{"id":4036,"date":"2024-09-25T07:05:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4036"},"modified":"2024-09-25T07:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T11:06:00","slug":"gideons-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/25\/gideons-army\/","title":{"rendered":"Gideon’s Army"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

How would you fill in this blank? Realistically, before I step out to serve God, I would need more\u2026<\/em>

More what? More time? More money? More training or motivation? 

Here\u2019s how God fills in the blank in the Old Testament book of Judges: \u201cAll you need is more trust. If you trust that I am with you, you will do astonishing things for my glory.\u201d

Judges is a book which describes a soul-wearying cycle of three D\u2019s. God\u2019s people disobey<\/em> his commands. That plunges them into distress<\/em> of one kind or another. When they cry out in pain, God sends homegrown deliverers<\/em> \u2013 scrappy warriors who are skilled in guerilla warfare and have traditionally been known as \u201cjudges.\u201d The tragic aspect of this book is that this cycle is repeated at least a dozen times. There is little evidence of learning or spiritual growth.

The good news is that whenever people cry out to God, in whatever century or circumstance, God initiates deliverance. 

What\u2019s startling on the pages of the Bible is how often God chooses self-doubting individuals to deliver the deliverance. God chooses small people to do big jobs. God preferentially chooses fearful people to walk into situations that will require vast courage. Why does God keep doing this? 

More than anything, he longs for us to trust him \u2013 to take our eyes off our own size and to bet the farm on his immensity.

When we arrive at Judges chapter six, Israel is overrun by invaders known as the Midianites. Verse 11 introduces us to the nation\u2019s next unlikely rescuer: \u201cThe angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.\u201d

In a primitive agricultural setting, threshing requires level ground and a light breeze. The wheat and the chaff are crushed together into little pieces and then thrown up into the air, again and again. The breeze blows away the lighter chaff but allows the kernels of wheat to fall directly back to the ground.

So where is Gideon when we first see him? He is in a pit \u2013 an area that has been excavated for grape stomping. There is no breeze down in this pit. Gideon is afraid to show his face up on level ground for fear of losing his wheat to the marauding Midianites.

So what does the angel say to him? \u201cThe Lord is with you, mighty warrior.\u201d Gideon\u2019s response is reminiscent of Travis Bickle in the movie Taxi Driver<\/em>, but with none of the attitude: \u201cAre you talkin\u2019 to me?\u201d  He pours out his doubts. \u201c\u2019But sir,\u2019 Gideon replied, \u2018if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, \u201cDid not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?\u201d But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.\u2019\u201d 

This is the point at which Gideon would love for the conversation to end. He\u2019s gotten a few things off his chest, and he is certain that he\u2019s no mighty warrior, regardless of what an angel might say.

But God has a big job for Gideon: Gideon has to place a new Bible in every hotel room in the United States<\/em>. 

Actually, Gideon would have greatly preferred that assignment to the one he gets in verse 14: \u201cGo in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian\u2019s hand. Am I not sending you?\u201d

Look at Gideon\u2019s astonished reply: \u201cBut Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.\u201d Gideon pleads impotence and insignificance. God will have none of it. \u201cThe Lord answered, \u2018I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.\u2019\u201d

Do you believe that God has a big job for you? Do you believe that somewhere, someone is praying for deliverance \u2013 maybe deliverance from loneliness, or futility, or danger, or spiritual hopelessness \u2013 and that God\u2019s answer is going to involve a response that only you can make?

Most of us are modern-day Gideons. We\u2019re fairly certain that somebody else ought to be doing the heavy lifting in the kingdom of God. But it\u2019s not so.

You are not too young to answer God\u2019s call. You are not too old. You are not \u201ctoo small,\u201d or \u201cjust a homemaker,\u201d or \u201cjust a beginning Bible student.\u201d There is a world that is famished for your service. And God is able and willing to use you, even when the task seems impossible \u2013 which proves to be Gideon\u2019s primary challenge.

There are 135,000 soldiers in the Midianite camp. Gideon\u2019s army has topped out at 32,000. That makes the odds four to one.  

So God says to Gideon, \u201cYou know, this math is all wrong.\u201d Gideon at this point must be thinking, \u201cNo kidding! How about a miraculous multiplication of warriors?\u201d

That\u2019s not what God has in mind. He says in Judges 7:2, \u201cYou have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, \u2018Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave…\u2019\u201d Imagine Gideon\u2019s horror when 22,000 men say, \u201cYou know, I think I left the oven on back home.\u201d

Now what are the odds? Thirteen to one.

Some years ago, USA Today <\/em>asked a number of top American CEO\u2019s, \u201cWhat accounts for your great wealth?\u201d 99% attributed their success to their own hard work; 97% said it was intelligence and good sense; 83% pointed out their higher-than-average I.Q. God\u2019s power and influence did not make the survey. God\u2019s strategy for Gideon is to remove any grounds for human boasting in the next edition of Israel Today.<\/em>

And God is hardly finished. He says in verse four, \u201cThere are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there.\u201d He continues, \u201cSeparate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.\u201d 

All the kneelers are sent home. God intends to win this battle with the dog lappers. How many are there? Three hundred. At this point the odds have skyrocketed to 450 to one.

Some Bible teachers have tried to make a case that these 300 men are superior to those who have gone home. They aren\u2019t afraid of combat, and they know how to drink water when danger is nearby, perhaps by cupping their hands to their mouths so they can scan the horizon. 

But the phrase, \u201clapping the water with their tongues like a dog,\u201d is a giveaway. The Bible is not Canine Friendly literature. In ancient times, dogs were not the kind of creatures you would invite into your family room. 

In the Old Testament, if you really wanted to insult someone, you\u2019d call them a \u201cdog\u201d or a \u201cdead dog\u2019s head.\u201d Being a dog lapper did not mean you were an elite Army Ranger. These are the guys who don\u2019t even know how to get a drink of water. This is the army with which Gideon will defeat the Midianites.

And how do things turn out? Take some time to read the remainder of Judges chapter seven, where Gideon and his little flock of 300 rout the Midianites without even raising their swords. 

When God calls us, it doesn\u2019t matter how big we are. God\u2019s size is the issue. When God calls us, it doesn\u2019t matter what the odds appear to be. God unfailingly takes care of those who entrust the present and the future to him.

Your significance is not the point. Your insignificance is not the point.

God\u2019s significance is the real point<\/em>.

And that\u2019s the one thing we most need to know today, tomorrow, and every day to follow.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here How would you fill in this blank? Realistically, before I step out to serve God, I would need more\u2026 More what? More time? More money? More training or motivation?  Here\u2019s how God fills in the blank in the Old Testament book of Judges: \u201cAll you need is more trust. If you… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4039,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions\/4039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}