He Passed Beyond the Idols...

 Judges 3:26 Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. 28 And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. 29 And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

As we saw yesterday, the time after Joshua is filled with the word "but." The people of Israel had much success, BUT they did not fully obey God.  This passage talks about God allowing the Moabites to be a major problem for Israel. Ehud delivered Israel by sneaking in and killing their king. What may not be obvious is why God had allowed Moab to bother Israel, but twice it mentions that Ehud "passed the idols." Israel had allowed Moab's false idols to infiltrate their land, setting them up near Gilgal, a holy city. How much trouble do we bring into our lives by allowing the idols of this world infiltrate our lives and homes?