Audio Recording Sermon manuscript: The promised land, the land of Canaan, was not a very large area geographically. The length of it, north to south, was a little less than the length of Iowa, north to south. Its width was much less than the state of Iowa. It was only perhaps a fifth of Iowa’s width, east to west. So if you take one fifth of Iowa, you’d be able to fit the land of Canaan inside those borders. So when the Bible talks about different places and regions, it is talking in pretty intimate terms geographically speaking. Some of the places mentioned would be like talking about Lamont or Hawkeye or Quasqi to us. Further away places, foreign places that neighbored the promised land, would be like us talking about people from Albert Lea or Madison. The people who originally had the Scriptures, the Jews, who lived in the promised land, would have known these places and peoples just like we know our own geography near us. The reason why so many names and places are used is because this would have been of great interest to them. It was their own history. It was their own place and time. We are at a disadvantage compared to them. These names and places are not familiar to us. We don’t know how they relate or the regional differences that existed. For example, in our own times we know that the people of Clayton county are quite different than the people of Johnson county. So also there would have been definite differences between the Moabites and the Philistines. The Moabites lived in a desolate remote area. The Philistines lived along the Mediterranean Sea coast. They were where all the trade routes went. These kinds of things affect the character and habits of people. When we are able to learn a little bit more about the people we read about, it helps us form a bit more interesting of a mental picture of who we are dealing with. In our reading tonight, the main antagonist that we hear about is a king named Eglon. He was king of the Moabites, whom we’ve already mentioned. The Moabites lived to the east of the Jordan River and along the Dead Sea. The Bible tells us that they were the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, who at one time lived in Sodom by the Dead Sea. Perhaps you will remember that when Lot and his family left Sodom, his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. So Lot was left with his two daughters. Moab was born to the elder of those daughters who became pregnant in an incestuous tryst with her father. The younger daughter, who did the same thing, became pregnant and bore a son named Amon. So the Moabites and the Amonites were very distant relatives of the Israelites. The Israelites were descended from Abraham. The Moabites and Amonites were descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. At the time of our reading, Eglon, the king of the Moabites, appears to have strung together a coalition against the Israelites. The Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites all lived to the east of the promised land. By joining their forces they were able to subdue the Israelites so that the Israelites had to pay tribute to Eglon for 18 years. But why did the Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites feel the need to attack Israel in the first place? Realize that when the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan, they threw everything into turmoil in that whole region. Four hundred years had passed between when Jacob lived in Canaan and when his descendants finally came back again. Many generations of people had made their livings and raised their children in the meantime. When the Israelites came back, all these relationships were threatened. Whenever there is a newcomer to power, the old powers are resentful and will often rise against them. Israel was the new power in that neighborhood, and their neighbors to the east resented them for it. If the Israelites had remained faithful to what God had given them to do, then their eastern neighbors would not have been a problem for them. With God on their side they would have prevaile