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12And 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. 13He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms. 14And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
15Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 16And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. 17And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. 18And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. 19But 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. 20And 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. 21And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. 22And 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. 23Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them.
24When 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." 25And 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.
26Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27When 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. 28And 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. 29And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. 30So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
What does this text say about God? His name is not even mentioned in the main narrative. Ehud's assassination tale involves deceit and betrayal, but it was still the Lord who worked through it all. The large number of elements that had to come together for Ehud suggests more than a lucky day for him. There is a divine director behind the scenes.
As we look back over our own lives, Ehud's story leads us to consider whether those seeming chance encounters, unexpected opportunities, and timely coincidences or turn of events we have experienced may not have a divine hand at work in them. Life with its ups and downs is messy, and it is often difficult, if not impossible to interpret all that happens, but time and hindsight sometimes allow us to look back and trace a divine plan at work, sometimes faintly and sometimes quite clearly.
Sometime ago a friend of mine informed me that the apartment building we used to live in had burned down only a year after we had moved, and that the man living next to what used to be our unit had died in the fire. The man's apartment was formerly occupied by a single woman for whom we had prayed for years, who had moved away some time after our departure. I could see the Lord's hand in this. Not only did he deliver us from disaster, but he may have spared the life of our neighbor in answer to our prayers. And even if she is still unsaved, perhaps she was not to die at this time because God has other plans for her in the future, plans that have to do with salvation.
The story of Ehud tells us about the "left-handed" ways of God to deliver. God's ways are not our ways, and he keeps coming up with unexpected, strange, and often hidden means by which he works in our lives. It should make us cautious about being overly confident that we know exactly when, where, and how God will act in a given context. By the same token, the story also teaches us that whether we can or cannot discern his handwriting in the trenches of everyday life, we are to remember that he is always at work—for our good. "He will not allow your foot to be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:3-4).
Even when we sin and act like Canaanites or allow ourselves to be squeezed into the mold of the world, we have this assurance: God remains sensitive to the groaning of his people and will demonstrate his power and grace in freeing us when we own our bankruptcy and foolishness. God is always resourceful, and we have every reason to remain expectant. The last act in the drama, however, will exceed everyone's expectation, for Christ will reveal God's glory and show us the true definition of joy and deliverance. Perhaps on that day we will have answers to the many questions about the meaning or significance of this and that event in our lives here on earth. I can assure you, though, that our times, good or bad, or a little bit of both, do always have purpose in Christ, even if we are not equipped to make sense of the messiness of life in the human plane. We must walk by faith and not by sight.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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