And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said,”The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Then the Lord said to him and said,” Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
So he said to Him,”O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh. and I am the least in my fathers house.”
And the Lord said to him,”Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
– Judges 6:12-16
Gideon had personal issues.
He is the lowest in his dad’s house, his father worshiped Baal, and he is just the ordinary everyday guy with nothing special about him.
Which is why he immediately has his guard up when the Angel of the Lord tells him to save his entire nation.
He protests, he tries to convince God that he has the wrong guy. Even through complaining about God, whining, and protesting, the Angel just listens, probably nodding his head to say,”Yes, I’ve heard this many times before.” Gideon tries to get his point across, but nothing seems to work. God has different ideas.
Gideon is completely obsessed in the idea of staying normal and unnoticed (kind of like Emmett from Lego Movie 😀 ) that he doesn’t understand how he can help. He tests God, with the fleece thing:
So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
– Judges 6:36-40
After the fleece thing, Gideon finally submits and lets God do what He wants with him. After gathering a large army, God doesn’t want it and tests the men and finally comes down to only 300 men (Judges 7). Gideon and his valiant three hundred seem like a punchline. Especially when the Lord tells them to go down to the Midianite camp and smash pots with a torch in hand and blow trumpets. Fat chance.
But the ruckus frightens the Midianites and they flee (Judges 8).
So, what is the purpose of an entire recap of the tale of Gideon? Simple. Allow me to explain.
Submission.
If the entire world just submit to God, it would be a better place.
Like Gideon, we have our excuses, our complaints, our reasons that seem just like little baby fixer uppers to God but seem like impossibilities to us. We have an entire army of Midianites in front of us and we don’t rise and submit and trust our God. We have to test Him and question Him; getting all the answers.
Newsflash: We will never know why, how or when God will do something.
My entire life, as far back as I can remember, I have always asked,”Why me? Why am I the one to do this?” or perhaps it’s,”When will I do this and why?” I have moved a good many times in my thirteen years (at least it seems like many), and after getting 99.9% settled, He gets us up and moves us to where He wants us. I have, in fact known later on some reasons why. He knows. He knew why.
Just like Gideon, we have the opportunity to be a hero for him. We have a battle to fight, a victory to be won! Trust the God who made you and who knows all things and let him lead you into battle and save your people. Let him turn you into a different person than you were yesterday! Give Him a chance to chisel at you and make you into a masterpiece. Become an unrecognized girl to a hero! Let him work in your like. Just like he did for Gideon.
All for now,
Emily 😀
P.S. Here’s a poll for enjoyment! I’ll give results at the end of the month!
