Judges, Chapter 3 - Divine Strategy | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friend, welcome back to Judges chapter 3 brought to you by the land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. Okay, so chapter 2 with Jeremy beautifully did ended with a warning. The angel of Hashem came to the people and said plainly, "You have not listened. You've made covenant with the nations you were supposed to uproot and you worshipped their idols and because of that, those nations will not be removed, at least not for now. They will become traps. They will be thorns in your eyes and their gods will be a snare to you." And now chapter 3 shows us exactly what that looks like in practice. Right? Verse 1. And these are the nations that Hashem left to test Israel by them. To test them. Right? It would be easy to read this as a punishment, as abandonment, but that's not what it says. It says to test. And to test is not the same as a verdict. A test means that the story isn't over. The potential is still there. Hashem isn't walking away, he's pressing in. Perhaps he's trying to bring something out from within us. You know, that framing as a test really changes everything. I mean, if this is a punishment, then the nations are just a consequence and something that we have to endure. But if it's a test, every moment of pressure becomes a question. Who are you going to be? What do you actually believe? Do you remember who brought you here? Do you know who you can be right now? A test brings out at least the potential of who we can be in the world. That's right. And this test is specifically for the generation that inherited the land without having to fight for it. Because when you personally were there for the miracle, you remember. It's in your body. It's like part of your epigenetic code, right? But your children, they only heard the story. And the story, no matter how powerful, is not the same as the experience. So Hashem leaves the nations there, not to punish, but to give the next generation their own encounter with him. I mean, how much does this speak to us right now in our times? Right? To give every generation their own encounter, their own reason to know personally, deeply, that they need God. And I think that's one of the most urgent questions for every generation. Am I living off inherited faith or have I made it my own? Right? We inherited something extraordinary, but inheritance alone has never been enough. So what does Israel do with this moment of testing? Verse 7. And the children of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Hashem. And they forgot Hashem their God. Again, they forgot. Like we said before, the Torah doesn't say they rebelled, it says they forgot. And it's just it's so much more painful than rebellion because just forgetting happens quietly. It's It happens in the gaps there, you know? You get comfortable, you get busy, and then one day you look up and you realize, "I haven't really spoken to Hashem in months. Not because I chose to leave, I just drifted." You know, that's so right, Ari. And the word that's used is shakhakh. It's like forgot. And that's such a relatable word. It's because the drift away doesn't ever happen like a dramatic decision, it's just a thousand of small moments of distractions. Another beep on your phone, another call. It's like the comfort of this world, it's just putting things first that shouldn't be first until one day the distance is so large, you don't even know how to find your way back. That's right. You know, and then what happens? We see what happens here. Hashem delivers them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim. Double wickedness, right? Not just an enemy, the name itself is a statement about what maximum moral darkness looks like. And they serve him for 8 years until finally verse 9 and the children of Israel cried out to Hashem. And the children of Israel cried out to Hashem. And Hashem raises up Othniel ben Kenaz, Caleb's nephew. And Othniel is proven. He's pedigreed. He's already a hero from chapter 1, even from the book of Joshua. In every way, Othniel is the ideal candidate. Right? Verse 10. And the spirit of Hashem was upon him. And he judged Israel. He went to war. He achieved victory. 40 years of peace. It feels clean, you know, maybe even too clean. You know, it's is clean and I think that that's intentional. Othniel as the first judge, he's the template, the control of the experiment. I mean, he was the first judge and he's the model. He set things right spiritually before going to battle physically. 40 years of peace. That's what it looks like when everything works perfectly. Every other judge in the book is going to be measured against Othniel and that's why it ended so clean. Right? And And then Othniel dies. Verse 12. And the children of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Hashem. Again. One word carrying the entire weight of the cycle. 40 years of peace, a full generation of breathing room and they drifted again. This time the enemy is Eglon, king of Moab, who takes the who takes care to tell us, you know, we find out he's a very fat man, like morbidly obese. And you know, nothing in the Torah is accidental. That detail is about to become deeply important and soon we'll see why. Anyways, the deliverer and the deliverer Hashem raises up is nothing like Othniel. Verse 15. Ehud ben Gera ben a Yamini. Ish itter yad yemina. Ehud ben Gera of the tribe of Benjamin, a man restricted in his right hand. I guess that's one word to say itter. He's left-handed. In the ancient world, that was seen as a defect. The word itter literally means bound, restricted. Here is a man the world would have passed over. But Hashem says, "Him. That guy over there with a crippled hand? Not just a lefty, a crippled hand? That's my guy." And And by the way, the tribe Ehud comes from, just worth noting, Benjamin literally means son of the right hand. Hashem sends a lefty, a left-handed man from the tribe of the right hand. Anyways, it's just it's it's hard to miss the message. "I don't work through human convention." I think that's what Hashem is telling us here. I don't I don't need your best hand. I work through the hand you least expect. So Ehud fashions a sword, a double-edged 18-in long sword, short enough to conceal, and he straps it to his right thigh where only a left-handed man would reach, so no guard is going to check there. And he goes to deliver tribute to King Eglon. We're seeing another example of the humiliation of a conquered people having to bring gifts to their oppressor. And he presents it and he tells King Eglon that he has a secret message for him. Right? So Eglon sends the other men away and in verse 20, Ehud proclaims to the king, dvar Hashem le'elokha. "I have a message from God for you." And Eglon, this enormous king, rises. Why does he rise? So the sages notice, rising when you hear the name of God is instinctive reverence. Even this pagan oppressor, in his marrow, in the marrow of his bones, felt the weight of those words, "I have a message from God for you." And he stood. And in that moment, Ehud draws the sword with his left hand and drives it into the king's abdomen with such force that the entire blade, even the handle, disappears into his body. I'm still I hear my seventh grade rabbi I see him re-enacting this. You know? And so it it envelops the sword. Ehud walks out, locks the doors, leaves. Eglon's servants arrive. The door is locked and a horrible stench is emanating from the king's quarters. And they think that the king must be relieving himself. Better Better wait. And so they wait and they wait. And then they become embarrassed waiting until they finally open the door and their king is dead on the floor and it had to be a disgusting sight. And those Those moments of awkward hesitation were precisely long enough for Ehud to escape, rally Israel, seize the fords of the Jordan, and lead his people to victory. Now, just think about that. The greatest empire oppressing Israel is undone not just from a left-handed crippled man's dagger, but by guards too embarrassed to check on their king. The most powerful man in the region was defeated, at least in part, by social awkwardness. That's what the Torah is showing us yet again, that the deliverance of Israel is never ultimately about human military genius. Hashem orchestrates everything, even the embarrassment of a few guards in the hallway. You know, Ari, I just want to take a second and I want to go back to that moment that you spoke about, Eglon rising when he hears the name of God. Because the sages ask, "Did that single act, that one instinctive gesture of reverence before the name of God from an enemy king, go unnoticed by heaven?" And the answer is absolutely not. The Midrash teaches that as a reward for rising before the divine name, Eglon merited that King David himself, the Mashiach, the greatest king Israel would ever know, would descend from his lineage through Ruth the Moabite, Eglon's own granddaughter. And so once you hear that, you can't read the story in the same way. It's like from the man Ehud just killed, Israel's oppressor, would emerge the lineage of the Messiah himself. Just one instinctive moment turning toward heaven. And it was enough to weave him permanently into the story of Israel's redemption. I mean, it's just It's in In some ways it's inspiring. It really is. I mean, I don't know if she was his granddaughter. I think she was his descendant. It was a few generations down. But anyways, now regardless, what a lesson. You know, not only for us, but even for our enemies. No moment of sincere turning to Hashem in honor. No moment like that is ever wasted, ever. Not even from an enemy. Not even from someone whose life was otherwise pointed entirely in the wrong direction. One genuine moment and it echoes through all of history into the line of King David. Which means if Eglon's single act counted for that much, what does your turning to Hashem count for, Jeremy? What does mine? One sincere moment of reaching towards Hashem set in motion that our eyes cannot see. You know, 80 years of peace follow. And then one verse, almost a footnote, closes the chapter. I don't know if you noticed. Verse 31. Vayakhar Shamgar ben Anat. And after him was Shamgar ben Anat who struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad. Right? Just one verse. No backstory, no biography. 600 Philistines, an ox goad, right? A a sharpened stick for driving cattle. You know, I personally interpret that as Shamgar saying, "Listen, I had what I had. I didn't wait for the right weapon or the right moment. I just picked up what was in my hand and I went." And that's a lesson. Like how many of us are waiting for the exact right conditions, the right resources, the right platform. Shamgar had a farming tool. And a calling. And that was enough for him to take action. Yeah, totally. I I think about uh Shimshon with the jawbone of the donkey. You know, that's what it is. But anyways, looking back at this chapter, three judges, right? Three very different men. Othniel, the ideal. Ehud, the unexpected, the Shamgar, um the improviser. Right? He used the left hand when the world expects the right. He used the the goad when you're waiting for a sword. He uses the forgetting itself, the fall of the cry of the reckoning, to bring you back to where you should have never left. And and that's what I keep coming back to. The cycle is painful, but embedded inside it is something that we can never let ourselves forget. Even today, especially today. Every single time Israel cried out, Hashem answered. Not once did he say, "You've done this too many times." Not once did he say, "I've moved on." Every cry was met with a deliverer, with a rescue. The cycle isn't a story of human failure. It's a story of divine faithfulness uh and and it's meeting into human weakness. Again and again and again. And that's what I want to carry out of this chapter, not the embarrassment of the fall, but the comforting beauty of the response. That no matter how far the drift goes, the moment you turn back and cry out, he's there. You know, that's not a small thing. That's that's everything. Now, friends, if today's portion spoke to you, I want you to know there's a place to take it that much further. The heart of our community is the fellowship. Thousands of people from 35 countries gather live every Sunday from Judea. And we are we learn Torah together. We share our hearts. We pray for one another and with one another every single week. I can't I can't sing its praises enough. This is where our community truly becomes a family. And and for $25 a month, you're not just a subscriber, you're coming home to something real. And that is really a blessing for us. It sustains us out here in our mission. So you're part of that, too. So come find where you belong at the landofisrael.com. Anyways, khazak u'barukh my friends. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for Judges chapter four.