Gideon: the starting point
“The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour!” (Judges 6:12).
Judges 6 does not start well. The emerging nation of Israel had rest for forty years at the end of chapter 5, following the victory of Deborah and Barak. But by Judges 6:1, Israel had turned away from the Lord and worshipped Baal. As a result, the Midianites overpowered Israel, and their only defence was to flee to the mountains and hide in dens, caves and rocky strongholds, whilst their land was plundered. The extended periods of the judges and the kings were cycles of faithfulness, unfaithfulness, goodness, and evil. Time and again, the nation turned its back on the God who redeemed them and established them in the Promised Land. Moses’ and Joshua’s spiritual and faithful leadership had ended. It was a long time before the nation benefited from the godly service of Samuel and David. The Book of Judges ends with the words, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
One positive that came out of the Midianite invasions was that they caused the children of Israel to cry out to the Lord for help. God sends an unnamed prophet. He reminds them again of how the Lord had redeemed them from Egypt and slavery and given them the Promised Land. They had every reason to trust the Lord, but instead, they became idolators. There was a great simplicity about their experience, which the children of Israel never understood until they learnt it in exile. This was, that whilst they worshipped and followed the Lord, He blessed them. When they worshipped and obeyed other gods, they suffered spiritually, morally and physically.
All blessing begins in the heart of God. He raised up Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Samuel and David, and He raised up Gideon. An Angel of the Lord appears to Gideon as he threshed wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. It is difficult not to be aware of the utter weakness of the situation he was in. But the angel says to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour!” The first part of the statement was true: God was there with Gideon. The second part took some believing. There was little evidence that Gideon was a mighty man of valour. In fact, his subsequent behaviour seemed to prove the opposite. And his very first reaction does nothing to change this impression. Gideon said, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Gideon managed, in his distress, to reinterpret history and blame God for the nation’s circumstances. God had not forsaken Israel. Israel had forsaken God, and the evidence of this was seen in the altar to Baal in Gideon’s father’s house. But God in wonderful grace says to him, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (v. 14).
God spoke to Gideon in terms of what He would accomplish. He did not dwell on the present desperate conditions, but on what He would do through Gideon. God chose Gideon despite his weakness and lack of faith. He wanted him to act in faith, and by God’s presence with him. God would make him a mighty man of valour to save his nation. In doing so, as we shall see, Gideon shows us how God can transform utter defeat into astonishing victory and how our weakness can become the channel through which His power is demonstrated and His people blessed.
