Joshua is now dead. And Israel has been invaded by the Midianites. Every time Israel planted crops, the Midianites came and destroyed them - and every single cow and sheep and animal. The Israelites were starving! And on this certain fine morning, Gideon was threshing wheat in a wipepress (must be hard) to keep it from the Midianites. All of a sudden, there was an angel watching him! It 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." Little did this guy know that he would LEAD a miracle!
The LORD said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
WHAT?????????????? That was a little... abrupt. Gideon (let's switch to Gid) probably stared for a little bit, started to laugh then thought better of it, stuttered a little, and stared some more. This is truly what any good writer would write. Just some guy all of a sudden getting hailed as a warrior and told to get out there and save the world. Finally Gid said, "B-but Lord," (lowercase Lord, as in, "sir") "How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manassah, and I am the least in my family." He's basically the runt.
The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."
Now Gideon realizes this is God and not "sir". He said, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away intil I come back and bring my offering and set it before you. The angel agreed, and Gid got some food. On the food side here, he's from the tribe of Manassah, and they live separate from the other Israelites, so I bet they probably weren't AS tight on the chow as some others. The angel touched the meat with his staff and fire came out from the rock and burned it up. Then the angel dissapeared. Gis was afraid and said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
But God told him that he would not die and gave him his first assignment. "Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God. So Gid set out to do it - in the middle of the night. When morning came, all the people saw that Baal's altar was torn down! But somebody had seen Gideon do it - probably some little kid out in the middle of the night looking for his lost kitty - and snitched on him. So the townsmen waltzed up to Gid's door and said to his father, "Bring out your son! He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar." These are ISRAELITES remember. Gid's father said, "Are you trying to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." Heehee! The crowd thought this was an excellent point, and went off.
Join me next week to hear what happens next with this runty warrior kid!
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