In the last few weeks I’ve been attending a bible study written by Priscilla Shirer on the life of Gideon in the book of Judges. We do 5 lessons and go to the study each week. We listen to the author teach via a dvd. It has once again taught me, there is so much God has in store for those who study His Word.
In Judges 6: 1-4 it states that the people of Midian would come and take anything that the Israelites had planted.
Judges 6:11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
Gideon was trying feed his family and eek out an existence. He went into a little wine press to process a little bit of wheat so his family wouldn’t starve. He was hiding from the Midianites because he feared they would take his little bit of wheat away from him. He was hiding for his life…..at least he thought that’s what he needed to do. He was much like me...there have been times I’ve hidden in my house because I was overwhelmed and afraid of my daily life. Mothers of children with special needs…..you know what I mean. As a group, we get overwhelmed and isolate. The fears may not be reality but I think it’s real. This is where Gidion was. I can “beat up on Gideon” and say he was fearful and not trusting God. That’s me on a lot of days. I’m fearful and not trusting God. I can worry about my children, my job, my extended family, finances, my ministry, my weight and my health. This is just the beginning of things I can worry about.
They angel of the Lord told Gideon that he was a might warrior. Well, he didn’t feel like a might warrior. Instead of saying, “Oh, thank you”, he had a much different response.
vs 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Alright, God has sent the angel of the Lord with a personal message. Oh, Gideon is encouraged and loses his fear because he believes the message, right? Oh no! It went something like this…..our life here in Israel is so awful. Why has God forsaken us. Yeh, He did some great things in the past. Why doesn’t He do any of those things now?
Sound familiar? I have sounded like that. Gideon was saying I don’t really care what God did in the past……..He refuses to answer now, why? One thing I have been learning is that God is more concerned with my character than with my comfort. I want life to be comfortable or I don’t think God is there. That seems to be what Gideon was saying. Over the next few weeks…...come along and see what God will teach through His Word through the life and circumstances of Gideon.
