Judges 6
Scripture
Judges 6:11-12
…Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor!”
Observation
The Israelites continue their vicious cycle of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord soon after God sends them a judge to deliver them from His latest punishment. Here, as a result of their return to sin and idolatry, God delivers Israel into the hands of the Midianites to be oppressed for seven years. The Midianites, whom the Bible says are as numerous as locusts, descend upon Israel to steal any harvest, grain or livestock that the Israelites would reap, leaving Israel without sustenance. As always, when the suffering becomes too much to bear, Israel cries out to the Lord. God sends a prophet to confront Israel with her sin and raises up Gideon to deliver Israel from her oppression.
God is gracious and patient enough to entertain both Gideon’s accusations and doubts; confirming the calling and promised victory by accepting an offering from Gideon. When the awe and fear that result from this encounter threatens to overwhelm Gideon, the Lord proclaims peace to Gideon; prompting Gideon to erect an altar and name it Jehovah Shalom, The Lord is Peace.
As the first order of business, God instructs Gideon to destroy the altar to Baal that his father had erected and to cut down the Astoreth pole that is beside it so that a proper altar may be built for offerings to the Lord God of Israel. When the men of the city discovered who had destroyed the altars, they implore Gideon’s father, Joash, to surrender up his son to be killed for his deed. Joash puts the onus on the god whose altar was destroyed to defend himself against the affront, causing them to now call Gideon, Jerubbaal, which literally means, Let Baal Plead.
When the Midianites (and the Amalakites) once again gather to pounce on Israel, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he blows the trumpet to gather Israel together for war. Twice again, God strengthens Gideon by condescending to provide a sign, via the fleeces, that He will indeed be with Gideon and deliver Israel by His hand.
Romans 4:17
Gideon sees himself as a coward from the least of the families of Israel; hiding in a hole hoping to be unseen long enough to put together enough wheat to make a loaf of bread for his family. But God sees him for what he will be when he moves in the strength of the Lord - a man of valor, a mighty warrior. All the tales of Gideon’s courage and victory that follow his encounter with God stem from a renewed sense of identity. At the point that Gideon believes that he is who God says he is - God is able to do great things in and through him.
Life Application
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
The greatest endeavor that I can undertake to partner with God in His redemptive work in my life is to continually and passionately strive to live in light of all that His word says I am by virtue of being “in Christ”. I am free from trying to earn and be what and who God says I already am! Just as children will live up to their parents expectations and become who they say they are – good or bad – so I will only become, in action or attitude, who God wants me to be when I believe that I already am all that He says I am. So often I get the cart before the horse and work to frustration trying to become holy in his sight. His word says that I am already holy in His sight by virtue of being hidden in Christ and clothed in His righteousness. All that I do should not be the result of trying to be holy, it should all stem from the realization that this is what I should do because I am holy. When I truly believe that truth, all that I do will naturally and effortlessly follow from that sense of Identity. Maybe that is why we are called human beings and not human doings.