August 2 - Judges 3:7-31 - "An Unlikely Saviour"

MPC 2nd August 2020.

Doug Wannenburgh

ACTION HEROES

When you think of Hollywood action heroes, who do you think of?

Chris Hemsworth?

- Tom Cruise?

- Dwayne Johnson the rock?

- Bruce Willis?

- Vin Diesel?

- Chuck Norris?

- James Bond?

These guys are all buff. Muscled up. Good looking. And highly trained.

One person, I'd guess, we don't think of is ... Rowan Atkinson. Mr. Bean. Johnny English. Skinny, bumbling, doesn't look the part. He'd certainly be an unlikely hero.

Judges chapter 3 tells the stories of three judges. One you'd expect, though some are real unlikely heroes. Not in a silly way like a Mr. Bean, but in very stark and surprising ways.

Which will teach us why we need to be rescued? Who rescues? And how He rescues?

WHEEL OF (MIS)FORTUNE

Remember the vicious cycle Phil spoke of last week? The wheel of fortune and mis-fortune. A pattern which keeps repeating throughout the book.

Israel rebels: sin. God punishes them: retribution. They're oppressed by a foreign king. Israel cries out. Full of remorse. 'Cos they're doing it tough.

God has compassion and raises up a rescuer, a judge. And Israel enjoys peace, rest. Until the judge dies, and Israel rebels ... again. And so we go, on and on.

Now when you think of a judge don't think of a middle-aged person with a funny white wig deciding who's guilty and who's not.

A judge in the book of Judges is a like an action hero. A ... rescuer. As such they were military leaders delivering Israel from enemies. Saving the day.

Chapter 3 has three.

OTHNIEL: THE LORD SAVES

The first judge is a short story. 5 verses. With very few details.

a. Story

Rebellion

A story that starts, as per usual, with rebellion.

"The Israelites [verse 7,] did evil in the eyes of the lord; they forgot the Lord their God... "

Israel, a nation chosen and loved by the true and living God, end up following the false Canaanite "gods". They "... [serve] the Baals and Asherahs."

Retribution

God takes that personally. And so He should.

Thus retribution. God punishes Israel who end up serving ... Cushan-Rishathaim [Coosh-shan-rish-ah=thim], King of Aram-Naharaim [Aram-Nah-ha-rim].

And that's all we know of him. And that's all we need to know. 'Cos his name, which is repeated 4 times in 3 verses, says it all. Cushan-Rishathaim means 'double wickedness'. Probably a nickname coined by those he oppressed. Double dose. Evil upon evil. A merciless tyrant, the incarnation of evil, the Hitler or Pol Pot of the day. Doubly wicked.

Remorse

Eight years on Israel cry for help. As we will see over and over again, this is remorse, feeling sorry for themselves. And not repentance, not sorry to God. In anguish and pain they cry for help.

Rescue

And God responds with compassion. His heart goes out to them. And He raises up a rescuer, Othniel, a judge.

He's well connected. His father "[K-Naz] Kenaz, [is the] younger brother of Caleb." Top draw Jewish family. Caleb who, with Joshua, were the Godly brave men, that led Israel into the promised land.

What's more, Othniel is a war hero. In chapter 1, verse 13-14, he "attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher." And is rewarded with marriage to Caleb's daughter Askah. Other Israelites marry foreign women against God's command. Othniel honours God and marries into a 'pure blood' Jewish family.

Othniel is the ideal leader. War hero, with a Jewish wife, God honouring. Not a bad word to say about him. Born leader, natural choice. He's all that you'd expect in a rescuer.

And so, in verse 10, he wages war and overpowers Cushan-Rishathaim.

Rest

And there's peace or rest in the land for 40 years. Hunkey dorry, happy days, good living. Until Othniel passes on.

b. Lesson

So, what's the lesson in this short story?

There's no detailed description of any action scene. Here's a good clean cut judge, with very little airtime. So why is this story here? What's it teaching? Simply, God saves. He is ultimately the saviour.

In 4 verses the Lord is mentioned eight times. Eight times.

Throughout, the Lord is behind the scenes, directing, controlling, saving. Note verse 9: "the Lord ... raised up for them a deliverer... " Verse 10. "The Spirit of the Lord ... came on [the deliverer]... " And "The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim into the hands of Othniel"

In other words, salvation is ... from the Lord. It's all about the Lord. He raises up, empowers, and conquers.

As Cushan-Rishathaim is an instrument in God's hand to discipline Israel, so Othniel is an instrument in the Lord's hand to crush Cushan-Rishathaim.

Salvation doesn't come by human might and power. But by his Spirit. Salvation is the Lord's doing.

I'm so grateful to my Mom and Dad for telling me about Jesus. I'm thankful to Paul Palmer, John Newby, Craig Bartholomew, - you won't know them but they discipled me through their teaching and lives. I'm so grateful to Marike and Kevin and Steve and Ronny and Freddy and Grant and Paul and Alan and Craig and so many others, including here present, who through my life have encouraged me to continue on in the faith.

But when I bow my head in prayer I don't thank any of them. I thank God alone. Yes, I thank Him for others, yet I thank him for others. He weaves and works behind and through all things, through others, to bring us to Himself.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. God saves.

EHUD: THE UNLIKELY SAVIOUR

Next judge. A short story followed by a long story. Full of colour. And violence. Toilet humour. It'd be M rated.

All with vivid description. Designed to make us laugh out loud, while teaching a very important lesson.

Israel. Déjà vu. Verse 13. "again ... the Israelites [rebel and] did evil in the eyes of the Lord"

And déjà vu. Retribution. "... because they did evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel."

Eglon gathers allies, he "... [comes] and [attacks] Israel ... [takes] possession of [Jericho] the City of Palms. ... [And] The Israelites [are made] subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen [hard] years."

Then déjà vu. Verse 15. Remorse. "... again the Israelites [cry] out to the Lord... " In anguish and pain, they cry 'Help! Please!'

And déjà vu. The Lord has compassion. "He gave them a deliverer [a rescuer] - ... Ehud... "

And here is where things get exciting. And funny. And surprising.

You see, Ehud is a surprise choice. He's not the Hollywood heart-throb, not the muscle bound Rambo, or the suave Bond, James Bond.

No, he's the weakling, the unspectacular, the runt of the litter. When you picking teams to play footy at school, he's the last guy picked. And the two captains will be arguing, 'You take him!' 'No, his yours!' 'No please. I insist!'

Ehud is a surprise choice. For three reasons.

His name means ... 'where is the splendour?' What father names his son 'where'sthe glory gone?!' It doesn't exactly mark Ehud out for success. With that kind of name he won't make school captain.

But there's more. "... Ehud [is] left-handed... "

The right hand was a symbol of strength and ability. Yet the word here for 'left-handed' literally means 'unable to use the right hand'. In other words, Ehud is crippled. His right hand is deformed or paralysed. Can't be used.

Bad name. Bad hand. And bad pedigree. ... 'Cos he's "the son of Gera the Benjamite."

Benjamin was a tribe seen as a bunch of wussies, weaklings, useless. You going into battle? Pick any Israelite, except a Benjamite.

No glory. No right hand. And from the wrong side of the tracks. Ehud is an unlikely saviour. But He is the saviour God chooses.

Though it doesn't seem that Israel thinks so. Rather than line up behind him in battle, the Israelites, verse 15, send him off with a tribute to Eglon. The word for tribute is that of a grain offering as in the book of Leviticus. An offering to the Lord.

So here's evidence that Israel do evil in God's eyes. They treat Eglon as a 'god', offering him what belongs to the Lord.

Now Ehud has his own plans for a "tribute". Verse 16. He "made a double-edged sword about a [45cm] long... " Like this. Just forged in fire. A lethal weapon.

And he conceals the weapon. Straps it on "... to his right thigh under his clothing."

He does as he's told. "... [presents] the tribute to Eglon... " whose name can also mean 'baby bull', and who we're told is "a very fat man."

A short little, excessively fat, embarrassingly obese, baby bull.

All my life I've been the butt of many 'skinny jokes'. I've actually picked up 10 kg in Australia! My brothers used to tease me saying that I had to jump around in the shower to get wet.

I can laugh at myself, though 'skinny jokes' can be hurtful. On the other hand, fat shaming is downright nasty and insensitive. Some people can't help being underweight or overweight. And it's not a laughing matter.

Except here. Where God isn't very PC. He fat shames his enemy. Treats Eglon as a fat joke.

While the Israelites are enslaved and underfed, Eglon and the Moabites have been well fed and grown fat on the grain of the Israelites.

Ehud hands over the tribute. And off they go. But verse 19. "on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon."

The death of Eglon is framed by reference to Ehud and the stone idols. Though the English has lost something in the translation. It's not that Ehud turns back when he gets to the idols. It's that he, unlike Israel, turns away from the idols in order to return to Eglon. He renounces idolatry, and heads off on God's mission. To deliver God's message to the Eglon.

Who is fat, arrogant and dumb. Kangaroo loose in the top paddock.

'Cos Ehud seeks a private audience, with the enticement of a secret special message. From God. Just for Eglon.

Eglon's not just greedy. He's gullible. He falls for the trick. 'A message? Secret? For me? A physically handicapped weakling is no threat to me. No worries. Let me get rid of my highly paid security and be alone with my enemy. In my inner chamber.'

Eglon's literally a fat fool. He wins the Darwin award for the 13th century BC dumb ways to die.

Yes, Ehud delivers God's message sharply. As Eglon stands up, Ehud draws the sword "and [plunges] it into the king's belly." Eglon's so obese that you push a 45cm blade into him and it goes missing. The sword disappears, and his bowels empty.

Here's the toilet humour. Poo everywhere. All that's left of Eglon is a pile of fat and faeces.

There's a real satirical edge here. The Israelites, every day for 18 years, were humiliated. Hungry and oppressed they were ruled over by a short fat ball of bull, who was overfed on their grains. How humiliating. Yet now Eglon is the one humiliated, with poo in his pants, flat on his face, dead on the floor. Israelites would have been hysterically laughing and cheering.

Eglon's dead. Time for Ehud to make his getaway. He leaves and locks up.

It's been a while. The servants wonder what's up? There's a dreadful stench in the air. And they reckon, "He must be relieving himself... "

It's all very embarrassing. But in the end, they get the emergency key, holds their noses, and unlock the door. And there's Eglon. Off his throne. On the floor. Dead.

It's dark comedy. A comical twist of irony.

Ehud escapes. And, verse 26, "... [passes] by the stone images" at Gilgal. Which is best understood he "crossed over" or "broke" the stone idols.

Ehud actions show, unlike Israel, that he honours God and forsakes idolatry.

He blows a trumpet, gathers Israelites. orders them. Verse 28, "Follow me, for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands."

With their king dead, the Moabite army does the 'mother of all retreats', running for the safety of their homeland.

But the Israelites cut them off. And cut them down. "... about ten thousand Moabites, not one escaped." No surviors.

Moabites we're told, verse 28, who are "all vigorous and strong." Not quite really. Literally the word is fat again. All well fed. All able-bodied men done in by dis-abled judge.

The tables are turned. And Israel rules Moab. 18 years of misery is replaced by 80 years of peace.

SHAMGAR: ANOTHER UNLIKELY SAVIOUR

One more judge. Shamgar. Another unlikely saviour. Though he receives considerably less airtime. One verse. 31.

He's another surprise. 'Cos his name isn't even Jewish. His probably Egyptian!

He's an obscure figure, with obscure methods. His weapon is a farming tool. A goad was a wooden pole with an iron tip for training oxen. Shamgar isn't a trained warrior. He's a farmer from the outback. And a foreigner at that! Yet he performs this super-human feat. Killing off 600 Philistines.

CONCLUSION: LESSONS

Judges. Othniel. Ehud. Shamgar.

So, what lessons can we learn?

Let me highlight three.

a. Sinners and Idolators

Like Israel, the Bible teaches that we have all sinned. There is no one righteous.

And essentially sin is evil in the Lord's eyes.

You may think, 'I'm good'. But, whose standard are you measuring yourself by? We'll always seem to pass in our own eyes.

Yet God expects perfect obedience to his commands. in his eyes. "Against you, you only have I sinned", cried David in Psalm 51. All sin is ultimately wronging God.

We, like Israel, forget the Lord. We replace Him in our lives. Perhaps not with stone images. But our hearts are idol factories. We're constantly mentally emotionally carving out God substitutes.

Which are not just the obvious. Idols are most often good things. Like Family. Career. Success. Relationship. Financial security. Leisure. Work.

Good things which take the place of the best. Which take the placereserved in our hearts for God alone.

The Lord tolerates no rivals. He won't share his throne.

And so, like Ehud, we need to turn away from idols.

b. God Saves

We're sinners. And as a friend quietly confessed at our dinner table last weekend, "I really need a saviour."

And so, thank God for the second lesson. That is, God saves.

We cannot save ourselves. We may mistakenly think we can outweigh our bad with our good. But we cannot un-do our bad with our good. We can't save ourselves. Salvation is not our work. It "belongs to our God who sits on the throne" (Revelation 7:10)

c. Jesus is the unlikely Saviour

"and to the lamb." (Revelation 7:10) The Lord Jesus.

'Cos third lesson. God uses an unlikely saviour.

The company board appoints the most impressive to be the CEO. The selectors/coach pick the best team to take the field. The Generals send in the marine corp.

When needing to be rescued, we look to the best, the brightest.

Very few think to look at a baby born in a feeding trough in a borrowed stable. To someone raised in an impoverished disreputable district in Galilee. From a working class family. With no formal education.

Very few look to a man strung up on a cross dying in anguish ... a condemned criminal on a barren hillside. Abandoned. Forsaken. Bearing the judgement of God. At our sin. In our place.

I mean, it seems foolish? Weak? Un-impressive?

"... the message of the cross is foolishnessto those who are perishing, ... Christ crucified ... a stumbling block to [some] ... foolishnessto [others] ... but ... [to us who are being saved], ... Christ ... the power of God ... and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18,23-24)

The cross is an even more unlikely place to find deliverance than at the hand of a one handed man. A man dying on a cross.

And yet, just like with Ehud, God wins a decisive victory. That humiliates his enemies and destroys them.

"having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:15)

And with our faith firmly in Him, the Lord still chooses what's fooilish in the world's eyes to shame the "wise", what's weak to shame the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

To work His good purposes and spread His good news, God still uses flawed frail jars of clay, in whom His Spirit dwells.

Such as Joni Earekson Tada, the quadriplegic who has spoken the gospel into countless lives of suffering people.

Such as Corrie Ten Boom, the frail old lady who shone the light of the gospel into the black evil of Ravensbrook.

Such as Scottty Hanson, whose faith and humility in the face of extreme challenge, touched, encouraged and pointed so many to the life giving love of our Lord Jesus.

The Lord powerfully uses weak, broken and humble men and women of faith. The Apostle Paul rejoice, "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Sinners need saving. Sinners can't save themselves.

God saves. And He saves in unexpected ways, with the ultimate unlikely Saviour.

When Othniel delivered Israel they enjoyed 40 years of rest. When Ehud delivered Israel they enjoyed 80 years of rest. When Jesus came to earth He said, "come to me, and I will give you rest."In me. Eternally.

Amen.

Table of Contents

ACTION HEROES

WHEEL OF (MIS)FORTUNE

OTHNIEL: THE LORD SAVES

EHUD: THE UNLIKELY SAVIOUR

SHAMGAR: ANOTHER UNLIKELY SAVIOUR

CONCLUSION: LESSONS