Tenchi
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Read: Judges 6-8.
When I was child, the story of Gideon was repeated often to me. He was held up as a "hero of faith," an example to follow, full of courage and faithfulness to God. While this was how he ended - sort of - he certainly didn't start out this way. Actually, he reflected in his early dealings with God, the general, deteriorated spiritual condition of Israel. His own father, Joash, had an altar to Baal and an idol of Ashera, pagan artifacts of worship in Israel at the time. That such worship was widespread throughout Israel is confirmed in a comment made at the end of Gideon's story:
Judges 8:33-34
33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.
34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God...
Once Gideon was dead, the people of Israel returned immediately ("as soon as") to worship of pagan "gods." The phrase "people of Israel" indicates that their resumption of idolatry was a national thing, not merely the actions of a few, and "turned again" indicates a return to a former state, not the adoption of something new. And so, we have good reason to think that paganism was the rule, not the exception, in Israel at the time God tapped Gideon on the shoulder and called Gideon into service to Himself and that Gideon, like his father, was caught up in this paganism.
This fact makes Gideon's questioning complaints to the angel of the Lord rather strange:
Judges 6:13
13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
It's unlikely that Gideon would know his nation's history with God and not know of His commands to "have no other gods." This was the first of the Ten Commandments delivered by Moses to Israel, after all.
Exodus 20:2-5
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
On what grounds, then, did Gideon have the right to moan to the angel of the Lord about the invading army of the Midianites and Amalekites? None at all. And yet, his first words to the angel of the Lord are ones of complaint, questioning why God had forsaken Israel.
Christians often do the very same thing and under very similarly-deteriorated conditions, spiritually. Though professing to be children of God, their lives are lived in worship of other "gods" - money, careers, power, sex, sports, hobbies, children, various addictions, etc. . But when "invading armies" of trouble arrive (as they always do, sooner or later), these spiritual adulterers clamor about their distress to God, even blaming Him for it! They should be approaching God in humble contrition and repentance, confessing their sin to Him and submitting themselves to His authority and control but, like Gideon, they are critical of the God from whom they want help!
Isn't it astonishing, then, how gracious and patient God is with Gideon?! There's no rebuke from God, no threats, no "Who do you think you are? Shut up and do what I say!" Instead, the angel of the Lord is calm, straightforward and even complimentary to Gideon, calling him a "mighty man of valor." This description of Gideon may well have been something of a joke, actually, since Gideon had been in the middle of preparing food in secret, afraid the Midianites would take it from him, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him. Hardly valorous activity on Gideon's part, it seems to me. And so, there is not only patience and grace that the Lord extends to Gideon in the face of his critical questioning, but a bit of gentle, divine humor too! How wonderful God is, "remembering we are dust" (Psalm 103:14)!
But Gideon was just as backslidden as all of the nation of Israel was and so God was a distant, unfamiliar Person to him. As a result, Gideon began to throw up excuses for being the one through whom the Lord would liberate Israel from the oppression of the Midianites and Amalekites. The Lord continues to use chiding humor in his conversation with Gideon, saying to him,
Judges 6:14
14 ... “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Gideon does not rise to the Lord's chiding, acting the valorous, mighty man the Lord had described him to be, but, instead, tries to squirm out of being the one the Lord would use to liberate Israel from her oppressors.
Judges 6:15-16
15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Like so many Christians in the Church today, Gideon wanted someone else to be the vessel God used to fulfill His will and rescue His people. Even if it meant appealing to his weakness, his smallness, his inferiority, Gideon would do so if it prevented him from being the means through which God would address Gideon's own complaints. How wretched a thing it was for Gideon to criticize God for the troubled state Israel was in but then try to exempt himself from being used by God to remedy that state.
Well, Gideon is not unusual in his reluctance to be the agent of the change he wanted to see. Many are the Christians I've encountered who have been very eager to denigrate and criticize the Church (and, by extension, God, who has let the Church descend into such a poor condition), but who use the problems in the Church as their excuse to do nothing! Why should they be the ones to confront the "armies" of compromise and sin that afflict the Church? Let someone else do the fighting; the ones who are paid to do so, who have credentials and experience, not "little ol' me." And why should anyone help those crummy Christians anyway? They're just a pack of cold, nasty hypocrites who deserve to go down in flames!
God loves the Church and gave himself for her (Ephesians 5:25-27). However we might feel about his "bride," Christ has never stopped loving her and would use us all to edify her, and purify her, and strengthen her. Are you exempting yourself from God's use in achieving this end, like Gideon, appealing to your own inadequacies as the basis for your exemption?
God doesn't need the powerful, the wise, the rich, or the renowned in order to accomplish His will. He made this very clear to Gideon:
16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
What God would do through Gideon did not depend upon Gideon's strength. God was the crucial, the important, factor, not Gideon. God was more than capable of making up for Gideon's shrinking, fearful weaknesses, as Gideon's story goes on to demonstrate. This remains the case for you and I today, too. Consider the apostle Paul's words:
1 Corinthians 1:25-29
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 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,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God.
In the end, Gideon's story is about the goodness and power of God; it's a story that reveals and boasts of Him, not Gideon. The "hero of the faith" Gideon was held out to me to be when I was a child, was actually nothing special - a weak, fearful and complaining person, caught in idolatry and far from God, actually - until God got ahold of him. Even with a "vessel" as flawed as Gideon, God was able to do amazing things! This is, I think, the real "lesson" of Gideon's story.
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
So, in what way are you acting like Gideon in your own community of believers? Are you behaving as Gideon did at the beginning of his story, looking for others to fight for the Church? Or are you walking with God in submission, faith and obedience, in His power being used by Him to oppose the "armies" of compromise, apathy, worldliness and sin that oppress your community of believers?
When I was child, the story of Gideon was repeated often to me. He was held up as a "hero of faith," an example to follow, full of courage and faithfulness to God. While this was how he ended - sort of - he certainly didn't start out this way. Actually, he reflected in his early dealings with God, the general, deteriorated spiritual condition of Israel. His own father, Joash, had an altar to Baal and an idol of Ashera, pagan artifacts of worship in Israel at the time. That such worship was widespread throughout Israel is confirmed in a comment made at the end of Gideon's story:
Judges 8:33-34
33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.
34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God...
Once Gideon was dead, the people of Israel returned immediately ("as soon as") to worship of pagan "gods." The phrase "people of Israel" indicates that their resumption of idolatry was a national thing, not merely the actions of a few, and "turned again" indicates a return to a former state, not the adoption of something new. And so, we have good reason to think that paganism was the rule, not the exception, in Israel at the time God tapped Gideon on the shoulder and called Gideon into service to Himself and that Gideon, like his father, was caught up in this paganism.
This fact makes Gideon's questioning complaints to the angel of the Lord rather strange:
Judges 6:13
13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
It's unlikely that Gideon would know his nation's history with God and not know of His commands to "have no other gods." This was the first of the Ten Commandments delivered by Moses to Israel, after all.
Exodus 20:2-5
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
On what grounds, then, did Gideon have the right to moan to the angel of the Lord about the invading army of the Midianites and Amalekites? None at all. And yet, his first words to the angel of the Lord are ones of complaint, questioning why God had forsaken Israel.
Christians often do the very same thing and under very similarly-deteriorated conditions, spiritually. Though professing to be children of God, their lives are lived in worship of other "gods" - money, careers, power, sex, sports, hobbies, children, various addictions, etc. . But when "invading armies" of trouble arrive (as they always do, sooner or later), these spiritual adulterers clamor about their distress to God, even blaming Him for it! They should be approaching God in humble contrition and repentance, confessing their sin to Him and submitting themselves to His authority and control but, like Gideon, they are critical of the God from whom they want help!
Isn't it astonishing, then, how gracious and patient God is with Gideon?! There's no rebuke from God, no threats, no "Who do you think you are? Shut up and do what I say!" Instead, the angel of the Lord is calm, straightforward and even complimentary to Gideon, calling him a "mighty man of valor." This description of Gideon may well have been something of a joke, actually, since Gideon had been in the middle of preparing food in secret, afraid the Midianites would take it from him, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him. Hardly valorous activity on Gideon's part, it seems to me. And so, there is not only patience and grace that the Lord extends to Gideon in the face of his critical questioning, but a bit of gentle, divine humor too! How wonderful God is, "remembering we are dust" (Psalm 103:14)!
But Gideon was just as backslidden as all of the nation of Israel was and so God was a distant, unfamiliar Person to him. As a result, Gideon began to throw up excuses for being the one through whom the Lord would liberate Israel from the oppression of the Midianites and Amalekites. The Lord continues to use chiding humor in his conversation with Gideon, saying to him,
Judges 6:14
14 ... “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Gideon does not rise to the Lord's chiding, acting the valorous, mighty man the Lord had described him to be, but, instead, tries to squirm out of being the one the Lord would use to liberate Israel from her oppressors.
Judges 6:15-16
15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Like so many Christians in the Church today, Gideon wanted someone else to be the vessel God used to fulfill His will and rescue His people. Even if it meant appealing to his weakness, his smallness, his inferiority, Gideon would do so if it prevented him from being the means through which God would address Gideon's own complaints. How wretched a thing it was for Gideon to criticize God for the troubled state Israel was in but then try to exempt himself from being used by God to remedy that state.
Well, Gideon is not unusual in his reluctance to be the agent of the change he wanted to see. Many are the Christians I've encountered who have been very eager to denigrate and criticize the Church (and, by extension, God, who has let the Church descend into such a poor condition), but who use the problems in the Church as their excuse to do nothing! Why should they be the ones to confront the "armies" of compromise and sin that afflict the Church? Let someone else do the fighting; the ones who are paid to do so, who have credentials and experience, not "little ol' me." And why should anyone help those crummy Christians anyway? They're just a pack of cold, nasty hypocrites who deserve to go down in flames!
God loves the Church and gave himself for her (Ephesians 5:25-27). However we might feel about his "bride," Christ has never stopped loving her and would use us all to edify her, and purify her, and strengthen her. Are you exempting yourself from God's use in achieving this end, like Gideon, appealing to your own inadequacies as the basis for your exemption?
God doesn't need the powerful, the wise, the rich, or the renowned in order to accomplish His will. He made this very clear to Gideon:
16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
What God would do through Gideon did not depend upon Gideon's strength. God was the crucial, the important, factor, not Gideon. God was more than capable of making up for Gideon's shrinking, fearful weaknesses, as Gideon's story goes on to demonstrate. This remains the case for you and I today, too. Consider the apostle Paul's words:
1 Corinthians 1:25-29
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 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,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God.
In the end, Gideon's story is about the goodness and power of God; it's a story that reveals and boasts of Him, not Gideon. The "hero of the faith" Gideon was held out to me to be when I was a child, was actually nothing special - a weak, fearful and complaining person, caught in idolatry and far from God, actually - until God got ahold of him. Even with a "vessel" as flawed as Gideon, God was able to do amazing things! This is, I think, the real "lesson" of Gideon's story.
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
So, in what way are you acting like Gideon in your own community of believers? Are you behaving as Gideon did at the beginning of his story, looking for others to fight for the Church? Or are you walking with God in submission, faith and obedience, in His power being used by Him to oppose the "armies" of compromise, apathy, worldliness and sin that oppress your community of believers?