Thumbs and Big Toes

Judges 1:6-7
Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 And Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me." Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

Have you ever thought about the uses of certain parts of the human body? Like, what is the appendix really for? Or, do we really need our pinky fingers? Do the eyebrows really serve a purpose? We can be assured that each part of our body has a God- ordained purpose. But try to imagine going through life having lost a part of the body that is essential, such as a leg or an arm.

In the passage above, the Israelites had captured an enemy king, Adoni-Bezek, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. We find that this wicked king had done the same to those he had captured. As he had done, it was now done to him.

What would this king’s purpose be in cutting off people’s big toes and thumbs? Really, it rendered them defenseless in battle. Without their thumbs, they could not hold on to the swords. And since the big toe plays a big part in walking, not having them made them pretty much immobile.

So, what is the picture for us nowadays? We also have an enemy, and he’s not interested in your physical thumbs and toes. But he does want to incapacitate you. Just as the loss of the thumb for those ancient soldiers meant that they could not grip their swords, so the enemy wants to cause us to lose our grip on the Sword of the Spirit, the word of God. How does he do that? He will use our trials and hard times to cause us to doubt the Word. He also uses distractions and busyness to keep us from the Word.

But he also wants to “cut off our toe”. Without the big toes, walking is severely hindered. The Devil wants to hinder our walk in Christ. He wants nothing more than to render us lame in our relationship with the Lord, by various temptations to sin, and by the cares of life. If he can keep us in sin, he can keep us in guilt in shame, and in so doing, keep us out of the presence of God.

Remember friends, Satan wants to make you ineffective, because he knows that those who are truly sold-out, crucified Christians will cause the kingdom of darkness great harm. God bless.