Some things I learned while studying Judges 6-7:
Gideon is a great example of God using broken imperfect people to accomplish great and mighty things!
Gideon is a man marked by fear, doubt and insecurity. Yet God looks at him and calls forth his potential. While hiding in a wine press God calls him a mighty man of valor. For the next few chapters we can’t help but see Gideon’s timidity as he steps forward in obedience, in all honestly his failures probably outweigh his victories. And yet ever so patiently God keeps reassuring and confirming again and again His promise to be with Gideon. I am so grateful for our patient and merciful Father!
I love how God strengthens Gideon’s courage by assuring him that He will be with him. We’re all familiar with that quote that courage is not the absence of fear but it is going forward in the midst of fear.
The Bible is full of examples of people that God asked to do something absolutely radical and yet in obedience they take that first what looks like to be a ridiculous step of faith. Noah was asked to build an ark that would save all of creation from a flood. So many questions could have run through his head like God Couldn’t we just move or what is rain exactly?” Yet Noah picked up the axe and he felled that first tree. Abraham and Sarah were old and barren when God promised them a child. The Israelite priests had to step into the raging river before God stopped the waters David was but a boy when anointed to be king. Peter stepped out of a boat and onto water.
We tend to want neon lights, audible voices from the Lord, to have every single detail put in place before were willing to step out into what God is calling us. It’s way too easy to talk ourselves out of some crazy looking step of faith. But that’s what God wants he wants us to step out and put 1 foot in front of the other even when we don’t know how that first step is going to go. Peter could’ve stood in the boat until God made the water solid like a bridge but instead he had to step out knowing there was a great probability that he would sink.
What big crazy beyond you idea is God whispering to your heart what is the first step of faith and obedience that you can take towards that goal?
Chapter 7 goes on to talk about how Gideon gathers the largest army he possibly can (even though he is still outnumbered 4:1). Yet God begins the process of whittling the army down. Why? Because God does not want the glory to belong to mankind he doesn’t want Gideon and the nation of Israel to ever think “hey, we did it ourselves”. By the time the battle is to commence Gideon heads out with 300 men (outnumbered 450 to 1) armed with a trumpet and torches hidden in a clay pots. They may have carried swords but if so they were sheathed for their hands were full and in truth they had no need of them.
Imagine the scene. creeping up in the dark this small troop surrounds a valley that looked to be filled with slumbering soldiers and their camels to numerous to count. . In unison they blasted their trumpets, shattered the clay pitchers so that their torches shone brilliantly and cried out “the sword of The Lord and Gideon!” The slumbering army gets up and in a panic, with cries of fear and bumbling attempts to flee they draw their swords killing whoever stands in their way. All the while the Israelite army was able to stand still and see God defeat the enemy.
My first thought on reading the description of God whittling down Gideon’s army was God wants us to lean on Him not our own strength. So often those seasons of heartbreak and trial are God whittling down the things we lean on apart from Him. In my own life I can see this to be true. Everything I held to as a support or source of strength slipped through my fingers. Alone I found I still had God and in having God I was never truly alone or without.
As the pitchers were broken and the radiance of the torches revealed I thought of how often our Earthly vessels have to be broken for the light of God shine in its brilliance.
Listening to JD Greerer speak on this chapter , he talked about the broken vessels. He pointed out how our weakness cracks and imperfections are opportunities to glorify God. When we can’t He can! Briefly he mentioned the Japanese art form of Kintsugi. Where cracks and breaks are repaired and highlighted in gold. Where instead of throwing out the broken vessels as is so often our tendency, they are restored in such a way that their value is greater than it was beforehand.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VtD1m7EgF5Y
That is so like God!!! He sees us in our brokenness and sometimes He even leads us down bumpy trails that may add to our brokenness so that we see our desperate need and lean on Him!!! He then repairs those cracks in such a way our need for Him is highlighted. He then goes on to uses us more than our wildest dreams could imagine!!!
I think of the bread Jesus used to feed the multitudes. Over and over again you’ll see the phrase repeated in the New Testament that He took the bread He broke the bread He blessed the bread and He gave the bread. Likewise He takes our lives into His hands. He allows us to be broken to see our need for Him. In that place of brokenness He blesses us, fulfills and multiplies us. He then gives us back as a blessing to others as a miracle that draws others unto Him.
Quoting JD Greear again “God does not call the brave, He makes brave the called. He does not a appoint the equipped, He equips those He has appointed.
One of my missionary heroes Hudson Taylor once said “All God’s giants have been weak man. Who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.
Daniel 11:32 says “....those who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits!”
