In 1960, Bennett Cerf, founder of Random House publishers, bet Theodore Giesel $50 that he would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words. Theodore Giesel, better known as Dr. Seuss, took the bet and won, with his little book, Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, it has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.
Many authors would complain about writing a book with only 50 words. But Dr. Seuss took the tools he had and made a work of art instead. (James Clear, “The Weird Strategy Dr. Seuss Used to Create His Greatest Work,” JamesClear.com, 11-25-13; www. PreachingToday.com)
Many people live with constraints. Perhaps it’s a lack of education, a lack of resources, a painful past, or a physical disability. They’re at a disadvantage compared to others, but God can turn that disadvantage into an advantage. God can use that constraint to accomplish His perfect plan. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 3, Judges 3, where you can see how God can use your constraint.
Judges 3:12-14 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms. And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. (ESV)
Israel is at it again, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord strengthens an unexpected foe. God empowers a surprising adversary to discipline Israel.
Israel had left Moab behind decades before when they first entered the land. Moab was on the east side of the Jordan River. Israel was on the west side, having left Moab “in great dread” of them according to Numbers 22 (Numbers 22:3). Israel did not expect to have to deal with the Moabites anymore. But here they come, occupying the city of Israel’s first victory in the Promised Land, the city of palms, otherwise known as Jericho. It was humiliating as well as unexpected, but will God use it to get Israel’s attention. God strengthens an unexpected foe.
Then Israel cries out to the Lord, and God raises up an unexpected deliverer. He elevates a surprising savior.
Judges 3:15 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 Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. (ESV)
Ehud was from a small and insignificant tribe at the time, the tribe of Benjamin, and He was left-handed – lit., He was “bound in the right hand.” i.e., He couldn’t use it. He was disabled. Even so, this is the man God will use to deliver Israel.
As such, he reflects Jesus, also an unexpected Savior! His own people rejected Him, because He didn’t fit the mold. He didn’t come from the right family. He didn’t do what a Savior is supposed to do, and He didn’t look like a Savior is supposed to look.
Isaiah, looking 700 years ahead, said of Jesus, the Savior of the world, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3).
Jesus is not the Savior people expected just like Ehud. 1st, God strengthens an unexpected foe to discipline His people. 2nd, He raises up an unexpected deliverer when they cry out to Him.
Then God uses an unexpected method to save them. The Lord employs a surprising scheme to give them the victory.
Judges 3:16 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. (ESV)
Most warriors strap their sword to the left thigh, so they can draw it with their right hand. Ehud straps his sword to the right thigh, so he can draw it with his left hand – very unusual.
Judges 3:17-18 And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. (ESV)
The tribute probably included livestock and produce, which required several people to carry.
Judges 3:19 But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. (ESV)
On his way home, Ehud gets to the “idols near Gilgal” and turns back. Those “idols”, or more literally, the “sculptured stones” are most likely the memorial stones that commemorated Israel’s crossing of the Jordan River on dry ground (Joshua 4). Ehud gets to those stones and remembers how God delivered Israel before. His faith is revived, so he turns around with a secret message for the fat king, Eglon. Eglon orders all his attendants out of the room...
Judges 3:20-25 And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. (ESV)
Ehud surprises the king by drawing the sword with his left hand and escapes while the king’s attendants wait outside. They assume he is going to the bathroom. But when they get too embarrassed to wait any longer, they unlock the door and find him dead.
Unlike most warriors, Ehud used his left hand and a short sword to kill the enemy. In this way, he again reflects Jesus, who also used an unexpected way to defeat His enemy. Jesus didn’t go after His enemy with a sword or club, no! He went after His enemy with a cross!
The Bible says, “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:14-15, NLT).
Jesus defeated Satan on the cross. Jesus shamed the devil like Ehud shamed the fat king Eglon. It was totally unexpected, but God delights in doing the unexpected. He uses an unexpected foe to discipline His people. Then He raises up an unexpected deliverer, who uses an unexpected method.
After which God gives His people an unexpected victory. He grants them a surprising win over their enemies.
Judges 3:26-30 Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years. (ESV)
80 years was the longest period of rest Israel had during the time of the Judges. By that criteria, Ehud was the greatest Judge that Israel had during that time. God used a left-handed man, who employed a left-handed method, to give His people a left-handed win. That’s amazing, but that’s the way our unpredictable God works!
GOD USES UNEXPECTED PEOPLE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS TO FULFILL HIS UNEXPECTED PLANS.
That means God can use YOU no matter what your constraints are. God can employ YOU no matter the disadvantages. So...
LET GOD TURN YOUR DISADVANTAGE INTO AN ADVANTAGE.
Let God turn your disability into His ability. Let God leverage your liability for His good purposes.
If that’s what you want, then begin with faith. Believe that God CAN use you. Trust that God WILL use you, and depend on Him.
Ehud’s faith was revived at the sculptured stones in Gigal. He remembered what God had done for Israel when they first came into the land, drying up the Jordan River, and he trusted God to do intervene again. You do the same. Trust God to use you despite your limitations, or even BECAUSE OF your limitations.
Elisa Morgan, who for 20 years was president of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), once said:
I'm probably the least likely person to head a mothering organization. I grew up in a broken home. My parents were divorced when I was 5. My older sister, younger brother, and I were raised by my alcoholic mother.
While my mother meant well—truly she did—most of my memories are of my mothering her rather than her mothering me. Alcohol altered her love, turning it into something that wasn't love. I remember her weaving down the hall of our ranch home in Houston, Texas, glass of scotch in hand. She would wake me at 2 a.m. just to make sure I was asleep. I would wake her at 7 a.m. to try to get her off to work.
Sure, there were good times like Christmas and birthdays when she went all out and celebrated us as children. But even those days ended with the warped glow of alcohol. What she did right was lost in what she did wrong.”
When Elisa Morgan was asked to lead MOPS International, she went straight to her knees – and then to the therapist’s office. “How could God use ME,” she asked, “who had never been mothered to nurture other mothers?”
The answer came as she gazed into the eyes of other moms around her and saw their needs mirroring her own. Morgan said, “God seemed to take my deficits and make them my offering,” quoting what God said in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (Elisa Morgan, Christian Parenting Today, May/June 1999, p. 64; www.PreachingToday.com)
Offer your deficits to the Lord and trust Him to use you for His glory!
F. B. Meyer once said, “Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God; faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”
So believe in the Lord, not yourself. Trust that He CAN and WILL use your limitations. Depend on the Lord.
Then dare to serve Him. Risk putting yourself “out there” for God’s glory. Act with courage to fulfill His calling for you.
That’s what Ehud did! Despite his inability to use his right hand, he strapped on his sword, slew an enemy king, and served as Israel’s judge for 80 years.
You do the same. Dare to serve God even with your limitations, and don’t make those limitations an excuse for not serving Him.
In his book Disappointment with God, Philip Yancey talks about Carolyn Martin, one he describes as a “talented and very funny friend in Seattle,” who has Cerebral Palsy.
Yancey says, “It is the peculiar tragedy of her condition that its outward signs – drooling, floppy arm movements, inarticulate speech, a bobbing head – cause people who meet her to wonder if she is retarded. Actually, her mind is the one part of her that works perfectly; it is muscular control that she lacks.
“Everyone on campus knew Carolyn as ‘the disabled person.’ They would see her sitting in a wheelchair, hunched over, painstakingly typing out notes on a device called a Canon Communicator. Few felt comfortable talking with her; they could not follow her jumbled sounds. But Carolyn persevered, stretching out a two-year Associate of Arts degree program over seven years. Next, she enrolled in a Lutheran college to study the Bible. After two years there, she was asked to speak to her fellow students in chapel.
“Carolyn worked many hours on her address. She typed out the final draft – at her average speed of 45 minutes a page – and asked her friend Josee to read it for her. Josee had a strong, clear voice.
“On the day of the chapel service, Carolyn sat slumped in her wheelchair on the left side of the platform. At times, her arms jerked uncontrollably, her head lolled to one side so that it almost touched her shoulder, and a stream of saliva sometimes ran down her blouse. Beside her stood Josee, who read the mature and graceful prose Carolyn had composed, centered around this Bible text: ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God but not from us’ (2 Cor. 4:7).
“For the first time, some students saw Carolyn as a complete human being, like themselves. Before then her mind, a very good mind, had always been inhibited by a ‘disobedient’ body, and difficulties with speech had masked her intelligence. But hearing her address read aloud as they looked at her onstage, the students could see past the body in a wheelchair and imagine a whole person.”
Yancey says the scene became for him “a parable of transposition: a perfect mind locked inside a spastic, uncontrolled body, and vocal cords that fail at every second syllable.” Yancey says the New Testament image of Christ as head of the body took on a new meaning as he gained a sense of both the humiliation that Christ undergoes in his role as head, and also the exaltation that he allows us, the members of his body. (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God, Zondervan, 1988, pp. 227-228; www. PreachingToday.com)
Imagine the God of the Universe dwelling inside a spastic body. It seems incomprehensible, but that’s exactly what Christ does in His church. Compared to Christ, all of us are severely handicapped. And yet, the Christ who dwells within every believer wants to do His work through them!
Please, let the Lord use you for His glory! Depend on Him. Dare to serve Him, and do what you can. Don’t bemoan the things you cannot do. Just get busy with the things you can do.
If you can’t use your right hand, then use your left! That’s what Ehud did, and God used him to save Israel. God can use you, as well. Just do what you can in dependence upon Him.
In early 1998, the editor at Esquire magazine asked Tom Junod, one of their reporters, to write a profile on Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. By the time Junod was done writing the story, he had become friends with Mister Rogers and they remained close until Rogers’s death, in early 2003. Just a few years ago (2017), Esquire republished Junod’s article on Mister Rogers. The article included a story about the time Mister Rogers visited a teenager with Cerebral Palsy in California. Juno writes:
At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous, in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room. Mister Rogers waited patiently and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers said, “I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?”
On his computer, the boy answered yes, and Mister Rogers said, “I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?”
Junod says that the boy was “thunderstruck” because “nobody had ever asked him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would. He said he'd try. After that, he kept Mister Rogers in his prayers and didn’t talk about wanting to die anymore. That’s because he figured Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too.”
Tom Junod asked Mister Rogers how he knew what to say to make the boy feel better.
He responded: “Oh, heavens no, Tom! I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.” (Tom Junod, Can You Say...Hero? Esquire, Apr 6, 2017, originally published in the Nov 1998 issue; www.PreachingToday.com)
Mister Rogers understood the valuable contribution even severely handicapped individuals can make, and prayer is the greatest contribution! If all you can do is pray, then at least do that.
Depend on the Lord, dare to serve Him, and do what you can if you want God to turn your disadvantage into an advantage.
Eric Liddell put it this way: Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and Gods plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. Our broken lives are not lost or useless. God's love is still working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out his wonderful plan of love. (Eric Liddell, “Disciplines of the Christian Life,” Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 9; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, trust God to work out His wonderful plan of love through your limitations.
