From Sampler to Sower

Weekend Teaching Series: Heroes

Message Title: The Left-Handed Assassin

Sermon in a Sentence: God makes a habit of using the unlikely.

Text(s): Judges 3:7-30

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 1 out of 10, Two weeks in a row?  Yet it was easy.  This series is really falling together nicely, and added volunteer help is really helping carry the load.

Message Summary:

We’re in week two of our Heroes series for Junior High.  You’ll remember from last week this series is taking a look at the book of Judges.  After reminding students of the essential cycle of the book of Judges (Rebellion, Retribution, Repentance, Redeemer, Rescue) we took a look at the first two judges.

In Judges 3:7-11, the cycle can be obviously seen:

Rebellion: Judges 3:7 says the people did evil in the eyes of the Lord and they began to worship the idols of Baal and Asherah.

Retribution: As God warned through Joshua, when the people resorted to idolatry, God no longer fought on their behalf.  Instead verse 8 says he “sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim.”  Interestingly, most Hebrew linguists recognize the root word “rs” (wicked) in Cushan’s last name, along with a suffix meaning “double.”  God handed them over to Cushan the doubly wicked.

Repentance: After eight years under the control of Cushan the doubly wicked, the people cry out to God for help.

Redeemer: God responds by raising up a leader to rescue the people.  The first judge (or leader) we meet is Othaniel.  It seems an obvious choice.  What do we know about Othaniel?

1. He was from the tribe of Judah – the largest and strongest of all the tribes of Israel.
2. He was the nephew* of Caleb – one of the two spies who was faithful to God, even when everyone else was afraid. (*Note, the NIV translates the word as “brother” but this word refers to almost any male relation.  Most scholars seem to agree that he was probably a nephew.)
3. He was the hero of the battle for Kiriath Sephir. -As Caleb was trying to conquer the part of the Promised Land allotted to the tribe of Judah, they came across the city of Kiriath Sephir.  He promised that any man who attacked and captured the city could marry his daughter.  Othaniel was that man.
4. He was the son-in-law of Caleb.
5. He was the ruler of the springs of the Negev – Caleb gave control not only of the region of the Negev, but also the springs that provided water for that region to his new son-in-law.

In other words, Othaniel had it all together.  From the largest tribe, part of the strongest family, war hero and ruler of the Springs of the Negev, Othaniel was the kind of guy who when he walked by people said “Now there’s a leader. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m following him.”

Rescue: God inspired Othaniel with His Holy Spirit, and Othaniel was recognized by all as the God-chosen leader for Israel.  Othaniel led them into battle against Cushan he doubly wicked, and Isreal prevailed.  For forty years, Israel enjoyed peace.

Of course all good things come to an end, and so did the peace of Othaniel.  After Othaniel dies, the cycle begins again.

Rebellion: Judges doesn’t specifiy this time, saying only that Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  The evil was most likely again idolatry.  In fact later in the story we will read about the idols which had been set up at Gilgal.  In the place Joshua set up a monument to remember God’s faithfulness in bringing the people through the Jordan river,  Israel sets up idols to worship false gods.

Retribution: God again hands Israel over to her enemies.  This time they are handed over to the Moabites, a people so weak and frightened that when Israel first came into the Promised Land they simply ignored them.  A people who were once so weak they were nothing more than a fly to be swatted away now become Israel’s oppressors.  They are led by Eglon, a king of unusual size whose name means “Bull” as in “Hi, my name is Bull.”  You get the idea what he must have looked like.

Eglon and the Moabite coalition succeeds in conquering the City of Palms, also known as Jericho.  So not only did a people once so weak they were ignored rise up to conquer Israel, Jericho, once the site of Israel’s greatest victory becomes the site of their great defeat.  Eglon sets up a palace in Jericho and from there continues to oppress Israel.

Repentance: “Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD…” (Judges 3:15a)

Redeemer: “…and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite (Judges 3:15b).”

Up until this point the story has followed the pattern set by Othaniel pretty closely.  But here it takes a dramatic turn.  Ehud is pretty much the opposite of Othaniel.  What do we know about Ehud?

1. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. – Territory-wise one of the smallest and weakest of all the tribes of Israel.
2. He was left handed.  – I know in our day and age that’s really no big deal.  We all know people who are left-handed.  It’s only slightly unusual.  But in Ehud’s day it was a big deal.  Left-handedness was dishonorable.  In a world without indoor plumbing, bathroom sinks and Purel hand sanitizer, the way you kept a hand clean was to make sure you didn’t use it for anything dirty.  The clean hand was the right.  The dirty hand used for everything that makes you want to wash your hands, was the left.  As a result, you kept your left hand to yourself.  It was dishonorable.  But even more than that, it was diabolical. You didn’t trust someone who was left-handed.  There was something wrong with them, something evil about being different like that.  In fact our English word “sinister” comes from the Latin for left-handed.  Being left-handed was a serious strike against Ehud.
3. He was quite possibly disabled. – Because being left-handed was so undesirable, in Ehud’s day if someone showed left-handed tendencies, their parents would train them out of it, educating them into right-handedness.  So why was Ehud left-handed?  The Hebrew phrase translated as “left-handed” literally means “bound in the right hand.”  We’re not completely sure what that means – the phrase only occurs twice in the whole Bible – but it at least hints at the possibility that perhaps Ehud had a deformed or paralyzed right hand.  It’s quite possible that he was left-handed because he didn’t have a choice.  He couldn’t use his right.

In other words, Ehud didn’t have it all together.  From the weakest tribe, sinister and quite possibly disabled, Ehud was the kind of guy that when he walked by, people said “Hey, what ever happened to Othaniel?  It’s been forever since I saw that guy.”  Easily overlooked, Ehud was not a natural leader.

In fact, he was so inoffensive that he was selected to take the annual tribute to Eglon.  Every year Israel had to send money and gifts to Eglon to keep him from attacking.  And when you choose someone to take your lunch money to the playground bully, you don’t choose a mighty warrior.  The bully might be offended and figure it’s time to put you back in your place.  Instead you send someone weak, someone who won’t pose a threat to anyone.  Ehud as that man.

Rescue: What no one knew was that God had chosen Ehud to rescue his people. The Bible says Ehud had made a small double edged sword.  In a nation who most likely had all their weapons confiscated when they were conquered by the Moabites, Ehud made a sword.  The one handed man made himself a sword.  (How hard would that have been?) And he strapped it to his right thigh, hiding it under his cloak.  (Right-handed people all wore their swords on their left, readily accessible to their right hand.)

After delivering the tribute the messengers from Israel left Eglon.  But halfway back home, Ehud turned back and requested a secret meeting with the King.  Eglon, seeing this sinister outcast probably assumed Ehud was a traitor, ready to sell out the people who had treated him with such contempt.  And even if not, he was crippled!  Eglon figured he had nothing to fear, so he granted Ehud an audience.  And because his sword was on the right, not the left, none of Eglon’s guards noticed he was armed.

When Ehud came up to Eglon’s private chambers, Eglon sent out all his servants so he could hear the secret message.  Ehud approached the king, and as Eglon stood to greet him, Ehud drew his secret sword and made sure Eglon got the point.  Stabbing the enormous king in the stomach, he drove the sword into his belly until the tip came out through his back and the king’s fatty folds closed over the hilt of the weapon.  And as if that wasn’t gross enough, as the KJV puts it “the dirt came out.” Stabbed in the belly, dead, the fat king’s bowels burst, releasing their contents.

At this point Ehud locked the doors to the kings inner chambers and escaped through the ??????.  We’re not sure.  The NIV translates the word as porch.  Some scholars argue the word means “hole.”  At least one commentator believes it refers to the opening in the king’s restroom.  Remember, there was no indoor plumbing, only indoor outhouses, and it’s at least possible that Ehud escaped by crawling into and then out of the king’s indoor outhouse.

The servants of Eglon, meanwhile, began to wonder what was taking so long.  But when they checked the doors were locked, just like the king was using the restroom.  Add to that the smell that was probably obviously wafting out from the other side of the door, the servants assumed he was relieving himself.  When they finally couldn’t wait any longer they entered the kings chambers and found him dead.

Meanwhile Ehud returns to the hill country of Ephraim.  There he sounds a trumpet to call the people to battle.  Imagine what the people saw when they came to the trumpet – Here’s this left-handed, partially disabled guy from the tribe of Benjamin who looks and smells like he just fell into the outhouse calling them to battle. But when he tells them about Eglon’s death they rally for battle and send Moab running.

What’s the point of this whole story?  Simply put, God makes a habit of using the unlikely.  Ehud had a lot of strikes against him: he was from Benjamin, he was left handed, he was disabled.  Yet the man everyone else overlooked was chosen by God to lead his people.  How many of our students find themselves overlooked?  How many of them compare themselves to the Othaniel’s of our world and assume they’re destined for nothing special.  If the story of Ehud teaches us anything, it’s that so long as we are willing, God can use us for something great.

What’s more, in the end, Ehud’s handicap proved to be Ehud’s opportunity.  Each of us struggles with weaknesses.  We might have the full use of both our hands, but we are all handicapped in our own unique ways.  Rather than disqualifying us from greatness, our weaknesses become the opportunity for God to demonstrate his power through us.  When we are weak, then we can be strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This week we didn’t have a hero themed activity, but we did play a game of Balderdash as an upfront game.  Four contestants were selected to invent definitions and then the audience was challenged to figure out which answer was real.  The audience member who found the most true answers and the upfront contestant who fooled the most people in the audience both won a prize.

Worship Set: From the Inside Out, You Never Let Go, Trading my Sorrows, Hosanna (the Brooke Fraser version)

Favorite Moment: I’m having a blast with this series.  I enjoy story-telling, and Judges is full of good stories to tell.