#009 Ehud’s Sword (Judges 3:12-30)

Are you brave enough to read God’s word, the Bible?

That’s right, brave!

Perhaps the most striking description of the word of God is the image of a double edged sword.

The author of Hebrews gives us this picture in Hebrews chapter four, and there is no doubt in my mind that he was thinking about Judges chapter three when he gave us this picture.

In Judges chapter three we meet Ehud. A sinister southpaw, a left-handed Judge of Israel who concealed, and then wielded a double-edged sword, against Eglon, King of the Moabites, oppressor of the Israelites.

And, as Ehud’s double-edged sword plunged into Eglon’s bowels, bringing him to his divinely appointed death, that sword did two things at once.

It saved God’s people.

It defeated God’s enemies.

What Ehud’s sword does, so does the double-edged word of God, the Bible.

It saves God’s people. It defeats God’s enemies.

So, are you brave enough to read it?

I ask the question because, as long as we read the Bible and reject it, we reject the one it is all about, and we remain God’s enemies. Therefore, every time we read the Bible and reject it, it strikes a blow against us. Enough rejections, enough blows, and we will one day be defeated, and we will die in our sins.

However, if we read the Bible and accept it - if we entrust ourselves to the one it is all about - we will find that it is able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

We will discover ourselves to be God’s people, and we will be saved.