Judges 6: 11 - 16
11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
16 And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
Gideon called it: he was of a small clan and his family was small. In other words, God should not expect a mighty army to come up from this clan. Except that God rarely uses mighty armies to do His work. God does not want mighty armies, He wants yielded vessels.
He took Gideon and some volunteers and then eliminated most of them and left Gideon with only 300 men. The Midianites were numerous; the Bible says they and their camels were without number. So how could Gideon and his 300 men be expected to win? In human terms, they were doomed to failure. The Midianites would hardly even notice a little pin-prick like 300 men attacking. But God had it all planned out and He doesn’t work like we think He should work. His plans are different than our plans are. Gideon and his men were thinking, “spears and swords.” God was thinking, “If the Midianites think a vast army is attacking, they’ll panic and run.” So He told Gideon to bring torches and trumpets and they caused a panic and the Midianites fled and many were killed in the panic.
In our lives, we are often called to do work for the Lord. Indeed, His last words to the crowd just before He ascended back to His Father were:
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He wants us to be witnesses for Him into all the world. So does that mean I should witness to my neighbors? Yep, even that annoying one. Should I be a witness at my work? Yep, and they will listen better if you actually act like a Christian all the time – when you’re tired, stressed out, over-worked, grumpy, whatever. Should I be a witness at my family. Yep, even though they know you better than anybody and know all those times you didn’t act like a Christian. Where else should I be a witness? Look at that verse from Acts again. Everywhere and to everyone.
So why me? I’m a lousy example of being a Christian! I lose my temper and I doubt and I’m self-conscious and, and, and…. And the Lord said to me, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” He knows I can do it and He will be with me when I witness and He will help me when I need the help. And He will not accept any excuses. I am to be His witness and I need to witness wherever and whenever I can.
I have tried to be a witness more and found out the more I witness the easier it is to witness. Who knows, maybe God was right and I really am a “mighty man of valor.”
When you walk closer to God, hard to fail.
Stephen Cram
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the
rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.
Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King
James Version of the Bible.
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