Judges 3 – Part 2
QUESTION: Obesity/Left-Handedness - 2ANSWER:Judges 3 – Part 2by Pastor Nathan Shepherd (Dive Chapel, Candle Key, Florida)
“In Judges 3:12, the children of Israel go sideways again and they are defeated by King Eglon of Moab. Now this guy Eglon is purported to be one of the fattest men in the history of the world. In fact, in verse 17, he is the only man in the whole Bible to ever be referred to as ‘a very fat man.’ Historians record that his waistline was 400 inches. 400 inches! That is HUGE! When I read that, I couldn’t stop thinking about how big he must be. So the other day I wanted to try and get some perspective because I knew I’d be talking about him to you guys this morning.
“Maya, my wife, drives a Jeep Cherokee. So I measured the girth of that. I took a string of yellow nylon rope and draped it over the top of the Cherokee. Then I went to the other side and wadded up the slack and threw it under the car. I went back to the passenger’s side, pulled the rope tight and marked where the end met the length of the rope. Then, I took my trusty Black and Decker Auto Tape that I’d gotten for Christmas and measured the rope from end to mark. It was 219 inches. So this King Eglon dude was almost twice as big around as a Jeep Cherokee. Think about that.
“Israel was subject to this bigger-than-Jabba-the-Hutt-sized slob for eighteen years. Some of you guys aren’t even eighteen years old, or barely.
“After that length of time, the children of Israel cried out to the Lord and he raised up a man named Ehud. Now this is a great story, but I want to look at something closely here. It says in verse 15 that Ehud was left-handed. Back then, and even up to the early 1900’s, being left-handed made people think you were cursed, deformed and basically demon-possessed and good for nothing.
“Most of you have heard me talk about my grandfather who was a Major General in the U.S. Army, a college football coach, and a peach farmer in the summertime. Soldier, athlete, farmer – the picture of the man we are all called to be in 2 Timothy 2. Well, my granddad was born in 1908 and he was left-handed. When he got to kindergarten, they told him that the left hand was the hand of the devil and tied his left hand behind his chair to force him to write with his right hand. He was a great athlete, a great right-handed athlete, but he always used to kid the people in his hometown that he could have been one of the greatest major league pitchers of all time had they not changed him from being left-handed.
“Anyway, Ehud was probably derided as he was growing up for being left-handed. But it was part of God’s plan.
“Ehud was chosen to be the envoy who took some gifts from the Israelites to King Eglon the fat boy. The whole nation was scared and wimpy and would not do anything but butter up that fat king.
“Ehud was sick and tired and empowered by God. He made a dagger that the Bible says was about 30 inches long – an 18-inch blade with a 12-inch handle. He strapped this dagger, or what I’d call a sword, under his clothes, to his right thigh. Now this is significant. Warriors in those days drew their weapon across their body. Right-handed men would carry their sword strapped to their left thigh. This meant that when the palace guards searched visitors, they only frisked them on the left side. Thus, they missed the sword on Ehud’s right.
Judges 3 – Read Part 3!
