“If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” Judges 6 : 13
Good morning, friends. It has been long since we’ve done character study. Let us read something about Gideon day by day.
Israelites after getting delivered from the hands of Sisera, again turned to evil and went astray. For seven years they were under the Midianites.
When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, 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. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. 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."
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." "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put 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?" "But Lord ," Gideon asked, "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 together."
Gideon was found threshing wheat in a winepress. He was called by the Lord. He could have astonished when God called him. He could have searched here and there to see who the Lord was actually calling. Such a man, who didn’t know to go for a war was called by the Lord a mighty warrior. Before God called him Gideon was nothing. But when the moment the Lord called him he was blessed a mighty warrior. Are you feeling inferior that you don’t have power to do things? Blow it away! The God has called you and now you inherit His power and you stand as a mighty warrior conquering souls for Him.
But did he get ready for the battle when God called him? No, he asked the Lord, “Why has all this happened to us, if the Lord is with us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” This clearly explains that Gideon was an ordinary man with ordinary questions. We have such questions very often. “If you’re with me, why am I going through this? How are you letting this happen to me and my family? Has Your power gone? Is Your hand too short to save me now? Bla bla..” Don’t forget Gideon was a man who asked such silly questions in times of troubles, but God used him mightily.
The next one to be noted is, Gideon knew all the things that the Lord has done to his fathers. He kept a record of all the wonders the Israelites have ever seen. What about you? Are you having records of what He has done for you? Or just having a long list of unanswered prayers?
To be continued…
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