Sermon manuscript:
The promised land, the land of Canaan, was not a very large
area geographically. The length of it, north to south, was a little less than
the length of Iowa, north to south. Its width was much less than the state of
Iowa. It was only perhaps a fifth of Iowa’s width, east to west. So if you take
one fifth of Iowa, you’d be able to fit the land of Canaan inside those borders.
So when the Bible talks about different places and regions,
it is talking in pretty intimate terms geographically speaking. Some of the
places mentioned would be like talking about Lamont or Hawkeye or Quasqi to us.
Further away places, foreign places that neighbored the promised land, would be
like us talking about people from Albert Lea or Madison. The people who
originally had the Scriptures, the Jews, who lived in the promised land, would
have known these places and peoples just like we know our own geography near
us. The reason why so many names and places are used is because this would have
been of great interest to them. It was their own history. It was their own
place and time.
We are at a disadvantage compared to them. These names and
places are not familiar to us. We don’t know how they relate or the regional
differences that existed. For example, in our own times we know that the people
of Clayton county are quite different than the people of Johnson county. So
also there would have been definite differences between the Moabites and the
Philistines. The Moabites lived in a desolate remote area. The Philistines
lived along the Mediterranean Sea coast. They were where all the trade routes
went. These kinds of things affect the character and habits of people. When we
are able to learn a little bit more about the people we read about, it helps us
form a bit more interesting of a mental picture of who we are dealing with.
In our reading tonight, the main antagonist that we hear
about is a king named Eglon. He was king of the Moabites, whom we’ve already
mentioned. The Moabites lived to the east of the Jordan River and along the Dead
Sea. The Bible tells us that they were the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s
nephew, who at one time lived in Sodom by the Dead Sea. Perhaps you will
remember that when Lot and his family left Sodom, his wife looked back and
turned into a pillar of salt. So Lot was left with his two daughters. Moab was
born to the elder of those daughters who became pregnant in an incestuous tryst
with her father. The younger daughter, who did the same thing, became pregnant
and bore a son named Amon. So the Moabites and the Amonites were very distant
relatives of the Israelites. The Israelites were descended from Abraham. The
Moabites and Amonites were descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot.
At the time of our reading, Eglon, the king of the Moabites,
appears to have strung together a coalition against the Israelites. The
Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites all lived to the east of the promised land.
By joining their forces they were able to subdue the Israelites so that the
Israelites had to pay tribute to Eglon for 18 years.
But why did the Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites feel the
need to attack Israel in the first place? Realize that when the Israelites
conquered the land of Canaan, they threw everything into turmoil in that whole
region. Four hundred years had passed between when Jacob lived in Canaan and
when his descendants finally came back again. Many generations of people had
made their livings and raised their children in the meantime. When the
Israelites came back, all these relationships were threatened. Whenever there
is a newcomer to power, the old powers are resentful and will often rise
against them. Israel was the new power in that neighborhood, and their
neighbors to the east resented them for it.
If the Israelites had remained faithful to what God had
given them to do, then their eastern neighbors would not have been a problem
for them. With God on their side they would have prevailed against them. But
God punished the Israelites for breaking the covenant. God had told them to
remove the unbelieving idolatrous people from their communities, but they
disobeyed him. As a result, with intermarriage and other social interactions,
the Israelites lost their nerve. How, after all, can you denounce the religion
of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law or your grandchildren? It is much easier just
to not discuss religion.
But God had told his people to speak about his Word when
they got up and when they laid down. They should speak about it as they are
walking along the road. God’s might deeds of deliverance are what they should
speak about—that he had taken this people out of slavery and led them into the
land of milk and honey. Wherever this Word dies, faith also inevitably dies
too. Something else gets believed in instead of what the Word of God tells us
that we should believe in.
And so it happened that the Israelites served the Baals and
the Ashtoreths of the Canaanites. Baal was the main male god of that area.
Ashtoreth was the main female goddess of that area. The way that the
Israelite’s neighbors lived inevitably came to be part of their view of the
world also. While they were in truth disloyal, they certainly didn’t see
themselves this way. They did not think they were giving up on their faith in
the Lord God. I’m sure they saw themselves as good and loyal Israelites. But
they also made use of what the Baals and Ashtoreths had to offer. God, though,
is a jealous God. Like a husband is jealous of his wife, he won’t tolerate
anyone else to have his bride. Accordingly the Israelites are punished by God.
He never allows them to prevail against their enemies and sweep out all the
leaven. He brings them into times of great distress.
But God did not totally abandon his people. If that had been
his objective, then he simply would have let them melt into the population
entirely like he has on so many other occasions. If he had done that, then not
only would they not know God’s Word, they also wouldn’t have thought there was
anything wrong with not knowing the Lord and his Word. The Word was not removed
entirely, and during hard times the Israelites were brought to their senses.
They called upon the name of the Lord, and he heard them. This is a pattern
that holds true for the whole book of Judges. Indeed, it is a pattern that
holds true for God’s people even up to the present day.
So after the people had been oppressed and humbled and
brought to their senses, they prayed to God for relief, and God sent them Ehud.
Ehud was a left handed man, which is relevant for the story that is told. Most
people are right handed, and, being right handed, draw their sword in a certain
way. Ehud used his left hand for the sword, so that he was able to hide a long
dagger in a place people were not accustomed to look.
Evidently Ehud was chosen as the representative of the
Israelites to bring the tribute or tax that the Moabites were levying against
the Israelites. He presented the payment to Eglon, the king of Moab, and was on
his way home. However, something happened that changed his mind. When he was at
the Jordan river, at Gilgal, he saw the carved images that had been put up in a
Moabite fashion.
Gilgal was an important place in the early history of
Israel. Gilgal was where the people first crossed over the Jordan after it was
stopped up so that they pass through on dry ground. It was the place where the
Israelite men were circumcised. While the Israelites had been in the wilderness
they evidently had not observed this sign God had given them. It was also at
Gilgal, according to God’s own instructions, that the Israelites put up 12
stones as a memorial for the twelve tribes of Israel passing into the land that
the Lord had promised to give them.
So Gilgal was a place that was near and dear to those who
loved the Lord and his promises. To have such a place polluted with idols
enraged Ehud. So he went back and told the king he had a secret. When they were
all alone Ehud surprised him with his hidden dagger, plunging it into this
belly. Since Eglon was so fat the whole thing went in until his belly covered
over even the hilt of the sword. Then, as you heard, he slipped away. The king
was not discovered for some time, because his attendants thought that he was
using the bathroom—perhaps something that he did quite often. Finally, Ehud
gathered troops from the people of Ephraim, perhaps the strongest of all the
tribes, and they defeated the Moabites.
A colorful story like this one reminds me of stories of our
own like the Boston tea party. That was where a bunch of American gentlemen
dressed up like Indians and threw the tea that the British wanted to tax into
the Boston harbor. There is something playful in that story, even as there was
something quite serious also going on. Eventually the Revolutionary War would
be fought because of that event and others like it.
Colorful tales continue to happen among God’s people also in
our own time. For example, within our own church body, there are many colorful
tales that are told about the conflict at the St. Louis seminary in the 1970s.
Wherever you have people who care, people who are stirred to fight for the
preaching of God’s Word, you are going to have some war stories. So it goes.
Unless, of course, a church has melted in with everybody around them. Then
there are either no stories to be told, or very boring stories.
Therefore it is my hope that colorful, interesting stories may
be told also among us, for that is an indication of life.
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