Thursday, July 11

Our apologies - there will be no audio today.

This morning I want to return to the experience of Gideon in Judges 6 and his interaction with the Angel of the Lord.  Begin by reading Judges 6:1-12

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. ² Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. ³ Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴ They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵ They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. ⁶ Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

⁷ When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, ⁸ he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ⁹ I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.¹⁰ I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

¹¹ The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joashthe Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Judges chapter 6 reminds that Israel at the time had lived in oppression for over 7 years.  The Midianites had left Israel with next to nothing.  In order to merely survive, they were forced to hide out in mountain clefts and caves.  Their crops were destroyed, their homes were taken over and they existed in their own land in a place of weakness.  Gideon himself, when the Angel of the Lord spoke to him, was attempting to thresh wheat in a winepress in order to hide his effort to gain food from the Midianites.  The Angel of the Lord greets Gideon in verse 11 saying, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”  This must have been one of those moments when Gideon looked around to see if there was anyone else standing there.  Mighty warrior seems like a bit of exaggeration for a guy who is hiding in a winepress in order to avoid his enemy.

I think this is an important detail in Gideon’s experience with Christ.  Gideon’s immediate objection later in Judges 6 implies that he did not see himself as a mighty warrior at all.  He could not fathom that he would be the leader that God would use to free Israel from the oppression of Midian.  The title that the Angel of the Lord greeted Gideon with did not fit Gideon’s own view of himself, however, it was not what Gideon saw in this interaction that mattered, but rather what the Angel of the Lord knew.  Gideon could only see what he knew about himself but the Angel of the Lord saw something more, He saw who Gideon was in Christ, and what Gideon was capable of through Christ.  He was in fact, a mighty warrior.

The same is true for us.  I am often limited by my awareness of my failures and shortcomings.  The good news is that God has been in the business of calling those who are weak in order to be used by Him.  The disciples are the perfect example.  There was nothing about that group of men that anyone believed had the potential to change the world.  Acts 4 records how the leaders of Israel saw Peter and John saying, “They were unschooled and ordinary men” and could only explain the impact of their leadership and the message that they shared by noting that “these men had been with Jesus”.  The call of God in our lives in not limited to that which we are capable of.  Often times we will find ourselves being called in the midst of our weakness.  Much like Gideon and the disciples, our potential for kingdom impact has far less to do with who we are and much more to do with who Christ is.  This is where we experience the confidence and freedom that comes with our call to go, knowing full well that it is Christ who goes with us and it is Christ who ultimately accomplishes the call.  We too can say with Paul about his calling in Christ, “⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corthinians 2:9).

Pastor Sterling Moore