Tuesday, December 11

GIDEON

Judges 6

Today, we are looking at a self-proclaimed nobody in Scripture—Gideon. Gideon may sound like a famous person from the Scriptures, but it was only his selfless obedience to God for which he is known. Though he is known in history for being a mighty warrior, God made it clear that it would be Him who was fighting the battles, not Gideon. Let’s take a closer look.

First, we will look at the call of Gideon. In verse 14 of Ch. 6, we find the angel of the Lord calling Gideon to “go out in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.” Gideon then responds in humility, essentially saying that his strength is not sufficient enough to defeat the Midianites. In vs. 15, he tells the angel that he is the least in his family, and that his clan is the weakest of all of Israel. God assures Gideon that He will be Gideon’s strength.

God then goes on to purify Gideon’s life. He tells Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and the Asherah pole that was beside it. How does Gideon respond to this command? In complete obedience. Gideon did exactly what the Lord said and destroyed the false gods and idols that his father had, thus purifying himself before the Lord and committing himself to the Lord.

Even when Gideon is doing the Lord’s work (preparing his army for battle) he trusted in the Lord and allowed Him to purify his army also. The Lord said in 7:2, “You have too many people…” He tells Gideon to reduce the number of his army “…in order that Israel may not boast against Me that her own strength has saved her.” God wanted a humbleness and purity in Israel so that He would be free to work. He takes the army from 30,000 to 10,000 to 300 of the most pure men of the army to show that it would not be the strength of the army that would save Israel from the Midianites, but it would be the hand of the Lord.

God places the same kind of demands on us as He did on Gideon. He wants a complete devotion in our lives before He can work through us. He wants us to have the attitude that Gideon had where he sees that he is nothing in the eyes of the Lord. Then He demands purification in our lives by calling us to get rid of the idols and distractions in our lives that consume us and keep us from God. He also wants us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His strength.

But there is a warning for us in Gideon’s life. After the battle was won and the Midianites were defeated, we see in Judges 8:22-28 that Gideon asked the Israelites to each give him a gold earring, and he used the earrings to make an Ephod. The Israelites then worshiped this ephod instead of worshipping God. You see, even after the Lord showed Gideon His awesome strength by defeating the Midianites with only 300 men, Gideon did not rely on the Lord’s guiding and made this ephod, which, as it tells us in 8:28, became a snare to Gideon and his family. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, and not go at it in our own strength, because it will become a snare in our lives also. The Lord calls us to surrender, repentance, and obedience, and we cannot be obedient in our own strength, for it is not sufficient!

~ Eric Frantz