Ehud, Judges, War, etc.

I started reading the book of Judges (in the Bible, of course) yesterday or the day before and I'm finding it to be quite interesting. I've found some really cool stories--and exciting, I might add. Start reading what I put on here and notice the little details. The first one I don't think really needs an introduction, except that the Israelites had been being bad again and God had decided to punish them for their wickedness and...

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. Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half 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.

After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.

Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, Ehud 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, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch ; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

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 house." 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.

While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. 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.

"Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Isn't that cool? I mean, I haven't noticed this sort of detail in other books of the Bible (of course, I should read them again, just in case). Details such as mentioning that Ehud was left-handed and had a sword on his right thigh, saying that the king of Moab and how the sword's handle "sank in after the blade, which came out his back" and "the fat closed in over it". Those last details were disgusting but it sure did help you visualize it. And the place where it reads, "He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah" makes me picture the scene in my mind )of him running/stealing past the statues) which, for a writer like myself, is important.
This next passage makes me want to say, "Way to go!" This passage takes place when Barak and Deborah had gone to war and Barak (with the soldiers, of course) were killing the Canaanites. (Sisera is the commander of the army.)

Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.

Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

"I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

"Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "

But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead.

Now, isn't that awesome? That (Jael killing Sisera) would take a lot of guts.

There's something else that I would like to point out--there's a lot of war in the Bible so no one should be able to say that war is wrong. I agree that it's sad and horrific but it's not wrong. Here's a passage that specifically proves my point. This is after the Israelites have made it into the Promised Land and have killed all of the evil people in the land, right? Wrong! The Israelites did not kill of the people and here's why (in the second verse)...

These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):

So God wanted the Israelites to know war. Very interesting...I wonder why?
Just thought I'd share that with you. Any thoughts?


Here are the references to the verses that I used in this post
(in the order that I used them) in case you want to see them
for yourselves:
-Judges 3:15-30
-Judges 4:17-22
-Judges 3:1-2