10. The Person of Ehud, the Second Judge

The Person of Ehud, the Second Judge

"But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab. But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh." (Judges 3:15-16)

It is sometimes dangerous to apply spiritually the meaning of names, as sometimes different expositors and translators give different meanings to names, but one that has been suggested in connection with Ehud is ’confessor’. Confession in the New Testament means ’a person with an inward conviction’, it is not simply saying we give our mental ascent to a thing, saying, ’I agree with it’ without ever giving any serious thought to the matter, whatever it might be. Ehud was a confessor, he was a man with an inward conviction, and we have not the slightest doubt that when the Lord raised this man up, he did not just say ’I am going to give you immense power to deal with this enemy’, but instead God worked in Ehud’s heart and conscience and produced in him a conviction that he was going to lead the people of God, and that it was a just and righteous cause, so that he was not only leading the people because of the position that God gave to him, but he was doing it because he believed in it.

What a wonderful thing this is when we come to the New Testament. Luke wrote concerning "those things which are most surely believed among us" (Luke 1:1). This is the evidence of an inward conviction. It is not that we have read the matter up well and know all it’s terms, but there is an inward conviction of conscience and heart that tells us these things are true and that they are worth fighting for and holding on to. We are inwardly convicted that these things are right. Paul wrote to Timothy reminding him of the things he was fully persuaded of (2 Timothy 3:14), the things that he really knew and was persuaded were true. This is a wonderful position to be in. The battle is lost if we feel in our minds that the things we are fighting for are not worth it, if we have no conviction, and consequently find it easy to give up. But people with inward convictions about certain matters will hold onto these things and will fight for them and will maintain them. This is something that we do need in a very, very real way. For example, has the way we meet together as believers just happened by accident? Is it casual, is it the result of our leaders adopting this position and we just falling into their way of gathering together? Is this how we view our coming together in the way we do? If it is, sooner or later we will give it up, but if we are inwardly convicted and persuaded that what we do, however weak and feeble that it might be, is right according to the word of God, then we are going to hold onto it at all costs, and we are not going to allow anyone to steal it from us, or persuade us to give it up; we are convicted inwardly that it is right. This matter of confession can be examined in 1 Timothy 6:1-21, where Paul exhorts Timothy to confess a good confession, but which was first of all demonstrated perfectly in the Lord Jesus Himself "who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession" (v.13). What an exhibition of dignity the Lord Jesus gave in the presence of His enemies, humble subject Man that He was, and what grace and dignified demeanour He expressed. This is the kind of thing that Paul desired for Timothy, he said, ’You follow that example, you be like the Lord’, and of course, no-one could say about the Lord that He was not convinced that what He was doing was right. He knew that He was doing the will of God, and nothing would turn Him aside. ’Now’, says Paul to Timothy, ’You have that kind of conviction, and you have that kind of life, you witness a good confession too’. This is the first thing about Ehud; he was a man of conviction.

Secondly, he was a Benjamite. This represents several things. Firstly it represented a pure line of descent, he was a son of Jacob, he was not of the line of Lot, Moab or Ammon, he was connected with the line of faith and the line of God’s purpose. He could trace his descent backwards right to Benjamin, the son of Jacob, a member of that favoured family. This is a very wonderful thing to be able to do and it was a great source of power to him.

There are two things to be said about the name Benjamin. When he was born, his mother, as she died, gave him his name ’Ben-oni’, that is, ’son of my sorrow’, but Jacob changed his name to ’Ben-jamin’, ’son of my right hand’ (Genesis 35:18). In Psalms 68:1-35 we find that the Spirit of the Lord refers to Benjamin as "little Benjamin" (v.27), this was because he was the smallest tribe. It is important to keep these two names in mind, ’Son of my right hand’, a place of power, and "little Benjamin", the place of weakness. How can these two opposites be brought together, a place of power and a place of weakness? They are absolutely essential for any servant of the Lord who wants to be faithful in his testimony, he needs a sense of his own weakness, and a sense of the power of God that can operate in that weakness. This can be illustrated in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel. Samuel the prophet said to him "When thou wast little in thine own sight....." (1 Samuel 15:17) in referring to the time when Saul, in this state of mind, did valiant things for the Lord. He was a mighty warrior, but then he got proud and disobeyed God and lost his strength and courage. When he was little he experienced the power of God operating through him.

Another Benjamite was the New Testament Saul, and these two things are combined. He said he was "less than the least of all saints" (Ephesians 3:8) he was always prepared to take a low place, he was able to say, "when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). There were mighty acts of the Spirit done through this man in his humility, through his lowliness of mind, and in his willingness to take that low place. How humble the apostle was, how like his Master, how entirely without the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees, who displayed the characteristics of the Moabites. He was truly ’a little Benjamite’, he was one who exhibited the features that are so pleasing to the Lord, "Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6), and this principle is found all through the Bible. It was found in Ehud in the place that he took. The low place of humility and the sense of one’s own weakness and inability is the real secret of the Spirit of the Lord operating for God’s glory. So Ehud was a real Benjamite, one who knew something about being weak and unable, and yet also, as we shall see, he experienced something of the power of the Lord.