King Eglon And The Left Handed Man

[Shibboleth]

King Eglon was the ruler of Moab and he used the sons of Amalek and Ammon to take over the city of palms and to rule over Israel with an iron fist. He ruled over them for 18 years and by then the Israelites called to Jehovah for help. So there rose a man by the name of Ehud who happened to be left handed. Many of the military men of Israel were right handed so being left handed was rare.

Ehud constructed a double edged blade about a cubit's length (about the length of the forearm) that he could conceal easily. Since he was left handed he could put the sword on his right side.

Now Ehud went into see King Eglon to pay tribute to him. Now Eglon was a very fat man and he had no reason to fear Ehud since he could see that he wasn't armed or so he thought. When Ehud's tribute bearers left, Ehud went up to the king and told him that he had a secret word for him. The king wanting to hear this told his attendants to leave and beakoned Ehud to come closer and tell him this secret. Ehud said "A word from God I have for you." Eglon rose from his throne and Ehud drew the sword and shoved it into the king's gut. It went all the way to the hilt of the sword and eviscerated the king and he died. Ehud then locked the doors and escaped. The attendants went to go check on the king and seeing the doors were locked thought that maybe the king was relieving himself so they didn't disturb him. After a while they decided that maybe they should check up on him and when they did they found him dead.

Israel then followed Ehud in battle against Moab and struck down close to 10,000 men. After this great battle Israel had peace for about 80 years.

Today we have "a word from God" to the people of the world. To some it may cut them like Ehud's double edged sword. To others it will mean salvation. We should all try to have faith in spite of fear, like Ehud. Ehud was brave enough to go against a king who was powerful in those days. When Jesus comes to render final judgement and tells the world's governments that he has a secret word from God for them, we should stand erect knowing that Jehovah has given the battle to His son and our deliverence is near.

The above was taken from Judges 3.


Regards,

Shibboleth

[Gabriel]

Wow! that was very much appreciated.

[eyes&ears]

Hi Shib,

Very interesting, and it helps me appreciate regardless of what man threatens us with now and in the troublesome critical times in the future, if our faith is strong and we take to heart what Jehovah had recorded for us in Lu 12:4,5 ... Moreover, I say to you, my friends, DO NOT FEAR those who kill the body and after this are not able to do anything more. 5) But I will indicate to you whom to fear: Fear him who after killing has authority to throw into Gehenna. YES, I TELL YOU FEAR THIS ONE, then we will make Jehovah's heart glad and come off victorious.

Thanks for your research Shib.

Warm Hugs to you and yours

E & E

[SWORDOFJAH]

Beautiful and well applied.

[Jeshurun]

Nicely done, Shib, I really enjoyed that.

Ever read "The Message" Bible? It puts things in clear perspective as you do. You see, each of us has our specialties!

Agape

Lou

[Shibboleth]

A little more history on Ehud. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. In that tribe they had a small army of left handed men that were slinger of stones.

After Ehud's day the tribe of Benjamin commited a grave sin agains the rest of Israel. A great battle ensued and the tribe of Benjamin was nearly wiped out. The Israelites did not want to see their brother nation cut off, but since they had vowed not to give them women to help keep the tribe alive, the Israelites decided to punish a small town that had not come to the aid of the Israelites. They gave the remaining ones in the tribe of Benjamin the virgins from the punished town. In which now the Benjaminites could survive.

If Benjamin had been left to die off we may not have seen the birth of King Saul and the Apostle Paul as well as Jeremiah.