Judges 6:11 – 16 “Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders about which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?” “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” “Surely I will be with you,” the LORD replied, “and you will strike down all the Midianites as one man.”
This is a great story. Israel has messed up again and the Midianites have been systematically looting the countryside for seven years. When the story opens, Gideon is threshing grain in a wine press to hide from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord suddenly shows up and greets Gideon “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
I suspect Gideon looks around, thinking the angel must mean somebody else. As soon as Gideon realizes that only the angel and he are there, Gideon’s first response is to blame God for everything. Obviously the Israelites have failed to teach their kids anything apart from the Exodus miracles, so Gideon has no sense of shame at what his people have done or are doing.
God is really patient! Instead of recounting all the ways the Israelites have failed to follow God, the angel simply orders Gideon to go fight the Midianites. “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”
APPLICATION: In an earlier generation, the Charles Atlas Body Building Course played on male pride with a series of ads making fun of a 97 pound weakling whose ribs were showing. Most of the ads involved the poor guy looking miserable in a bathing suit. One ad showed a bully kicking sand in the weakling’s face while his girlfriend looked on. Of course, these were the “before” pictures. In the follow – up, the 97 pound weakling would enroll in the Charles Atlas body building course, turning himself into a hunk and then would thrash the bully as his admiring girl friend watched.
When Gideon starts coming out with excuses, he really sounds like a wimp. “Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” If Gideon isn’t a 97 pound weakling, he certainly talks like one. But this is the great part of the story. Gideon has a very low opinion of himself, but God has different ideas.
Aunt Polly and Aunt Addy were two lady missionaries who partnered in missions for fifty years. We were privileged to know these two great ladies and to absorb some of their wisdom. These two ladies taught us that God wanted us to be human beings and not human doings, that God wanted to control our actions. The second major lesson these ladies taught us was that God was not interested in our ability but only in our availability.
When the Gideon story begins, Gideon doesn’t even really want to be available, but he’s afraid to say no. To Gideon, the idea that he is going to destroy the Midianites is ludicrous. But Gideon does make himself available, and grows into the work the Lord has for him.
Today God might be calling you into something that looks far too big for you to tackle. But God works through people, and if we will only yield ourselves to His perfect Will, He will do miracles through us. One teacher has remarked that the Holy Spirit put on Gideon like a glove. St. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”
Eventually, Gideon does allow God to work through him and miracles happen. God does not change; what He did through Gideon, He can also do through you. Trust him!
PRAYER: Father God, we are fearful! We want to do Your will, but the problems and the risks seem overwhelming. Help us to trust You and to remember that You are the Source of our strength. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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