2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
For a long time now, I’ve been sharing the idea driven home to me by the “Experiencing God” course I am taking that God invites us to join Him in His work and wants us to have a love relationship with Him that is real and personal. It occurs to me that God wants us to know Him more intimately by revealing His attributes to us through the Scriptures and encouraging us to see how these attributes impact our own lives and others. The logic here is that if we know God this way, He will be better able to carry out His purposes through us. Our willingness to 1) put God’s agenda first over human ones, 2) accept assignments from God that sometimes take us out of our comfort zone, 3) give God the time necessary to carry out these assignments, 4) not alter these assignments to accommodate human agendas, and 5) carry out these assignments when God wants us to do them makes a huge difference. In this series of messages, we will look at how people of the Scriptures obeyed God, thus allowing Him to reveal His attributes to all of us. Then, we will look at how we can do this in our own lives.
At the time the Lord’s angel came to the village of Ophrah to speak to Gideon, son of Joash in Judges 6, the Midianites were making life miserable for the Israelites temporarily under their rule. God had allowed this to happen for seven years to punish the Jews for idolatry and disobedience to Him. Gideon was threshing wheat secretly in a wine press at the time, so the Midianites wouldn’t see him. JG 6: 12, “The Lord’s angel appeared to him [Gideon] saying, ‘The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!’ ” In (14), the Lord ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I Myself am sending you.” Gideon’s initial response in (15) was, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.” The Lord’s response in (16) is, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.” To begin, God directed Gideon in (25) to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of the goddess, Asherah, which was beside it. [Baal and his wife, Asherah, were the main idols of Caananite worship]. Gideon obeyed God and became known after that as Jerubbaal, which in Hebrew means “ let Baal defend himself.” In JG 7 & 8, which I hope you will read, we learn that Gideon went on to defeat the Midianites with God’s help. Afterward the Israelites said to Gideon in JG 8: 22-23, “Be our ruler-you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.” Gideon’s reponse demonstrates his obedience to God, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your Ruler.”
Has God ever given you an assignment you thought you couldn’t do? You are not alone in feeling unqualified or surprised by a commission God gives you. Many famous people from the Bible, like Gideon, Moses, and Jeremiah for example, have reacted that way initially. [See EX 3: 7-12 & JER 1: 4-8]. If we had perfect trust in God, no one would react this way. He would know that God equips us to do whatever He asks of us. But, we are human, so our reaction is human. God knows this and wants us to take these assignments that often take us out of our comfort zone not only to carry out His purposes through us, but to give us a prime opportunity for personal spiritual growth. That’s how much our Lord loves us! By looking at Gideon’s story above, we can see how obeying God brought Gideon and anyone who knows his story to see the attributes that He reveals through it. JG 8: 28, “So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.” Since peace was restored as a result of Gideon’s obedience to God, we learn that God is Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace. Gideon also learned that God is the God of My Strength.
In Gideon’s response about being “the least important member of his family,” in the weakest clan in the tribe of Manasseh, we can see his humility. Being humble before God is an essential trait God is looking for in His servants, the ones who will allow Him to do great accomplishments through them. We not only need to trust that God calls us to His purposes to accomplish them through us, but we need to understand that these challenges are one of God’s principle ways that he moves us forward in the process of sanctification. Understanding that might make us think twice before we refuse to accept an assignment that God gives us, even it leads us into to doing things we never felt we could do or to places uncomfortable for us. God wants us to trust Him. Now, that’s easier said than done sometimes, but knowing God helps us to understand that His perspective is greater than ours, in fact, perfect. While Gideon didn’t know if he could carry out God’s assignment for him successfully, he trusted God enough to obey Him. If pride had been in his make-up, God would not have been able to use Gideon to accomplish his purpose to defeat the Midianites, thus bringing peace to Israel. We need to think about our own lives. Are we putting pride or other human agendas in the way of God working through us? Are we giving God the opportunity to show us His attributes by allowing Him to use us to accomplish His purposes? We need to pray about that.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before you in humble adoration. You have invited us to join You in Your work. There are times when Your commissions for us take us into uncomfortable places or come at times inconvenient for us. We need to understand that our own perspective is faulty and incomplete. Yours is perfect. Help us to rid ourselves of pride and human agendas, so we can allow You to operate through us. We know that we must learn to trust that You know what is best for us. You deserve our thanks and praise for the loving patience You show us and for Your desire to give us an opportunity to grow spiritually. You deserve our courage of faith and obedience. In Christ’s name, amen.
omorrow, we will continue looking at some of the ways God reveals His attributes letting us get to know Him better through obeying Him. In my heart I know our Lord wants us to examine our lives, not to feel guilty, but to see if we are accepting the assignments He gives us and allowing Him to accomplish His purposes through us. I hope you will spend some time observing how God works through you and those around you to do His will. Never forget that God’s love for you is real and perfect. Peter and I also send you our love in Christ.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn