better skills and knowledge to our life vehicle than Jesus. And, by the way, you don’t need to hire him, because he offers you his super-professional spiritual service to you at no cost. Only thing that he asks of you is for you to get off the driver seat and let him navigate for you! Another word, trust in him!
2. What do you do when you are downcast?
Let me take you back to the story of Ehud. I wasn’t sure how this rather gory account of Ehud using his sword to get the enemy’s king would apply to my and your lives. I got some help from K. Lawson Younger who wrote a commentary on Judges.
We don’t face warfare situations like Ehud as Christians. So, the question he asks is, “How are we to wage spiritual warfare against those who abuse, exploit, and persecute the church?”[1] More general question I would ask is, “How are we to wage war against Satan who wants to discourage us?”
If Satan tried to take our Lord Jesus down when Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, you better believe Satan is out to take us down!
If it is not with the physical sword of Ehud, what is that we are to use for the spiritual warfare? K. Lawson Younger connects Ehud’s sword to the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. In Ephesians 6:7, Paul calls us to take up the arm by picking up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
This past week, I was overwhelmed with deep sense of discouragement. My wife was feeling it too. Although the weather was bright and warm, our hearts were downcast. I didn’t know how to shake off the discouragement.
That is when the Lord presented me with his sword, the word of God from Psalm 42:5-11:
Why are you so downcast with me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon- from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
Over fifteen years ago, I was able to see Niagara Falls with my family. We took the tour boat at the bottom of the falls. Wow, the roars of the waterfalls completely drown my hearing, I could hardly hear myself. The falls from above doesn’t look so bad, but where the falls hit the water, you feel so small and powerless. The roars of waterfalls drowning all your senses, it feels chaotic. Have you felt like that in your life?
Have you felt like someone is saying to you, “Where is your God?” God feels distant and far.
God put this psalm 42 in the Bible to let us know that we will go through the times of great confusion, chaos when we feel powerless, insignificant, out of control, discouraged.
What do you do? You take up the sword of the word of God and you begin to preach to yourself, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
[1] K. Lawson Younger, NIVAC on Judges, p. 126.
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