“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
This is only one place of many in scripture that mentions God’s right hand. I’ve often wondered why this characteristic is written down this way, that God’s right hand is metaphorically dominant. After doing research, I’m still not sure, but I did find out information about handedness in humans and maybe why the reference to His right hand is important here.
It’s estimated that only 10% of the world’s population is left-handed. There was a time in ancient history that those who were south pawed were accused of mental illness. Sometime in the 19th century, American teachers and doctors were encouraged to pressure students to switch hands. Thank goodness we don’t do that anymore.
Left-handedness might be genetic; maybe it runs in families. And though that’s not been proven, there is some theory that this is why a few families have some lefties and some don’t.
In my family, however, I have one aunt who was left-handed and only one of her ten children was left-handed. Both of my parents were right-handed, and my older sister is left-handed, but she has no children, grandchildren or great grandchildren who are left-handed. My husband and I are right-handed and yet we have one son who is totally left-handed and another who is cross dominant (he does some things with his right and some with his left). So, at least in our family, the attribute seems somewhat random.
Many famous people have been left hand dominant. Presidents James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama were all southpaws. What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office.
Other leftie notables Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Prince William, Babe Ruth, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
A University College London psychologist states that “lefties have made up a disproportionately larger number of high achievers throughout history.”
So why does the right hand of God seem to be the place of honor, strength, and importance? The Father is anthropomorphized (given human qualities) many places in the Bible, but this attribute seems to be a consistent trait throughout. Always His right hand rescues us, protects us, sustains us. And now according to the Gospel of Mark (16:19), Jesus was taken up into heaven and is now sitting at the right hand of God.
And then in that same Isaiah chapter, (Isaiah 41: 13) the prophet writes, “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’” So south paws, don’t worry about hand dominance. He’s got the whole world in His hands (both of them).
Hello, Nan! I am glad to get this email at my new email address! And now I know it works! Thank you, Lord God! Mary and I are both doing well after being married for 70 years!
I don’t know if I have gotten into this with you or not, but when I was approaching retirement from IBM I did some genealogy research to calculate average lifespan for my Corbitt male first cousins (there were 19 of us and I was the youngest — and the only one living at the time! And the average lifespan for my Corbitt male fist cousins was 66. So when I retired at age 63 I did not expect to reach 70! So no one is more surprised than me that I am now 91 years old! God has been very good to me!