Judges 6 - Gideon
I have preached from Judges 6 many times. I love the story of Gideon and what is represents regarding individual spiritual growth.
As I sat down with my journal, I asked God to bless this reading and offer something that I haven’t seen before. Something that would make a story I love become more significant. God honored my request.
Once again, Israel rebelled against God and needed correction and discipline. God allowed the Midianites to overpower Israel. The text goes on to explain the Midianites would take any food Israel had and leave them to go hungry. They were in a predicament for sure.
Much of the conflict in the Middle East began with family conflict. Each clan wants what belongs to the other and there is no middle ground. No compromise. No agreement. This story is no different. After Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, and after Isaac married Rebekah, Abraham took another wife at the young age of 120+ (estimate). Genesis 25 says that she bore him 5 sons; one of them was Midian. The argument of “descendants of Abraham” certainly applies here.
To further complicate the situation, Joseph was sold in Egypt by Midianites (Genesis 37). If that wasn’t enough, Moses’ father-in-law was a priest in Midian.
There is bad history between these groups that runs deeper than Republicans and Democrats.
After this round of oppression, Israel called out to God for redemption. God’s faithfulness prevailed through his servant, Gideon. God appeared to Gideon as he was threshing wheat in a winepress – a contest he was going to lose from the beginning. There is so much we could unpack, but I want to draw your attention to five sentences and one resounding thought.
Verse 12 – The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
Verse 14 – The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel.”
Verse 16 – “I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
Verse 15 – “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Verse 27 – Because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
Manasseh is Joseph’s son. The entire conflict is personal. Our history can determine our path, if we let it. Or our history can help us learn how to better live inside God’s mission for our lives.
God repeatedly spoke into Gideon that he was a mighty man of valor long before Gideon understood that he was more than a mistreated weakling.
God repeatedly speaks into my life and your life that HE offers the strength necessary to walk the mission he has placed before us. We get off our path when we stop believing what God repeatedly speaks into our life. God’s mission uses our history to help us live a better mission. Our history never prevents us from understanding God’s mission for us UNLESS we stop listening.
What has God been repeatedly speaking into your life? How well are you listening? Are you on the path of God’s mission? Have you allowed history to derail what God is doing in your life?
Let’s press forward into the mission of God together.