Eddie on Ehud the Southpaw Savior

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

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Sometimes on the Ruled Church Podcast, we let you listen to sermons, either preached by us or someone else.

This week, you get to hear a sermon from the one and only

Eddie Ragsdale. I know you'll be blessed. Here we go, Eddie.

Good morning. If you would, open your copy of the

Scripture to Judges chapter three. We're gonna be in verse 12 through verse 30 this morning.

Judges chapter three, verses 12 through verse 30. But before we go to the

Word of the Lord, let's go to the Word of Prayer. Father, we thank You. Lord, that You have been so gracious and kind.

Lord, that You have spoken to us through Your Word. Lord, that You bring judgment upon sin and salvation,

Lord, to sinners. Lord, that You draw to Yourself by Your grace. Father, I do want to pray for our brothers and sisters at Plant, I pray for Leo.

Lord, that You'd be with them. Father, also this morning, I want to lift up our brothers and sisters at First Baptist Leslie.

Father, as they have this week of meetings, Lord, seeking revival, I pray,

Lord, that You would bless the preaching of the Word and, Lord, that You'd bless the worship of their church and,

Lord, that You'd be glorified in them. But now, Lord, we ask this morning that You would come by Your Spirit and that You would be among us.

Lord, that You would open our hearts and give us ears to hear. Lord, give us eyes to see the things that You have revealed to us in the very words of the

Scripture. And, Lord, cause us to believe and to obey. Lord Jesus, cause us to hear

Your voice and to follow You. And we pray, Lord, that You would do all these great things because of who

You are as our God and our King. I ask the Lord all this in Jesus' name, Amen.

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

And Yahweh strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

He gathered to Himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites and went and defeated

Israel. And they took possession of the city of Palms. The people of Israel served

Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years. Then the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh.

And Yahweh raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the

Benjamite, a left -handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon, the king of Moab.

And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes.

And he presented the tribute to Eglon, the king of Moab. Now, Eglon was a very fat man.

And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute.

But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said,

I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence. And all his attendants went out from his presence.

And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool -roofed chamber.

And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat.

And Ehud reached with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly.

And the hilt also went in after the blade. And the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly.

And the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them.

And when he had gone, the servants came. And when they saw the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.

And they waited till they were embarrassed. And when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them.

And there lay their Lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they delayed.

And he passed by the idols and escaped to Sirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim.

Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country. And he was their leader.

And he said to them, Follow after me, for Yahweh has given your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand.

So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan. Against the

Moabites, and did not allow anyone to pass over. They killed, at that time, about 10 ,000 of the

Moabites. All strong, able -bodied men. Not a man escaped.

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for 80 years.

Man, what a story. I'll be honest. When I was thinking about preaching through judges or praying about what book we should go through,

I was excited because of all the stories that we don't normally talk about. As I began to study this week, you know, in the commentaries, they kind of are making a case for why we should preach about this.

Because they're like, most people aren't going to want to preach about this because it has all these gory details.

But I actually look at this and I think, man, this would make a good TV show. You know, they're always wanting to make

Bible stuff in TV shows. A lot of stuff they probably shouldn't. You know, we could get into second commandment violations and whether or not they should depict

Jesus, they shouldn't. But you could make one out of this one pretty easy. So it's an amazing story, but I want us to get into what is the

Lord teaching us even through this graphic story. Listen, our goal this morning is not to be crude, but at the same time, we don't want to wash over everything so much that we don't actually deal with what the

Lord says. I mean, if the Bible says it, it's not too crude for our church meeting. And listen, if our church meeting is too uptight for what the

Bible says, then we just need to relax a little bit. That being said, let's get into what we have here in the text.

The first thing that we need to realize is that with Ehud, we have the same repeated pattern that we're going to see over and over again.

So last week when we looked at Ahothonel, we've seen kind of a stripped -down version. The first judge,

Ahothonel, the story God gives us there is almost no details. It is just the stripped -down version of the pattern.

So let's walk through it. You'll remember a few weeks ago when we were looking in Judges 2, we kind of had that cycle, right?

That cycle of the things that is happening. And we see that cycle here in this repeated pattern here in the story.

Notice it begins with the fact that Israel again did evil in Yahweh's sight.

And listen, this may be the saddest part of the story. I mean, I know, kings are going to get stabbed and stuff.

But that the people, they just keep turning back to their idolatry.

They just keep turning away from God. And you know what we're going to notice as we go through Judges? God just heaps on more grace.

The more they sin, He heaps on more grace. And you know what they keep doing? They keep turning against more grace to sin all the more.

You know, that really is a lot of how we are in our society. The more prosperity we have, the more we plunge headlong into wickedness and rebellion.

And oftentimes, it's the more the hardship that causes us to turn back to the

Lord, which is what we're going to see each week. So I just don't want us to read too quickly over that word again.

Israel again did what was evil in Yahweh's sight. Well, that moves us to the second phase.

You notice that Yahweh then strengthened Eglon to oppress Israel. Earlier with Ahothonel, God raised up Cushan Rishithelm, the king of Mesopotamia.

And now, He's going to use Moab. Another thing that we're going to notice as we work our way through the book of Judges, starting with Ahothonel, you know,

Mesopotamia, it's a little ways over there. Now we're a little closer.

Moab, it's just on the other side of the river. We're just going to keep getting closer.

Once we get to Samson, who's Samson fighting? He's fighting the Philistines. The Philistines are right there in the land.

So their enemies are just going to get closer and closer as we walk through these

Judges. So notice, Israel again does what is evil in the sight of Yahweh.

And Yahweh strengthens a foreign king to come and to oppress

Israel. God is judging Israel using this pagan power to do it.

Third, we see that Israel serves Eglon for 18 years. You may remember that last week with Ahothonel, they had to serve

Ahothonel eight years. And we thought about how long eight years is. And 18 years.

I mean, some of you guys aren't 18 years old. I mean, you, 18 years, that's your whole life.

Listen, none of us are old enough that 18 years isn't a long time. 18 years was a while ago.

It doesn't seem like it sometimes. Man, I had this thought yesterday. I was driving home last night and I had the thought,

I have lived more of my life in this millennium than in the previous millennium.

Wow, that was, I mean, I think of myself as a 90s kid. I mean,

I am. But I've lived more of my life post 2000. Wow, but 18 years is a long time.

Fourth, we see that Israel then, after they're under this weight of this pagan oppressor for 18 years, then they cry out to Yahweh.

This is the same language used last week with Ahothonel. This is a bitter cry. Listen, it is not necessarily a repentant cry.

I wish it was. I wish I could tell you that the Hebrew word means they absolutely repented.

Now, I do think we see a sign of repentance in that they cried out to Yahweh. They're not crying out to the idols.

You'll notice twice in this passage, it mentions the idols. He turns back at the idols to go to the king and then he escapes by going by the idols.

And that's talking about the high places where they worship the Baal and the Ashtoreth. And so even the use of that language in the text is to remind us that Ehud is not worried about the idols.

And certainly Israel has realized that the idols, again, can't save them. So they've spent eight years under the previous occupation.

Then they were 40 years of prosperity, living in peace. And then they again did what was evil in the eyes of the

Lord. Now they've spent 18 years. So now you're almost 60 years removed from the previous oppression.

And they've been living under the oppression of this Moabite king. And now they cry out to Yahweh.

He's the only one who's ever saved them. They're looking back in their history and they're going, you know, man, the only one that ever saved us in the

Revolutionary War was God. The only one that ever saved us in the Civil War was God. The only one that ever got us through the

World Wars was God. I'm saying that's maybe the way we would look at it today. That's what they're looking back.

The only one that ever was actually able to get us out of it was Yahweh. And so they cry out to him.

Fifth, Yahweh raises up a savior. We're gonna see this every time. When they cry out to Yahweh, Yahweh always comes through with a savior.

One of the things we might be important for us to remember, while Israel as a nation is turning away from God, let's remember that individuals are being saved.

Individuals are turning to the Lord and they're living out their life in rest. I think we have every reason to believe that large portions of these people that God is rescuing are living out their lives and going to be with the

Lord because they're hoping in the savior that these saviors point to. Many of these people, we're gonna see them in heaven, brothers and sisters.

We're gonna see these people. They're gonna be able to tell us, yeah, Yehud, this is how it really went down.

Well, that's pretty explicit here, right? And then finally, we notice in verse 30 that Yahweh uses the savior to save Israel and give them rest.

Notice it says, so Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest for 80 years.

But I skipped a lot in there, right? So we gotta have that framework. But in between the fifth thing,

God raising up the savior and then them being saved and having rest, God puts in a lot of detail.

So there are basically four things that I want us to notice this morning. The first thing that I want us to notice, and it all falls under this heading of an unconventional and unexpected salvation.

Listen, nothing in this story is what you would have thought. And listen, I wanna be real careful because I don't wanna make this boring.

Listen, if I can make this boring, then I can make anything boring because this is pretty amazing, what's happening in this text.

But the first thing that we need to realize is this. The meticulous detail of Egon's judgment, meaning

God's judgment on the king of Moab, and Ehud's victory emphasizes the particular providence of Yahweh's sovereign salvation.

So let me explain that a little bit. What I'm saying is that we serve a God who gets into the nuts and bolts of life.

He gets into the actual dirty work of what's going on. I think a lot of times we have this idea that God is kinda like the watchmaker.

We really do have a deist idea. The deist is a person that believes that there's a

God, but they believe that God kinda builds the world, he sets the universe up, and he clicks play, and it goes.

And he kicks back, and it just happens. Storms come and storms go.

They just happen, the world just works. It's supposed to work. Listen, that is not the

God we serve. We serve a God who is in control of everything that happens. Here in a couple of weeks, when two million people descend on Searcy County, please

God, no, but here in a couple of weeks when all those people come here, and life is horrible for Kevin, especially, but when all of that happens, you know,

God is working in every one of those lives. Things are gonna be happening to all of the people, and it's not like God is just dealing with the big people.

I think sometimes we get in our minds that God is, either he's letting everything happen, or that God's just concerned about the big things, right?

He's concerned about Ukraine, and Putin, and Trump, and Biden, and the big things.

But listen, no, no, God's working in your life. You know, we may think, well, yeah, but we're small potatoes, right?

But God is working in the meticulous details. Meticulous means down to the tiniest thing.

God is active in that. And so we wanna realize that what's happening here in this story, the reason why this story has all these details is because all these details have battered, which means all the details happening in your life.

Tomorrow, it's Monday morning, you gotta go to work. All those details of your day, they matter.

They really do matter. And it's important for us to realize that. In both judgment and victory,

I think sometimes we think, well, yes, the Lord is concerned about the details of our salvation. But listen, the

Lord is also the one who is at work in the details of our judgment and of our suffering.

Those things aren't outside of God's control, or his care, or his purpose.

All of them are a part of what God is doing. All of this is a part of God's particular providence, meaning the things happening in the world,

God made them happen. They didn't happen because God just let them happen.

Sometimes God does do things permissively, but even those things, God could have stopped.

And there's no need for us to rescue God from his sovereignty. He is in control.

All of that being said, we need to realize that it was not by chance. It was not by coincidence.

It was not by the skill of Ehud that God rescues the Israelites. But rather, it was

God's blessing that brought Israel salvation. That's what we need to notice. Now, it would be silly for me to say all that about the importance of the details and then skip them.

So let's actually look at the details of the story. Notice what happens. In verse 15, the people cry out to Yahweh and Yahweh raises up a savior.

And it tells us, this is the point of the passage. Yahweh raised up for them a deliverer, the son of Gerah, the

Benjaminite, a left -handed man. Now, this is important to point out.

The left -handedness is a big deal. And it's a big deal because it's so rare. Now, I don't know.

I guess I could do a poll. If you're left -handed, raise your left hand. Is there really no left -handed people?

Okay, a couple, three, okay. We got a handful. So in the days of Israel, it was just like today.

It was a very small minority of people that were left -handed. And actually, the thing we need to note about this is that they didn't even actually have a

Hebrew way of saying left -handed. Like the

Hebrew language didn't exactly know how to convey that. So the construction that's translated as a left -handed man here, it actually says a restricted right hand.

Like they translate it in English as left -handed, but it says a restricted right hand.

Now, there are two different ways we could take this detail. And I don't know which one. I'll tell you which one

I think. But let's start with the one that I think is less likely. The first idea here is that when it tells us that he's a left -handed man, what it's telling us is that he had advantages.

You left -handed people had all your advantages. And you should be laughing because it's not an advantage to be left -handed, is it?

Everything in the world is made for us right -handed people. And you have to figure out how to use right -handed things with your left hand.

But the idea is that he may have had an advantage because they would have been looking for a sword on his left hip instead of his right hip.

The door would have swung in such a way that he could come through it. I mean, just everything about their world was built to protect against right -handed attackers, not left -handed attackers.

And so the whole point of the left -handed thing is that it would have been an advantage for Ehud to be left -handed.

That's possible. The other possibility is that when it says that he had a restricted right hand, is that he was actually disabled, that actually

Ehud had a shriveled right hand or maybe didn't even have a right hand.

He somehow could not use his right hand. It wasn't like he was just better with his left.

His right hand was disabled, not able to be used. And so the language actually might point us to the idea that he used his left hand not because it was his better to use, just because it was his only functional hand.

If that's the case, then we would think of Ehud, Ehud would seem like not a very dangerous guy.

He's more or less a one -handed man. And you might think of Ehud like, oh, he's not much of a threat.

Ehud's no threat, which may be the whole reason why they sent him in the first place.

Notice what it says. Ehud is a left -handed man. And then it goes on to say, it goes on to say the people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon, the king of Moab.

So they send this tribute by Eglon, Ehud, and maybe the reason for that is because,

I actually think this is the probability, is that Ehud comes, and this would have been a big entourage of people because they would have been bringing all kinds of fruit and all their produce.

They're bringing, basically they're paying their tax, right? They're under the thumb of this foreign king.

They have to pay a tariff. They're paying the tariff. That's what's going on. But maybe they send Ehud at the head of the delegation because Ehud isn't dangerous.

And they don't want Eglon to feel threatened because he might crush another Israelite city. And so it's like, we send

Ehud because Ehud, just his very presence, shows that we're trying to take this kind of softened, deferential, even, well, we're basically saying, yes,

Eglon, we are under your thumb kind of idea. Now, Ehud's not saying that, but that could be what

Israel was saying. So notice he's a left -handed man. They send him to take this tribute, and then notice what it says.

It says, and Ehud, it says, and Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes.

I told Brady he was really like this because here, Ehud forges a weapon, right?

He forges this sword. And this sword was not, it's not like Ehud made a sword, I'll take this,

I might be able to use it. No, he forges it for this specific purpose. It's made for the one job of killing the king.

And even in the way that it's made, it's double, it's a double -edged sword, and you can almost imagine this in your mind, can't you?

It's probably a little larger at the end, and it's double -edged, and there's no, what would you call that,

Brady, right above the handle? There's no guard on it. That way it can go all the way in.

That's how it's explained to us, right? And so Ehud leads them up to Eglon at the city of Palms.

Now, notice back in verse 14 or 13, it told us that the

Moabites took possession of the city of Palms. Now, listen, we don't know what the city of Palms is, do we?

I didn't. But the city of Palms is Jericho. So in some sense, they're on the place where Jericho was at.

Remember when Joshua came in, the walls of Jericho fell down, the city was destroyed, and Joshua actually, in Joshua chapter 6,

Joshua puts a curse on anyone that would rebuild Jericho. But it seems in that vicinity that they had maybe set up a makeshift village, and they had conquered that, and that's where they've set up the kind of the foreign commissary, or the command post for Moab in Israel is in that area of Jericho, and that's where Eglon would have been.

And so he goes up there to take the tribute. He's got his sword that he's fashioned.

It's concealed carry, right? He's got his concealed carry license, left hip under his clothes, or right hip under his clothes, left -handed.

He's all ready to go. We can imagine this in our mind. And then notice what happens next.

And he presented the tribute to Eglon, the king of Moab. Blow—and then it says this.

Now, Eglon was a very fat man, and I even heard a little bit when I first read this.

There's a little snickering. I think we're supposed to laugh at that. We're supposed to get this idea of— we're supposed to kind of get this comical picture, right?

Israel's under the weight of this Moabite enforcer, and yet he's kind of a job -of -the -hut kind of figure.

I think that's the idea the Bible has, something like that. Maybe that's where George Lucas got that.

Maybe he was reading Judges. But we get to this passage and notice what it says.

He's a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute, but he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal.

Now, like I said, Gilgal— there's two different possible places where it could be, but one of the places is very near where Jericho was.

So it'd be like—think of it like this. They're headed out of town.

They get to the top of Backbone, and he says, you guys keep going. I got to go back and tell the king something.

It'd be like that. They just got out of town, and it's almost like Ehud sees the idols.

And listen, he had already planned this. God had already raised him up to be a judge, a deliverer, a savior of Israel.

It's almost like, I can't go any further. I got to go back and do what I came here to do. And so he sends them on.

He's sending them on on purpose because his whole purpose is to be alone with the king.

Listen, it is not a coincidence that Ehud ends up alone with the king.

Listen, God is designing this. Listen, what are the chances? What are the chances that you could get alone with Putin?

Let's say that God raised you up. I'm not—nobody—don't anybody get any plans.

I'm not telling you to do this. But let's just say God was raising you up to topple some wicked ruler.

Okay, I'll stop talking about particulars. What are the chances that you get alone in that room?

Zero, except that God makes it happen, right? I mean, you—how are you going to— how is some enemy going to end up alone in the

Oval Office with the president? They're not going to, right? That's not going to happen.

Well, God could make it happen. Listen, are you going to end up alone with the ruler of North Korea?

No, unless God wants you to. But it's not going to happen otherwise. And the same thing here.

This should not have happened. Ehud alone with Egon should have never happened, except for God orchestrated it.

So we see that he turns back, he gets rid of his people. Look how vulnerable

Ehud is. Ehud's all by himself, carrying this concealed, but not—

I mean, he's not supposed to be carrying a sword in there. Listen, what if they just catch him with the sword?

They use the sword to cut off his head. That's what happens. Ehud doesn't survive if he gets caught.

He dies if he gets caught. So we're reading this story, we're realizing— this is pretty harrowing, what is happening.

So then we notice, he turns back at the idols, and notice he says, I have a secret message for you,

O king. So then Egon, he commands silence. I want to hear this. This guy's got a secret message.

It's interesting, the word translated here, message, it could mean a message, or it could mean a secret thing.

So we don't know exactly whether Egon thought that he had something to tell him, or he had some gift to give him.

But either way, Egon's thinking, I want it. Maybe you brought me a pie, you know.

He's a big guy. Maybe he's like, you brought me a corndog. That'd get Cory with it.

So we come here to the taxidotus. He says silence. He wants to hear this.

And all his attendants go out from his presence. Remember, Ehud said it's a secret message.

Can anybody hear this? So then they end up in this cool roof chamber. And it's just the two of them.

And notice, notice how Egon's, his own desire is making him vulnerable, right?

You can imagine it. He's seated on his throne. Go ahead, tell me the message. That's not even how it is.

Notice it says, and Ehud came to him as he was sitting in his cool roof chamber.

And he said, I have a message from God for you. It's like the Blues Brothers. I have a message from God for you.

And notice, Egon arose from his seat, like he's wanting this.

Yeah, yeah, tell me the message. And then notice what happens. And Ehud reached with his left hand.

And he took the sword from his right thigh. And he thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade.

And the fat closed over the blade. For he did not pull the sword out of his belly.

And the dung came out. And then Ehud went into the porch. Now, it's another little play on words that's happening here in Hebrew that we don't quite get in English.

So he kills him. But there's a word here that is so rarely used in Hebrew, we don't exactly know how to translate it.

And it's a play on words, because what it actually says there, it says the exit wound.

So where our English translation here says the dung came out, it's actually referring to the exit wound of the sword.

And it's saying it's the place of the exit wound. And then it uses the same term when it says

Ehud went out into the porch. So the placement of the exit wound and the placement of Ehud's exit from the place, it's kind of this play on words that we don't quite get, but the

Hebrews would have, they would have went, wow. I mean, and what would they have known from that?

They would have seen this, how God is working so precisely to bring this about.

So then notice. He closes the doors of the roof chamber and locks them.

And then we have the really kind of comical part, right? Because the servants, they come back.

Ehud's gone. The servants came. And when they saw the doors of the cool roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he's using the bathroom.

And they wait till they're embarrassed because he's been in the bathroom a long time.

And listen, I heard a little giggling. You should laugh. I think there are places in the Bible where we're supposed to laugh.

Listen, when you read the story of Dagon and the statue keeps falling down, you're supposed to laugh at that.

You're supposed to laugh at silly pagans. They got to pick their god up because he can't save himself.

You're supposed to laugh at that. And I think we read this, we're supposed to laugh at that. We read that the servants were embarrassed because they thought their king was in there using the bathroom and it took so long.

You're supposed to laugh at that. Because we're supposed to have that emotion.

Because think about this. The first readers of this, the first people hearing this story told are the

Israelites that suffered under this beast. Right? They spent those 18 years under him.

And this is a relief to them. You mean that is how that evil man found his end?

That is right. And it's right. It's right to respond this way to that.

So then we notice that then they've waited as long as they can, they're embarrassed, and when he still had not opened the door, they opened the doors and there lay their lord dead on the floor.

And I think that's exactly the language we're supposed to take from it. Their whole life was bound up in this king.

All their hopes were in these pagan gods, in this pagan king, and their hopes were dead on the floor.

The one that ruled them, dead on the floor. The one that could save Moab.

See, everything's flipped and turned now. Moab isn't the one on the offense anymore.

They're on the defense. Their king's dead on the floor. And God has raised up a savior for Israel.

That's the picture we ought to get. Moab is now being sought by Israel.

Israel's bringing the fight to them. God is going to deliver his people. So then we notice that Ehud escapes while they delayed waiting for their king, who they thought was in the bathroom.

It says Ehud escapes. And what I want you to notice, even here in the escape, we notice that God is delivering his people.

So the first thing that I said we ought to notice is this mediculous particular providence that God had in his salvation of Israel.

But the second big thing I want you to notice is how that Ehud escapes God's enemies, but God's enemies never escape.

Listen, God can allow us to escape, but his enemies never escape. I want you to notice here in verse 26, it says

Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Sera.

But if you look down in verse 29, I want you to notice what it says. It says that they,

Israel, killed at that time about 10 ,000 Moabites, all strong, able -bodied men, and not a man escaped.

So here's what happened. Ehud goes, and he tells the people here in this text, he tells them,

God has given the Moabites into your hand, and he takes them, and he brings them back, and they attack, and what they did was they cut off the escape across the river so that they couldn't get away.

Basically, Israel said, no, no, it's not that we're locked in here with you, you're locked in here with us, to the

Moabites. You can't get away, you're ours now. You can't get back over to Moabite country where you're the ones in charge.

We're in charge now. God's in charge now. That's the picture being painted here.

And listen, we ought to realize as new covenant people, as biblical people, that this is how

God deals with us. He offers us a way of escape. Think about what the

Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He says this, therefore let no one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

Listen, Christians, you can escape. You know who can't escape? God's enemies can't escape.

Those who remain in idolatry and in rebellion against God, they won't escape.

There in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul's whole point is he's dealing with the Israelites in the wilderness, the ancestors of these people and judges who would not follow

God, and they could not escape. But he's telling these believers in Corinth that if they'll believe in God, if they'll trust in Christ, he'll provide a way of escape.

Because God's people can't escape. The wicked never escape. There's no escape apart from Christ.

There is no second way out. Christ is the way of escape and the only hope.

Third, we need to notice in this text, the courageous competence of a risen

Savior. Listen, this is an amazing story about Ehud, but it ain't about Ehud.

Ain't, right, that's a good grammar, isn't it? But it's not.

The story is not about Ehud. The story is about Jesus. Because as much as Ehud is a picture of a

Savior, there's a better Savior to come. I want you to notice what it says there in verse 27.

When Ehud arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. And then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country.

And he was their leader. And he said to them, Follow after me, for Yahweh has given your enemies, the

Moabites, into your hand. I want you to notice that what happens here is

God has raised up a Savior, Ehud, right? The problem is Ehud is not going to be able to keep saving them.

Ehud's going to die. You know what we need? We need a risen Savior. Risen from the dead.

Too bad this isn't next week, right? But every Sunday, we meet to worship a risen

Savior. A risen Savior who saves us for forever. You realize that Moses, when

God was about to take Moses, back in Numbers chapter 27, Moses pled with God that he would give the people a leader.

Listen to what Moses says in Numbers 27, verses 15 through 18.

Moses spoke to Yahweh saying, Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as a sheep that have no shepherd.

Now Moses, in his mind, he's thinking of Joshua. And immediately,

Joshua is going to be the man that God's going to raise up. By the end of the chapter, God raises up Joshua and they anoint

Joshua to be Moses' successor to lead the people. But here's the problem.

Joshua is insufficient. Joshua is not a sufficient Savior to save Israel once and for all.

And Ehud is an insufficient Savior to save God's people once and for all. Even Moses, as great as Moses was in all of his humility and all of the works that God did by Moses' hands, was insufficient to save God's people once and for all.

But God is raising up a shepherd who can save His people once and for all.

John chapter 10. Listen to what the Lord Jesus says. This is John 10, 1 -4.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, so notice what the shepherd does, he calls out.

Every sheep that belongs to him comes to him. You know what the sheep do that don't belong to that shepherd?

They run the other way. The sheep separate themselves. You don't have to go in there and sort them.

They sort themselves. They hear the shepherd's voice. Imagine you've got this big sheep pen.

Several flocks all in the pen together. The shepherd comes in and he says, my sheep.

They hear him, they come. All the other sheep run the other way. Because that's not our guy. So then

I want you to hear what Jesus later says in this same passage. Look down in verse 28.

Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe. The words, the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep.

Then notice what he says. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Listen today. If you're trusting in Christ you're hearing his voice and you're following him.

Listen. There is no power in hell or heaven or on earth or anywhere that can snatch you out of his hand because you belong to him.

But I also want to say this morning if you're here and you're like yeah I'm a Christian but I kind of do my own thing then no you're not because my sheep

Jesus said hear my voice and they follow me. Now go back to our passage in Judges 3 and notice exactly what happens with Ehud.

Ehud goes, he sounds the trumpet and it says the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country and he was their leader and he said to them follow after me.

Ehud is giving us a picture of what it looks like when we follow after not Ehud but Christ.

He sounds the trumpet. We go down to him he calls out to us and we follow after him.

Listen. Most of us want Christ call to be to do some big thing.

Right? I can remember when I was first surrendered to ministry and you know you're thinking through Lord what are you going to do you know in my life?

What are you going to raise me up to do? And we always have these big dreams don't we? About what

God's going to do. My wife always tells me I'm this big dreamer. I've always got these big ideas more big ideas that I have ability to act upon but big ideas right?

Big dream. But here's the reality most of what Christ has called us to do following him you know what it looks like get up and read your

Bible tomorrow morning. That's what it looks like. Go to work and be the best employee ever tomorrow.

That's what Christ is telling you to do. Share the gospel with people around you like actually tell them who

Jesus is like have those conversations that's what he's telling us to do like following him means we spend time in prayer with one another following him means we go out of our way to be together as Christians.

We prioritize fellowship and we put seeking the Lord over seeking the things of the world.

That's really what it looks like. I know it's not as exciting as carrying a two edged sword you know stabbing a fat man but but it really is what following Jesus looks like listen it would be easier if we could say following Jesus everybody you gather here tomorrow and we're marching on Washington that actually would be easier than saying no following Jesus is going to mean every day you gotta put yourself to death remember pick up that cross every day you gotta deny yourself every day that's what you gotta do there's no pill that can fix this there's no surgery that can fix this you gotta eat right and exercise that's harder we want a pill we want a surgery you gotta eat right and exercise following Jesus is every day we gotta do it we gotta go after him and that's what this is calling us to the reality here is this courageous confident savior that God gave to Israel in Ehud is a picture of an even greater more courageous more confident savior that he's given to us finally

I want you to see here in this text how God goes above and beyond to save his people you know what's amazing remember remember the very beginning

Israel again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh you know what

God should have done I'm not saving you again I keep saving you and you keep not following me

I'm not saving no more saving you but God doesn't do that he saves them again and not only that you know what

God does even after Israel did evil in the eyes of Yahweh again and God knowing that they would continue to do evil in the eyes in his eyes

Yahweh doubled the blessing of rest Ahothenael saved Israel they get 40 years of rest notice what it says here it says so Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest for 80 years so God said you know what last time

I gave you 40 years this time we'll bless you with 80 years of rest wow what a

God he just keeps pouring out blessing on his people so what's the point

I think the point of this whole story can be summed up in this we even sang about it a moment ago

God is able God is able to save his people and to lead those who follow him with courage and confidence and commitment

God is able and he'll lead you sheep if you'll listen to him and you'll follow you gotta follow right that's what believing really means to really believe means you're gonna follow so the question for all of us this morning is will you follow him will you follow

Jesus no no I don't mean will you say it you'll say it right up till the moment you die and go to hell

I don't mean will you say you'll follow Jesus I mean will you follow him and that means you're gonna put your sin to death that's what we've gotta do all the time people say

I love the Lord but then their life their life is just full of all these things that are wickedness against the

Lord listen if the Lord has risen up for us a savior risen from the dead who will lead us into righteousness and we say yeah we're following him but our lives aren't righteous no you're not following the righteous savior if your life isn't righteous so the question to us is will we follow him today not next week not after the eclipse not ten years from now when

I get my life straightened up now today will you follow

Jesus if you really believe the church is the building the church is the house the church is what