Today’s Podcast
Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 8; You Verson Bible app, Days 50 through 56
When I was a kid and sometimes even today, when I see the title of the seventh book of the Old Testament I think of men in long black robes taking their seat behind the high benches of the courtroom ready to pass judgment on the guilty. I think of judges with sober faces and legal power beyond my comprehension. If we were to title the book today, we would probably call it Generals. That would much better describe the role these men and women played in the life of the Israelites during that part of their history.
God chose these unlikely heroes to lead His people back to Him after their apostasy. The children of Israel, like Adam and Eve, didn’t take long to make some wrong choice and begin to fall away from worshiping the only true God. Despite all the miracles God performed for them in bringing them out of slavery and into the promised land, the inheritance He gave Abraham’s descendants as He outlined in His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Despite the way God helped Israel defeat their enemies as they moved into this new land flowing with milk and honey. The Israelites began to take up worship of the idols they discovered in this new land.
It seems a little crazy to us when we stop and think about it. These gods the inhabitants worshiped didn’t deliver them from the Israelites, so why would they bow to them when they came into the land? Why would they abandon the God who delivered them and begin to worship the gods their God defeated so easily? It just doesn’t make sense to us. But then we do the same sometimes when we begin to worship our jobs or our spouse or our children or anything else we put before the God who makes all those things possible in the first place, don’t we?
Back to The Story.
When we begin to examine those generals, those judges God chose. We see how God intervened for His people. As we saw with Abraham and Jacob and Joseph, God chose unlikely people to lead rebellions against Israel’s oppressors and gain their freedom. A good example of such a leader is the story of Gideon. Here was the youngest son of the weakest tribe in the nation hiding in a broken down winepress hiding from the Mideanites threshing grain so those enemy troops wouldn’t take the few handfuls of grain he had gathered from the field.
Gideon was not a brave man. Gideon was not a warrior. Gideon was not into leading a rebellion. But God sent a messenger to him and said, “I want you to lead an army against your enemies and free Israel from these Mideanite raids. I want you to be the one to show the rest of your countrymen that I am God and have heard their prayers. I want you to show them I can do anything.”
Gideon, the runt of the tribal runts, calls everyone together to rise up against the Mideanites. Now, if you think about it, that in itself is pretty amazing. How much charisma would this runt of the runts really have in his own strength? Yet 100,000 men answered the call and came to wage war against their enemies. That made the odds three to one…in favor of the enemy. But God said there were too many men. He didn’t want anyone to think they defeated the enemy themselves. So God told Gideon to send anyone home who was afraid.
Fear is an interesting thing. Sometimes it’s a good thing and keeps your senses a little sharper. Sometimes it paralyzes you. When those with any level of fear went home, Gideon was left with only 10,000 to face his opponents. Now the odds were thirty to one. Things didn’t look so good for the Israelites from a human perspective, but God still didn’t want anyone in the Israelite camp to think they had anything to do with the outcome of the battle.
God told Gideon to take his 10,000 men on a road march across the desert and then He would show him who to send home. They marched all day across the dusty trails until they came to a stream. They had run out of water hours ago, so all of them were thirsty. Everyone could hardly wait to get to that stream to quench their thirst and cool down. Some plunged right in. Some dunked their head under to shake the dust off their head and start downing the water as fast as they could. 300 keep their spear in their hand and brought water up to their mouth so they could keep their eyes up to look for any enemy that might approach.
God told Gideon, “Keep those 300. Send the rest home.”
“But God!! That makes the odds 666 to 1. Do you realize we won’t have a chance? Do you understand we are not really warriors? Do you know we are farmers and really don’t know how to fight these professional soldiers? Do you understand that 666 to 1 is a really strange number to start with and those odds are not good from a military perspective? Don’t you realize we need to turn the ratio around if we expect to win this thing?”
God said, “Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid. Here are the wonderful tactics I have for you. Give everyone a trumpet, a lantern, and a pitcher. Light the lantern but put it in the pitcher so no one can see the light. Then when I tell you, have everyone break their pitcher and blow their trumpet.”
“That’s it? That’s the plan? Okay God. Let me get our tombstones ready and right out our wills and we’ll get ready to go.”
Can you imagine the conversation between God and Gideon? I expect Gideon was like most of us. The plan sounded crazy. But then Gideon remembered that God is God and he wasn’t. God is in the business of doing the impossible. God lives and works in His upper story while we are stuck in our lower story where we can only see in the present moment. We can’t see what’s around the bend or how our actions will affect tomorrow. We can’t see how God is working events for our good. We can’t see God working through the events of our lives to enact His plan to restore our relationship with Him. All we can see is what seems impossible when we look across our horizontal plain.
Gideon trusted God. He believed God knew what He was doing. He took his 300 men and surrounded the Mideanite camp. In the early hours of the morning, those 300 men broke their pitchers so the light of their lanterns shone brightly. They blew their 300 trumpets. God confused the Mideanite warriors so they began slaughtering themselves in the darkness. Gideon and his 300 men saw God win a great victory because they trusted God to work in His upper story for their good even though they could not see how when they began their journey with Him.
Maybe God will use you to accomplish some impossible task for Him. But to do that, you’ll have to let go, look up, and recognize that you may not understand how He can do it. You may not understand what in the world God is thinking. But remember, He works in His upper story and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. He does the impossible. Remember, He spoke and creation happened. If God can do that, He can use you to carry out His work if you let Him. Our problem most often is just believing He can do what He says He will do.
Gideon dared to believe. Today it’s your turn. How about it? Can you let God use you to do His impossible work? He’s ready, are you?
You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.
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