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Judges 3:12-17  Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.  Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.  The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.  Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer – Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite.  The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.  Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit [47 cm] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.  He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.

Way back in my school days (1945-57), the way naturally left-handed people (including my younger brother) were forced to learn to write ‘properly’ with their right hand was a little ‘barbaric’.  In my pre-computer Engineering days we had to learn to print very carefully and neatly, so I became very frustrated with my own young children when they couldn’t manage to do the same.  In their defence, their mother suggested that I try printing with my left hand and the result was disastrous, but the exercise taught me a very valuable lesson, which also, belatedly, made me more sympathetic towards what my younger brother had been through, both at school and at home (my father was also an Engineer).

Google helped me with the following comments on today’s verses:

“In Ehud we see a pattern: A marginalized man is raised up; a private pain becomes a national turning point; a bound hand becomes the arm of the Lord; and all this is foreshadowing Christ.  Ehud is a type  -  a shadow of Jesus Christ, the greater Deliverer who came not with armies, but in weakness.  Christ was despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3), yet through the cross  -  a weapon of shame  -  he struck the final blow to sin and Satan.  Just as Ehud approached the enemy’s throne alone, with a hidden blade, so Jesus approached the powers of darkness alone, bearing the hidden wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:7-8).

“God sent Ehud to stab a king in his belly (Judges 3:21); God sent Jesus to crush the serpent’s under his heel (Romans 16:20).  What an excellent lesson is here for us – and for our children through us: if you’ve ever felt like your limitations disqualify you, consider Ehud: maybe your disability, trauma, or difference isn’t your disadvantage, but your divine appointment; maybe the thing others overlook is the very thing God wants to use for his glory; maybe God isn’t waiting for you to get stronger – but for you to trust him with your weakness.  ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Final Word: the bound hand still delivers.  Ehud didn’t heal his hand.  He didn’t wait to be like everyone else.  He strapped the sword to his weakness and walked straight into enemy territory with a message from God.  So must we.  God isn’t looking for the strongest or the sharpest – he’s looking for the surrendered.  He still uses the Ehuds – the underestimated, the bound-handed, the ones who carry hidden weapons of obedience.  You may be bound in the right hand, but you are not bound in the hand of God.  ‘But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;  God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Corinthians 1:27).”

– Bruce Christian