Webster's defines a hero as: a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities. If we are honest, we look for the traits that we find most attractive in humanity. Bravery, courage, physical strength, physical beauty, as close to perfection as can be humanly attained. Isn't that right? If you disagree with me, when is the last hero movie you saw an ugly hero? Right!
When you think of a hero, how often do you think of an outcast? A physical handicap? Or a social stigma?
This week we are going to look at a story of a man who lived his entire life with a social stigma, an outcast. An yet that did not prevent him from rescuing his entire nation from the oppression of a wicked king (Judges 3:12-30).
In the Ancient Near Eastern culture, and many other cultures, there was a suspicious view of left handed people. If you were left handed, you were considered less of a person. The right hand was the symbol of dominance, of power and of strength. Those born left handed were encouraged all their life to learn to be right handed so as not to offend anyone.
Social stigmas can be very hard and demoralizing. Social stigmas can be part of the larger cultural context or a localized phenomena. For instance, as a child I had very bright red hair and had freckles all over my face. Adults thought I was adorable (who wouldn't, right? haha), yet children were vicious. "Freckled face freak!" they would scream at me! To make matters worse, I got glasses and became the "four eyed freckled face freak!" I hated my red hair, I hated my freckles and glasses. I got in fights. I ran away from this and it was hard to find friends.
Yet as I grew older, the bright red faded. The freckles on my face diminished. And the harshness of childhood faded. I was able to move beyond my earlier struggles, but yet there were times I was so angry and sad. Yet I have to ask myself, what if this wasn't just a season of my childhood, but an every day event for the rest of my life experience?
That is more like what Ehud had to face. And yet God called him to be the deliverer for His people. Israel had fallen back into their cycle of rebellion. The consequence for this was that God raised up Moab to oppress Israel. Under the oppression the people cried out to God for deliverance. And God answered with Ehud.
Now the people must have been wondered why Ehud? Because Ehud was left-handed he was the unlikely candidate. Yet God called Ehud specifically because he was left-handed. The social stigma against left-handedness was so strong that the opposing king, Eglon, never assumed anyone was left-handed.
Ehud took tribute to Eglon and affixed his sword to his right leg. When he was admitted to the king's presence, they checked his left leg, for it was custom to draw your sword across your body. They never checked his right leg!
Ehud told the king he had a secret message from God for him. Eglon dismissed everyone from his throne room and Ehud drew his sword and plunged it into Eglon's fat gut! Which, by the way, was so fat large that the fat enveloped the hilt of the sword...gross! Ehud escaped and gathered the armies of Israel and defeated Moab.
I am so thankful that we live in the New Testament Era and not in Old Testament times! Ehud was called to deliverer a people from an oppressive king, and his handicap turned out to be the key to his victory. Ehud didn't take credit for this victory but immediately declared the Lord as the victor!
What appeared to others as weakness, was the vehicle of God's deliverance. What man looks at as weakness, God can use in strength! Each of us have our own insecurities. Some deal with real social stigmas that are unfairly placed upon them, such as Ehud had. This may be due to race, skin color, physical features, past experiences, etc. Yet at some level, everyone of us gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror and sees inadequacies. We see things that we hate, that we think limit us. When we should be seeing opportunities for the strength and glory of God to be revealed!
What's holding you back? What weakness causes you to fear? When we are weak, He is strong! Rely on the strength of God and watch as He does amazing things in your life!
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