Hey church,
It’s such an honour to be with you today, wherever you are watching from. My name is George Booer and I’m part of the team in our Manchester South location. Right now, for our daily devotions, we are in a series called Favourite Bible Characters. If you’ve missed any episodes so far you can catch them on our socials, so make sure you check that out afterwards!
In our time together today, we’re going to be looking at my favourite bible character: Gideon. If you’re new to the Bible, you can read about the life of Gideon in Judges chapters 6-8, and we’ll be reading some verses from those chapters today.
Like many of the main characters in the book of Judges, Gideon came to be the leader of the Israelites, God’s chosen people, at a time when they had rejected God and chosen to worship other gods belonging to other nations. Specifically, at this time, the Israelites were enslaved by a people known as the Midianites and this is where our story begins.
Judges 6:11-16 (NIV): ‘The Angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”’
The first thing that I notice when I read this Scripture is that Gideon is not surprised to be talking with the Angel of Lord. Gideon knew about God, he knew all about what God had done for his people in the past, he only doubted that God was still with them and so, thinking that God had abandoned the Israelites, he simply asked why. Why has all this happened to us? The Angel of the Lord doesn’t even dignify Gideon with a response; He just proclaims, ‘Go in the strength you have, am I not sending you?’
Still, Gideon doubts, and responds: “But how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Again, the Angel of the Lord doesn’t answer him but repeats this affirmation: “Go, I will be with you.”
You see, Gideon isn’t my favourite bible character because of what he says or what he does; he is my favourite Bible character because of what God reveals about Himself through Gideon’s life, and here we see God stooping down to the lowest member of least prominent clan, saying this: “The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior.”
Why is it in our lives we so often decide that we are not good enough to be used by God? “I’m not smart enough,” “I’m not strong enough,” “I’m not wealthy enough,” “I’m not articulate enough,” are just a few of the things I’ve told myself in the past. However, here we see God reveal that it was never about us and our ability. It was always about Him. God called Gideon. Could it be, friends, that he is also calling you and me?
Later on in the story, we read about how Gideon steps forward in his newfound, God-given confidence and calls up an army to defeat the Midianites and release Israel from slavery.
Judges 7:1-7 (NIV): ‘Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”’
In this curious turn of our story, we see God reveal something else to us about His character. We see Him take Gideon’s army and reduce it down to a fraction of the size. What was once 32,000 soldiers became 300 vs. 135,000 Midianites – making the odds of an already outmatched Gideon even more impossible. God even gives a reason for doing this: ‘I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, “My own strength has saved me.”
In short, God wanted the odds so bad that the victory would clearly be His and His alone. You don’t need a Master’s Degree in Theology to know that this is a running theme in the Bible: Zechariah 4:6 reads: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.’ Psalms 20:7 reads: ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.’ Even Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem, not on a war horse but a donkey. If we truly believe in the principle set before us in these passages, and this story, then our smallness does not matter.
When I look back at the times in my life when it truly felt like I was up against an impossible situation, the loss of a loved one, battles for mental health, unemployment – it was all too easy to forget just how big God is. However, stories like Gideon’s give us hope, hope that no matter the situation, no matter how small we may feel against the giants in our lives, God is good, God is kind, and He is enough.
Gideon’s story continues and with the army of 300, he defeats the Midianites, and frees Israel from captivity. Sure enough, the victory belongs to God. After the battle, the Israelites ask Gideon to rule over them but In Judges 8:23 Gideon responds, “I will not rule over you, the Lord will rule over you.” In the end, Gideon gives full credit to God.
In our time together today, we’ve only been able to cover a small part of Gideon’s story, so let me encourage you all to get into the Bible and read more about Gideon and the other characters mentioned in this devotional series. I pray that, as you read about the Goodness of God, you start to see His goodness in your own life.
Be blessed, friends, to know that like Gideon, whoever you are, whatever your status, whatever you have done, God has called your name and has said, “I am with you” and may you know, as Gideon did, God as Jehovah Jireh – the Lord who provides out of your lack and the One who turns an impossible defeat into a perfect victory.
Take care, and hope to see you all soon!
George Booer.
