The Lord said, “You have the strength”

The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!” Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?” Gideon said to him, “But Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” The Lord said to him, “Ah, but I will be with you! Judges 6:12-16

Many of us are familiar with the story of Gideon and how he destroyed the Midianites. We recall his constant misgivings and repeated testing of the Lord...to ensure the Lord was with him. Gideon was an anxious man. It didn’t prevent him from accomplishing God’s purpose. 

Life was hard under the Midianites. Gideon, was threshing wheat by hand in the bottom of a grape press—a pit where grapes were pressed to make wine—because he was hiding from the Midianites. He couldn’t even farm his land openly for fear his harvest would be stolen. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty soldier, the Lord is with you!” 

In an inauspicious start, Gideon misunderstood...or misinterpreted...the angel’s words. The angel said “Mighty soldier, the Lord is with you!”. Gideon didn’t take this personally. He took it collectively, meaning he heard “the Lord is with Israel”. So right away, Gideon had difficulty reconciling the words with reality. He replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? The Lord has thrown us away and has let the Midianites completely ruin us.”

The Lord turned to him and said, “I will make you strong! I am sending you!” Go and save Israel from the Midianites! 

Once Gideon understood, he went on to great victory but...this initial misstep taught him a lesson: Listen carefully! If we don’t hear, precisely, what the Lord is telling us we increase the likelihood that things will go wrong. So, Gideon developed the habit of testing God to ensure he heard correctly.

• How can I save Israel? And...Lord said “I will be with you”! 
• If it is really true prove it is really Jehovah who is talking to me!
• Prove it to me in this way: I’ll put some wool on the threshing floor and in the morning, make the fleece wet and the ground dry.
• Let me make one more test: this time let the fleece remain dry.

That was enough for Gideon but God wasn’t done proving Himself...He looked at 30,000 men and said to Gideon, 

• “There are too many of you!  Send home any of your men who are timid and frightened..
• “There are still too many! I’ll show you which ones shall go with you and which ones shall not.”

Out of 30,000...only 300 remained. But...by this point, Gideon was certain God was with him and went on to a mighty victory over the Midianites. This should encourage us. God is still God and He intends to address the problems that plague us today. If God wants to use us...and He does...He will prove Himself and will give us the tools we need to be successful. Our biggest problem is, we are so busy saying “somebody should do something!” that we miss the Angel sitting beside us calling our name

And we don’t get to participate in God’s mighty plans...

Do you hear the Angel? Listen...carefully!

Live boldly out there today...