Lesson 12: Ehud the Assassin Judge

Dear reader, I want you to picture a scenario in your head. A Christian man assassinates the President of the United States over abortion with a hidden 3d printed plastic gun he smuggles into a private meeting with the head of state with. Escapes due to negligence and ineptitude of the secret service, and then starts an insurrection in California calling all true Californians to break free the shackles of their Imperial overlords. How many modern christians, or any denomination or church, would condemn the man and the movement with a vehemence that should be reserved for witchcraft and child sacrifice? Yet this is the best way to describe the second judge recorded in the book of Judges.

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 eighteen years.

Then 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.

And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit[fn] 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[fn] and closed the doors of 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 Seirah.

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.

Judges 3:12-30

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

Ehud, an interesting man we hear one story about, and the fact that he was left handed. Still, we can glean from the details from the narrative. He assassinated a world leader in the name of God and his nation. God not only approved of his actions, but blessed him and upheld him in battle.

The Judge then rallies Israel and destroys a force of 10,000 men breaking Moab’s hold over his nation and people by the Almighty’s Will. The Devil took a massive loss that day, and that loss had a very tangible real world military and political feel. The modern Christian finds this concept an anathema. A blight on Christian character that any spiritual war would also have a physical element between flesh and blood humans fighting on the Lord’s decree. The only exception to this is World War Two and whenever the establishment of the day can convince people of a “just war.” A nebulous term that changes on a generational basis with the utmost twisting of the word “just” till all the term means is what a cabal of Devil worshipers want it to mean.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

People who want to cherry pick on war, whether we look to pacifist groups or the modern hypocrites of the churchian world, love to misuse this verse to mean our only fight is spiritual in nature. Essentially, when Paul says our fight is not with flesh and blood but with the Principalities, watchers turned dark gods, of this world they take it to mean all of our battles will be won with prayer.

Did God call Ehud to sit in a room all day and pray? Not to undermine those who are called to such lives, their prayers are conduits and amplifiers of God’s power and shouldn’t be underestimated in their importance, but the God of Heaven's Armies makes things clear. Our fight is with our spiritual enemy behind the physical fighting. As in when we take up physical arms against our physical enemies our true fight is against the spiritual being behind the armies, criminals, and cultic freaks we face. This is an important distinction.

Ehud was the second of a long line of judges fighting a myriad of different nations and peoples conquering and oppressing Israel. In some cases attempting to annihilate them such as in Gideon’s story. Yet they were fighting the same enemy, just different faces of him. Notice that in this time frame the enemies of Israel aren’t always chosen by God, but usually just allowed to have victory over Israel. Their punishment is the loss of protection from the Almighty, and the Devil and his cronies do the rest. There will be times when God calls up leaders who then become his instrument of will from foreign nations like Nebechunezer and Cyrus whose empires tend to be co opted by the principalities, and then punished in return.

The point I’m making is there are very few times in the Bible that spiritual warfare didn’t spill into the physical realm or even start there. Our enemies are perfectly willing and able to use physical force against us so we must be willing to do the same. The same force pushes them to act against us, and they will come at us whether God protects us or not. The Almighty’s protection and upholding hands in war is what gives us the edge over the physical and spiritual forces of darkness arrayed against us.

Some will point to the Martyrs of the early church, and claim that this is the only strategy God employs against his enemies on earth now that Christ has come and his goal is to save the faithful. This is silly for a few reasons. The first is that God has been orchestrating the reclamation of the nations, people, and the Earth itself ever since he declared the first prophecy against the Serpent in the Garden. He was trying to save the nations before even when he was destroying physical armies, and peoples with his physical servants on Earth. Nothing has changed with the Almighty’s goals, only the power in the spiritual realms that has shifted thanks to the cross. Now even the mention of Jesus Christ's name makes the demon shudder.

The second point is Martyrdom was the correct strategy for the time. Remember, the Romans were a different crowd than we face today. What worked to proselytize them into the faith will not work on the Hun or the Mongol or the Devil worshiping freaks in our governments. A Roman is impressed by your dedication to your God when you’re burned at the stake singing his praises. The Mongol laughs and says thanks for not fighting back.

I say this to point out God was raising up the Romans, a naturally tolerant people who generally let you run your own government and religions as long as you paid them taxes, to spread Christianity to the four corners of the Earth. The plan involved converting them. This wasn’t possible with Islamic nations who came later. 

When the Northern barbarians such as the Vandals and Vikings conquered Christian land they soon were impressed by God’s power and people changing their ways and converting. The resulting nations would be more powerful, larger, accomplish more, create better art, and become overall more civilized than the pagan Norse kingdoms. Most people don’t know that the Christian Swedish Empire accomplished far more than all the Viking raiders combined, and Normans, though not the most moral, were far more dangerous than their pagan ancestors. The most famous Viking, often called the last of the Vikings, was a Christian mercenary who fought Muslims for the majority of his younger years before marrying a Christian Russian princess and returning home to reclaim his throne under a Christian monarchy. 

All those nations mentioned who responded to the martyrs were people prone to converting to God, and the Kingdom of Heaven when exposed to the truth. If we look at the same time period with another group of barbarians we can see not every group is as willing to follow Christ, and when they win military victories Christianity diminishes rather than grows.

The modern churchians have a tendency to cherry pick history to suit their feminized philosophy. For example, they would point to Rome’s persecution of Christians making Christianity stronger within the Empire as proof that we should never fight those we wish to convert. They then ignore a certain chapter of history in the Levant and the Middle East.

Every single Islamic nation that is outside of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula, from Egypt to North Africa to Turkey, all used to be Christian nations. Now there isn’t even a memory of these Christian kingdoms outside of written reports in the West. If Islam had succeeded in conquering Europe, which was very much their purpose unlike Germany in World War Two, there would be no memory of Christendom at all. Christianity would’ve survived somewhere else, but greatly diminished.

The point is that Islam and Buddhism have been witness to thousands of years of Christian martyrs and the various peoples under these religions' grasp have not changed. There are individual and occasion group converts, but the territory and the nations, and thus the majority of the people, still reject God. Worse, they systematically destroy Christian enclaves and annihilate even the memory of their existence. Dying as a Martyr to a Muslim invasion is pointless. Doing so just means there is one less sword to fight them, and that is the reality of the world.

Some of the Devil’s servants must be fought head on, others must be reasoned with, still others must be driven from our midst because of their corrupting influence, and others should be sent brave martyrs to convince them of their folly. But don’t delude yourself. There are thousands of martyrs who died for nothing. Their sacrifices have left nothing behind, and like the numerous prophets who were slaughtered in the Bible for announcing God’s will and judgment nobody listened. I do not downplay the prophets or brave men dying for Christ. In fact many of these sacrifices were necessary to have these people groups condemned by their own actions.

If people have no chance to reject Christ then they cannot be destroyed for not choosing to follow him. But if they kill all his messengers, servants, and prophets sent to them and stubbornly follow their dark gods then only one answer is available. Prove to them their gods are inferior to the Almighty God of Heaven's Armies. Whether or not that happens on the day of the Lord, or by his servants on Earth is besides the point. Eventually, every knee will bow.

I will leave you with this verse on seasons because there is a season and a tactic for every enemy and would be converted to the Kingdom Of Heaven. Best you find those seasons because choosing the wrong one could lead to largely pointless death that will be avenged one day, but still a casualty in a spiritual war of gods and the Almighty. And don’t forget to sharpen your left handed knives. There are metaphorical and physical fat men to stab when things fall apart after all. Ehud would be proud.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

 be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Question 1: Have you ever found it strange how during time periods, such as after the 9/11 attacks in New York, that even some of the most arduous “peacemongers” will jump on the war bandwagon, yet when it comes to defeating evil in their own nations, like with the Epstien affair, will be the first to shut down all talk of retribution on the wicked?

Question 2: Can you think of another tribe, nation, ideology, or religion that couldn’t be reasoned with, and only acted toward the destruction of Christianity and the Kingdom of Heaven? How about the opposite maybe even some who should’ve been reasoned with missionaries instead of crusaded against in history?

Question 3: What season do you feel your people are in? Is this season changing or do you feel it will remain the same for a time?

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