S26 IS IT ENOUGH? GIDEON
Sometimes I’ve wondered if I was doing enough for God. Was
I doing enough for the world? I told the Lord, “What I do is put out weekly
Preach Letters, and I pray a particular prayer every day to rid the world of
the spiritual “rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph.6:12). But being a
60s child, I sometimes got tempted to think maybe what I’m doing now is too
small. Should I be out there protesting or going to rallies like I did in the
60s and 70s?
But the Lord’s answer was always the same: “No, you are
doing exactly what I want you to do, and you are changing the world from right
where you are, and I’ll show you if there’s more.” I was satisfied with His
answer, even though I can’t tell you how often I asked Him to repeat it! I’m
sure some of you have asked the same questions: Am I doing enough? What else
can I do? Lord, what is it you want me to do?
There are just some things we’ll not be able to get
fully answered until we go through them. We’ve heard the phrase: “There’s a
reason for everything.” But the second half of that should be: “But we don’t
get to know all the reasons ahead of time.” That’s where trust and pure
obedience come in. The story of Gideon and his small band of Bible heroes
teaches us about trusting God, doing what He says, and seeing the great results
we never knew would be our destiny.
The story of Gideon's life begins with God allowing the
Israelites to be dominated for seven years by the Midianites. Why? Because “the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judg. 6:1), The
Midianites were a wandering band of nomads who, with help from the Amalekites
and others, would make regular attacks on the Israelites.
“They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase
of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel,
neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their
tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and
their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it”
(Judg. 6:4-5).
The Israelites were hiding in caves, and they were in
poverty. So God sent an angel to a young man named Gideon, who was threshing
wheat near a winepress to avoid detection at the time of the angel’s visit. The
angel came to him and said: “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man
of valour” (Judg. 6:12). Gideon was only a young man, definitely not
a man of valour. But God saw him differently from how he saw himself. And
that’s an excellent lesson for us. We must see ourselves through the eyes of
the Lord only.
Then Gideon questioned: “Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with
us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our
fathers told us of, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ but now
the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites”
(v.13).
But the angel didn’t bother to explain why it was
happening. He just told Gideon what to do next and said: “Go in this thy
might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I
sent thee?” (v.14)
“And he [Gideon] said unto him, ‘Oh my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least
in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said unto him, ‘Surely I will be with thee,
and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man’” (vv.15-16).
Judges 8:10 tells us that the enemy had 135,000 fighting
men! (Judg. 8:10). Gideon only had 32,000.
“The Lord said unto Gideon, ‘The people
that are with thee are too many for me to give the
Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying,
‘Mine own hand hath saved me.’
“Now, therefore, go to, proclaim in the ears of the
people, saying, ‘Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and
depart early from mount Gilead’. And there returned of the people twenty and
two thousand; and there remained ten thousand” (Judg. 7:2-3).
So, out of 32,000 men, 22,000 turned back! Now Gideon
only had 10,000 to fight the 135,000 enemy soldiers. But God knew something
more about those men who remained. Though they may have thought they were ready
to fight, God knew better. So the Lord instructed Gideon to give the 10,000 men
a simple test.
“And the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘The
people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water,
and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I
say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of
whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not
go.’
“So he brought down the people unto the water: and the
Lord said unto Gideon, ‘Every one that lappeth of the water with his
tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one
that boweth down upon his knees to drink.”
“And the number of them that
lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men:
but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.”
“And the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘By the three
hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine
hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place”
(vv.4-7).
I never understood the big deal about two different ways
of drinking water. But a Christian friend explained it to me. If a person goes
down to drink water and brings it up to his mouth, he can still be on guard
with his eyes looking out for the enemy. But if a person gets down on his knees
and slurps the water, his eyes would not look out, but down! So out of the
10,000 men, only 300 were truly battle-ready!
Gideon may have been apprehensive, to say the least,
about going against a multitude of blood-thirsty enemies with such a small
number of men, but God knew what He was doing. So Gideon trusted and obeyed,
and he saved the whole nation of Israel.
“Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel,
so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness
forty years in the days of Gideon” (Judg. 8:28).
With God, it’s never about the numbers; it’s about a
person’s heart. So we have to get used to doing spiritual things without always
having to know why. And if we sometimes feel we are less than able,
remember this story of Gideon. It’s not about the big numbers; it’s about each
of us doing our small part to stay alert, trust, and obey. That’s how the world
becomes a better place. Because of that young man’s heart and willingness to
trust and obey, the whole nation of Israel had true peace in the land for 40
years.
Love, Carolyn
If you have mature children, family members, or friends
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