08. The Oppressors : the Moabites

The Oppressors : the Moabites

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years." (Judges 3:12-14)

First of all, the oppressors came from Moab. We learn from many passages who Moab was and of his descendants. He had a very sad beginning. Moab, the son of Lot, was born as a result of a sinful act (Genesis 19:30-38) and all down through the history of his descendants there was the exhibition of the same kind of evil features in opposition to God. In Numbers 22:1-41 Balak the king of Moab hired Balaam, the false prophet, to curse the people of God. There Balak was being true to his parentage, he was being true to that evil beginning, he was exhibiting those evil features of opposition to God and to God’s people. When we come to Numbers 25:1-18 we find that the daughters of Moab were a snare to the sons of Israel and through fornication and idolatry they brought terrible sin and it’s evil consequences into the nation of Israel. They, too, were true to their parentage. We find that God gave a very definite commandment against Moab; in Deuteronomy 23:3 God says that a Moabite or an Ammonite was not to come into the congregation of the Lord for ever, this was God’s command against the Moabites. In Isaiah 16:1-14 we find God describing the characteristics of Moab that merited judgment, He said Moab was arrogant, proud and wrathful (v.6). There were three evil features connected with the Moabites. In Judges chapter 3 the king of the Moabites represents all these evil features, and it would seem that in our application of them to ourselves it would mean that if we, as Christians, become disobedient to God’s word there is a danger that we will be overcome by these features that are set forth in the king of Moab; we will become arrogant, proud, wrathful, evil, independent of God and morally we will lose our place amongst the people of God for any effective testimony. This then is seeking to apply what the king of Moab stands for.

Moab could easily have claimed kinship with Israel - Abraham and Lot were relatives and Abraham saved Lot out of his position in Sodom, but there the likeness ceased. All the sons of Abraham on the line of faith, beginning with Isaac miraculously born to him, were men of faith and men of power to God. Lot’s posterity, Moab and Ammon, were the inveterate enemies of Israel and they proved it in every moment of Israel’s testimony, they were always against the people of God. Moab could easily have said, ’We are relatives of yours, we have the same ties, we are in the same position in a certain sense, we ought to be together and help each other’. They have claimed to be sons of Abraham down through the ages and right up to the present moment, but we shall see that there is a very great divergence between those who are fully of Abraham, children of faith, and those who are of Moab, the enemies of God’s interests.

Looking at the companions that Moab had, we see Ammon and Amalek, two other enemies of Israel; there are no friends of Israel in Moab’s company, they are all enemies. But we have already said that God said that neither a Moabite nor an Ammonite was to come into the congregation of the Lord for ever, this was God’s command against them. Amalek was against the throne of God, they were arrogant and possessive and God said that there was to be war against them right to the end. Here is this very formidable confederacy against the nation of Israel, Ammon, Moab and Amalek. How was this going to be met? Bondage to any one of them was a great concern, but during the eighteen years it does not appear that anyone attempted to relieve the bondage. No-one had the courage, no-one had the resourcefulness, but God in mercy raised up one who was able to do something about this bondage in the person of Ehud.