f
What do you think of when you hear the word horror?
What do you think of when you hear the word horror?
- Stories of a masked killer taking out their rage on teens camping on the lake.
- Perhaps a creepy clown inviting you into the sewer?
- Some kind of twisted, sadistic entity that controls your dreams.
What do you think of when you hear the word horror? What if I told you that you ought to think of your Bible?
Welcome everyone to Redemption Church of Plano Tx! Greetings to everyone in person and everyone online. My name is Chris Fluitt, and I am blessed to serve a brave and completely unstoppable church in North Dallas. We are a mighty church that believes Jesus is the answer to every problem.
Biblical Horror Story vol 2
We are in the first week of a spooky sermon series called Biblical Horror Story Vol 2. It is volume 2 because we originally did this sermon series in 2017 with 5 horror stories found in your Bible. If you are interested in studying the first volume, it can be easily found on our website with a quick web-search.
We decided it was time we re-visited this series with 5 all-new, creepy, gross, unsettling stories that you rarely hear taught or preached.
Horror – an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.
You may be surprised to know that horrific stories are in your Bible.
In this Biblical Horror Story series, we will be investigating mysterious stories that may fill your heart with fear, shock, or even disgust. You will likely wonder why God put such stories within His Word. Let’s be brave and search it out together.
This ought to bring up some questions!
Anonymous text line
You can send your questions into our Anonymous Text Line! 214 856 0550. This line is completely anonymous.
Today I invite you to turn to the book of Judges, chapter 3 to learn about a gross story I like to call…
The Lefty and the Hefty
Have you heard the unexpectedly gross and awkward story of the left-handed assassin and the really fat king? This story will cause you to ask, “why is this story in the Bible?”
We will answer the question “Why is this story in the Bible”, but first let’s read this very unexpected story in Judges 3.
Judges 3:12-30(NIV) 12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.[c] 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit[d] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. 19 But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.
20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace[e] and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. 23 Then Ehud went out to the porch[f]; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.” 25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.
26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.
28 “Follow me,” he ordered, “for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. 30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
The Lefty and the Hefty
This story is just… I mean what do you say? This story is gross, shocking, and awkward. This is one of those stories that rarely makes it into Sunday school, sermon, or family devotional… but it is the word of God. We should always approach the Word of God ready to learn and ready to ask questions… So here is a question?
Why is this story in the Bible?
Let’s try to figure this out.
This story teaches us many things. It is historical and that has value on its own, but the value of this story goes beyond historical information.
This story has valuable life lessons and presents spiritual truths.
This story starts with 2 ‘Agains’: (“Again the Israelites”)
Judges 3:12(NIV) 12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.
Because they did evil, the Lord gave Eglon power over Israel. There is a supernatural law here.
Sow Evil, Reap Evil
The Israelites were doing evil… repeatedly… Over and over, story after story and time after time.
-They did not worship the Lord as the ‘One Lord’ that He is. They worshipped other gods – false gods.
-They did not keep the Lord’s commands to love their neighbor, and instead they did terrible awful things.
-They were copying the evil actions of their surrounding, neighboring peoples. Those tribes worshipped false gods… The pagan people offered human sacrifices and even sacrificed their own children in their gross idolatries.
-God had delivered the land of Israel from the evil, morally bankrupt Canaanites and God had given that land to the children of Israel, only to see these God-blessed Israelites run after the same pagan evil.
They were sowing evil, so it should be no surprise that in due season, they reaped evil.
Galatians 6:7-8(NIV) Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Because the people did evil, God raised up an evil king to rule them. King Eglon likely thought he had won the victory, but truthfully, the people of God were spiritually sabotaging themselves.
Sow Evil, Reap Evil
Can we apply this truth to our own lives?
The choices we make matter! If we sow evil, we will reap evil. But the opposite is also true! If we sow righteousness, we will also reap righteousness.
Israel was spiritually sabotaging themselves. Is it possible that we could be doing the same thing in our own lives? Is it possible something similar could happen to any one of us?
Israel made the same mistake over and over again. the ramification of their actions grew more severe. Because of the evil Israel had committed, an evil king named Eglon ruled over them… This is the first ‘Again’ – Again Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord… but there is a 2nd ‘Again’.
Judges 3:15(NIV) 15 Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
When the Israelites again cried out in repentance, when they again cried for mercy, when their cries again placed God as the true God, then He gave them a deliverer.
The same God that gave king Eglon power of Israel, is the same God who gave Israel a deliverer.
Learn this… God is sovereign, and nothing is out of His control, and yet He allows us to make our own decisions. That Truth is clearly on display in this story. God raised up a king to teach Israel a lesson – That is sovereignty. Yet this sovereign God also allows Israel to make both good and bad decisions. Sovereignty & free will both exist in our God.
In this story God allows evil to come; the very evil that Israel sowed and begins reaping… but in this same story God brings the deliverer.
1 Corinthians 10:13(NIV) No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
The same God who allows our own evil choices to come to harvest, will always provide a way of escape. God sends a deliverer! Our deliverer in this story is Ehud… Jesus is our deliverer and our ultimate way of escape!
Sound life-application is contained here in this unsettling story.
Now for some spiritual application. Let us look to the main characters and what they represent symbolically.
King Eglon the Hefty
This story has a bad guy named King Eglon. He rules over Israel for 18 years.
Eglon is the king of the Moabites, and he has joined forces with the tribes of the Ammonites and Amalekites. Who are these people? Should we even care? God obviously cared enough to let us know, and so it is likely worth a brief study.
- Who are the Moabites & Ammonites?
The Moabites are a constant thorn in the side of Israel. God even commands Israel in the law not to marry a Moabite or an Ammonite in Deuteronomy 23:3. God makes it clear that these are people to avoid.
So, who are they? The Moabites and Ammonites trace their lineage back to one common descendant – Lot.
Lot is the nephew of Abraham. Abraham and Lot were very close and Abraham on many occasions looked out for Lot and His family. Abraham even argued face-to-face with God whether to rescue Lot from Sodom & Gomorrah.
The Moabites & the Ammonites are ‘family’ to the Israelites. They ought to be better than friends. The same could be said for the 3rd tribe in this story – the Amalekites.
- Who are the Amalekites?
The Amalekites are descendants of Esau, the grandson of Abraham and twin brother of Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Israelites and Amalekites are literally brothers, born in the same line of Abraham.
In this story we have 3 tribes, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Amalekites, and they all should be fearless supporters of Israel. Have you ever noticed that the people who ought to be your best friends can easily play the role of your worst enemy? Instead of standing with Israel, they join forces to devastate Israel.
For 18 years Eglon ruled over the Israelites. The children of Israel were allowed to live only as long as they did the bidding of the fat king Eglon.
The major description of king Eglon is that he is fat …one might say fleshly. He has a lot of flesh. This king symbolically embodies prideful, self-gratification. We have no reason to believe he ever made personal sacrifices for others… no reason to believe he missed many meals.
Scripture warns about living fleshly lives.
- Romans 8:6 says to be fleshly (carnally) minded is death.
- Romans 8:8 says those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
- Matthew 26:41 says the flesh is weak.
- Galatians 5:16 warns us not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
We have a king in Eglon who claims to be a man of war, strong and ready for battle… but that is not true. King Eglon struggles even to stand, much less fight.
Spiritually speaking, Christians are called to be kings, strong and mighty in battle, brave and bold and ready at all times… but is that true? If it is not true it is because of the flesh.
Spiritually, we may be out of shape? Do we feed our flesh more than our spirit? Do you have a lustful, materialistic, prideful, unforgiving, unspiritual king calling the shots in your life? IF SO, you need a deliverer!
When the people again cried out to the Lord, He sent them a deliverer named Ehud.
Ehud the lefty
We don’t know much about him except that he is left-handed and from the tribe of Benjamin. These 2 facts don’t seem very important to us, but they come into play in our story and are likely the reason Ehud was selected to go with tribute.
What is a tribute? A tribute is a gift one nation would give another nation in order to demonstrate complete submission. The Israelites where under the control of king Eglon, and to stay in his good graces they were REQUIRED to give him gifts. They did not offer this tribute out of friendship, but they offered it begrudgingly.
We can tell that Ehud was not offering this tribute out of friendship…
Ehud had made a weapon. It was a double-edged sword that was shorter than normal. It was a cubit long. The ancient world measured a cubit as the distance from your elbow to your end of your longest finger. It was approximately 18 inches in length.
Is it a short sword or a long dagger? The Hebrew calls it a sword, so that is what we will call it. Ehud makes an 18- inch sword and straps it to his right thigh and under his clothing.
It is obvious that He is smuggling a weapon to assassinate this king. The sword is under his clothes, but also on His right leg. Right-handed sword fighters would always holster their sword on their left leg so that they could reach across and draw their sword with their dominant right hand… because of this it is likely that the guards searched Ehud for a weapon but only looked to see if something was strapped to his left leg, when he actually had the weapon on his right leg, ready to be drawn by his dominant left hand.
Left-handed fighters were rare in the ancient world, except in the tribe of Benjamin. 3 times in the Old Testament (Judges 3:15, 20:16, 1 Chronicles 12:2) it speaks of Benjamite fighters who were lefthanded. It is believed that this smallest tribe of Israel trained their fighters to be ambidextrous. They were able to fight with their left or right hands making them well-trained.
So, Ehud is about to kill this king…
Judges 3:17-18(NIV) He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it.
Ehud was called…
Ehud was equipped…
Ehud was positioned…
But Ehud chickened out. He leaves never even pulling his sword…
Is Ehud the only one who has ever chickened out? Have you ever had the calling, equipped yourself, trained yourself, and finally came face to face with the moment… only to just leave? Me too!
So, Ehud, the would be deliverer leaves… But… this happens…
19 But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.
Ehud completely leaves the city of Palm/Jericho where King Eglon is. Along his trek back as a failure, Ehud reaches an area near Gilgal and seas these stone images, and it is here he decides I am going to go back.
Do we know what Gilgal is? The Israelites crossed over the Jordan river from the wilderness into the promised land. To commemorate this moment, they had placed stones as landmarks at the end of Joshua 4.
Joshua 4:21-24(NIV) 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
This happened near an area named Gilgal… these were the stone images that Ehud saw. He saw the stones and He remembered the God who parted the Red Sea and Jordan river… Ehud remembered the hand of the Lord is powerful!
It was at the spot where the Israelites, after crossing over, celebrated Passover in the promised-land and the Lord spoke to them.
Joshua 5:9(NIV) 9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.
The word Gilgal means TO ROLL AWAY.
Ehud was standing there in the midst of his failure. He had not faced the enemy king, but ran away… Then, Ehud stood in Gilgal and remembered a God who rolls away your reproach… your failures… your mistakes…
Standing at this place, seeing the stones, and remembering the promise, Ehud decides to go back.
You need a Gilgal in your life. You need your reproach rolled away, and you need a repentance turn-around.
Ehud goes back alone and says, “Your Majesty I have a secret message for you” and the king dismisses all his attendants leaving Ehud the Lefty alone with Eglon the Hefty.
Judges 3:20-21(NIV)20 Ehud 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, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly.
This time Ehud did not chicken out. He reaches with his left hand to grab the sword hidden on his right thigh and plunges the sword into the belly of the fat king.
You know those jokes that go a little like this… “I once knew a king who was so-o-o fat… I mean you wouldn’t believe how fat he was….” And then the audience says, “How fat was he?” This is kind of what takes place here.
The Bible calls Eglon fat, but how fat was he, really?
Judges 3:22(NIV) Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.
A sword 18 inches long sank into the king all the way past the handle… yuck. This is how fat king Eglon was. Some translations say that Ehud was unable to pull the sword out of the king because he was so fat. It is almost as if his fat ate the sword.
Don’t you love sweet bible stories?! Can’t you picture Ehud with one foot on the king and his hands trying to pry away the sword.
Why is this story in the Bible?
…Because there is a fleshly, fat, arrogant king in your life. You have been paying this king tribute for far too long.
Who sits on the throne in your life?
King Eglon is everything that tries to raise itself up to sit on God’s rightful throne. But truthfully this flesh is weak and pathetic… it is time to remove this fat king so our true, valiant, bold, and brave King Jesus can sit upon the throne.
We need to talk to God today. We need to un-throne the fat king and enthrone Jesus Christ.
The ambidextrous Ehud reminds me of what Paul tells Christians to do…
2 Corinthians 6:7(NIV) in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left.
Christians we need to be like Ehud. Trained in weapons of righteousness in both our right and left hands.
Ehud takes that double-edged sword… Do Christians have a double-edged sword?
Hebrews 4:12(NIV) For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Ehud takes that double edged sword and plunges it into the false king…
Christian it is time we took the Word of God and plunged it into the false king of flesh…
What would happen if we plunged the word of God so deep that we could no longer get it out?
Freedom would happen! This story began with 18 years of servitude to a fat king, but it ends with 80 years of peace & prosperity under the True King!
Come talk to God today.
Come receive freedom today.
Come repent today and let all your reproach be rolled away.
Come get victory today.
Make Jesus King today.