The Lord said to
Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into
their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has
delivered me.’ (Judges 7:2 NASB)
In Israel’s battles with their
enemies God seems to delight in placing them as an underdog. George Otis Jr. at the Second Lausanne
Congress On World Evangelization said, “God rarely calls his people to fair
fight.” In this verse He tells us
why. There is the tendency in the human
heart toward pride and to say that through my power and abilities the enemy was
defeated. So God creates circumstances
where the Church seems to have a lack of human expertise or resources with
which to engage in spiritual warfare. When
God brings the victory everyone involved has to say that it was God and not
man.
This story is rife with symbolisms
of how God enjoys taking common and ordinary things and making them mighty for
Him. The dream in this story (v. 13-15)
was about a barley loaf. Gideon was a
thresher of grain and the analogy of a barley loaf was an appropriate symbol to
represent him. A loaf of grain by itself
is not going to defeat the Midianite army, but with God all things are
possible. As Loren Cunningham, founder
of Youth With A Mission has said on many occasions, “little is much if God is
in it.”
But God has chosen the foolish things of
the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to
shame the things which are strong (I Corinthians 1:27 NASB).
It is through these weak and foolish vessels that can accomplish the
most dramatic miracles. In these acts of
God’s providence, not only is the strong shamed but also the God of heaven is
glorified. God does it His way, using
ordinary and imperfect people like you and I, and His way is the best way.
I would be remiss if I did not mention
one human capacity or ability that Gideon did exhibit, obedience. Imagine what would have happened if he had
changed just a little of the details of God’s instructions. What if he had called foolish the directive
to sent three hundred warriors against the hordes of Midian and then added to this
number. What if Gideon had called
torches and trumpets weak implements for waging warfare and deviated slightly
from the plan? In my years with Youth
With A Mission we heard and practiced, you do the possible, and God will do the
impossible. I learned it was my job to
obey, and it was God’s job to take care of the results. Though not without some feebleness of faith,
Gideon obeyed the Word of the Lord. When Gideon heard the account of the dream
and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel
and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands”
(Judges 7:15 NASB). Midian was routed
and everyone knew that it was not about Gideon but a about Gideon’s God.
Pray with me. Lord, help me to obey you, and allow you to take care of the
results.
In His name I
pray. Amen
Ken
Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
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