Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - God and the Very Fat Man | Historical Books | Judges 3:12-31

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

How are we like the Israelites during the time of Ehud? Have you accurately assessed your sins? Do you know your need for a savior? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Judges 3:12-31 reminds us of our desperate need for Jesus. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Judges 3:12-31

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Sometimes when I'm feeling a little bit facetious, I'll text someone in my community of faith with a message that goes something like this. Hey, hope you're having a good day. I just want to pass on some encouragement from Scripture, Judges 3 20 through 23. Have a good one. Now, I know that that text will generate one of two responses that reveal whether or not the person actually read those verses. in Judges 3. If the person responds with something like, hey, thanks so much, so encouraging, I know that they didn't actually read it, caught in the act. But the truth is that most people

do look at those verses, and I know that they did because they'll respond with something more like this. What on earth? This is crazy. I had no idea that this kind of stuff was in the Bible. And they respond that way because the passage that they read in Judges 3 seems like it was taken from a gruesome, dark comedy on Netflix, or some kind of Deadpool-esque scene from the ancient world. It's not the picture we expect to get from Scripture. And that's kind of the point of my text. The point isn't to be mean or try to trick anyone or make them feel bad. It's meant to help us see how surprising the Bible can be if we engage with the parts that usually don't get much press. Because this scene that we're going to explore today from Judges 3 really is surprising to most

modern readers today. It probably won't and probably shouldn't show up in a vacation Bible school skit at church or on some children's worship CD. But it should get the attention of those of us who want to see how the Bible honestly engages with real history, with real life. Because if we read Judges Three carefully, we'll see how the surprise of this passage actually helps us see reality and live in it more faithfully. As we get ready to approach God's word together, let's go ahead and pause and ask for His grace to move through our time.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath today, and thank you for the gift of your word. We bring before you every part of our lives, our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and excitement, our calendars and our contingencies. God, all of it comes before you. Meet us here. Jesus, help us abide in,

you as we engage with your truth. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to graciously move in and through this time in judges. As we read these words of yours, let these words read us and restore us as your people in Jesus' name. Amen. So earlier I mentioned that this scene in Judges III is a little bit like a dark comedy. And that's not just a throwaway comment. Some of the most sophisticated biblical scholarship on this passage describes how the scene before us really does function with this strange sense of morbid humor to make a point. It would probably make an ancient Israelite laugh just a little bit, but then it would make that same Israelite think even more. So let's take a look at this passage and see why that's the case. Verse 12 sets up the context for us and it indicates that the Israelites,

the people of God, are back to their old ways of committing evil in the eyes of the Lord. Their mission to love him, to love their neighbor, has tanked yet again. And so God gives them over to a Moabite king named Eglon. After 18 years of subjugation under Eglon, God provides a deliverer from the tribe of Benjamin named Ehud. So we're going to pick up in verse 15. We're going to see how Ehud delivered the customary payment of tribute to Eglon, along with some other Israelites.

But then we get a hint in verse 16 that something is coming, something that is going to be for mature audiences only. We read this in verse 16. Now, Ehood had made a double-edged sword about a cubit that's 18 inches, a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man. Now, that detail about the sword will matter here in a moment, but so will the detail about Eglon being a quote-unquote very fat man. In the Hebrew, there's a bit of a double entendre with this statement about Egelon

because he's presented as a king who's not only physically unhealthy, but also cognitively unstable, unwise. He's this character who's both obese and also obtuse. He's oblivious to the things going on around him as the scene unfolds. That's going to matter here in a moment, so kind of hold on to that observation in verse 17. After delivering the tribute, Ehood returns to King Eglon with a promise of a secret message. Now, King Eglon foolishly dismisses all of his attendance, and it's just him and Ehood, just the two of them there. And this is the dramatic moments.

So let's just read the verses that go through here, verses 20 through 23. So cue the intense music, and maybe if you have little ones around, maybe don't let them hear this. I don't know, it's kind of intense. Here we go, verse 20. Eud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace. and said, I have a message from God for you. As the king rose from his seat, Ihood reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into the king's belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged.

Ehood did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehood went out to the porch, he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. Okay, wow, the scene has been dark so far, but the comedy portion kicks in as the verses go on and we read about how the king's servants wait for far too long to check in on their sovereign, supposing that he's taking a really long time to relieve himself. The scene closes with the escape of Ehud and the subsequent victory of God's people over the Moabites. Now, as we look back over this passage, it's tempting to just say, wow, that's a wild story, it's crazy, I can't believe this is in the Bible.

and just leave it at that. But remember, this passage should not just surprise us. It should help us see reality and live differently. And that's the point of these verses. They're not just pictures for theater. They're prompts for transformation. That's great, but how on earth do you apply a passage like this? What a difference does this make in our lives today? I'm really indebted to the Old Testament Professor Brian Ocker, who shares this clarifying perspective when it comes to interpret. the delivering characters and judges. He describes how we can certainly learn from some of the faithful work of the judges. We should definitely learn some things from them, but we should most identify with the people who were served by the judges, with the people of God who are saved by the

judges. So you and I should not primarily ask how we can be like Ihood here. We should primarily ask how we're like the Israelites that God saved through Ehood. So if that's the case, what do we learn about the Israelites here in this passage? How are we like them? What do we need to know about our status today before God? We said this a while ago in an earlier episode in the historical books, but these stories in the historical books are often trying to show us more than they tell us. So what is this scene showing us? This is where we need to double down on the the dark humor at play in Judges 3 because the dark humor shows us an even darker truth. Think about it in our lives today. Sometimes the funniest joke actually contains the most

uncomfortable truth. And that's certainly the case here as we are shown a painfully honest portrait of God's people. To get a sense of that portrait, let's go back to the very beginning in verse 12 that kind of sets up this passage. This whole passage is set up with the evil actions of God's people. That is the hard truth that ignites this entire series of events. So think about this. Going back to verse 12, this scene does not begin with the Moabite king Eglon as the villain. The scene begins with God's people as the villain. Okay, let's keep digging further here. Let's go back to those descriptions of King Eglon, how he's quote unquote, a very fat man. He's physically, he's mentally just not healthy. Okay. His servants,

and his people are also portrayed in the same way throughout this passage. The Moabites do not have a good rap here. But those critiques of the king and of the mobytes are not meant to land solely on Eglon and the Moabites. Remember, they're not the main villain here. Those comments are meant to strike at the heart of God's people. The Old Testament commentator Daniel Block describes this in a really clear way. So I'm just going to quote him from his commentary.

He says this, The author's deliberate satirizing of Eglon in particular and the Moabites in general should not blind the reader to the ridicule he is casting upon his own people. Okay, this is big. If we're going to let judges not just be about theater but about transformation, the goal of this recording, this historical event, is not simply to mock the Moabites. That's not the main goal. The goal is to force Israel, the people of God, to look in the mirror and say, we have stooped even lower than Eglon and the Moabites. The greatest enemy here is not Eglon. It's not as Moabite army.

The greatest enemy is the sin and evil and death that we play games with in our sin. So for both an ancient Israelite and for us today, we can faithfully respond. to this passage by honestly facing the tragedy of our sin. This passage is trying to give us a wake-up call, because our sin is far uglier than we tend to think. We tend to use euphemisms, tell half-truths, push things under the rug, not face our sin honestly. But judges three will not let us get away with that. So take a moment and assess your life right now, different areas of your life, your desires, your thoughts, your habits, your relationships. Are there ways that you need to look in the mirror

and face the reality of how your sin impacts your relationship with God, with other people? How is judges three helping you see reality? When I do that, I'm absolutely humbled before God. I'm so much more aware of how much I need is grace. Now, this might seem totally dreary, but it's not meant to be. Because here's the thing,

it's only when we face the reality of our situation honestly that hope can break in. Because without a real sense of our problem, there won't be any real sense of healing in the gospel. And this is big, this is a really big point throughout the historical books. The Bible is unflinchingly honest about how we need to face our sin. Yet it is also unapologetically insistent that we also face and receive the steadfast love of God, the love of God for people who blow it over and over and over again, day after day, week after week. I mean, these are the kinds of people that receive the undeserved steadfast love of God in Judges

Three. And today, in your life and in my life, Ehood's narrative arc ends here with 80 years of peace. That's how this little narrative story ends. That's the longest stretch of peace of any of the judges in this era of the historical books. So as much as this passage really should cause us to have real humility and grow in having humility, it should also cause us to have a real and growing sense of hope. God, would you graciously help us see ourselves as we are, to name the ways that we sin against you and against others,

to name and face the ways that were sinned against by other people? God, would you humble us with a perceived. perspective of reality. Humble us so that we may be healed. And as you humble us, God, would you give us the hope that comes through your faithfulness in the sacrificial love of Jesus? It's in His name we pray. Amen.