Ehud, Eglon, and God’s Preparatory Work in Us for His Glory

Last week, our entire church started studying through Judges.  As I picked up my boys from Gospel Groups, I was approached with information concerning Obadiah’s comments during large group discussion.

In order to tell Amanda accurate information, I texted for clarification.

Note to self: be careful teaching your sons the story of Ehud in Judges 3. It will come back to haunt you on a Sunday morning during a large group gathering. 😬

I asked Obadiah where he had heard that, and he said, “You told us, remember?”

Such a great laugh and good memories.

Lefty vs. Hefty

Many people will be shocked to hear of the story in Judges 3:12-30 concerning Ehud and Eglon.  The summary is this: God’s people sinned, God allowed Eglon to defeat the people and bring suffering, the people offered supplication to God for release, and God brought salvation through a left-handed man named Ehud.

What is unique about this passage is that it mentions repeatedly that Ehud was left-handed and thereby placed his sword concealed on his right thigh.

When he approaches the king, the guards would have checked his left side, but this shorter sword on his right thigh would have passed through security undetected.

Eglon is such a large man who when Ehud thrusts the sword into his belly, it goes all the way in, and Ehud decides not to try to retrieve it from the inner “bowels” of Ehud.  Speaking of bowels, the impact did cause Eglon to release the entirety of content within his mass intestines.

Ehud fled.  Eglon’s servants were embarrassed to interrupt him in his bathroom, especially due to the potent smell coming from within.  Eventually, they checked on him, found him dead, and by this time, Ehud and rallied the troops and brought deliverance from the people.

If you have ever wanted to get young boys excited about reading the Bible, you are welcome.

God Is Working on You

While the peculiarity of this story keeps it concealed from mass consumption, I want to show one key truth from it to encourage you today:

God is working on you before you ever worked for him.

God raised Ehud as a lefty in a tribe of lefty people.  If you are a lefty, you know that sometimes there are unique challenges due to this particular dominant hand in a culture that favors the righties.  And yet, within the womb, God made Ehud a lefty.  I wonder if Ehud ever wondered why.

Yet years later, God uses something which seems insignificant and does something significant with it.

God is able to use that which seems insignificant and do something significant with it.

  • He forms us in our mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13).
  • We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14).
  • He appoints us to positions of Kingdom work even before we are born (Jer. 1:5).
  • He sharpens and polishes us as a secret arrow (Is. 49:2).
  • We are his workmanship that he worked on so that we can do good works (Eph. 2:10).

God has been doing countless hours of preparatory work in you for his glory.

I pray that today you will see how God has been working on you long before you ever dreamed of working for him.

The things that make you who you are can be used mightily by the one who put them there.