And then turn to Judges Chapter 3. If it helps, there are some handouts there for you. Being a narrative, we're going to be walking through it sequentially, so it might help if you want to do that, take notes however you want to do that, feel free to. So Judges chapter three, we're moving into Ehud and Shamgar. So if you will, together with me, starting at verse 12, we will read through this narrative to the end of the chapter. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel, and they took possession of the city of Palms. And the people of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, 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, 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 roof 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, 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 and behind, excuse me, the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came and when they saw that 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. But 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 beyond the idols and escaped to Sarah. 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 the Lord 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. And 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. After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath. who killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox code, and he also saved Israel. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, would you teach us your word? In light of the work of Christ, how he himself said, all of the law, the prophets, and the Psalms point to him. May we see our Savior. May we understand Your words pointing to Your Son, our Savior. Help us to understand rightly, to do justice to Your words, that we would know You and understand You and live for You. Lord, bless us this day with Your words. Humble us before Your throne. Help us to know that we have a Savior who is our Lord and our King. Help us long for him, wait for him patiently until he comes, and we ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. I must admit to you, a lot of people struggle to teach this text. It is a rather, if you will, for mature audiences type of a story. And a lot of times people struggle through it and they get to the end and they apply it. Well, you have the sword of the spirit. I'm gonna tell you right now, that is not an application of this text. So people struggle with this, and I've listened to a lot on it, and read a lot on it, just so I can understand how different people utilize it. And thankfully, there are plenty out there who do utilize it well, but it's interesting. We struggle when we come to these texts, because one, as you read through that, it's very violent. We've not, excuse me, we have seen that repetitively. We've talked about that often throughout the book of Judges and the time of which these people were living and under the covenant in which they are under, it was a violent time. So we have to face that. However, in the midst of this, the Lord's still working. There's much to be encouraged in. So if you will walk through me, walk with me as we walk through the text. Excuse me. Don't walk through me. That would be weird. Walk with me as we go through this text. I'm going to walk through it from start to finish. And we're going to draw this out, understand what the words of what he's saying. And I want to encourage you, there's a lot of satire. There's a lot of double entendre. And there's a lot of mockery going on. So I'm gonna try my best to draw that out for you so you can understand. It doesn't always meet the eye, but you read it enough times, I think you'll see it there. However, I wanna try my best to draw some of that out for you. So, as you see on your handout there, I've divided this up. It is a, as I'm famous for, as the scripture's famous for, very chiastic in its structure. Everything, coming together to its point where we have the death of Eglon. But you'll see, Lord willing, as we walk through this. So let's just start from the beginning, section A, the exposition. The kind of drawing us into this story as before we move, before we get into the nitty gritty details, this helps open up the setting. As we see twice, it's listed that the Israel's done what is evil in the sight of the Lord. We know the repetition. We know the cycle now. They are rebelling against their God. So the Lord reacts to that with His fierce anger and He strengthens, He sovereignly strengthens Eglon, the king of Moab, against his own people. to give them judgment when they are rebelling against him. So he is sending his retribution towards his people who are rebelling against him. However, this king, this Moabite king, he gathers to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites. The Amalekites, excuse me, let me back up a second. The Moabites and the Amorites, they are related through Lot. Those of you who remember the story in Genesis chapter 19 after Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed Lot's daughters get him drunk and produce offspring with him. The firstborn gave birth to Moab, and the secondborn, Ben-Ami, who is the father of the Ammonites. So we have relatives coming together to go against God's people. He also brings in the Amalekites. Now, the Amalekites have been a thorn before getting into the land. They've been a thorn in Israel's side back in Exodus chapter 17. This is the battle where Moses, when he held his staff up, they prevailed. When his hands came down, the Amalekites prevailed. So he had Aaron and Hur helped Moses hold both of his hands up during that time so they could prevail and have victory. At the end of the victory in Exodus chapter 17, the Lord states something to Moses that's important to understand about the Amalekites. In Exodus chapter 17, verses 14 through 16, here's what the Lord says to Moses. Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, the Lord is my banner, saying, a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. It isn't surprising now with this history, it is not surprising that these tribes would come together as allies to go against God's people to gain some of this land back. Some of them have been pushed out, some of them just don't like Israel, so they're all coming in together, let's join in, let's go against God's people. So it doesn't surprise us that they're doing this when you have that history that there will always be war with these people from God's own mouth. However, when we get to Judges chapter 11 with Jephthah, we'll dive a little bit more into the history of Amalek. So we'll hold that off till that time because it brings in, there's interaction with the history there with Jephthah. So for now, just know that there's a history there. It's a violent history, and there's going to be a violent future because that's what the Lord has determined between them, because the Lord's hand is against Amalek or the Amalekites. So they join together. They're coming to defeat Israel. And the word is literally, the same word, defeat, is used later on at the end of the story for killing. So they're coming in, killing God's people. And they defeat them, they kill them. And they took possession of the city of the palms. And I've mentioned this before, that the city of the palms is known as the area of Jericho. Why is that important? Because Jericho was cursed in Joshua chapter six, verse 26 specifically. So you have a family gaining up with an enemy to come against their enemy. Israel, and they're coming in to kill them, and they're settling in a land that's cursed. All of this should matter in our understanding of the flow of the story. And the people of Israel, what does the Lord do? He brings this judgment on them, and now they're serving Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years. The time of rest is over, the time of judgment has come, because they have turned their backs on the Lord once again. Then the people of Israel cry out to the Lord. We know we have our cycle here. Again, they have remorse. They're not repenting. They're only being held under a heavy burden and they want to be relieved of that. They're not necessarily repenting as a whole holistic people. But what does the Lord do? He raises up a judge. They cry out to the Lord, he raises up a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite. We have Ehud, the son of Benjamin. He's within the Benjamin tribe. Benjamin means the son of my right hand. We have Ehud, who's part of the son of my right hand, but he's a left-handed man. Again, to the Israelites, they'd be looking at that and they'd kind of get a little bit of a chuckle out of that. because how the scripture utilizes right hand is something that's powerful. One of God moving and having the right hand of God being something as a warrior, a powerful thing. But in this case, you have one who is the son of my, who's within the son of my right hand, but he is a left-handed man. Within the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, it translates left-handed man as ambidextrous. However, the Hebrew says bound right hand. It could literally mean bound right hand. So there's two different approaches of how people may interpret what does this mean with the left hand. Is it something that they forcefully bound their right hand so they could do something with their left hand? Or was this man actually had something wrong with his right hand so he had to learn to use his left hand? I tend to lean to the side that this is something that they did on purpose. The reason I say that, because the Benjaminites are known for this, and it's stated later in Judges 20, and also in 1 Chronicles, that these men were people who were skillful with their left hands. So skillful that they hit their targets every time. And it was well known that they did this. God is sovereign. He could make an entire tribe that's just left-handed, but I tend to lean to the idea that they did this on purpose because, historically speaking, most warriors were right-handed. Most warriors were right-handed, so it'd kind of throw your enemies off that there's somebody who's left-handed, he's not gonna be as strong as we are, because we're all right-handed, and this is universally known. So it could throw them off, and you come to find out you have these left-handed men who can't miss. Whether they're shooting an arrow, or they're doing the rock with the sling, they hit their targets. So I tend to lean that this is more of an act that they do for war. Whether I'm wrong, that's okay. It does no injustice to the text. But through this left-handed man who's part of the son of my right hand, they send tribute through his hand to Eglon, the king of Moab. A lot of hands being exchanged within the text here today. A lot of that. I told you that earlier. Be on the lookout for that. This is a transition, whether it be who's actually controlling the power in these narratives. So you see a lot of movement. You have the son of my right hand who's a left-handed man presenting with his hands to Eglon the tribute. Now it needs to be stated, what is he presenting? This tribute, this is often utilized within the scripture within the Old Testament offerings. When he's presenting tribute, putting those terms together, the Israelites are listening. Let's back up for a second. Put yourself in the setting of after the judges. You know the history. You know the demise and all the sufferings, but also the victories. And now you're hearing an interesting story that's put together to show us God's perspective of what happened during this time frame. So when he utilizes language of they were presenting this offering often in the Old Testament, that would have keyed their minds to the Old Testament offerings that they would give of grain offerings. It's often that they are together in that way, giving tribute or offering tribute is Old Testament language. There's a lot of I mean, it's everywhere when it comes to the law everywhere. But again, this This story, I want to remind you, is satire. So everything is meant to highlight humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, even of an exposing and criticizing, whether it be the enemy or even Israel itself. So Israel is now, they're having to offer tribute to a foreign king instead of God. So they would hear this, this offering of tribute, and they wouldn't just be like, oh, just keep waiting. They would be downcast because they're realizing this is not a good thing because that tribute belongs to God, not to a king who's enslaving us, a foreign enemy king who's enslaving us. So again, flow with the style of the text and you see that this is something that's egregious. It's actually blasphemous that they're doing this. It also hurts them economically. But I also want to point out something else with the text. You see two things that are happening within the opening here. You have divine initiative and human instrumentality. In verse 12 and 13, verse 12 you see that the Lord strengthened Eglon. Divine initiative. The author wants to put forward God first. The Lord strengthened Eglon. But verse 13 tells us what did Eglon do? He conjoined forces with the enemies and they went and took possession, defeated Israel and took possession of the palms. So the human instrumentality, the working out of this. The Lord raised up a deliverer, verse 15, divine initiative, Ehud. The Lord raises up this deliverer. But what does this Benjaminite, the son of my right hand, do with his left hand? He offers tribute on behalf of Israel, human responsibility. I just want to draw that out, because again, that would be things we need to be looking for. Because again, when you go through a text, I want to encourage you, you're looking for what God's doing. We're looking for what God is doing. Who is this one that is sovereign over all? That will help you understand more of the text. But that's just the opening. And we're also introduced to someone, Eglon. Now this is, this would again be funny to an Israelite. If you heard the meaning of his name, it means calf or calf guy. Well, we're about to learn a little bit more about this calf guy very shortly. As we move into our next section, this is the tricky dagger. We have our introduction, we get the setting set. Now we move into, okay, what's gonna happen? This is very interesting with this language that's drawing us to this blasphemous act because they're enslaved because of God's judgment. What's gonna happen? Well, Ehud, verse 16, made for himself a sword with two edges. A cubit in length, and he bound it to his right thigh under his clothes. Everything that it tells us about Ehud seems to be that everything that he's doing is self-directed. Though it tells us already God raised him up, but the language says, but Ehud himself. It says it twice to give us Ehud. It would seem from the man's eye standpoint, Ehud has all this secretly planned out by himself. However, we've already been told who's the one working in all of this. He himself made this sword. He himself, here in a few minutes, will turn back the people who brought the tribute with him. And he'll turn back himself and speak to the king on his own desires. So it seems to be self-directed. But he makes this around 18-inch blade. Essentially, you're sending Rambo in here to do something. What's about to happen? Oh, no. I wonder. But this is something that's small enough to hide, as you can tell, because he hides it, but it's large enough to do some serious damage. Now, to remind you again historically, It tells us there plainly that he puts it under his clothing, but however, historically speaking, if he would have kept it on the outside, on his left side, excuse me, let me get my arms right here, right side, let me get my side, if he had it on his right side, on the outside, that would have been looked at as a time of peace. Because generally speaking, as we said earlier, warriors did things on their left side when it meant time for war for the right hand, and they would have it as peace on the left side because they're not pulling it out. They're not pulling that out. I just wanted to let you know historically that is something that is accurate. However, we're told here he hides it underneath his left side. Why is that? Because he's a left-handed man. Put these things together. Now I want to show you something. It says he makes him a sword with two edges. What's interesting is that the word that's translated for two edges rather can be translated two different ways, whether it's two edges or it's a mouth. Very, very interesting. Again, I'm telling you, why would I bring that up? Because I believe the author is using a lot of double entendre. He'd have double meanings on things because it plays out in the holistic aspect of the story. He made him a sword with two edges. OK. But it also could be mouth. What in the world could that mean? Well, let's keep moving. We move into our next section. We've been given insight to the trickery of this Ehud. I'll wait on this. I'll bring it back up in a second. We move now to the tricky tribute. Ehud's got something up his sleeve, if you will. He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, Eglon was a very fat man. Now, this term, fat man, is utilized only two other times for human beings, for men, if you will. In Psalm 73, it says, of the wicked who are prospering and are fat and sleek. And Daniel, many of you will know this, of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, after 10 days of eating vegetables and water, they are better in appearance and fatter than those who ate the king's food. Now, that term by itself would only mean that they look healthy. But it tells us of Eglon that he's very fat. Well, that makes sense. They've been giving tribute of their own produce and offerings. They've been giving this to Eglon for 18 years. Who's been getting fat off that tribute? This very fat man who is a calf. He's been getting fat off this. When Ehud finished presenting the tribute as verse 18, and he sent away the people who carry the tribute, again, you're seeing this self-direction. He's sending things, he's bringing the stuff, he's making the sword, he's moving these people away. Then he himself, in verse 19, turns back at the idols near Gilgal, and he says to the king, I have a secret message for you, oh king. Why would he bring up the idols near Gilgal? Again, we wanna take everything, take it all in. Why would he say that? Given that these other people groups did not serve the living God, they served idols, they would have built up idols, and you now see Eglon thinking to himself, if I turn, let's get in his head for a second. Let me turn here, because the king will think that I have an oracle for him from these quote unquote little g gods. Essentially, he's building up the full for his fall. He's building that up. He's in the midst of these idols and he says, I have a message for you. The king would be like, he has a message from these idols. Why else would he say it right there? However, where it says a message, again, another double entendre. It could be a word or a thing. It could be translated either way. I have a message for you, or I have a thing for you. Which one will it be? I really wonder. It's meant to make you somewhat laugh. It's absolutely meant to. So what does the king do to show that he's been fooled by this? He says, silence, and he clears out the room. Come on, come on. Why would he do that? Any smart reader would think, why in the world would you clear out the room for your enemy by himself? It goes to show he's been fooled. So what does he do? He comes to him and he says, verse 20, He's sitting alone in the cool of the chamber, of his roof chamber, and Ehud said, I have a message. It's a Debar, a word or a thing. It could be either one. I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. I mean, let's take a minute to think of that. This very fat man, Jabba the Hutt-looking guy, stands up, because he's so fooled. He's like, you do have something from God from me. I was already thinking that. You just confirmed that. Let me stand up for it. Well, he arose. Let's move to the pinnacle of the story. This is the death. Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. The hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade. For he did not pull the sword out of the belly, and the dung came out. The climax is the twist of all twists. If you flow with it, you didn't quite see it coming, but you knew something was about to happen. Obviously, we know it so well, so many people love the story, but you flow with it, and you let all these things stand as they are. You're like, where is it actually gonna go? But let me put it in this way. The one who thought he was gaining more tribute for consumption is consumed by a blade. The one who thought he was getting a word from God is getting a thing from the one true God. The one who was fit and fat from no lack of supply is gutted and left for dead in his own remains. The story builds itself up to see that, oh, he's going to be consuming something today, but it's not going to be what he's been consuming for 18 years. I want to highlight something for you. I've heard and read many people in this section, and there's a few who call what Ehud did murder. Incorrect. Incorrect. Why do I say that? I've told you before, when we use our modern thinking to judge people who are under a specific covenant in the old, we are doing disservice. We talked about this when it came to destroying people, putting them to complete destruction. Harem, didn't we not talk about this? This was the very covenant orders that they had to be abiding by. And when they weren't abiding by it, they would be put in slavery. They'd be put under the very enemies of which they should have been taking out. That's exactly what's going on here. That's exactly what's going on here. This is not murder. Why would we be reading God raised him up? Why would he be recording it in such a way that's lifting up God's actions here if it were something that was against God? I want to encourage you, this is not murder. We have to stomach that, no pun intended for the story. But we do, we have to take that in. We have to take it according to what their covenant is, not what my sensitivities are here later down the road in history. Read the scripture for how it's presenting itself, not how I want it to make me feel better about the situation. Because this has massive implications for us as we move on. Not that we should be killing, get that out of your mind, but it has massive implications for what God is going to do ultimately. As we move out now, we're moving away, we have the crescendo, he's dead, the enemy's gone, the enemy's now been put to shame, if you will. We moved to our tricky escape. Instead of a tribute now, now there's escape in another plan moving to action. Ehud went out from the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and looked and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came. When they saw the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he's relieving himself in the closet of the cold chamber. We have to take the story for what it is. Why do you think they said that and not something else? Because when he was stabbed, what was in him came out. And it's highly likely that they're smelling that. Take the text for what it says. It is something you have to think about. Why would they say that other than just like, he wants some privacy. Leave him be. They like, no, it's locked for a purpose. And we can somewhat smell the purpose. They waited, verse 25, till they were embarrassed. That had to be an uneasy amount of time right there. Could you imagine realizing in that scenario, something's going on here? I could smell it. That's not a double entendre. You could literally smell it. And you have to wait, and you have to wait, and you have to wait, and you'd be like, okay, this is taking entirely too long. That had to be a long time, but what is happening here is that it's also buying time. It's also buying time for the victor to get out of sight, out of mind. Nobody can suspect what's going on here. But they do. They open up the door. They finally give in. They're like, OK, this is taking way too long. Let's give in. Let's open the doors. They have a key. They open it. What do they find there? The only time Lord is used for Eglon, it's used in their context. Their Lord, not Israel's Lord. Their Lord is now laying there in his excrement dead. So Ehub escaped back through the idols, which once fooled the king. He escapes without being known through the idols and he escapes to Sarah. This gives him time to get away. connecting the adjacent section of the idols at one time, it seemingly fooled the king into thinking the idols had a word for the king. Now the idols show to be worthless because they can't stop Ehud and his plan. The idols themselves are also being mocked in the text. They can't reveal the sneaky plan, but only left the king gullible and vulnerable. Now they can't stop the escaping trickster and leave the remaining troops ignorant and vulnerable for the next move of Ehud. You worship idols, you become like the idols. Gullible, vulnerable, ignorant, dead. If you worship idols, you become like them. Gullible, vulnerable, ignorant, dead. And that's what the text is showing us. It should even be in a testament to Israel. Give up your idols, because they also served other gods, and that's why God would judge them. Do you want to become like these idols? Moving again to the tricky attack. At one time, he's hiding his sword. That's his tricky plan. He's fixing, ready to do something. Now we move to our tricky attack. When he arrived, that's Ehud, 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. The highest region in Ephraim, this Ephraim would have been the highest region and central point of that region. So it would have been a very good spot for him to make his rally cry. Come. Come. Victory is happening, which moves us straight into our conclusion. Follow after me. Verse 28. For the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands. So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time 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 hand had rest for 80 years." Two generations of rest given. through the work of God, through a Savior. And now he's doing a rally cry. Look what the Lord has done for you. There's a perfect conclusion to this. Look what God has done. Follow me and let's obey him. He's already given the victory. So now we move to Shamgar. I'm pulling these together because I believe it makes good sense to pull them together. Shamgar, verse 31, after him, that's after Ehud, was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox goat, and he also saved Israel. Some look at him and do not call him a judge. However, I think what they call him, he says he saved Israel. I think that for me is a done deal. He is a judge. He's a faithful one. Shamgar is only mentioned one other time and that's in the fifth chapter when Deborah makes a song after their victory. Deborah and Barak have a song and he talks about, in the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned and travelers kept to the byways. And they use it in that context that the war is at the gates. Statement saying that there was war right there at your gates all the time. So some of the highways weren't even traveled on because war was everywhere. So it was a violent times. And that makes sense if a man was killing 600 people with an ox code. An ox goad would be a long stick, upwards of 8 to 10 feet long, and at the end would have an iron point, and some of them have a hook. They would prod the ox to keep them moving so they could keep their distance, but also prod the oxes to keep them moving. This man, whether in one time or a long period of time, I don't know. But let's be honest, that's a lot of people with an ox goad. This is a farmer's tool. Again, unlikely person being raised up for the most unlikely thing, and they're given the title as a savior. Just like Ehud, part of the tribe of the son of my right hand, who has a bound right hand, but he takes out the king and proclaims victory because God raised him up to do it. Now we have another one who's a farmer, and his name points to, this is me, others may think, it is foggy. We don't have hardly anything on Shamgar. But his name means named a stranger. And in the Hebrew, it has more syllables than the Hebrew names normally have, given that that points to him possibly being a Gentile. And son of Anath. This could either point to two things, a place that was called Anath, or a Canaanite goddess, a war goddess, who was called Anath. Again, two factors that seem to be pointing to his name, and the son of Anath, pointing to that he's a Gentile. But now he's saving Israel. He's a savior, so he's a judge. So he's someone God raised up and now Israel is remembering that he at one time saved Israel. Though he has a name and a lineage that seems to point to he wasn't originally part of us, but now he saves us. Well, let's rethink the story. Let's look at the story one more time. I will flow through it very, very quickly in my own words to show some parallels here. God's people, you have this contrast in the back of your notes. You know where I'm going. God's people do evil before him, and he raises up an enemy that doesn't intend to be his tool. Like Isaiah points to foreign king being used as a tool of the Lord, even though he does not intend to be used as such, the same thing goes with Aglon and all of those people they raised up. They did not intend to be used by God. They had their own evil purposes in mind, but the Lord is sovereignly moving. However, He's being used of God to bring judgment on his people. Eglon teams up with other tribes that also want Israel out of the land. They take over and settle in a cursed land. Israel has to bring tribute to this king instead of offering it to God. However, God raises up Deliverer Ehud in the tribe of the son of my right hand who is a left-handed man who makes a sword with a mouth on it and he hid it in his right thigh. Tribute is given, but the trickery unfolds as the king is fooled into thinking false gods have a word for him. However, the true God has a thing for him, and he is slaughtered like a calf, sacrificed on the altar before God. The one who swallowed up Israel's offerings is now swallowed up by death. The enemy has been thoroughly defeated and shamed. The idols show to be dead and worthless. The hero escapes to the highest point and blasts the horn of war and pronounces God's victory and says, follow me. All of the enemy is conquered and rest is given for two generations. The impact is so big that even a Canaanite is brought into the fold and becomes a savior for Israel. Brothers and sisters, this is the gospel given in shadow form. We talked about it in Sunday school. This was something pointing to something greater than itself. How can I say that? Well, the scripture. And I'll point it out to you, giving you the gospel that lines up with this. Man is dead in their sin and trespasses. Man is slave to sin. Man is under the control of the evil one. The evil one thinks he rules the world, but it is coming to an end. Man is a slave to do the will of the evil one. However, God raises up a deliverer, the son of his right hand. Let me read to you Psalm 2 and just think of what we just read in Ehud and Eglon. Listen to Psalm 2 in light of that story. Why do the nations rage in the people's plot and vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointing saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The satire. He just laughs. The Lord holds them in derision, though they don't intend. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you, quoted in Hebrews 1. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Quoting Psalm 110 in Hebrews chapter one, Speaking of the son and to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Highlighting that he is the son of God's right hand. He is God's right hand. Going on, the word became flesh and became a sacrifice for sin and swallows up death by the most unlikely means. He defeats death by death. Eglon defeats their enslavery. Death is equated by death. Christ swallows up death for us. Listen to Isaiah chapter 25 verses 6 through 9. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, a rich food full of marrow, of aged wine and well-refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. As it says there in verse eight, he will wipe away the tears from all faces is quoted in Revelation 21 of Jesus. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for their former things have passed away. The Lord himself will swallow up death and free us from our captivity. What else does we see there? As Aglon was put to shame, the Lord puts his enemies to shame. We know this well, Colossians chapter two. You who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with this legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Just as these enemies put to shame the Lord himself, dying the way that he did, disarmed the authorities and rulers and put them to open shame, not able to stop what's coming next. But our Lord does not stay dead. He rises from the grave and pronounces victory. This command, as you know it well from John, is, follow me. Just as they are to follow their Savior, we are to follow our Savior. The same call, follow me. His salvation is so wide that even Gentiles are brought into the fold and are also called to put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, to follow Him. But there's more that is added on with our gospel, because we are awaiting a final trumpet. Just like he pronounced the trumpet of victory, we are waiting on a final trumpet. 1 Corinthians 15. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Isaiah, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Happy Easter. Through Christ, death is swallowed up. as we have a shadow of something that the Lord's going to do on a greater scale. This one who is swallowing up all of what they were supposed to be offering to God. Now he swallows up death, and now he's put to shame, and now all of Israel's united, which makes sense, because that's Ehud's name and what it means, unifier. He unites his people to follow after him and to obey their God, and they're given rest for 18 years. We have a Savior who's been raised up, and he plays a huge trick on death. He swallows it up himself. to where there's no more need for anyone to step in and take care of death. He takes care of it for us. He rises from the dead and he tells us, I've united you. Follow me. Follow me, waiting on that final trumpet to where we will know and see him as he is. Brothers and sisters, when you read through the scripture, find Christ, because that's what he tells you to do. That's his directive. It's not, I have no idea what to do with this. You have the sword of the spirit, go slay demons. No. He is the one who swallowed up death. You have victory. Live like it. Rejoice. This is what this day is all for. All days are for this. That is my proclamation, brothers and sisters. Not just this time of the year on the calendar. All days are meant to bring glory to Christ because we are now alive in him, no longer enslaved, having to give all of our efforts and time to idols. Now we give our effort and time to Christ who reigns in the heavens, who we will see come back the same way that he left. Amen. Does that not motivate you to love the Lord who loves you so very much that everything he's done in history and he tells the prophets and they give it to us is about the one who will conquer all things for his people. And we get longer than two generations of rest. Praise the Lord. We get a little bit longer than that. Unending rest, right? We get the unending rest. So brothers and sisters, be encouraged. Christ is King. Kiss Him. Do not anger Him. Love Him because He loves you and He's made that love clearly known. Not only through the acts of Israel, through His own acts when He took on flesh and became a man and died on our behalf. But even what came before, that's why I wanted to preach the Old Testament, because even that is pointing to the one who will do greater things, who will do greater things and hold all those titles forever. Not just once for all time. He is Lord. He is Savior. But I call you today that is he yours? Like I said, he is already. But I want you to know that and to accept that. He says to all who receive him, he gives the right to become children of God. He gives the right. So come, stop living for death, stop being enslaved, stop offering up all of your abilities to death and idols. Give your life to Christ who reigns on the throne, lest you perish in the way. There always comes with it. If you reject Him, He will reject you, and it will be known, and you will not escape it, because He will bring His judgment, just like He brought the judgment on the enemies in the Old Testament. He's warning us, take the warning seriously. Don't look away from it. Ponder it. Ask Him to help you understand these things properly, that they matter, even to us. So many thousands of years later, they still matter to us because God is the one speaking to us when we read here. It's when we read the text, God's speaking to us. Brothers and sisters, friends, know Christ. Enjoy him because he means grace for you. He wants to be gracious. He's shown that, that he's gracious. He's merciful. Has he removed the world from before us? No, so there's time for grace, so take hold in it. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for these stories of old. They're real, they actually happened. But Lord, they're told to us by the prophets so we might look for something greater than those temporal salvations. that we would look to a greater salvation that would reward us something longer than two generations worth of earthly rest. Father, you sent your son who swallowed up death on our behalf, that we would have rest for eternity. Not because we earned it, but because he accomplished your will. Lord, may we trust in Christ today. May we honor him while it is still today. May we encourage one another to love and good works while it's still today. Enter that rest that Christ has won on his behalf. And one day we know he will come back and he will swallow up all of his enemies with the very sword that comes from his own mouth. Lord, grant repentance and faith today that those who are hearing the word of God may know that you are God and there is no other. For those of us who profess Christ, may we depart from iniquity. May we follow him and live holy as he is holy because he has declared us holy. So may we live in it. And as it's been already talked about much throughout the day, Lord, we thank you that many are going into church buildings today. But I pray, Lord, humbly, would you awaken them from death to life? Would it not be ritualistic actions that move them, Lord? Would it be Christ who wakes them up from the dead? And they would become part of the unified body of Christ and that they would serve Christ because he is worthy of it. Father, you are worthy. Lord Jesus, you are worthy. Holy Spirit, you are worthy. Forgive us our sins, our trespasses, our evil, our wickedness, our forgetfulness. Lord, cover it with the blood of Christ. May we be washed anew. May we be cleansed in white as snow. May Christ be honored today and forevermore. Amen. Everybody back from the nursery, too, as well? Man, that's wonderful. Well, good. Well, that makes our transition easy.