The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you
have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.
Am I not sending you?” “Pardon
me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the
weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike
down all the Midianites together.” Judges 6:14-18
“The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!”
How often we feel weak, inadequate, and incapable of being
used by God in any significant way. God
often uses the weakest, and most inadequate people to bring him
Glory. He does it with characters
throughout the Bible and Gideon just happens to be one of those.
When the angel of the Lord first appears to Gideon, he is
hiding food from the Midianites who were terrorizing the Israelites. The angel
of the Lord, affirms Gideon as a “Mighty Warrior”. Probably the last thing Gideon thought of
himself- He probably felt more like a coward hiding out in clefts, caves and
strongholds. But the Lord saw something
more valuable in Him.
When the Lord calls him out to save Israel, all his excuses
followed with him being from the weakest clan, and being the least in his
family. He probably could think of a lot
of other more capable, smarter, stronger, qualified individuals for the Job-
but God didn’t want those qualified men.
He wanted the least; He wanted the weakest- to make his power, presence
and glory known.
“I
will be with you.”
God’s famous last words to every prophet, apostle, disciple,
and host of other men and women He used in the Bible. “If God is for you who can be against you?”
(Romans 8:31) This promise of God being with us is the most valuable treasure
we have. If God is with us we can
accomplish much for His Glory.
Sure Gideon was afraid, and even after he heard from the
angel of the Lord he still tested God and asked for a sign and a fleece to know
that God was indeed with him and promised to save Israel through him.
And God so graciously obliged Gideon’s request three times
and Gideon obeyed God and got the victory with a small army of 300 men.
God knows how weak, inadequate and incapable we think we are. And He still delights in using us. He wants us to rise to the occasion, take up
the challenge and be the “mighty” men and women that He knows we are capable of becoming.
We need to trust him.
We need to listen to him. We need
to obey him. We need to keep our eyes on
Him. We need to write his Holy
affirmation on the tablets of our hearts.
“The Lord is with
you, Mighty Warrior!”
No comments:
Post a Comment