God gave Gideon an nasty job, then took away every tool he needed to perform it.
God found Gideon sneaking around threshing wheat in his father's winepress so the Midianites wouldn't find him. Then, when God told him to cut down his father's pagan worship sites, he did it at night so no one would blame him for it. When God told him to defeat the Midianites, he said, "Who, me?" and whipped out a fleece to see whether he could get out of it....twice. When the day finally came to do the deed, and he snuck up (again) on the Midianite camp with his pitiful 300 soldiers, they wielded flares and trumpets rather deadly weapons.
God heard Gideon's weak whining, but ignored it. Frankly, I'm surprised that Gideon didn't give it all up as a bad job.
Gideon had to take his piddly army into a sad kind of battle saying only, "God told me." He must have looked like an idiot. What if he was wrong?
God, of course, had something clear and plain to say to that:
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?"--Judges 6:14
Visual: [Slap upside the head]
"Am I not sending you? Am I not the God of the universe? Did I make a mistake?"
Of course not. God says 'Defeat the Midianites' or 'Build the temple' or 'Kill the giant,' then proceeds to tell us that we don't need anything but what little strength we have and Him. It's about Him. It's always about Him.
Gideon didn't need any equipment greater than his faith.
Fortunately, he did have that.
God has given us a job, too. He is sending us somewhere without equipment or soldiers or bravery. Is our faith strong enough?
Often times we don't know how strong or weak our faith is until we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a life storm. It's not until the storm is over that we look back and see how God equipped us, sustained us, and blessed us throughout.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
~Rosann
No kidding. Ironically, that often makes the worst of times the best of times.
DeleteThanks for following...
I've gotten one of God's "GO" bulletins lately. And I'm frankly a little scared. Your words are a reminder that I don't go alone. I thank you. So glad you linked.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. When God calls, we need to obey in faith and trust of the One who is able to do all things.
ReplyDeleteThankfully all of the heroes of the faith weren't written in as perfect, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see how God could use people that had weaknesses, like the doubts or fears in our own selves. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right..and the imperfections of the great fathers of our faith is one of the things that makes Christianity unique. Maybe because we know that, at all times, we have a perfect Savior...
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