Interesting Story

Today I read in interesting story in the book of Judges, the third chapter.

Here's a bit of background to the story.

Joshua had passed away.

The generation of those who experienced the mighty
works of God in delivering His people out of Egypt
and through the wilderness have also passed away.
The next generation did not know the Lord
or what He had done.
(Somebody should have been giving their kids some history lessons.)

They began to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
They forgot Him and served other gods
with weird names like 'Baal' and 'Asherah.'

And God got very angry with them.
He hadn't delivered them and given them
the Promised Land and made life good for them
so they could go on their jolly old way
and play around with other gods.

So, He sold them into slavery.
After about 8 years, they got sick and tired of being slaves
and cried out to God,
and He sent a deliverer who happened to be
Caleb's younger brother, Othniel.

He was a good judge and the Spirit of the Lord was on him.
He went to war and God not only delivered His children
from the king of Mesopotamia,
He delivered the king into their hands.

And they were good to go for 40 years.

But then,
Othniel died.

And the children of Israel began sinning again.
So, God raised up an enemy king, Eglon of Moab,
to defeat them and take their land.
And this time,
they were in bondage for 18 years before they
began to cry out to the Lord for deliverance.

And this is where my story begins today.

God raised up Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite.
The children of Israel would send Ehud
into the presence of King Eglon,
to pay their tributes to him.

Ehud made himself a double-edged dagger
about 18 inches long and fastened it on
his right side, under his clothes.

He went into the king and gave him the tributes
and then he said,
"I have a secret message for you from God."

The king sent everyone out and stood up to receive this message.

Ehud came close
as if to speak secretly.
He reached his left hand across
his body, took the dagger,
and thrust it into Eglon's belly.

Have I mentioned that Eglon was a very fat man?

Even the hilt went through his body,
and the fat closed over the blade
and his insides came out.

That is so gross.
I apologize.

Ehud went out through the porch
and shut the doors behind him,
locking them as he went.

After he left, Eglon's servants came back
and discovered that the door was locked.
They figured the king was taking care of his private business
and waited until it was too embarrassing to wait
any longer.

They got a key, opened the door,
and saw their master,
dead on the floor.

Meanwhile,
Ehud escaped while the servants
were politely waiting around,
and he went back home and blew the trumpet
and gathered together the children of Israel.

The Israelites followed Ehud,
seized important property,
and killed 10,000 of Moab's
most stout and valored men.

Not a man escaped.

Vs. 30 says, "So Moab was subdued that day
under the hand of Israel.
And the land had rest for 80 years."
No small thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, that's my story.
I know this blog is already long,
but I thought of a few valuable lessons
to be learned from this account.

1)-Cry out to God when you are tired of worshipping other gods and are weary of the enslavement that accompanies that activity.

2)-If you want to kill a very fat enemy, make your own dagger.

3)-Lose weight if you need to.

4)-Don't be alone when someone says they have a Word from the Lord for you.

5)-Watch out for left-handed tribute payers.

6)-If you've used your dagger, escape quickly.

7)-Don't wait too long to open a locked door, especially if you know that there are no reading materials in the 'necessary' room.

8)-People will follow a brave leader who can blow a trumpet and make his own weapons.

9)-Most times, there is a battle before there is a victory.

10)-Most times, there must be a victory, before you have rest.