2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I am always grateful when God provides another topic upon which He wants me to write. So, I begin this new series on trusting God offering thanks to Him for His faithfulness and loving guidance offered to all of us. I hope someday to teach a course on the book of Judges, because I believe not enough attention is paid to its wonderful lessons. That is why I will begin this series looking at Gideon, who described himself in JG 6: 15 by saying to the Lord, “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.” When I first read these words, I was reminded of Christ’s teachings about humility and the importance to Him of people who we wouldn’t ordinarily think are important. MT 18: 4, “The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child.” MT 25: 40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you whenever you did this [served] for one of the least important of these brothers of Mine you did it for Me!”
It occurs to me that when we are humble before God, we have emptied our spiritual vessels of human agendas and invited the Holy Spirit to fill it with willingness to carry out God’s will. I know that is what God wants us to do, even though it is not always easy or conveniently timed for us. Gideon’s story found in JG 6: 1-8: 28, which I hope you will read is an fine example of this. Let me share some highlights of it with you. At the time Gideon lived, Israel had sinned. So, God punished her for seven years by allowing the Midianites to gain control and bedevil her. The Israelites hid in caves and other safe places in the hills. Whenever they would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. They would camp on Jewish land and destroy the crops as far south as Gaza. The people of Israel cried out to God for help, and He brought them a prophet with this message [from JG 6: 8-10], “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. I told you that I am the Lord your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to Me.”
Gideon was secretly threshing some wheat in a wine press, so the Midianites wouldn’t see him, when the Lord’s angel came to his village and sat under an oak tree belonging to Gideon’s father, Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. The angel said to Gideon in (12), “The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!” You can well imagine Gideon’s surprise at these unexpected words. It led him to ask the angel why God had left the Jews to the mercy of the Midianites. It was then in (14) that the angel told Gideon that God was commissioning him to rescue Israel from this oppression. I began this devotion with Gideon’s response, the words that revealed his humility above. The Lord’s promise that Gideon would be used as His instrument to bring peace, led to another act on Gideon’s part that showed just how faithful he was. Gideon built an altar in the place where this fateful meeting took place and named it “Jehovah Shalom,” meaning “The Lord is Peace” (24). God had chosen this seemingly unimportant man for a very important task because of his humility and his faithfulness. As you read through the events that follow, note how Gideon’s willingness to empty his vessel, follow the Lord’s directives, and put his trust in God led to the Israelites defeating the Midianites. This was a peace that lasted for forty years until Gideon died (JG 8: 28).
It is not important that I told you how this story ended. What really matters here is how its events played out because of Gideon’s attitudes and actions. That is the real value of taking the time to read Scriptures not as frequently studied as more popular ones. One very significant part of this story is what happened and how Gideon responded to it in JG 8: 22-23. “After that [punishing some of the perpetrators], the Israelites said to Gideon, ‘Be our ruler-you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.’ Gideon answered, ‘I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your Ruler.’ “ This story allows us to see the divergence between the attitude of an obedient, trusting, and faithful person and people who are not. Gideon righteously places his trust in God; He looks to God for leadership. The others were making the mistake of looking to mankind for that. It is exactly the same issue that Paul had with the self-righteous Jews in RO 2, when he commented in RO 2: 29, “Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of the Holy Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives his praise from God, not from man.”
How does this apply to us? Whether a person lives in Gideon’s time, Paul’ time, or today, the principle God wants us to understand is the same. His reasons for commanding us to approach him with humility, trust, and obedience are so that He can use us to carry out His will. While doing this, God is perfecting us, preparing us for the day when we will be ready to enter His Kingdom and enjoy eternal life with Him. We don’t have to worry that we are making a mistake in trusting God either. That is because His will for us is always in our best interests and is always righteous. We need to ask ourselves: do we share Gideon’s way of looking at things?
PRAYER: O Lord, in Gideon You have given us another example of a person with whom You are pleased. By granting us the opportunity to read about Gideon, You allow us to see that mankind often places little importance on people You know are faithful and obedient. Gideon’s willingness to put his trust in You not only led to good things for himself; he was able to serve his people. We do not always know the full extent of the assignments You give us. Yet, when we carry them out, the work You do through us is always beneficial. We can’t always know how things will go, how much difficulty we will face, but when we trust You, Dear Lord, we can be assured that good will eventually come of it. Help us to have the courage to trust You and the willingness to obey You. We need to learn the value of humility, the same kind of humility that our Lord and Savior took to the cross with Him. We approach You in humble adoration with these requests and offer You our praise, thanks, honor, glory, and worship for the gift of the Atonement and the wonderful lessons You teach us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue looking at another person who trusted God, King Jehoshaphat, and see how his attitudes and actions allowed God to work through him. Never forget that every person with faith is a child of our loving Abba. We can learn many wonderful lessons from the people of the Scriptures as well as the people we meet in our everyday lives. A manifestation of the Lord’s love and presence in our lives is the chance to meet or read about these people and be exposed to His lessons taught us through them. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn