Focus On Feet Series

Centuries ago the Danes decided to invade Scotland. They

very cleverly moved their great army in the night so they could

creep up on the Scottish forces and take them by

surprise. In order to make this advance as noiseless as

possible they came barefooted. As they neared the sleeping

Scots, one unfortunate Dane brought his foot down on a

bristling thistle. He let out with a roar of pain that was like a

trumpet blast which rang through the sleeping camp.

The Scots were alerted, and quickly grabbed their weapons,

and the Danes were driven back.

One could say that they came within one foot of victory,

but one foot led to their defeat. The thistle from that time on

was adopted as the national emblem of Scotland. Feet are

vital for the onward march, but they can also be your foe and

lead you to defeat because of their weakness. Not all have the

feet of the Kentucky backwoods farmer who never wore

shoes. One day he came into the cabin and stood by the

fireplace with his callused feet. His wife said, "You'd better

move your feet a mite, you're standin on a live coal." He

replied, "Which foot?" Unfortunately, most foot soldiers do

not have feet that tough. Even Achilles, the great Greek

warrior, had one weak spot, and that was the heel of his foot.

It was by means of an arrow in his heel that he was brought

to defeat. Our feet determine whether we stand or fall in

more ways than one.

The statue, or government, or organization, with feet of

clay is easily toppled. When we want somebody to become

independent, we tell them to stand on their own two feet, and

to get both feet on the ground. The unstable position and

shaky argument puts a man where we say he doesn't have a

leg to stand on. All of the many texts about the Christian

walk and the Christian stand make clear that feet are

essential equipment for the Christian life, for you cannot

stand or walk without feet.

The feet can bring you to defeat, or they can march you to

victory. Either way the feet play a major role in every life,

and that includes the life of our Lord. There are 27

references to the feet of Jesus in the New Testament. That is

likely a greater focus on feet than you will find in the

biography of any other man. Biblical times were times of far

greater foot consciousness. There are 4 Hebrew and 2 Greek

words for feet. There are 162 references to feet in the Old

Testament, and 75 in the New Testament. Feet were just

more conspicuous in that world where walking, marching,

and cleaning of feet, and sitting at the feet of others, were

daily events.

The feet of Jesus were exposed, and so more people beheld

the feet of Christ than other great men of history. The feet of

Jesus were the center of so much of His activity. In Matt.

15:30 we read, "Great crowds came to Him, bringing the

lame, blind, the crippled, the dumb and many others, and

laid them at His feet, and He healed them." Mary became

famous for sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking in the

wisdom of His teaching. Many were laid at His feet unable to

walk, and Jesus lifted them up and stood them on their own

two feet again, and enabled them to walk and be restored to

the world of folks with feet that would function again. Only

those who have lost the ability to walk can appreciate how

beautiful it must have been to be laid at the feet of one, who

because He created feet could fix them, and make them work

again.

"I cried because I had no shoes till I saw a man who had

no feet," is a popular saying, but here were crowds who wept

for joy, for those with no feet walked away from the feet of

Jesus having been made whole. Walking is being revived in

our day for health and exercise, but in the day of Christ

walking was a necessity, and that is why one of the most

frequent miracles of the New Testament was that of making

the lame walk. To be put back on your feet was to be given

new life. We take our feet for granted, and do not often

consider that they are one of the wonders of creation.

Leonardo da Vinci called the feet, "A masterpiece of

engineering and a work of art." There are 26 bones in each

foot or 52 in both, and that is one forth of the bones in our

body. By means of these instruments the average person by