I am almost finished with the Gideon study by Priscilla Shirer and am just tickled by how God works. Maybe you are familiar with the story, but in case you are not, here is a quick summary.....
Gideon was one of the Old Testament Judges and his story is told in Judges 6-8.
Because of their disobedience and idol worship, the Israelites had been suffering under the hands of their enemies, the Midianites, for seven years when Gideon was called to attack the problem.
Gideon was totally shocked by this and just knew that God had surely made a mistake. He was busy working, minding his own business, in no way eager to lead anyone. Calling himself the weakest man from the weakest tribe, Gideon questioned God and asked for not just one sign, but multiple ones.
He was very nervy for someone so "weak"! Can you imagine?
{Sidebar: I wonder how many times you or I have felt a gentle stirring to complete a task we felt unprepared for, but instead of obeying, just ignored it. Kudos to Gideon for hanging in there. Of course, there was the whole angel appearing, which puts a different spin on things!}
God was patient and gave Gideon the signs he needed to feel confident that God really had chosen him to do this huge thing. God then whittled down Gideon's army from 32,000 to only 300 men. He did this because he wanted His people to know that their victory was coming from God himself, not from the efforts of men.
The part of the story that I find most amazing is the weaponry with which the 300 were sent into battle, a battle God had already told them they were going to win. These brave men, chosen by God Almighty himself, took up their water pitchers with a torch hidden inside and a trumpet and headed off for battle.
I bet that wasn't decided by a committee.
When they surrounded the camp, the Israelites blew their trumpets, smashed their pitchers, and gave a shout out to the Lord. Can you imagine their amazement when their arch enemies-the Midianites, who had terrorized them and starved them for so long-ran around killing each other?
I bet the bad guys felt like total idiots when they realized what had happened!
This is more than just a good story about a brave man from long ago. It is also the story of you and me.
Have you ever looked around at the mess our society is in and wondered when God is going to bring in some adults to fix things?
Well, girls, we are the adults. We are where we are for a reason and God has a job for each of us. If this generation is going to learn the truth about God's love for them, it is going to happen because weaklings like me step out in obedience and do it.
Scary, isn't it? But God uses the weak to confound the strong. His ways are higher than our ways and his methods don't make sense to the world. He promised not to abandon Gideon, and he won't abandon us.
Gideon used the weapons God gave him to fight the battle God asked him to fight, and we must do that, too. God has equipped us so well with His complete word, our direct prayer line to him through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that dwells inside each believer.
So let's be brave. Let's break our water pitchers and let the Holy Spirit light a fire that will send the enemy running for cover.
And we will know when victory comes that it is because God fought the battle for us.
