Transcript
Stab Deep, Run Fast, Fight Hard
by Zane C. Hodges
Colossians chapter 3 verse 5.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Judges chapter 3 verses 12 through 30.
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the City of Palms. So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.
But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehud made himself a dagger. It was double-edged and a cubit in length, and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.
And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. He said, Keep silence. And all who attended him went out from him. So Ehud came to him. Now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber. Then Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. So he arose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. Even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly. And his entrails came out. Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
When he had gone out, Eglon’s servants came to look. And to their surprise the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. So they waited till they were embarrassed. And still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.
But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah. And it happened when he arrived that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains. And he led them.
Then he said to them, Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor. Not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
This is the sermon message on Judges chapter 3, verses 12 through 30. It was preached November 30, 1997. And the reading of the passage was preceded by the reading of Colossians 3:5.
Here is a story that really caught my attention. Last August the 14th the world famous Guinness Book of Records designated a new individual as the oldest living person in the world.
The previous holder of this distinction was a woman by the name of Jeanne Calment who died earlier in the month in her native France at the age of 122.
The new holder of the title was also a woman. She was also a French woman but this time she was a French-Canadian. Her name was Marie Louise Meilleur.
Shortly after she was designated as the oldest living person in the world, approximately two weeks later she had an additional birthday. And at that time she reached the ripe old age of 117.
Mrs. Meilleur was born on August the 29th, 1880 in a Canadian town by the name of Kamouraska, Quebec, 95 miles east of Quebec City. At the time that she was designated the oldest person she was almost completely deaf and blind. But nevertheless she had lived a very full and productive life.
She had been married twice and at that time reports said she had a total number of living grandchildren: 75. The total number of persons who were descended from Mrs. Meilleur at that time was approximately 300 people.
But the thing that really amused me about this story was the fact that Mrs. Meilleur who lived in the Nipissing Manor nursing care center in Northern Ontario at the town of North Bay lives there also with her 81 year old son who is single. And I guess that once a mother always a mother because Mrs. Meilleur is trying to find a match for her 81 year old son.
The services coordinator at the nursing care center said that Mrs. Meilleur was telling her son that there were a lot of pretty girls and that she, that is Mrs. Meilleur, was going to find him a wife. Now that’s going to be a little bit hard when you’re almost deaf and blind. But obviously Mrs. Meilleur is not a quitter.
Can’t you just imagine the advertisement in the personal column of a Canadian newspaper that might go something like this? Single white male, 81, seeking pretty girl for companionship. Call mom.
Mrs. Meilleur’s family believes that the secret of her long life has been hard work and keeping herself active. She used to enjoy fishing and she still loves the outdoors. And she is also a vegetarian.
But one of the health care workers at the nursing care center, Muriel Blossom, had a different theory about the length of her life. And she says this: The reason I am sure is that she is a good eater and drinker. In other words at the ripe age of 117 Mrs. Meilleur certainly does not just simply pick at her food.
This Miss Blossom however had another unverified compliment to pay to Mrs. Meilleur. And she said this about her: She’s a person who really wants to live and she’s a fighter.
And did you know it my friends that if you are a Christian then the Christian life is for persons who really want to live. And it is for fighters. It is definitely for fighting.
Of course it is wonderfully true that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross He paid for all of our sins. And He made it possible for us to receive the free gift of everlasting life simply by believing in Him.
Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, he that believes in Me has everlasting life.
But even though eternal salvation is free the Christian life is rugged and tough. And the Christian life is definitely not for the weak and powerless. The Christian life is definitely not for spiritual wimps.
The Christian life is definitely for fighters. And that brings me to the title of the message that I want to give you this morning, a title which is definitely designed for fighters. And my title is Stab Deep, Run Fast, Fight Hard.
How’s that for a title for fighters? Did you get it? Let me repeat it again. It’s the title of my message this morning: Stab Deep, Run Fast, Fight Hard.
Many years ago when I was still a little boy a movie came out in 1941 which turned out to be a very famous movie by the name of The Maltese Falcon. It starred Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor. In addition to these people it featured Peter Lorre. It turned out to be a very famous film.
But the person who really impressed me in this film was the villain. And the villain was played by an actor by the name of Sydney Greenstreet. And in the movie the villain’s name was the Fat Man.
Now in the movie the Fat Man was definitely not a term one would use lightly. It was a term that expressed the danger and the deadliness of this particular villain. And that villain left a very great impression upon me as a young man.
You know the result is that just about every time I come through the passage of Scripture that we read just a few moments ago I remember that movie. Because you see in this passage of Scripture there’s no question about it. The villain of the story is a fat man. He is a fat man.
Now please remember that we are in a period of the judges. And that the nation of Israel as yet does not have a king. And as a result of the nation of Israel turning away from the Lord his God the Lord brings judgment upon His people in the form of an invasion by the king Eglon. The king is a man named Eglon.
And the Bible says of Eglon that Eglon was a very fat man.
Now you need to remember that the Moabite race was born from the sin of incest. When Lot and his two daughters escaped from the destruction of Sodom and when they were living by themselves in a cave the two daughters despaired of the possibility of getting a husband and of having children. And so they plotted a very wicked thing.
They agreed among themselves that they would get their father drunk two successive nights. On the first night when Lot was so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing the oldest daughter went in and had intercourse with him and became pregnant. And she gave birth to a son whom she named Moab. Moab became the father of the race of the Moabites, a consistent enemy of the nation of Israel down through the centuries.
The next night the younger daughter went in and she also committed the same sin, became pregnant, and gave birth to a boy whom she named Ben-Ammi. And he became the father of the Ammonites, a race of people who were likewise persistent enemies of Israel down through the centuries.
And you see in the period of the judges to which we have come this morning in this passage of Scripture once again the nation of Israel has done evil in the sight of the Lord. They turned away from the Lord their God. And therefore God brings His discipline and His judgment upon them in that they are invaded by the Moabites. And they are invaded by that cousin nation of the Moabites the Ammonites and by another persistent enemy of Israel called the Amalekites.
And evidently the commander of this united forces of enemies was none other than the man Eglon, the fat man of the Moabites.
And don’t you see my friends that in the story as it is presented to us today we have very clearly represented before us one of the three great enemies with which the Christian must fight. As we understand this from the New Testament, pulling together the message of the New Testament, we can conclude that the Christian’s three major enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And when we look at the Moabites and when we consider that the Moabites were produced by a sin of the flesh called incest and when we realize that the king of the Moabites is a man who has excess flesh, a great deal of excess flesh, then it is obvious that the Moabites stand before us as a representation of our enemy the flesh.
And do I need to tell you that this enemy is a powerful enemy with which it is necessary for us to do battle? And all around us in the world in which we live there are men and women and young people who are the slaves of the fat man of the flesh. They are the slaves of physical addictions and physical drives.
And we can look around us and we can see people who are addicted to pleasure, who are addicted to money, to gambling. You can see people who are addicted to pornography, addicted to extramarital sex, addicted to homosexual activity or lesbian activity.
People who are addicted to drugs, to prescription painkillers or prescription antidepressants or even diet pills, or to illegal drugs like crack and cocaine and heroin and amphetamines. There are people who are addicted to Coors beer and Budweiser and whatever the brand of beer is which they can’t get along without every Friday night, every Saturday night.
And there are people who are addicted to Camel cigarettes or Virginia Slims. Then to pick up on the advertisement you’ve come a long way baby. And you come all the way to addiction.
All around us are people who are the slaves of the fat man that we call the flesh.
And the question that I want to ask you this morning is very simply this. If you are a Christian, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the completely free gift of eternal life, you know for sure that you’re going to heaven. Are you in any way addicted to the sins of the flesh?
Are there sins in your life which arise from your sinful fleshly nature that subject you to their control and which amount to an addiction in your life and experience?
If that is the case then obviously you are under the dominion of the flesh. You are serving the fat king.
But fortunately in the days of Eglon king of Moab there was at least one person in Israel who was not satisfied with the status quo. At least one person in Israel who was not satisfied to be a slave of the Moabite. And his name was Ehud. And he was of the tribe of Benjamin. And somewhat unusually he was a left-handed man.
And we first meet Ehud as the bearer of tribute in association with the group of tribute bearers who are bringing the tribute of Israel to Eglon the fat king of Moab.
And we don’t know what the tribute consisted of. There could have been gold or silver or jewels. But in this particular period of time the nation of Israel was primarily a poor agricultural nation. And so more likely the tribute consisted of crops or clothing or woven garments or farm animals like oxen and sheep and goats.
We don’t know exactly what the tribute contained. But we do know that Ehud brought with him something which Eglon was totally unprepared to receive. Hidden under the fold of his long flowing Near Eastern garment there was a deadly weapon. There was a dagger that was sharpened to a dying sharpness on both of its edges.
The Bible tells us that it was a cubit long which suggests that it was approximately 18 inches long. And this was certainly not a typical ordinary everyday penknife. And this was hidden under the folds of Ehud’s garment.
Well after Ehud had made the presentation of the tribute he and his companions apparently turned and started back home. But at a place that was marked off by stone images apparently Ehud sent the remainder of the tribute bearers back to their homes while he turned around, went back, and requested an audience with Eglon the king.
And they brought Ehud into what is called the cool private chamber of Eglon, a summer room of some kind. It perhaps was an upstairs room that was either ventilated or maybe it was overshadowed by palm trees. It was a place where Eglon was able to retire during the heated part of the day and to rest.
And they brought Ehud into Eglon in this cool private chamber. The King James calls it the summer parlor.
And when they brought him before Eglon Ehud said, I have a secret message for you. And the king who obviously did not trust his servants said, Keep silence. And he ordered all of his servants to depart.
And that left only Eglon and Ehud apparently sitting there on seats. And now they are alone. And Eglon is waiting for the message which he is about to receive.
As he sits there Ehud begins to rise. And he says, Eglon I have a message from God for thee.
And then he reached his left hand under the folds of his garment on his right side. Now since that was not the normal place where the typical right-handed warrior would carry a weapon apparently Eglon thought nothing of it. Or he felt that Ehud was withdrawing a scroll of some kind.
But instead out came this 18 inch long deadly dagger. And before Eglon could even cry out for assistance from his servants Ehud had plunged the dagger into the body of Eglon the king.
And he stabbed deep. He stabbed all the way through the body. But apparently the handle of the knife got into the body. The flesh closed around the wound. And then in a very ugly scene the insides of Eglon began to come out.
And at that point Ehud had delivered his message from God. And if we were to put God’s message into words we would say that God’s message to Eglon was, You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re dead.
Would you be surprised if I told you that as a Christian person you are in a position to deliver a similar message to your own sinful flesh?
You see the Bible says those that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. The Bible also says that we should know that our old man has been crucified with Him, that is with Christ, that the body of sin might be defeated, that henceforth we should not become the slaves of sin.
And it is possible for us to realize and we should realize that at the moment that we trusted Christ our Savior we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift of eternal life. The Holy Spirit has united us with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
And in bringing this union between ourselves and the work of Christ to pass God has dealt a death blow to the flesh. He has dealt the death of the flesh so that we can say that the flesh is crucified in those who have come to belong to Jesus.
We can say that our old man is crucified with Him that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. To put it another way when our flesh rises up within us we can say, You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re dead.
Now I can almost hear somebody telling me this morning well that’s all very well and good for you to say that Zane but frankly I know that I’m a Christian. I know that I’m going to heaven. But today it seems to me that my flesh is very very much alive. And I don’t feel that it’s very much dead. In fact it is also very strong. Sometimes I find myself under its control. So how can you say that the flesh is dead?
Well please remember and our story will help us to realize this. Please remember that it is only the king who is killed at this point. Eglon is dead. The eighteen-inch knife has pierced through his body. But his servants are very much alive. And his army is very much alive. And these have to be dealt with subsequently by Ehud.
But the point is the king is dead.
And when we talk about the death of the flesh we are really talking about the death of the flesh’s power, the death of the flesh’s authority, the death of the flesh’s right and power to rule us and control us.
Before we were saved we had no real option but to live under the authority and kingship of the flesh. But having been delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ from this authority, having been delivered from the kingship of the flesh, it is no longer for us to bow under the flesh’s authority.
And therefore it is in the sense of the death of the king that we can say to our own sinful flesh, You’re dead.
So what’s the first step to victory in our warfare with our enemy the flesh? Well the first step is to get a hold of the message of God about the flesh, to stab it deep within the flesh, and to say to our own sinful flesh, God has pronounced you dead and you are dead. And I’m going to count you as dead.
But the first step is stab deep.
But obviously Ehud’s battle was far from over. He still had the servants for one thing to be concerned with.
There is an old saying that if you strike the king be sure you kill him. The reason for that saying obviously is that if you don’t kill the king he may be able to get back at you and kill you.
I think we can modify that statement somewhat and say if you do kill the king don’t hang around. Don’t hang around.
And one of the last things that Ehud would have done under these circumstances was to hang around. It would not have been a good idea for him to wait there in the king’s cool summer chamber standing over the dead body of Eglon.
It would not have been a good idea for him to wait there until the servants came in and found him standing over the king he had killed.
And therefore Ehud is under constraint to move as fast as he can move. Apparently he doesn’t even bother to try to pull the knife out of the body of the king.
And he goes out through a couple of doors out onto a porch. Perhaps this was an upstairs porch. He closes the doors behind him and makes sure that the doors are locked. And then he goes over the porch and moves away as rapidly as he can from the king’s palace.
We can be very sure that just as soon as he could safely do so Ehud was running, running, running just as fast as he possibly could run to get away.
And obviously therefore this was the prudent thing for him to do.
Well the servants came and they were surprised to find the doors locked. And they supposed that Eglon was using the bathroom. They decided to wait until he was finished. They waited and waited and waited. And they were finally too embarrassed to wait anymore. Someone took a key, opened the door, and there they found Eglon with a knife in the form of a dagger through his body.
Obviously this delay was very valuable to Ehud. It gave Ehud time to get very far away and to make good his escape.
He comes to the mountains of Ephraim. So then we can say in all truthfulness that Ehud was a man who knew how not only to stab deep but also to run fast. Not only to stab deep but to run fast.
And did you know that we also need to run fast when it comes to the flesh? The Bible says to us flee youthful lusts.
And it’s perfectly true that the authority of the flesh is defeated in us. That the message of God is that the flesh is dead. But on the other hand we are called upon to get away from the flesh as fast as we can.
It would be unwise for us to hang around where there are strong temptations where we are exposed to people and things where we can easily be ensnared and captured. Just as it would have been unwise for Ehud to be captured by hanging around in the king’s summer parlor.
And so it is important for us to realize that we are still vulnerable to capture by the flesh. And then we should run away from the things that endanger our freedom. We should flee. Run fast. Run fast. Run fast.
Now it is just here in the story that we have a surprise. Because we are expecting Ehud to fight the army. But the army he fights is somewhat of a surprise.
We find that Ehud blows the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim. He assembles the children of Israel. He says to them, Follow me. The Lord has delivered your enemies into your hands.
And then taking courage from his faith they followed him down the mountain. They captured a strategic crossing point at the Jordan River. And then they encounter an army of ten thousand men of whom the Bible says that they were all stout men of valor. They were all stout men of valor.
Now the word stout here is pretty much what our word stout means. And in fact it represents a Hebrew word that could also have been translated fat.
And what we discover here is that the fat king apparently had a fat army.
Now I don’t know exactly how he arranged to do this. Quite possibly he made sure that the men who enlisted in his army at least in his elite forces were given an abundance of food and drink and were able to satisfy themselves with this and to gross out in their own flesh.
I’m sure that all of you have seen television clips of the so-called sumo wrestlers of Japan. And if there’s one thing that is true of the sumo wrestler the fact is that sumo wrestlers are fat. They have a weight advantage.
And I suppose that to face the fat army of the fat king was a whole lot like facing an army of sumo wrestlers.
And no doubt there was a psychological advantage to having an army of huge size like this. Because since nutrition was not all that good in the ancient world it was no doubt very intimidating to face an army of huge men of this kind.
And that’s exactly the kind of army that the king Eglon the king of the Moabites was able to put on the field.
But just as the king had fallen before Ehud so also his army fell before the children of Israel because they followed Ehud and took courage from him.
And so my Christian friends it remains for us to recognize first of all that the fat man has met his death. That he has no authority to rule over us anymore.
It remains for us to recognize that we must flee from the servants of the king, those things and people who in fact are trying to ensnare us.
And we must also remember the words of the Apostle Paul which we read in Colossians 3:5 at the very beginning of this message.
Therefore put to death, put to death, put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.
And it is necessary for us in the strength of God and by faith in His power to win the victory in our lives to put to death the individual members of the flesh one by one over the period of our lifetime.
We are called upon to kill the sinful habits of the flesh and to allow God to transform us more and more into the likeness of His Son.
And we can be led to victory by our own spiritual captain the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
I close with this story. During World War Two the German armies in North Africa were led by an extremely competent general by the name of Field Marshal Rommel. And Rommel dealt defeat after defeat after defeat to the British soldiers of North Africa.
Finally the British command sent Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to North Africa to take charge of the badly battered British forces that were left in North Africa.
Montgomery was known to be a very upbeat man, a man who could function in a crisis. And when things were tense after he reached North Africa he was standing one day and talking to another British general.
Field Marshal Montgomery said you know general it is sad isn’t it sad that a man a military man can reach the very pinnacle of his generalship and then suffer a reverse that ruins his career?
And the general replied don’t be depressed. Don’t be depressed. It may be that you will win through.
To which Field Marshal Montgomery said in typical British fashion my dear chap my dear fellow I was not talking about myself. I was talking about Rommel.
And you know what? Field Marshal Montgomery did win through. And he dealt Field Marshal Rommel a devastating devastating defeat. And he swept the Germans out of North Africa.
And so my Christian friends it is possible for us in our warfare with the flesh which is the desert fox the nickname that was given to Rommel. It is possible in our own warfare with the desert fox to win through to victory and defeat the desert fox in each of us.
So the desert fox is clever, resourceful, seductive, powerful. Nevertheless through the strength and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we can win the victory.
And so leaning upon His strength let us remember what it is necessary for us to do: Stab Deep, Run Fast, Fight Hard.