Gideon. Quickly becoming one of my favorite stories in the Bible. There are so many reasons for this, and I’m going to do my best to write a few of them out in word form for you and to convey what’s on my heart about this incredible story. There’s more where this came from, but here’s what I got for now!

There’s something to be said when the angel of the Lord visits you and says: “The Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor.” Especially when Gideon has all these retorts of why he’s not a mighty man and why the Lord isn’t actually there in this dire situation of an ever-encroaching enemy. He sounds so much like so many Christians today, actually! (Myself included at times, truth be told.) He thinks since he’s from a small tribe and seemingly insignificant compared to them, he’s got nothin’ on those other guys. He’s still someone who loves the Lord, but he sure doesn’t see himself full of valor. He probably thought: “You’re kidding, right?” Here’s what he said back to the angel:

“Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us to the hand of Midian.”

Let’s paraphrase this in 2018 verbiage: “PLEASE, sir. Stop RIGHT there. There is absolutely NO way God is with us in this hell-on-earth we’re enduring…why in the world would God bring us this far to just leave us hanging?”

Don’t let the title of this post be misleading. A lot of you already “know” the story of Gideon. (Well…you think you do.) And if you do, instead of being puffed up because you’re aware of how the story goes–ask the Lord for a new revelation on it instead of dead-ending in all of your humanly knowledge. Often times, our knowledge of something is like a guardrail that keeps us from the land-of-the-living versus the “well-traveled road”. The well-traveled road is for sure a safe bet to travel on, but…is it the road of truth or just the comfortable one? Most likely, in this day and time–the road of truth is NOT the “comfortable” one.

This Sunday, our church got a fantastic word from our pastor. Most of the message was based out of Judges 6, and how Gideon put limitations on himself based on…well, himself. And his army. Why he didn’t have enough manpower to fight the Midianites once his army was whittled down by the word of the Lord from 22,000 men to a mere 300 men and why he basically just wasn’t fit for the job. It’s a fascinating story: full of fleeces and unleavened bread and angels and armies. Of Gideon “just making sure” that his army-shrinking commandments were from God. Especially in Judges 6:36-40! My favorite: Of God’s awareness of the need-to-know state that we have. And His response to us. We’re so needy, aren’t we? Can’t really blame the dude though…I mean, let’s get real. He was basically called out from an angel while hiding out in a winepress, and all of the sudden he’s leading an army of 300 men against an army that is described as being like “locust in number”. Yeah. Don’t judge him too quickly! I have personally found and reluctantly admitted some similarities between “the early” Gideon and myself. I think you could probably too if you looked! There is literally something for everyone in this story if you go on Judges 6-8 treasure hunt!

God even proceeded this extreme caution of Gideon’s the night before the Midianites were defeated! God told him (paraphrased) “GET UP! Go down and look at the camp of guys you’re about to tear up–but…if you’re too afraid to go by yourself, take your servant.” Haha! I would personally be crapping my pants. So, taking a servant and still going down is an improvement. Anyways, God foresaw Gideon’s humanly state and gave him direction on how to STILL get stuff done, but how to side-step his fear with courage. I LOVE that.

The ultimate ‘wind in the sails moment’ in this ENTIRE story is undoubtedly Judges 7:13-15 where Gideon overhears one of his enemies telling another soldier about a dream he had that symbolized Gideon’s army kicking their butts. The Word says that Gideon immediately WORSHIPED after hearing this. Can you IMAGINE that amazing wind of HOPE he must’ve felt? He’s come all this way for all this time and asking all these questions of God…and here’s proof from a dream that one of his enemies had that this is all REAL TIME.

And when our curiosity is met with answers, we sometimes still need proof to move on to the next step–God provided it for Gideon when he asked. He literally did every time. God saw. Like Gideon, we too, can get in the thick of things while moving mountains and inching forward to take back the land that was promised to us. There were little nuggets and signs all along the way to Gideon that he was on the right track. But Gideon always always asked. It’s important for us to realize, too, that while we’re moving our own mountains in life–it’s ok to ask the Lord: “Hey God. Give me a sign. You still here? This is still You, right?” He’s not exhausted by these requests, trust me. The only thing we need to guard against is unbelief. {Unbelief is a hard substance that cracks when it’s in the molding process. Belief is moldable clay that can make beautiful things.}

Also, another thing I LOVE about this story is how Gideon made himself “milestones” when He did hear from the Lord. When He asked for confirmation that he was on the right track, and heard–he built alters to go back to and remember God’s faithfulness in His answers to him. What would our walks with the Lord look like if we had all our points of references marked when we TRULY heard from the Lord? Some of you may have all these moments written out, and I wanna be just like you when I grow up! Not to mention, the whole reason God whittled down the army’s numbers from 22,0000 to 300 is so we HAD to say: “That was the Lord!” There was no mistaken. When we have these “milestones” in our own lives, let’s remember what God has done and notate His goodness, protection and faithfulness over us.

The last huge nugget from this story that I have have for now is taking our own limitations off of God. He certainly doesn’t abide under our man-made ceilings. He’s trying to rip them off of us, and at the same time it seems we’re trying to build our roof over God. How ’bout we all agree right here and RIGHT now that this is asinine? He’s a limit-less God with a perfect plan. WE are humankind. We don’t come without our baggage of limitations. We seem to be married to our limitations sometimes, though. Let’s just not expect God to operate under our ceiling of limits! He won’t do it! He CAN’T do it. Have you thought about how big He is lately?

Welp, Fellow Gideons, that’s what I have for now. Still chewing on so many morsels from this table of goodness that is the Word of God. More to come later I am sure of it.

Happy Midianite-slaying to you!