Study Notes
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Overview:

• List of nations left to “prove” Israel
• The testing of Israel
• Israelites coexisting & serving other gods
• Israelites crying out & God raising up a judge
• Years of rest
• Israelites doing evil, again
  • Israelites crying out, again
  • God raising up a judge, again
• A judge makes a homemade dagger & takes a King out
• A slewing of Moabites
• Years of rest
• Then we see the name of another judge & I am assuming he was raised up because, you guessed it, the Israelites fell again. (Insert heavy sigh 🤤)

Verse 1

• “These are the nations which the Lord left to prove…”
• prove = nasah: to test; by implication to attempt.
  • KJV usage: prove, tempt, assay, adventure, try
• test = to prove by trial
• This type of testing was done for someone to expose what they were really like through a hardship or a trial. God does not test us as a strict God who is trying to just purposely send us in to evil situations, but rather for us to come to a type of enlightenment on who we are IN HIM. God does not need anything proven to Him, it is us who needs the realization of our faith in Him.

Verse 2

This verse is a call for training. “Only that the sons of Israel might be taught war…” We have to learn and train to fight the enemy. The enemy sure enough learns and strategizes about us, it’s time we learn to fight. How to fight, when to fight, protocols for warfare, weapons we have available. The list could go on and on.

The enemy is roaming and lurking seeking to devour any way he can — we need to be trained and mantled for war!

Verse 3

The five Lords of Philistines:
1. Gaza
2. Ekron
3. Ashdod
4. Askelon
5. Gath

Verse 4

We see that the Lord had commanded, through Moses, the Fathers to obey and follow the commandments. Was this a ball dropped from prior generations? The way the Fathers were commanded by Moses, should not these same Fathers then command their sons? Yes, to both. Nevertheless, Israel was going to be tested to see if they would obey the laws.

The following verse we will find out if they did or did not pass the test.

Verse 5 – 7

They did not… They failed.
The Israelites lived among them. They yoked their daughters to these nations, served their gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, forgot God, served Baal & Asheroth. Doing all these things was 100% the direct opposite of what God commanded. They were in full blown rebellion!! REBELLION IS WITCHCRAFT!!

The Israelites were laying among the trash they were supposed to have taken out.

Verse 8

The anger of the Lord burns, again, towards the Israelites. RIGHTEOUS ANGER! He sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: if they were going to act like pagans then God was going to treat them like pagans.

If you step on to the trading ground of the enemy, if you bow down to the gods of this world -you have now given all legal rights away to the fallen one- you better be prepared for the court room of Heaven to deliver a just order on your actions.

The Lord does not take kindly to being mocked. The Israelites knew better, they chose to turn from the light in to the darkness, they once again will reap the bounty of the seeds they sowed in rotten soil.

KJV: Therefore the anger (‘aph: nose/nostril {rapid breathing in passion}) of the Lord was hot (charah: to glow to blaze) against Israel.

Verse 9 – 11

Cried = zaaq: to shriek, announce or convene publicly, call, cry, cause to be proclaimed
This verse doesn’t state that they were alone or together, but with the definition of zaaq being: convene publicly, maybe they did, maybe they met and all hit their knees together in hope the Lord would hear the cry of many. We know God did hear them, probably sitting patiently in Heaven awaiting a call as any father and mother would do, to answer them by raising up a deliverer. Othneil, son of Kenaz, the 1st judge. After 8 years of bondage in Mesopotamia, and the cry of the Israelites, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othneil, and he went to war! The Lord delivered the King of Mesopotamia into his hands, and the Israelites lived in peace and rest for 40 years. Then Othneil died resulting in the cycle of rebellion to once again commence. 😭

(The spirit of the Lord came up 15 men over a period of 1,500 years prior to the Day of Pentecost.)

Verse 12 – 14

One of the most popular phrases in Judges: “Now the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord…” This is said 2 times in verse 12. How much evil were they doing that the Lord felt it was needed to be mentioned again?? 😩 We then see God, again, is handing them over to the enemy because once you decide to play with fire it will consume you. This is how the legal court of Heaven works. God sits on a throne and the foundation is righteousness and judgement. Once you step over the line in to the enemies land, Satan will stand before the courts and argue his jurisdiction: “give me what is mine.” It’s a foolish game the Israelites are playing. They in turn serve Eglon for 18 years.

Verse 15 – 20

They cried out again and the Lord raised up a deliverer. Ehud, son of Gera, a Benjamite: the 2nd judge. He makes him a sword (dagger) about 18″ long, would have been from elbow to knuckles. He attached it to his right hip. Majority of men were right handing and pulled their sword from the left hip, so guards were custom to check that side alone, making it easier for Ehud to pull off his mission.

• Left handed was a feature many in the Benjamin tribe had.
• Ehud means unity or united.
• Benjamin means son of the right hand.

Verse 21 – 23

Ehud delivered the people from Eglon by thrusting his blade in to his belly.

I think its something to note that our belly is the center our being, it’s like God was deliberately puncturing the flesh and the spirit in operation in Eglon. John chapter 7 says “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” The Lord, through Ehud, rid the nations of all the polluted water that was flowing from Eglon.

The hilt (handle) also went in after the blade and the fat covered the blade and all the dirt (parshedon: the crotch/anus or dirt) came out. And then Ehud escapes by the roof.

Verse 27 – 30

He makes it back home and blew the trumpet like a call to arms, and lead the Israelites, with him on the front lines, to war to pursue the enemy. And Moab was subdued, and they had rest and peace for 80 years.

Verse 31

We don’t read about Ehud dying. We don’t read “Israel did evil the sight of the Lord.” We don’t read about them forgetting the Lord. We don’t read about them being handing over to the enemy. We don’t read about them crying out to the Lord. But we know it happened, because after Ehud was Shamgar, son Anath, the 3rd judge who slew 600 Philistine men with an oxgoad and delivered Israel. It’s like the Lord was saying: “Can we skip to the good part.”