09. The Person of Eglon - the King of Moab

The Person of Eglon - the King of Moab "Eglon {king of Moab} was a very fat man." (Judges 3:17)

Let us look first at Eglon. He represents a man who is perfectly satisfied with his surroundings, what is natural, pleasing and what is advantageous to him. Scripture says he was a very fat man, and this has to be recognised in various other parts of Scripture as representing a poor condition before God, a condition that usually ends in independence and failure. We can look at it naturally as saying he was not a man given to physical exercise, he was not a man who was full of energy and vitality, but rather a man who was enjoying all that there was of the world before him, and consequently, he was in this bloated condition that indicated a physical condition that was not good. This is the natural position, but it has a spiritual import. In Deuteronomy 32:15 God said, "But Jeshurin (meaning ’the righteous people’) waxed fat, and kicked..... then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation". What it simply means is that once the nation got all the blessings that God gave to them, once they entered into the land they had the vineyards, the cornfields, the minerals, the supplies of water. After they had everything that God gave them in His sovereign grace and mercy, they forgot Him. They forgot the One who had given them all these blessings and they lightly esteemed the God of their salvation. Was it possible that they could ever forget the bondage of Egypt? Could they ever forget the miracle of the Red Sea? Could they ever forget the wonder of crossing the Jordan, the destruction of Jericho, all the other blessings? Could they forget these things? Indeed they did. They forgot God, and they lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation. This is the kind of condition that Eglon represents in his bloated condition before God.

There is a New Testament parallel of this in the Lord’s words to the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:14-22, which the Lord condemns. The Laodiceans said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (v.17), but the Lord, in passing judgment, said their condition was independent and self-satisfied, they were enjoying all that they had, they were an assembly gathered out to the name of the Lord but the Lord was outside, He was not there. They had forgotten all the wonderful things that God had done for them, they had forgotten all the blessings that they had received. What a condition to be in, and what an indictment against any company of Christians. This condition of Eglon represents this kind of thing. He was a tyrant, ruling over the children of Israel, and he had to be dealt with if the nation was to get liberty, so the Lord in His sovereign mercy raised up Ehud.