Friday, August 11, 2017
Judges 3:16-22 But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.) And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." He said, "Keep silence!" And all who attended him went out from him. So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." So he arose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.
THE LORD DELIVERS IN A SURPRISING WAY
The salute, the practice of two soldiers raising the right hand to each other, came from the assumption that everyone is right-handed. The right hand raised empty to another indicated that you meant him no harm. From that practice we also received the wave "hello" and the handshake. In fact, if a soldier raised his empty right hand, then produced a weapon with his left hand, that was considered to be unfair, or cheating. And so the word "sinister" which is from the Latin for "left" came to mean "fraudulent" or "evil" in English.
So when the Lord sent left-handed Ehud on his mission to deliver the children of Israel from Eglon, king of Moab, Eglon'' servants missed the double-edged dagger that Ehud fastened under his clothes to his right thigh, the opposite side to which a right-handed person would hide a dagger. When Ehud asked to have a private word with the king, what could it harm? The servants knew he had no weapons.
Meeting Eglon in the cool, upper chamber, Ehud delivered "a message from God" to the king, a declaration of freedom for the children of Israel delivered via a surprise lethal thrust with a blade, and Eglon king of Moab was no longer a problem for Israel.
This would not be the last time that God would deliver His people in an unexpected way, out of left-field, if you will. Think of the baby Moses hidden in a basket and drawn from the river Nile to be raised by a princess with his own Hebrew mother as nurse-maid; or a young shepherd boy volunteering his sling to bring down a Philistine giant; or a Child born in a stable in Bethlehem, growing up and paying for sin by dying on a cross? Even more surprising and unexpected, having paid for sin there on the cross, rising bodily from the dead three days later and guaranteeing that payment? So that it is written, "...if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins ... But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:17, 20).
When we are having problems and can't see any way out, remember not only that God knows about your problems, but that He knows how to work them out in surprising ways that you never dreamed of. And when you are having sin problems, look back to the cross and think of the surprising way that God delivered you from sin. Instead of requiring you to pay for your own sin and punishing you, God sent His own Son to take your punishment upon Himself, so that you could have free forgiveness of sins, and freedom from the oppression of sin and the prince of sin, the devil.
In faith, hear the message from God to you: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:14-18).
