 From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:11-24 before you go on. Review: God called Gideon to do a hard thing, a seemingly impossible thing, to fight back and defeat those oppressing his people. Gideon is skeptical that he is the right choice for the job, but God confirms that He is sending Gideon on purpose and that He will be with Gideon. In recent posts we talked about the sign God gave Gideon and his response. Today let’s focus on just one verse: So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:24 NIV) There is a custom in the Old Testament of the Bible of people building an altar, or some type of stone memorial, to remember an act or intervention of God. Here Gideon builds an altar and calls it “The Lord is Peace.” (Judges 6:24 NIV) Abraham built an altar when God provided a ram to sacrifice in order to save Abraham’s son’s life. Abraham called it: “The Lord Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14 NIV) Moses built an altar when God gave the Israelites victory over the Amalekites, shortly after passing through the Red sea, and called it “The Lord is my Banner.” (Exodus 18:1 NIV) Samuel set up a stone and called it “Ebenezer” (which means “stone of help”) when the Lord helped Israel overcome the Philistines in battle saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12 NIV) What altars could we build? What moments in your history with God deserve an altar or place of remembrance? This week is Thanksgiving. It is a great time to look back and remember the acts of God and express gratitude! I remember moments from my own history where God revealed himself through his actions in my life: · THE GOD WHO CARES ABOUT MY FEELINGS
· THE LORD IS MY ROCK
· THE GOD WHO IS THE STRENGTH OF MY HEART AND MY PORTION FOREVER (though my heart and flesh may fail!)
· THE GOD WHO WAS BROKEN FOR ME
· THE GOD WHO PROMOTES THE OBEDIENT
· THE LORD WHO IS WITH YOU
· THE GOD WHO GOES BEFORE YOU
These are precious times in my history with God, and ones I need to call to remembrance more often that I do! What are some places of remembrance in your history with God?
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 From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:11-23 before you go on. Review: God called Gideon to do a hard thing, a seemingly impossible thing, to fight back and defeat those oppressing his people. Gideon is skeptical that he is the right choice for the job, but God confirms that He is sending Gideon on purpose and that He will be with Gideon. Last week we talked about the sign God gave Gideon. This week, we look at Gideon’s response. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” (Ephesians 6:22-23 NIV) Gideon asked for a sign. So often we want to know God is really guiding us. What I find interesting is Gideon’s response once he realizes that it is God he is interacting with – this same response occurs throughout the Bible when people realize they are encountering God – respect, awe, and fear. Having met with the Lord, Gideon thought he might die… perhaps recalling that God said to Moses “no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20 NIV) But just as God is gracious in giving Gideon a sign confirming that the message he received was from God, He now assures Gideon he is not going to die. There have been times when I wanted to make a change, maybe escape a trying circumstance, and I prayed for guidance and everything would point to me remaining in the tough situation. At that point I have railed against the Lord and asked “Why?” and what is His answer? “I AM GOD.” I sense it in my heart… I sense Him not answering my question directly, but revealing He is real, He is present, He is powerful… He is God. And something in me is quieted by this revelation. Have you ever had a moment like that? A moment where God does not explain his actions, but answers the deep “Why?” of your heart with His presence? I think that is part of what happened in this interaction between God and Gideon. So, after God reveals Himself to Gideon through this miraculous display of fire and the disappearing angel He speaks to Gideon…. and what does He say? “Peace…” (Judges 6:23 NIV) And I think peace is one of the gifts that comes when God reveals that He is with us, guiding us – even if we don’t particularly like His direction. In this passage God is assuring Gideon that He is not angry with him. Peace. I rejoice that we can all enjoy peace with God through Jesus Christ. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace…” (Ephesians 2:13-14)  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:11-21 before you go on. Review: God called Gideon to do a hard thing, a seemingly impossible thing, to fight back and defeat those oppressing his people. Gideon is skeptical that he is the right choice for the job, but God confirms that He is sending Gideon on purpose and that He will be with Gideon. Last week we began discussing this part of the passage, where Gideon is asking God for a sign. At this point the Lord is waiting for Gideon’s return while Gideon goes inside and prepares a sacrifice to offer to the Lord. I wonder at God’s patience in this passage. I imagine this interaction with God is so out of Gideon’s paradigm that part of Him wants to link what He has known all these years about how people are supposed to relate to God – hence the offerings – and this new experience. “If you are God, this is how we are supposed to relate with you.” This makes me wonder if God is patient with me as I go through the motions of my traditions, living out my relationship with him in the paradigm I am comfortable with... I imagine so. God is patient. He waits for Gideon. And then, God blows his mind. “Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.” (Judges 6:21 NIV) God does not just receive the offering, the angel touches the food with his staff and it explodes into fire and then the offering and angel seemingly evaporate! Gideon has touched that food – he knows it was real, and now it is gone. That should be a pretty powerful sign that He has been interacting with the Living God! What a merciful, patient God! To give him a sign in his material world that he has, in fact, been interacting with God. I have begun to take notes of the process I go through as I make big decisions, like schooling choices for my kids. I write down the verses, the advice, the reasons, the answered prayers and miraculous provisions that guided me in this direction so that when things get tough I can look back at my notes and see the footprints of my journey with God up to this step, and draw courage from the fact that He has confirmed the steps that have led me to this moment. I can imagine that Gideon might have moments in his future when he will doubt and want to withdraw his decision to go on the offensive against his oppressors, and having this confirmation from God to look back on would help him to take heart. It would be evidence that this isn’t some arrogant fool-hearty mission he came up with late at night after a bad piece of fish, He was sent by God. End of story. Praise the God who confirms His direction in Gideon’s life, and in ours!  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:11-17 before you go on. At this point in this passage, Gideon has received the message that God wants him to go stand up and fight those oppressing his people. Gideon had some reservations, citing his weaknesses but has received God’s assurance that He will be “with” Gideon as obeys. And then, Gideon doubts again. "Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you…”" Judges 6:17–18 (NIV) Remember at the beginning of the series when I had confided that I kind of felt like Gideon was an example of “what not to do”? It’s because of moments like this. At this point in their interaction, I have thought that Gideon should show his great faith by turning around and leaving to go obey God. God has said what he wants Gideon to do. He has assured Gideon He will be with him and that Gideon will be successful. But Gideon isn’t ready. He’s concerned. Maybe he’s thinking: “I am not so sure you are really God…” Maybe he wondered if it was all a hallucination… who knows? So Gideon boldly, but respectfully, asks God for a sign… and then He asks God to wait! Can you believe it?! Asking the Lord of the Universe to “wait a minute while I go get something”? It seems a bit absurd to me, but then, remember how I shared that God was challenging me to stop looking so much at Gideon in this passage and look at God himself? So, if I turn my attention from Gideon to God I wonder, how does God respond to this request? “…I will stay till you return.” (Judges 6:18 NIV) Now, I ask myself, why does this response surprise me? What do I believe about God that this response surprises me? “…I will stay till you return.” (Judges 6:18 NIV) No Hurry. No Worry. God will wait. There was enough time -- though times were dangerous -- for Gideon to go, butcher and cook a goat, and make some bread. That had to take the whole day! God has time. There is enough time for God to do all he has planned and purposed to do. Not only does God wait He… well, we’ll leave the next piece for next week! For now, join me in praising the God who is not in a hurry, but has time to wait for us when we need it!  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:1-16 before you go on. Gideon has just protested God’s call to “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand….”( Judges 6:14 NIV) Gideon has brought up 2 things he sees as disqualifiers. (Which we discussed last week.)
How does God answer Him? The Lord says: “I will be with you…” This is the second time God being “with us” has come up in this fairly short passage (Judges 6:11-16). When God repeats himself, I take notice! What does it matter that God is “with us?” If my mom “sends” me to the store, it is because she is not going and needs me to go without her. The nature of human “sending” is that someone goes and someone stays. Not so with God. God does not send us into a tough situation while He sits back in some safe, quiet, peaceful place – leaving us to work it out on our own. I think I so often act like the student who, after receiving the assignment, goes off to work it out on her own and later comes back to the teacher presenting the finished assignment and hoping to get the “A.” That is not how our spiritual lives work. God doesn’t send us off on our own to do our work. He is with us, working out the details: equipping, empowering, guiding, and comforting. When God sends us, He goes with us. “The Lord answered [Gideon], ‘I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.’” (Judges 6:16 NIV) So, friends, what difference can it make today as we step out to obey God, if we know that what He calls us to do He empowers us to do (see last week) and He comes along as we do it? How can we become more aware of God’s presence, God with us, as we go through our days?  From The Great God of Gideon series. (This is a long one, but so worth it!)
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:1-15 (click here) before you go on. The angel of the Lord has come to Gideon -- who is hiding, afraid and alone --and has met him with a declaration that Gideon is a “mighty warrior” and that “The Lord is with [him].” (Judges 6:12 NIV) Gideon protests and asking if God is with us, why are things so bad? Why are there people oppressing us and winning? But we don't find the messenger engaging with Gideon in any such discussion. Instead he says: “… go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14 NIV) God calls Gideon to action. Remember, He has called Gideon a mighty warrior. He has declared that God is with him. Now God tells Gideon that He is sending him to save Israel from its enemies. Again, Gideon protests: “But Lord,’ Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” (Judges 6:15 NIV) Again Gideon is resisting the declaration that he is a mighty warrior… He offers evidence that he is definitely not a mighty warrior. He is from the weakest people in his tribe and if that were not enough, he is the least among his family members. I wonder what he felt like growing up. I imagine he has felt these labels on him a long time. Weak. Least. What labels do we have on us? Maybe since we were very young? Silly. Insignificant. Stupid. Worthless. Invisible. Gideon believes he is weak, the least of the people, and so he has no faith that he can do what God is calling him to do. But I ask you, would God call us to do something He would not empower us to do? Does that make any sense? What had the Lord said again? He began the call with the answer to Gideon’s protests. “Go in the strength YOU HAVE…” (Judges 6:14 NIV) And to emphasize that God is confident He has not chosen the wrong guy, He follows it up with “AM I NOT SENDING YOU?” (Judges 6:14 NIV) God is well aware of Gideon’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. He isn’t asking Gideon to be his big brother or the guy down the street. He is asking Gideon to go be Gideon. Strengths, weaknesses…everything. Go as you. Go be yourself. Go in the strength YOU have. I am sending YOU. On purpose. God is choosing and sending Gideon. So often we disqualify ourselves for what God has called us to do. At the root is a misunderstanding of God’s character. We argue with God just like Gideon. But the truth is:
We don’t have to make ourselves into something we are not. God never works through deception or hypocrisy – only through authenticity, honesty and wholeheartedness! God is sending Gideon to save his people. Will Gideon go? And if he does, will God be faithful to work through him… despite his weaknesses? Tune in next time! But what about us? What is God sending us to do? Will we trust He knows what He is doing… and respond?  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:1-13 (click here) before you go on. The angel of the Lord has come to Gideon who is hiding, afraid and alone, and has met him with a declaration that Gideon is a “mighty warrior” and that “The Lord is with you.” (Judges 6:12 NIV) Gideon protests: “But, sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us why has all this happened to us?...” (Judges 6:13 NIV) Gideon feels like God left. When things go wrong, I often feel abandoned too. But does that mean God has abandoned me? We read in Judges 6:1-10 that Israel had turned away from the Lord to worship the gods of the Amorites, in fact the Lord had said to them: “…you have not listened to me.” (Judges 6:10 NIV) Someone had left, but it wasn’t God. The Israelites had turned away from Him toward false gods and had stopped listening to Him. If we feel like the Lord is not with us, is it because we have chosen to stop worshiping the Lord, that we have stopped listening to Him and turned to other things? I am encouraged that though the Israelites had turned away from God, He did not walk away. Here we see Him initiating contact with Gideon. God pursues relationship with us, and not because we’ve somehow been good enough or earned it. He does it just because He is that generous, loving and forgiving. There have been times in my life I’ve turned to my own strength or intellect, or I’ve run to relationships or entertainment instead of to God. He’s always pursued me, bringing me back again and again. He promises He will never leave us. (Deuteronomy 31:6) Years after this interaction between the angel and Gideon, God sent his only Son into the world and gave Him a name to ring in our ears, the Truth about Him, Immanuel: God with Us. (Matthew 1:23 NIV) Praise the God who never leaves us, not when things get hard… not even when we stop listening for a time... Praise the God who is “With Us.”  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It might be helpful to read Judges 6:1-12 (click here) before you go on. Last time we paraphrased this passage this way: God sends one of his angels down to meet Gideon when he is overwhelmed and afraid. He meets Gideon right where he is – hiding in a winepress as he tries to harvest some food. His people are starving because a rival nation is oppressing them. And we praised the God who meets us not when we have it all together, or we have things all figured out… but when we are alone, afraid, overwhelmed, and weak. Today I am struck by just one phrase in one verse… 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6:12 (NIV) Did Gideon seem mighty to you? Even when Gideon protests the angel does not change his message. Is it possible that where we see weakness and failure, God sees a “mighty warrior?” And who is right? Am I right when I look at Gideon and see, gulp, a “loser?” Or is God right when He calls him a mighty warrior? When I take a moment to reflect about why I called Gideon a loser, I discover one reason is because when I am afraid, lonely, overwhelmed and weak I feel like a loser. I feel like nothing is possible. I feel worthless. But when God meets Gideon in this moment, He sees beyond the present Gideon. He sees what Gideon is capable of. If we remember, God formed Gideon. He knew him before he was born. He ordained all Gideon’s days before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139) God knows us, too. We were each his idea. He knows the truth about us… the real truth. The truth yet to be revealed to us as we are healed, transformed and empowered by His spirit. What is the truth about us? What does God call you and me? · More than Conquerors (Romans 8:37) · Overcomers (1 John 2:13-14, 1 John 4:4, 1 John 5:1-5) · Dearly Loved (Ephesians 5:1-2, Colossians 3:12) · Ministers of the New Covenant that HE has made competent (2 Corinthians 3:6) · Chosen (Ephesians 1:4) I’m excited as we continue in this passage to see if Gideon remains hiding, weak, and afraid – or if He grows into the mighty warrior God has said He is. Praise the God who sees the truth about us, even when we can’t see it--especially when we can’t see it-- and calls it out. Have you ever had anyone in your life that spoke out the encouraging truth when you were in a moment you just couldn’t see it?  From The Great God of Gideon series.
It would be helpful to read Judges 6:1-12 (click here) before you go on. I had mentioned that I used to think of Gideon as a bit of a “loser” (I know, harsh!) and an example of “what not to do.” In that frame of mind I would have summarized the main points of this passage this way: Gideon is hiding from some bullies that are oppressing his people by trying to harvest wheat where they will not find him – below ground level in a winepress. There an angel of the Lord appears to Him and tells Him that it’s time to stop hiding and go fight the bullies. But that’s if my focus is on Gideon, if I look instead of what God is doing I might see this… God sends one of his angels down to meet Gideon when he is overwhelmed and afraid. He meets Gideon right where he is – hiding in a winepress as he tries to harvest some food. His people are starving because a rival nation is oppressing them. God meets Gideon right where he is at. Hiding. Afraid. Weak. Hmmm. That’s probably enough for me to think on for today. Praise the God who meets us not when we have it all together, or we have things all figured out… but when we are alone, afraid, overwhelmed, and weak.  When I was really honest with myself this summer I realized that I have always looked at Gideon, one of the Judges (or leaders) of the Israelites in the Old Testament as a bit of a “loser.” He was the example of what “not to do.” I mean, I could do better – I could be better than that guy, right?
But what if Gideon is included in the Bible not as an example of what not to do? What if he is somehow a model?... And what if Gideon isn’t the point of the passages at all? What if instead of focusing on Gideon’s weaknesses, I turned around and looked at… Gideon’s Great God??? Well, when I started doing that, things got interesting. Tune in next time to journey with me through Judges 6 & 7. (This is an introduction to the series: The Great God of Gideon) |
AuthorJeri writes about her spiritual journey as she lives out her everyday life. Archives
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