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28
DEVOTIONAL
Remember Your Landmark and Your Left Hand
About 10 percent of the people in the
world are left-handed, and they live
with frustration. The world was not
made for them. Things do not work well for
left-handers.
Almost everything we use is designed for
right-handers — paper cutters, camera buttons,
bicycle bells, pay phones, scissors.
Everything that cranks, cranks righthanded
— pencil sharpeners, can openers,
pepper mills.
Most musical instruments are designed
for the right-hander — guitars, trumpets,
trombones, saxophones. The hard parts for
the piano are for the right hand.
Our language also has it in for lefties. We
talk about someone having “two left feet.” But
when we do something noble and important,
we “lift our right hand to swear” to the truth.
Even the Bible seems to prefer righthanded
people: “Don’t let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing.” And when
Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, the
sheep get the chosen place at his right hand;
the goats get the rejected place at his left.
And if you feel entirely “left out,” what are
you going to do? Appeal to the “Bill of Rights”?
Left-handed people have a hard time, and
the rest of us are kind of amused as they try to
make their clumsy way through life.
But there’s a story in the Bible of a lefthanded
man who sees that God can use his
uniqueness (Judges 3:12-30). His name is
Ehud, and his plan is to assassinate Eglon,
king of Moab, and free Israel from years of
oppression.
Ehud hides an 18-inch, double-edged
blade, with no crossbar, under his clothes on
his right thigh. He intends to sneak it past the
guards while presenting Israel’s annual tribute
to Eglon. The guards will be eyeing left thighs,
the normal place for a right-hander’s weapon.
But when the opportunity presents itself, Ehud
fails to act and leaves the palace discouraged
and defeated.
On his way home, he passes a landmark, a
historical marker — the twelve large stones that
Israel had brought out of the dry riverbed when
God had cut off the Jordan at flood stage so they
could enter the land (Joshua 3-4). The stones
were to be a memorial that God’s power had
brought Israel into the land and given it to
Getty
them forever.
Over the 100 years since Joshua had
created the memorial, however, Israel had
forgotten the true meaning of the stones. The
stones had become a distant memory, a
legend, a myth, a good-luck charm. That’s why
the Bible calls them “idols” in this passage —
literally “shaped stones,” “stones shaped like
they were cut from a quarry, or smoothed by
water.” Instead of using the word “memorial,”
the Bible simply calls them “shaped stones”
that have become like an idol because Israel
has forgotten their true meaning.
But as Ehud goes by them on his way
home, he stops and looks at the pile of
stones. And their original meaning comes
back to him. He is struck again by what they
stand for — “These stones mean that God has
given us this land, not Moab. Moab has no
right to be here. This is our land. God gave it
to us forever.”
With fresh courage, he returns to Eglon’s
palace. He remembers his landmark and his
left hand, and he does something for God that
no right-handed man could do.
My friend, you too have landmark
moments in your life, memorial times when
you came face to face with the power of God.
You have moments in your past when you were
overwhelmed with God’s presence and stunned
by his reality.
Out of those landmark moments, God
calls you to his service. And he has given you
some unique ability, some special skill to do
something for him that others cannot do. You
have a “left hand” that God’s people need, and
he calls you to serve his people with it.
Remember your landmark and your
left hand.
Donald Sunukjian
is a professor of Christian ministry
and leadership and serves as the
homiletics (preaching) chair in
Biola’s seminary, Talbot School of
Theology. Sunukjian has served
as a senior pastor for 14 years and
has two doctorates: one in
theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and
one in communication from the University of
California, Los Angeles.
BIOLA