Ehud was a ruler in Israel. He was left-handed, and, what was peculiar
about the tribe of Benjamin, to which he belonged, there were in it seven
hundred left-handed men; and yet, so dextrous had they all become in the
use of the left hand, the Bible says they could sling stones at a hair’s
breadth and not miss.
Well, there was a king by the name of Eglon, who was an oppressor of
Israel. He imposed upon them an outrageous tax.
Ehud, the man of whom I first spoke, had a divine commission to destroy
that oppressor. He came, pretending that he was going to pay the tax, and
asked to see King Eglon. He was told the king was in the Summer house,
the place to which his majesty retired when the heat was too great to
sit in the palace. This Summer house was a place surrounded by flowers,
springing fountains and trees--the latter filled with warbling birds.
Ehud entered the Summer house, and said to King Eglon that he had a
secret errand with him. Immediately all the attendants were waved out of
the royal presence. King Eglon rises up to receive the messenger. Ehud,
the left-handed man, puts his left hand to his right side, pulls out a
dagger, and thrusts Eglon through until the haft went in after the blade.
Eglon falls.
Ehud comes forth to blow a trumpet of right amidst the mountains of
Ephraim; and a great host is marshaled, and proud Moab submits to the
conqueror, and Israel is free.
I learn first, from this subject, the power of left-handed men. There are
men who, by physical organization, have as much strength in their left
hand as in their right hand; but there is something in the writing of the
fifteenth verse of the third chapter of Judges that implies Ehud had some
defect in his right hand, which compelled him to use the left.
Oh, the power of left-handed men! Genius is often self-observant,
careful of itself, not given to much toil, burning incense to its own
aggrandizement; while many a man, with no natural endowments, actually
defective in physical and mental organization, has an earnestness for the
right, a patient industry, an all-consuming perseverance, which achieve
marvels for the kingdom of the Lord. Though left-handed as Ehud, they can
strike down a sin as imperial as Eglon.
But I do not suppose that Ehud, the first time he took a sling in his
left hand, could throw a stone a hair’s breadth, and not miss. I suppose
it was practice that gave him the wonderful dexterity.
Go forth to your spheres of duty, and do not be discouraged if, in your
first attempts, you miss the mark. Ehud missed it.