The Hard Draw

(was supposed to be posted Sunday night, but airplane was late...)

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.

I'm probably the only one among us who's had to fight with a sword / sword-like weapon, the description in this passage was as impressive as it was a bit graphic. To draw a weapon with your other hand while your right hand is extended (offering tribute) takes some skill, as well as the fact that a foot-long blade is a lot bigger than your average knife. I guess the guards didn't do a very good job of frisking Ehud.

As a sort of personal application, assassinating somebody is a pretty extreme thing to do. I wonder how Ehud felt about the task after God called him to do it... I'm not sure I could easily do something that extreme if God called me to.