It was a fairly average day.
Gideon was working in a hidden place to keep the enemy from taking his stuff.
The enemy were the Midianites.
The stuff was wheat, Gideon was threshing.
“Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.” Judges 6:11 NKJV
Gideon didn’t notice, the man sitting under the terebinth tree.
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Judges 6:12 NKJV
Gideon said to Him, “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.” Judges 6:13 NKJV
Can you hear it?
The tone of his voice,the frustration, the disbelief, and the discouragement?
Or was Gideon’s tone full of acidity, of the kind who believe God has rejected them and their hopelessness has rotted their soul?
We don’t really know.
God does not tell us what tone or how his heart reacted.
But whatever Gideon had been before, was about to change.
Because the LORD turned to him and spoke.
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” Judges 6:14 NKJV
Wow.
Here Gideon was just saying, “…why has all this happened to us?”
“And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about,…”
To the LORD!
He was accusing God to His very face!
And he was completely unaware of it.
Can you imagine what Gideon felt as he realized what he had just done?!
And yet, God doesn’t zap him on the spot for his sin.
Instead, he gives him an incredible calling.
Gideon followed the LORD’s words and the Midianites were defeated.
And God did it in such a way as to make a clear statement to His people.
When they obeyed His commands things went well.
But unfortunately, they did the turning.
The book of Judges is full of the stories of the Israelites turning away from God and then back towards Him and then away from Him and…
But this moment of God turning towards Gideon is a beautiful example of how faithful God is.
And it should serve as a reminder as well.
God isn’t absent in our trials and sufferings.
The problem isn’t Him.
It’s us.
We fail to notice Him and if we are not careful we can accuse God, when He has done all that is required to save us.
He proved it on the cross and the empty grave.
If ones soul is with Jesus, then this life’s struggles and sufferings are temporary.
Psalm 121:7 NKJV — The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.
2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV — For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
What can be better than salvation and eternal life in Christ Jesus?
Truly, there is such hope in this moment of Gideon’s for every heart.
God knows far better than we and His is trustworthy.
Even on these days of uncertainty, if we look, He is not far.
God is still sovereign and He has already saved us from the worst enemy there has ever been.
Praise the Lord!
He is so good!
patientlyhopeful 