{"id":2404,"date":"2023-02-28T07:57:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T12:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2404"},"modified":"2023-02-28T07:57:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T12:57:36","slug":"judges-316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/28\/judges-316\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges 3:16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.

Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th<\/sup> verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0<\/em>
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\u201cNow Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing” (Judges 3:16).
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The Bible is packed with wonderfully entertaining tales that aren\u2019t necessarily suitable for young children at bedtime.
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The story of Ehud, the cunning left-handed judge, qualifies as Exhibit A.\u00a0
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If Joshua is the happiest book in the Old Testament \u2013 since it describes a time when the people of Israel are genuinely eager to obey God \u2013 Judges, the very next book in your table of contents, is the most tragic.\u00a0 The juxtaposition is startling.\u00a0 Even though God\u2019s people are finally free and living in a homeland of their own, something goes wrong in the leadership handoff between the generation of Joshua and the generation that follows.\u00a0 \u201cAfter that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel\u201d (Judges 2:10).
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The result is spiritual anarchy.\u00a0 The people disobey God, which plunges them into crisis.\u00a0 They cry out in despair.\u00a0 God sends them deliverers.\u00a0 After receiving relief, however, the people return to disobedience.\u00a0 This cycle is reported more than a dozen times in the book of Judges.\u00a0 Disobedience, despair, deliverance, repeat<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Although the English word \u201cjudge\u201d became associated with Israel\u2019s deliverers, a better description might simply be \u201cleader\u201d or even \u201cguerilla fighter.\u201d\u00a0 God\u2019s people typically fought as underdogs against much larger and better-equipped enemies.\u00a0
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Which brings us to the account of Ehud, who, by resorting to sheer chutzpah, takes down one of Israel\u2019s chief foes all by himself.\u00a0
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Judges 3:15 notes the crucial detail that Ehud is left-handed.\u00a0 Throughout history, something like 90% of humanity has led with the right hand.\u00a0 Hence the Latin word for right is dexter<\/em> (from which we get \u201cdexterity\u201d).\u00a0 The left hand \u2013 even today in the developing world \u2013 has traditionally been reserved for personal hygiene.\u00a0 The Latin word for left is sinister<\/em>.\u00a0 Enough said.\u00a0 No one in polite company would ever extend his or her left hand to another person without generating suspicion that something was seriously wrong.
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Eglon, the morbidly obese king of Moab, has subjugated Israel for 18 years, forcing the people (like a mob boss) to purchase his favor with treasure.\u00a0 Ehud is chosen to deliver the next payoff.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Our \u201c3:16\u201d verse tells us that Ehud straps a short sword to his right thigh, presumably on the inside of his leg.\u00a0 Upon visiting the king he says, \u201cYour Majesty, I have a secret message for you.\u201d\u00a0 Intrigued, Eglon clears the room.\u00a0 As Ehud approaches the throne, he reaches with his left hand under his garment. \u00a0The king thinks he has nothing to fear, since a real warrior (a man of honor) would reach for a weapon only with his right hand.
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The details that follow \u2013 along with David\u2019s stone thudding into Goliath\u2019s forehead and the big fish barfing up Jonah onto a Mediterranean beach \u2013 are the kinds of specifics that have kept generations of 11-year-old boys from becoming terminally bored in Sunday School.\u00a0
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\u201cEhud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king\u2019s belly.\u00a0 Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged.\u00a0 Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed over it.\u00a0 Then Ehud went out to the porch.\u00a0 He shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them\u201d (Judges 3:20-23).
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As if those graphic fine points aren\u2019t enough, here come the laughs.\u00a0 \u201cAfter he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked.\u00a0 They said, \u2018He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.\u2019\u00a0 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them.\u00a0 There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead\u201d (3:24-25).
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Generations of Jewish raconteurs must have loved telling and retelling this tale.
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Let\u2019s take a brief detour to another \u201c3:16\u201d text, one which we will only note in passing.\u00a0 We find these words in I Kings 3:16: \u201cNow two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.\u201d
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Experienced Bible readers will recognize that this is the start of a celebrated anecdote concerning King Solomon, who was famous for his wisdom and discernment.\u00a0 A pair of prostitutes is seeking justice.\u00a0\u00a0 Each has given birth to a child out of wedlock.\u00a0 But one baby died, and the mother quickly switched her dead infant with the living one.\u00a0 Both claim the surviving little one.\u00a0 Since there were no third-party witnesses, and DNA testing is still three millennia away, how will the wisest man in the world determine who is in the right?
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That\u2019s easy.\u00a0 Cut the baby in half.\u00a0 Then each mom will go home with half a baby, which is better than no baby at all, right?\u00a0
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\u201cSounds fair to me,\u201d says one of the prostitutes.\u00a0 \u201cNo, give the baby to her!\u201d shouts the other one.\u00a0 Mystery solved.\u00a0 Solomon wisely discerns that the real mother would do anything to protect the life of her child.\u00a0
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Like the account of Ehud, this story feels raw.\u00a0 Why are there so many unpleasant and unsettling stories like these two on the pages of God\u2019s Word?
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We can answer that question by posing another one:\u00a0 Have you seen the local news lately?\u00a0 There are unpleasant and unsettling events in every community every day.\u00a0
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The Bible is not a collection of morality tales or \u201cnice stories\u201d designed to promote good behavior in children.\u00a0 The biblical authors felt empowered to report adultery, genocide, treason, rape, incest, and betrayal, even when such dark realities tainted the reputations of so-called \u201cheroes of the faith.\u201d\u00a0
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We live, after all, in an R-rated world \u2013 one that is Rough, Raw, and Real.\u00a0
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But it is also Redemptive.
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Life may be a mess much of the time, but God is at work in the middle of it all.
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And just as he directed the course of history through Ehud and Solomon, he\u2019ll be doing the same thing today by working through you and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here. Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNow Ehud had made a double-edged… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-316-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2406,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions\/2406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}