Judges 3 "The Spirit of the LORD and a Sharp Message from God"

Last week we looked at the overarching pattern of apostasy and deliverance

in the period of the Judges.

There are six cycles that are described in the book of Judges,

The Mesopotamian oppression and the deliverance by Othniel.

The Moabite oppression and the deliverance by Ehud.

The Canaanite oppression and the deliverance by Barak

The Midianite oppression and the deliverance by Gideon.

The Ammonite oppression and the deliverance by Jephthah

The Philistine oppression and the deliverance by Samson.

Each of these six cycles begins with the words,

"the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD....

[and] the LORD gave/sold them into the hands of X"

Scattered in between these six cycles are six other judges,

Shamgar, Tola and Jair, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon.

Two patterns of six judges.

That makes 12 judges, and no tribe has more than one judge.

Some commentators have pointed out that Leviticus 26:18-28

repeatedly declares that God will punish Israel for his sins seven times.

Why does Judges only have six?

There is a sense in which the book of Judges is pointing forwards.

In those days there was no king in Israel.

The cycles of the judges are incomplete-they are still awaiting the seventh judgment-

a final judgment which will be worse than the first six put together.

But the overarching narrative is that Israel is looking more and more like the Canaanites

(which comes to its most striking conclusion in the explicit desire of Israel to be

"like the nations around us")

1. "Judah Shall Go First" (3:7-11)

The first cycle is also the simplest.

There are very few details given.

Simply that Israel sinned by going after the Baals and Asheroth,

and so God sold Israel into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim who oppressed Israel.

Asherah was the mother of the gods.

Associated with fertility, her cult generally involved prostitution

Cushan-Rishathaim

Cushan the doubly-wicked (probably associated with the Babylonian empire-

between the rivers)

The simplicity of the account and the identity of the wording with 2:11-23 suggests that

this is the paradigm for the book.

Unlike most of the Judges, Othniel has no blemish on his record.

Indeed, it is said of him that the Spirit of Yahweh was with him-

something said only of Gideon, Othniel and Samson.

But also notice who Othniel is.

He is a Kenazzite-the nephew and son-in-law of Caleb-

and he dwells in the land of Judah.

The Kenazzites were one of the tribes of Esau-the Edomites.

Most likely one of the sons of Kenaz fled to Egypt during the famine,

and wound up marrying into the tribe of Judah.

By the time that Caleb came out of Egypt

he was integrated into the tribe so as to be chosen as one of the 12 spies.

Now his nephew and son-in-law will become one of the twelve judges.

But while Othniel has the honor of being the first judge and the representative of Judah,

the author of Judges also wants to remind you that he is a Kenazzite-a foreigner.

Because it is not his connection to Caleb, or his native prowess, that enables him to defeat

Cushan the doubly wicked.

It is because Yahweh raises him up and fills him with his Spirit,

and gave Cushan-Rishathaim into Othniel's hand.

In all of the other cycles we will get more details.

Here we learn simply that God gave Othniel the victory, and the land had peace for 40 yrs

(a generation)

The basic point of this narrative (and indeed one of the basic points of Judges)

is that when God's people abandon the LORD,

they invoke his curse.

God is faithful to his covenant-both in blessing and in cursing.

But that faithfulness means that in the end, he will raise up a deliverer,

in spite of our faithlessness, and will dethrone the powers that oppress his church.

The Spirit of the LORD will come upon the deliverer,

empowering him to defeat his and our enemies.

2. Benjamin Stinks (3:12-30)

The second cycle contains all of the same elements as the first.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

The LORD brought Eglon of Moab against Israel and they served him 18 years.

Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD and the LORD raised up a deliverer

(Ehud)

The LORD gave his enemies into his hand,

and the land had rest for 80 years.

These are the only two cycles that contain all five basic elements.

After this the cycles will start omitting one or two of these literary devices,

signaling the degeneration of Israel.

As Israel degenerates, so does the literary structure of Judges!

The Eglon/Ehud story is a satire on Moab (with a bit of fun at Ehud's expense as well!)

There is a certain irony in the choice of Moab as an oppressor.

God had told Israel to leave Moab alone.

Moab and Ammon were the incestuous sons of Lot by his daughters.

They are therefore close relations of Israel.

But Eglon, king of Moab,

was now God's chosen instrument to bring judgment against his rebellious people.

God strengthened him against Israel, and he gathered to himself the Ammonites (his cousins)

and the Amalekites in order to attack Israel.

They crossed the Jordan River and took the City of Palms (Jericho),

establishing a fortress for himself on the west side of the River.

It is here at the City of Palms (Jericho)-the site of Israel's first victory-

that a Moabite establishes his throne for 18 years.

Eglon is not likely his given name.

It means in effect, "fat cow" and combined with the description of Eglon as a

"very fat man" (a term usually used for the fattened calf),

you definitely get the sense that the author of Judges

is serving him up as a fattened calf going to the slaughter.

Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.

It doesn't say that they repented-merely that they cried out-

and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer,

Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man.

Few descriptions are as packed with meaning and significance as this one!

He is a Benjamite.

At the end of the book we will hear about the Benjamite rebellion-

where Israel goes to war against Benjamin,

and only 600 men of the entire tribe survive the judgment.

In Judges 20:28 we discover that this rebellion occurred in the days of Phineas,

the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron.

Eleazar died shortly after the death of Joshua,

which means that Judges 19-21 must have taken place

within 40-50 years of the death of Joshua.

Do the math!

Othniel was the same generation as Phineas.

The events of Judges 19-21 had taken place during the judgeship of Othniel.

It is not necessarily the case that Judges is giving us a sequential list.

3:12 does not say that the 18 years of Eglon's rule

began exactly at the end of Othniel's 40 years of rest

(so there may be some overlap in the chronology of Judges),

but the text strongly suggests

that Ehud is either one of the 600 survivors of Judges 19-21,

or else he is the son of one of those survivors.

And that is where the description in verse is 15 is so important:

"The son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man."

The son of Gera.

We will encounter another son of Gera-in 2 Samuel 16, 19.

Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite,

will mock David, calling down curses upon him.

We do not know when Judges was written,

so we cannot know whether this connection

was intended by the human author,

but plainly God did not include it by accident.

Ehud was a deliverer of Israel-and for that we should give thanks,

but unlike Othniel, he does not have the best of connections.

And it gets worse!

We do not have here the ordinary word for "left-handed."

We have a phrase that means "restricted in his right hand."

This is interesting for two reasons.

1) Benjamin means "son of my right hand."

but this an unusual form of 'Benjamin'-

which highlights the "right-handedness" of his name.

so that means that he is the son of my right hand par excellence

who happens to be restricted in his right hand!

2) but further, the only other place where this phrase is used

is in Judges 20, where it describes 700 Benjamite warriors

who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss-

all of whom happened to be "left handed"

(or restricted in their right hands)

Ehud is either one of these left-handed warriors,

or else he is descended from them.

Given the fact that these sons of the right hand had turned over to the left hand,

the reader is left with a certain doubt as to Ehud's own faithfulness.

And while the LORD certainly raised him up to deliver Israel,

nowhere is it said that the Spirit of the LORD was upon him.

The Spirit of the LORD was upon Othniel, the judge from Judah,

but not upon Ehud, the deliverer from Benjamin.

But now this left-handed son of my right hand is chosen to bring tribute to Eglon.

Before he goes he made a special sword, 18 inches long, and fastened it to his right thigh

(perfect for a left hander to reach under his clothes).

After presenting the tribute to Eglon,

he left the City of Palms-but when he came to the idols at Gilgal, he alone turned back.

Idols at Gilgal!

Remember Gilgal?

This was the place where Israel had entered the Promised Land.

They had set up the 12 stones here as a memorial to the great works of Yahweh,

and already they have erected idols to the gods of the Moabites.

But Ehud now returns to the City of Palms,

and says that he has a secret message for the king.

Perhaps the fact that Ehud came from these idols gave him credibility.

Perhaps the fact that he returned alone lured Eglon into a false security.

But either way, the fat, stupid cow-idiot that he was-

says "Hush!" ordering everyone out of the room so that he can hear this message.

Apparently fearing that someone will overhear this secret message,

Eglon takes Ehud into his cool roof chamber (in effect, the bathroom).

(Cities in this time period frequently had a man-made stream

running under the palace in order to carry sewage out of the city)

Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you."

And Eglon-that fat, stupid cow-stood up.

Well, when a very fat man stands up he has to bend over,

and when Eglon bent forward, Ehud struck.

(Read 21-22)

Eglon was so fat, the whole sword just disappeared into his belly,

and, as often happens when someone dies, he defecated.

But Ehud did not go out into the porch and lock the door.

Locks in those days were a bar that you close from the inside!

In fact the Hebrew says that he closed the doors, locked them, and then went out!

But most translations can't figure out how to get out of a locked room,

so they change the word order!

Besides, the Moabites may have been stupid,

but it is stretching even their stupidity to suggest that they would let a foreigner

just walk out of an audience with their king alone and without question.

Most compelling is the connection of this unique Hebrew word

with various euphemisms for things scatological in other Semitic languages!

Ehud closed the door, locked it, and then went out the sewer!

He was a hero, but he smelled pretty funny when he finally got out!

Meanwhile the servants of Eglon are wondering what is happening.

The door to the roof chamber is locked.

They waited as long as they could-until they were embarrassed

(literally, until they writhed-could it be that they really had to go!)

Finally, they got the key (a stick that could be used to push the bar out of the lock)

and opened the door-and there lay their lord dead on the floor.

Due to the delay, Ehud escaped and came to the hill country of Ephraim,

and sounded the trumpet, calling Ephraim to "follow after me,

for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand."

They went down to the fords of the Jordan to prevent any further Moabites from crossing

the river, and slaughtered every Moabite on the west side of the Jordan

-10,000 in all.

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel,

and the land had rest for 80 years.

The point of the story is not to defend assassination as a means of defeating your enemies:

the narrator makes no value judgment either way.

The point is first, that God himself is the one who gives victory over his enemies.

He has been gracious to an undeserving people.

But, especially in contrast with the squeaky clean Othniel,

Ehud comes off smelling pretty bad.

Do you want a judge from Judah?

Or do you want one of those morally-questionable Benjamites?

Do you want a ruler who has the Spirit of the LORD?

Or do you want a ruler who stabs his enemies when they're defenseless?

(Is it going too far to see a preview of Saul hurling a spear at a defenseless David?)

3. The Son of Anath (3:31)

read

"After him"-he appears to come shortly after the time of Ehud,

and shortly before the time of Deborah and Barak (since he appears in 5:6)

Shamgar ben-Anath is an enigmatic figure.

Shamgar is not a Semitic name.

He may be a Canaanite who had converted to Yahweh.

Or he may be an Egyptian general who delivered Israel "by accident"

while fighting the enemies of Egypt.

At any rate "Anath" was a Canaanite goddess, independent of male authority--

though a consort of Baal--

She was a warrior goddess who could hold her own against the gods.

To be called the son of Anath is to say "he's one nasty dude!"

In other words, to put it simply-

all is not well with Israel!

But yet Shamgar indeed delivers Israel by killing 600 Philistines with an oxgoad.

(Samson, the last judge, will slaughter the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey).

There is probably a foreshadowing of Deborah, the warrior prophetess,

and Jael, the woman who kills Sisera.

Women and foreigners (named after pagan goddesses no less!)

are delivering Israel from their enemies.

God will deliver his people.

He may use remarkable means to do it!

But he will be faithful to his promises-even when we are faithless.