Espionage and Assassinations

Judges 3:5-31

Othniel's uncle was a famous spy, Caleb.  Ehud was an assassin [002].  And Shamgar - "shamwow!"  Only one verse about him but he's mopping up and taking names!

But before these first 3 judges were famous for anything they were just regular Joes.  God delights in taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things through them. 

That's how it used to be in America.  Our government was of the people, by the people, and for the people, a true democracy.  Regular folks representing the rest of us.  Today we have a potpourri of losers, weirdos, and special interest wimps who stand for nothing.

We need some Joe the Plumbers to rise from the ranks among us and get back to plain common sense!  You see, when the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.

Othniel:

•Nothing negative is ever said of him.
•No doubt, no immorality, no deception in his victory. Othniel is boring!
•God uses boring people!  He led 'Operation Mesopotamia Storm' to victory!
•Othniel just did what he was asked to do – he didn’t make a big fanfare out of it. Apparently just went about business and accomplished what God wanted him to do.

•Isn’t it ironic how we love to hear stories that contain immorality, deceit, doubt. Read the paper, read the news, watch the movies. People love to hear a juicy story while people who are just doing good get no recognition.

•I think sometime we may make things more difficult on ourselves and God by always making things exciting rather than just doing what we need to do!

A rancher was trying to impress his friend about the size of his ranch. His friend asked, “What’s the name of your ranch?” He replied, “The Rocking R, Flying W, Circle C, Bar U, Staple Four, Box D, Rolling M, Rainbow’s End, Silver Spur Ranch!” Duly impressed the rancher said, “Wow! That’s sure some name. How many head of cattle do you run?” With a sad shake of his head, the rancher answered, “Not many. Very few survive the branding.”

•Too many times we are so busy trying to impress that we don’t get done what God wanted us to do. If you’re out to impress others, then you’re not going to possess the promises of God.

Matthew 6:4
...thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

•Othniel reminds us that you don’t have to be #1 in anyone’s survey to be #1 with God.
 

Talent is overrated.  The touch of God is under sought. 

v. 10 is key:  "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him..."

Ehud:
We get a much more interesting story with Ehud 3:12-30
Here are the highlights...
•Israel was handed over to Moab – King Eglon
•People cry out to God and a deliverer is raised up – Ehud
•Mentions that he is left-handed-and he became the 'patron saint of southpaws!'  [How many here are lefties, raise your right hand...what is wrong w/ you people!]
•Makes a dagger or stiletto and hides it under his clothing on his right thigh
•He goes to pay tribute to Eglon – he is a fat man
•He asks for an audience with Eglon claiming to have a message from God
•Eglon falls for this and Ehud approaches him and stabs Eglon and he dies
•Some interesting details emerge in v. 22.  Don't ever say you want the 'dirt' on somebody in a Biblical context.  This verse is saying that Eglon soiled himself.  You know how secret agents usually have numbers?  Maxwell Smart was agent 86, his partner was 99, James Bond is 007, and I guess we'd have to call Ehud number 2!

A simple reading of v. 24 sounds like his servants thought he was taking a nap.  An alternate view supposes that a stench filled the room. Ehud was not able to retrieve his weapon, which remained in the rotund monarch. Ehud quickly locked the door and departed without incident or suspicion, putting the king’s servants in an embarrassing position. The king appeared to be using the latrine; but after a long while, to their humiliation they gradually got up enough nerve to unlock the door and realize the “foul” play.

Ehud was a stealthy assassin.  He used intelligence.  And he's not a bad guy for it, but a good guy.  Last month Israel killed a major Hamas leader in Iran in an apartment that had been booby trapped months before.  In our day, armies use smart bombs to attack an enemy’s Command and Control centers, intending that the command structure should be present at the time. Secret operatives may also with “cloak and a dagger” terminate a key leader with extreme prejudice and less collateral damage. We can substitute all sorts of technical and strategic jargon, but the harsh, bottom-line definition of warfare is “killing people and breaking things.” This is the unpleasant reality of war.  Yes, God is all about peace, but He many times commands war for the purpose of preserving peace, and eradicating evil from the world.

We are engaged in spiritual warfare—we struggle against worldviews opposed to God’s truth. We arm ourselves with His Word, which has been described as “quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). God’s Word is our weapon against all secular ideologies. Don’t leave home without your sword!

•Anyway, by the time they find Eglon dead Ehud is long gone and has gathered an army of Israelites who go on to defeat Moab and the land has peace again.

Ehud was a creative warrior for God, using practical strategy to accomplish God’s work. Being left handed the guards would search his left side and not his right. Ehud’s strategy should be imitated.

And Americans are mostly very creative, the world leaders in innovation and technology.  Capitalism has made us into self starters who seize on opportunity and make the world better.  Why undermine that with a new era of entitlements?

•Ehud does not allow an oddity – being left-handed – to be an excuse for doing nothing.
•Left-handedness has historically been seen as an oddity, almost a handicap. People were encouraged to correct their children. It was even seen by some as being a sign of evil! You might say that left-handed people were discriminated against.

•Ehud may have faced some of that discrimination. Some even think that Ehud may have had some handicap in his right hand that required him to learn to use his left. Nevertheless, Ehud didn’t allow being different to hinder him from serving God.

•Sometimes we allow our handicaps to discourage us from serving God. Some of us may have been told by others that we’re useless and have believed that and have failed to serve.

ill.--A woman walked to work past a pet store. One day a parrot called out to her as she passed and said. “Hey lady, you’re ugly.” She was upset but blew it off. The same thing happened the next day. She got a little angrier but went on. The third day--same thing. She went into the store and told the owner who had a long talk with the parrot. The next day she passed by.  “Hey lady.” She said, “Yes.” The parrot said, “You know!”

•Sometimes when we hear things over and over again we begin to believe it. You can’t do this or that, don’t even try … on and on.

•God uses people who have shortcomings – Moses, Paul, Ehud! Ehud reminds us that God uses different people. If you want to possess the promises of God do not let your handicaps keep you from stepping up to the plate!

Shamgar:  [Shamwow!]
v. 31
Shamgar is one of the minor judges – very little is said of him.
An interesting note – his weapon was an ox goad.  It was a stick used to guide the oxen, but it was not a weapon.
This may have been the result of a strategy of the Philistines to prohibit the making of weapons.
1 Samuel 13:19
¹⁹ Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:

God makes the enemy look foolish – they lose to a guy with an ox goad. God and an ox goad are better than 600 Philistines.

It was the first of many improvised weapons:
Judges 4:21-22
²¹ Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
²² And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.

Judges 15:15-16
¹⁵ And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
¹⁶ And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

Moses - "What is that in thine hand?"  "A rod."

Use what God has given you, and like David w/ his sling, you can have some giant accomplishments!

Shamgar reminds us that God uses people with limited resources.
 

God can do more with little than with much.

Hudson Taylor said, "God used me because I was weak enough."

Little is much when God is in it, just ask the little boy who carried his lunch sack...Jesus supersized it!

We think we need lots of tools for ministry, but perhaps in our lack in America someday we'll have the best tool of all...hungry souls desperately seeking the truth!

•Othniel - Serve without seeking recognition.
•Ehud - Serve in spite of real or perceived weaknesses.
•Shamgar - Serve in spite of limitations.

[some info. from Todd Catteau and Robert Leroe]