Derek Thomas

He was a warrior.

The first thing that we need to think about here is that this is war.

God's people are trying to inherit the land that God had promised to them.

And so far, that's not going well, as you can expect.

And it was always going to be.

How would God's people ever conquer the land of Canaan without opposition, without war, without bloodshed?

And there's 80 years of peace that follows in the wake of this event.

And God uses, well, he uses messy business to bring about peace.

That's often the case, isn't it?

Ehud is more than a judge.

He's God's man for this period of history.

He's a judge, he's a ruler, but he's also, well, he's also a military chief.

Some commentators try to allegorize the passage, and they talk about the sword of the spirit plunging into the belly of the wicked and so on.

And others try to moralize it.

Don't be like Ehud.

Well, I think that misses the point.

In verse 15, we read that the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a Deliverer.

Ehud is a Deliverer.

Let's use a different word.

He's their Savior.