Mission Possible

 

Mission Possible

Judges 6-8

     In these chapters we read the rise and fall of Gideon; his calling, accomplishments, then death.  Here is Israel’s military leader leading the charge on a white horse, sword in the air, shouting, “Vive la Israel!  Vive la Israel!”  Upon descending on intruding Midianites oppressing from the east, he routes them totally and embraces a wildly cheering welcome home parade.  This excerpt could be from The Jerusalem Chronicle, but not from scripture.

     In the Word, we find an ordinary man.  Ordinary in oppression.  Ordinary in fear.  What makes him extra is his calling.  Only this sets him apart.  It was not of his will nor of Israel’s response, but of God who asked.

     Threshing wheat in his father’s grape press for fear of the Midianites, Gideon gets a God encounter.  The Angel of Lord meets him there and lights afire his sacrifice on the rock.  Sufficient is this sign for Gideon that he obeys the Angel and tears down his father’s Baal altar.  First mission accomplished yes, but with fear.  Gideon was afraid of the townspeople, so he did it at night.

     Next, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him as he sounds the horn for battle and rallies a sizable army from the nearby tribes of Israel to take on the Midianites.  As the men are amassing, he calls on the Lord for another sign to prove He is with him.  Wet fleece, dry fleece.  We know that story.  Gideon gains confidence and continues with his plan of battle but God stops him.

     “Too many men,” God says.  “Unless Israel declares the victory was won on her own strength.”  God then whittles the army down to three hundred men.  The torch-in-jar trick sends the enemy into panic as they kill themselves while Israel rapidly advances on their confusion.  In the aftermath, Gideon cleans up by killing the Midianite kings then teaches two Israelite towns a lesson.

     What have we to learn from this ancient account?  Examine Gideon.  He was not a Hitler or Napolean.  Not a Patton not even a Washington.  Fear gripped him and kept him from being a self- starter.  Needing an angelic sign from God, he went forward.  God had to super charge him with His Spirit to sound the battle cry.  Upon his indecision, he laid out the fleece to get reassurance.  Even in reconnaissance of the enemy camp, he took Phurah with him because he feared.  Somehow The Jerusalem Chronicle missed these details.

But God calls us to weigh the facts.  He called an ordinary man to accomplish the impossible.  The impossible for him.

Judges 6:12 “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

     God called it as He saw it.  “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”  He called one that needed help to accomplish the mission.  Like Noah, Moses, and even Jesus, God documents dependency.  Not to sacrifice our dignities, but to show what is possible when we engage with Him.  Mission possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Successive Revelations

  God’s Successive Revelations Search Me diligently, and I will reveal Myself to you.      Yah, that sound like something God would say.   I understand He revealed the Trinity to us.   I plead ignorance in Church history.   Some theologians, perhaps 400 A.D. came upon this gem that we hold true today.   The idea of the rapture is new on the Church radar.   Late 1800’s?      What if God revealed His truth to His people in time?   Surely, Solomon was the wisest man in his day, but did he know about Pentecost?   Daniel, the far seer, was only shown glimpses.   What did he know of Peter and miracles in the temple?   A certain king discovered God’s truth again and that made for a reformation, but what did he know of the beast standing in the sea?   God gives insight in His time.      I have trained seven children.   As young  children, I did not flood them with...
Read more

She Doesn't Tell You That You Are A Loser

She Doesn’t Tell You That You Are Loser Grace:  The incredible pink cushion between your screwed up decisions and the ramifications wrought by them. Mercy:  withholds the rod.  Grace says, “Now what?  Given you’ve gotten yourself into a marijuana muddied bowl of slime, would you like a hand up?”  She gets her hands dirty. “That’s ok, its just something I have to work through.”  And she does.  Her incredible prayer power burns a hole through overhanging clouds of gloom. My ears pierce in my usual confronting atmosphere.  An auto E.Q. does its job to focus the vibrations to the rear-view mirror.  Anger aligns my head to look straight into traffic.  Twenty minutes of a sub-woofer gets my energy out of the windshield. “Hey, you’re messing with my woman!”  We have an understanding.  She is to be under my wing.  I have violated before, running in a tangent to the graph.  I’ve learned not to overreact.  I conc...
Read more

Perhaps You Don't Know

  Perhaps You Don’t Know      Those present sat in the first pew, on the left and on the right.   The ring bearer was my faithful dorm mate.   Nearly my age and goofier to catch my sister-in-law’s eye, his antics spiced the military wedding.   We, known as a couple since high-school, were definitely going ‘steady’.   Mother-in-law held up the Panasonic cassette player to march the bride.   Proud Papa did say, “Her mother and I.”      It was a humble wedding.   A few were invited.   Even fewer braved the September roads.   The medium-sized First Christian Church of Aurora, Colorado let in the light.   Lack of air flow brought sweat under my suited armpits.   Finally, drops found their place to my forehead and I dropped to one knee.   Grandma thought I had already proposed previously.   A bit of confusion hung in the air until I stripped off my outerwear and got comfortable in the ...
Read more