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The Original Rocky

Judges 3:15-16
Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes.

Doesn’t it strike you as a bit unusual that of all the attributes God could’ve provided regarding Ehud, he chooses the seemingly marginal note that Ehud is left-handed? Think of it: Ehud is growing up in a generation that has once again abandoned the LORD for the Baals, once again exchanged sacred ceremony for sacrilegious malpractice, yet evidently Ehud hasn’t bowed the knee. For eighteen years he’s watched his family and friends and neighbors being oppressed in their own land, yet we’re given no insight into his upbringing or battle training or spiritual development. We don’t know if he’s a shepherd like David, plying his trade against wolves and lions, or whether perhaps he’s an ironsmith toiling in his father’s shop, secretly forging new weapons. We’re given none of the seemingly really important background information that might be useful for application. Only that he’s left-handed.

Ah, but God doesn’t waste time on trivialities, friend. If He wants readers through all generations to know that Ehud is left-handed, then that’s a necessary point to the narrative. So let’s reflect on that mystery for a moment. Maybe being left-handed was unusually rare in Israel’s ranks. Maybe Ehud is the only member of his tribe and clan with such a characteristic. In fact, maybe he’s the only southpaw in all Israel at this stage. Maybe the kids in class mocked him growing up every time he harnessed a horse or slung a stone or ate an apple, because he always did it backwards in their minds. Maybe there were days Ehud got so fed up with being bullied or left out or laughed at that he shouted up to Heaven in his frustration, “Why did you have to make me so different?!”

Friend, God never gives us our oddities or frailties or perceived deformities on accident. In fact, often it’s those very parts we love least about ourselves that God most exalts for His glory.

 

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