Judges 6:11-18 GOD’S WORD Translation
Gideon Is Chosen to Be a Judge
11 The Messenger of the Lord came and sat under the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash from Abiezer’s family. Joash’s son Gideon was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The Messenger of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, brave man.”
13 Gideon responded, “Excuse me, sir! But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles our ancestors have told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and has handed us over to Midian.”
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “You will rescue Israel from Midian with the strength you have. I am sending you.”
15 Gideon said to him, “Excuse me, sir! How can I rescue Israel? Look at my whole family. It’s the weakest one in Manasseh. And me? I’m the least important member of my family.”
16 The Lord replied, “I will be with you. You will defeat Midian as if it were ⌞only⌟ one man.”
17 Gideon said to him, “If you find me acceptable, give me a sign that it is really you speaking to me. 18 Don’t leave until I come back. I want to bring my gift and set it in front of you.”
“I will stay until you come back,” he said.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
The biblical story of God meeting with Gideon ignites a fire of faith within me to be used by God to empower, to inspire and to powerfully impact the community.
Gideon exemplifies the truth that God anoints all he appoints.
He will perfectly equip and empower you to accomplish whatever task he has set before you.
In Judges 6, an angel of the Lord approaches Gideon, who at the time was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the oppressive Midianites.
Scripture says, “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor’” (Judges 6:12).
Now, if an angel appeared to me and told me something, I would like to think I would believe whatever he said.
Not so with Gideon.
Gideon immediately doubts the word of God.
He responds to God’s call to save Israel by saying, “‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man’” (Judges 6:15-16).
So great was Gideon’s insecurity that he didn’t trust a direct word from God.
But God still responded to Gideon’s doubt by meeting him at that place of insecurity and faithlessness and consistently speaking truth over him.
Before Gideon even had a chance to doubt, God called him a “mighty man of valor.”
God knew Gideon’s insecurities.
He knew that his past and present works were anything but full of valor.
But God called out the greatness he had placed in Gideon.
God knows our own severest insecurities which keep us in a preferred state of “go away God, don’t bother me, I am too weak and too incapable of service.”
God has called each and everyone of us, His children, His Body of Christ, His Church in the world mired and mucked down by everything everyone contrary. (Matthew 28:16-20, John 21:15-17, Acts 2:1-21, 2:42-47, Acts 4:8-12, Acts 9:1-19)
In meeting with Gideon on Gideon’s own ground, in the “security” of his winepress, he formed and fashioned him into a man full of faith and power.
In going into battle, the Lord took the vast number of men that were following Gideon, totaling thirty-two thousand, stripped them down to three hundred.
God took what might have been possible by the unsure, inexperienced hands of the insecure uncertain Gideon and made it only possible by his great strength.
And in response to God’s faithfulness to meet with him, to remain with Him, Gideon obeyed the Lord, confidently went into battle with three hundred men.
Judges 7:22-23 tells us, “When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.”
Now Gideon, reshaped, retooled, powerfully defeated an oppressive army vastly outnumbering his own because of the great power of God working through him.
God longs to be in community with His children as He is in community with His Son and the Holy Spirit.
From within that divine community, God longs to fill us, empower us all today.
From within that divine community He longs to reveal Himself, to show us His ways, conquer the works of the enemy that oppress those he loves through you.
Meet with God today.
Allow Him to call us out of our unbelief, our uncertainties, our insecurities.
Allow Him to call us out of our Wine Presses where we hide from our enemy.
Allow Him to call out from deep within, the greatness he has placed within you.
Allow him to guide you into battles only he could win that you might bring his kingdom to earth all around you.
May we each be filled with his love, grace, and power today as we daily open up our hearts and souls and spend the time communing with our heavenly Father.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
1. Meditate on the powerful effect of God’s heart to meet with Gideon. Allow the grace God had for Gideon to fill you with an understanding of God’s grace toward you, to allow Scripture to stir up your heart and faith to meet with God.
“‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.’” Judges 6:15-16
“Then Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.’ And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.” Judges 6:36-40
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
2. What are the Midianites in your life? What does God want to conquer in and through you today?
3. Open your heart to the Lord and meet with him. Meditate on his nearness. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal his presence to you.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
May Romans 8:35 and 37-39 encourage you and fill you with faith to conquer all that would stand in the way of you and the abundant life Jesus died to give you:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 