ANGELS, DREAMS, SIGNS, AND WONDERS

 ANGELS, DREAMS, SIGNS, AND WONDERS

In the last couple of weeks I‘ve shown you a little about what normal looks like in the Bible. I’ve shown you something about angels, dreams, and open visions. Today I want to show you where God used a combination of these along with signs and wonders to get important messages to a man named Gideon. The people of God had turned away, leaving themselves open to oppression. When their way of living was demolished, they finally turned back to God and cried out for help. It’s recorded in Judges 6 - 9. For brevity’s sake, I won’t go over every verse, but I hope you’ll read it for yourself as soon as you can.

 

“And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them” (Judg. 6:3).

 

“They came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord” (vv. 5-6)

 

Enter, an angel from God, to begin the deliverance of His people:

 

“And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak” (v. 11) “And said [to Gideon], ‘Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites” (v. 14). 

 

This next verse is important for us to remember for later when God gives Gideon a message from a dream.

 

“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’” (v. 15)

 

Now here comes another Biblical normal: Gideon asks God to give him a sign that all of this about him being a hero is for real:

 

“And the Lord said unto him, ‘Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, ‘If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. (vv. 16-17).

 

Up to this point, Gideon thinks that this person who came to him is actually a flesh and blood man who is delivering a message from God. Gideon wants to know if the message is really from God, so he asks for some kind of a sign. He then tells the “man” to wait while he goes and prepares a meal for him. When he brings the meal back out to the person he thought was a man, a very interesting thing happens:

 

“The angel of God [who Gideon thought was a man], said unto him, ‘Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.

 

“Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord” (vv. 20-22)

 

So, Gideon got his prayer answered and God gave him the first sign that he asked for. We need to realize that God is more than willing to give us whatever it is that we need, to carry out our missions for Him. We may be the ones who pray the perfect prayer for our neighborhood, or we may be the perfect person to speak to the parent/teacher group. Whatever it is that God is urging us to do, we can do it, but God never expects us to do it alone. He will give us an angel, a sign, a dream, a wonder, whatever it takes to help us to be the heroes He’s called us to be.

 

Then later in the story, it’s time to actually go into battle. All the Israelites are enthused and ready to go for it, but God tells Gideon no. God can’t let everyone do the fighting because He knows they are too egotistical.

 

“And 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’” (Judg. 7:2).

 

God showed Gideon how to minimize the number of soldiers down to only 300.

 

“And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude” (7:12).

 

Gideon must have been terrified at this point, or at least hesitant about taking only 300 soldiers against a huge multitude of enemies. And this is where God sends Gideon a message through another man’s dream.

 

“And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, ‘Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 

 

When Gideon heard this man tell about his dream, Gideon knew instantly that it was another message from God for him. Remember how Gideon responded to when the angel first came to him? He said, “My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (Judg. 6:15). Barley for the Israelites was considered poor men’s bread. So when Gideon heard this dream, he knew that the cake of barley bread that would take down the Midianites was none other than he himself and his mere troop of 300 men. Finally, Gideon was totally convinced.

 

“And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, ‘Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian” (7: 13-15).

 

Gideon and his 300 men went on to defeat the enemy and there was peace in the land for the next forty years.

 

It took a lot of supernatural things to convince Gideon to go ahead with God’s plan, but God didn’t complain, He just kept giving. God is no less compassionate toward us. We’re all heroes like Gideon in His eyes, and all worthy of angel visits, signs, miracles, wonders, dreams, and visions, all to the Glory of our God.

 

Love, Carolyn