Leadership lessons from a left handed guy

As one born left-handed, I notice other lefties. My granddaughter draws pretty ponies with her crayons using her left hand. Fellow workers at company picnics throw the softball left-handed. Accountants pull out crisp yellow pads and meticulously write on them in a neat left hand.

It’s not unusual, then, that I would notice Ehud, even though he’s not well known. His story is told in only 21 verses, beginning with Jdg. 3:12.

Ehud’s left-handedness is significant. In ancient Jewish culture, no parent wanted a child to grow up with the stigma of being left-handed. Many scholars believe Ehud was crippled in his right hand, which forced him to become a lefty. But his disability didn’t preclude him from becoming a leader.

You may not have a physical handicap like Ehud’s. But it is likely that you are a leader—of a company, a church, an elder board, an outreach ministry, a Sunday school class, or a five-year-old at home. Let’s see what we leaders can learn from this lefty who did not let his disadvantage limit him.

A Man Who Took Risks

In Jdg. 3:16 we find Ehud making an 18-inch sword, sharpened on both sides. Not so startling, except that the Moabites, who had ruled Israel for 18 years, did not look kindly on a Jew with a weapon.

The Moabites were cruel occupiers of Jewish lands. The Moabite king, an exceedingly fat man named Eglon, set up his headquarters in Jericho and forced the Jews to pay yearly tribute.

Now it was time for Ehud’s tribe of Benjamin to send an entourage bearing tribute they could ill afford across 30 miles to King Eglon.

But Ehud had a plan—a long shot. It meant going to Jericho with the tribute, getting past the guards (with their 72-inch spears), secretly killing Eglon with his homemade 18-inch dagger, then escaping alive to return home with his fellow Israelites. Sounds more like James Bond than the Bible!

Ehud really wasn’t suicidal. He simply realized that wishing wasn’t going to make the Moabites go away. So he took the initiative to craft a strategy and a weapon.

After his entourage presented the tribute, Ehud dismissed them to return home. Then he whispered to King Eglon, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

Eglon suggested they meet privately in an upper room. He wasn’t worried about foul play—after all, Ehud was a cripple.

Once they were alone, Ehud declared, “I have a message from God for you.” Then with his left hand, he drew his hidden dagger and thrust it into Eglon’s belly. Judges 3:22 says the handle of the dagger disappeared into the folds of Eglon’s fat. Then Ehud slipped out through the porch entrance, undetected by the palace guards.

Do you take initiative?

Maybe you, too, have a preposterous idea. You’ve never actually mentioned it to anyone, but you can’t get it out of your mind. Like Ehud’s, your idea may be a long shot, but it just might work to solve a production problem at work or a teenager problem at home.

Now and then a wild idea succeeds. Sometimes you’ve got to go with your gut. It’s not reasonable or rational. It won’t look good if you fail. But you’ve got to try.

Ehud’s scheme posed major problems. What if the curious bulge on his right thigh was detected? What about the Moabite equivalent of metal detectors? Would he receive a private audience with the king? Would his entourage escape?

Your idea may present problems, too. Don’t pretend they’re not there, but instead identify the negatives and what-ifs. When you understand the downside, you can improve your plan and summon additional courage. Or perhaps rethinking your plan will cause you to abandon it because it truly deserves abandoning.

“But I’m not creative,” you cry. “I can’t even think of a plan!” While it’s true that some people are more creative than others, everyone becomes creative when desperate. How badly do you want to solve the problem?

Besides, taking initiative does not always imply creativity. The best plans are often simple. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can’t initiate because you are not creative. Hammering out an 18-inch dagger takes more courage than creativity.

Where is your follow-through?

Ehud did not stop with killing Eglon. What good would it have done to kill one Moabite king? The Moabites would simply replace him with another just as cruel, and kill a few hundred Israelites out of revenge. Some plan, Ehud!

However, Jdg. 3:27 says Ehud “blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim,” and Israelite warriors streamed out of the hills, “taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab” (v. 28). This, too, was part of Ehud’s plan. His fellow Jews from all over Israel had secretly prepared to fight at this prearranged signal.

Because of Ehud’s follow-through, the Israelites drove the Moabites out of their land, striking down 10,000 men. “Not a man escaped” (v. 29).

This raises a second question for leaders: Where is your follow-through? Without the infrastructure of a prepared army, Ehud would have accomplished little except to anger the Moabites. Because of infrastructure, the Moabites were driven out, and Israel enjoyed peace for 80 years.

Today a lot is being written about the importance of vision for leaders. Leaders must cast a vision for followers, we are told. Inspire them. Paint a big, exciting picture.

But too many leaders stop there. They don’t think beyond the heroic deed. Ehud’s vision was exciting, but it was his prearranged infrastructure that brought success.

I confess—I find it easier to start stuff than to finish it. One stifling summer, as a kid on my dad’s Iowa farm, I launched a plan to build a swimming pool in the grove behind the machine shed. Like Ehud, I faced many objections to my grand vision, mostly from my two younger brothers, who knew they’d be pressed into digging duty.

My vision didn’t waver, however. I even imagined lining the pit with cement so the water would be clear and clean like the new pool in town, not like the “old pig mud-hole” my brother Terry said it would be.

We began digging. Then a neighbor kid came by and teased us: “Whatcha doing? Diggin’ your grave?”

Now the doubts set in. Where would we get the cement? How do you mix that stuff anyway? And how do you get it to stick to the sides?

Today, if you wander to the grove on my dad’s farm, you can see the remains of what looks like an “old pig mud-hole” now filled with tree branches and crumpled, rusting barbed wire. I had a great dream but lacked the infrastructure to bring it to pass.

Some leaders are forever starting new programs. Good programs. After all, the first days of new projects are fun and exciting. Flip charts are quickly filled with grand plans. But before launching still another new program, consider what it will take to follow through. Have you identified the obstacles? Do you have the skills to make it happen? The staff? The money? The equipment? Don’t let questions about infrastructure stop you from dreaming. But unless you think your dreams through to completion, you will be merely a visionary, perhaps even a hero, but not a leader.

The Apostle Paul knew about infrastructure. Although he was a church-planting pioneer, he still followed through. In Acts 15:36 he said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

Jesus spoke of the importance of follow-through in Lk. 14:31. “Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”

Planning infrastructure takes energy. Sometimes leaders are tempted to delegate the hard work of follow-through so they can major on dreaming. Not Ehud. According to Jdg. 3:27, when the Israelites came streaming out of the hills to fight the Moabites, Ehud was in the lead.

Follow-through is an important difference between a leader and a visionary.

Who are you training to carry on your vision?

In Jdg. 4:1 we read, “After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” That is the final verse of Scripture about Ehud. Even though the land was undisturbed by enemies for 80 years (Jdg. 3:30), the children of Israel went back to doing evil after their leader Ehud died.

Would the history of Israel have been different if Ehud had left a legacy of strong, godly leaders? The same question could be asked of other leaders in the Bible. Whom did Gideon leave behind? Or Joshua? Or Rehoboam?

Paul exhorted Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:2 to entrust the teaching he’d learned from Paul to “faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (KJV). Similarly, although Jesus was busy with public ministry, He purposely took time to train 12 disciples. Look carefully at where Jesus spent His time, especially in His closing months. Developing future leaders does not happen by accident.

Are you purposely recruiting and developing protégés who believe in your vision as much as you do? Who will carry out your dreams once you are gone?

Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, constantly asked, “Where’s your man? Where’s your woman? Where is that one you are giving your life to?”

Too many of us are preoccupied with just getting through our weekly do-list. We seldom think about training replacements or grooming our followers to carry more responsibility.

A Legacy for Leaders

As you lead, let the legacy of Ehud challenge you. Ask yourself these three questions:

Am I taking initiative… or waiting?

Do I have an infrastructure for my initiatives?

Am I recruiting and training protégés?

I have found these questions to be a helpful checklist as I attempt to serve Christ. They are simple but profound, even if they do come from a left-handed guy we’ve barely heard of!

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