I had a rough weekend – but things are feeling normal again. Thank you for sticking with me. Today we read Judges 6-8. There are several lessons we can learn from Gideon.
Nothing to fear
Midian was oppressing Israel. These were the people of God. He had delivered them from Egypt, parted seas and rivers, brought down walls, and helped them defeat giants. That wasn’t enough, I guess, because here comes Midian and they run off and hide in caves.
Today, the news focuses on the pervasive fear affecting everyone. We are all waiting for the next pandemic. Certain if our health doesn’t disrupt us, the economy will. Whatever political party we align with, we are sure the other one is trying to destroy everything we hold dear.
Fear sells more than sex these days. Advertising and storylines used to focus on raw sensuality. Now it is all centered on fear.
George Orwell, in the books 1984 and Animal Farm foretold of this. Although I do not believe in latter-day prophets, I think he was spot on in predicting the days we are living in.
We lose focus
The problem arises from Israel thinking too highly of themselves. This is a failing we also own.
When they think it is their own efforts. They worship the leaders God had placed over them instead of God.
This does not differ from worshipping the creation instead of the creator. Idolatry in any form is sin.
When God provides us with success, we turn to worshipping the success, instead of the Lord behind it.
We join a fitness program and start feeling better than ever. We take up a new sport and soon are riding bicycles on Sunday morning instead of attending church.
It is a natural progression to make idols of things and activities. God blesses us, and we soon want the blessings, but stop wanting God.
Center on Jesus
Jesus must be our everything. That sounds limiting, but in truth is liberating. When we make Jesus, the goal of all we do, we eliminate the stress of maintaining our success.
God had warned Israel not to get tangled up with the gods of the Amorites, but they didn’t listen. So an angel appears to Gideon, who is the least likely person to be leading them, and this heavenly messenger tells him he needs to step up.
Like Moses questioning the burning bush, Gideon needs proof and tests the Lord. All the tests prove he is speaking to an angel of the Lord, so he fears death. God assures him, “you are not going to die”. (Jud 6:23, NIV)
Remove idols
Before we can get back to serving God, we must tear down all the false altars. This disrupts the status quo. His father had erected them. The rest of the people were comfortable with them.
Sure, they were hiding in caves, crying out to their gods for help. Baal and the Asherah pole were not delivering them. How could they?
We live in fear when we place our faith in the wrong things. We fear disease when our faith is in health. If our faith is in wealth, we fear inflation. When our faith is in power, we fear the opposing party.
Gideon had nothing to fear. Man made those lifeless idols.
We figure if we have enough of something, we won’t need God.
Our strength is not in the size of our army. Better technology or bigger weapons will not deliver us.
Build with confidence
As I have mentioned, our church is undergoing a building project. The old mobile structures need more repairs than would make sense, so we are building a new sanctuary. This requires more financial resources than we have.
We all would like to have an excess of resources before beginning any project. Knowing we could cover the costs ourselves would make the decision easy.
In that scenario, thankfulness for our resources would overwhelm us, and we would place our complete faith in them.
Life can take away anything we possess.
Thinking our savings were sufficient, my wife and I decided it was time to build our house. As soon as we started, the costs of lumber skyrocketed. Everything else did, too. Had we built a year earlier, we would have saved a lot, but we had waited until we thought we had enough.
When we are measuring anything other than God, there is never enough. Only God is enough. All other things, money, time, manpower, will come up short, if that is what we are placing our faith in.
Not about the numbers
Gideon figures if his troops outnumber the Midianites, he has a chance. God doesn’t want them to think it is their strength that delivers them. He wants them to remember He is their strength.
So he cuts their number down to a few thousand, then cuts again. Now only three hundred, he divides into three small groups of only one hundred each.
When this works, which it does, all the people know, it is God. Terror gripped the Midianites; it wasn’t the hundred men that frightened them, but the Lord who stood behind them.
God’s greatest working conditions are when things are impossible. When there is no other explanation, that is when He delivers.
Yet we still try to create favorable conditions. Favorable to us. Maybe even favorable to investors or banks. Those conditions are not what God wants. God wants conditions which will glorify Him.
God will drive us to our knees so that we have to look up to see Him. Those are His favorable conditions. Then, God will receive glory.
