Judges 3 · a question people ask
Ehud told Eglon, "I have a message from God to you" (3:20). Was that deception, and was it right?
Ehud says, "I have a secret message for you, O king" (3:19), and when they are alone, "I have a message from God to you" (3:20). Then he kills him (3:21). Judges tells it without comment. What it does say is that "the LORD raised up a savior for them: Ehud" (3:15), and Ehud tells Israel, "the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand" (3:28). The New Testament doesn't name Ehud. Christians read his words in more than one way, as they do Rahab's answer to the king's men (Joshua 2:4-6) and the Hebrew midwives' answer to Pharaoh (Exodus 1:19); Joshua 2 and Exodus 1 ask the same question. All the views agree on what the chapter says: the LORD raised Ehud up, and Moab was subdued (3:30).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A deceiving answer, and still wrong
Those who hold this view take his words as meant to deceive and hold that deceiving was still wrong, since God's law says, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16), and "Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 12:22). They note that Judges calls Ehud a savior the LORD raised up (3:15) but says nothing about his words either way. On this reading, God working through Ehud to free Israel doesn't make every word he said right.
Exodus 20:16 · Proverbs 12:22 · Judges 3:15
Deceiving an enemy in war was right here
Those who hold this view read his words as part of the war the LORD gave him. Moab had struck Israel (3:13) and Israel had served Eglon eighteen years (3:14); the LORD raised Ehud up (3:15), and Ehud says the LORD delivered Moab into Israel's hand (3:28). At Ai the LORD himself told Joshua, "Set an ambush for the city behind it" (Joshua 8:2). They read Rahab and the Hebrew midwives the same way: Joshua gives as the reason Rahab was spared, "because she hid the messengers that we sent" (Joshua 6:17); the midwives "saved the baby boys alive" (Exodus 1:17), answered the king (Exodus 1:19), and "God dealt well with the midwives" (Exodus 1:20).
Judges 3:13-15 · Judges 3:28 · Joshua 8:2 · Joshua 6:17 · Exodus 1:17-20
His words may not have been untrue
Those who hold this view note that the Hebrew word the WEB gives as "message" in both verses (3:19, 3:20) can mean a word or a thing (tap message). Ehud did have something secret for the king (3:19), and the LORD had raised him up against Moab (3:15). On this reading, what Ehud brought Eglon was from God, though he didn't say what it was.
Judges 3:15 · Judges 3:19-20
The verses
“But when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.”
“But he himself turned back from the stone idols that were by Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” The king said, “Keep silence!” All who stood by him left him. Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, “I have a message from God to you.” He arose out of his seat. Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body.”
“He said to them, “Follow me; for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” They followed him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn’t allow any man to pass over.”
“So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. Then the land had rest eighty years.”