Gideon: Where are all the miracles?
God’s People on Mission
Gideon: Where are all the miracles?
When I was a teenager, I said something to God that I soon regretted. It led me to a very difficult time, though as I look back, that time became pivotal in preparing me for where God wanted me to go in the mission He had for my life.
I wonder whether Gideon ever regretted the question that he asked the Lord. His story in the Bible begins in Judges 6:
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. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
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 6:11 – 13)
“Where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about?” I wonder if you’ve ever asked God a question like this? I know I have, and it can be a dangerous request.
Gideon asked God where the miracles were, and God will answer and bring a very powerful demonstration of His miraculous power, but it will take Gideon into a place of great emptiness and complete trust. Or alternatively, he might refuse to trust God, and put his trust in human power. What will He decide?
In the next chapter we read of the event when God tells him to lead an army against the Midianites who had tormented the Israelites in the Promised Land during a period where they were repeatedly turning away from God to follow after idols and what was right in their own eyes. So God would raise up Judges to lead the people and show Himself strong. Gideon was one of those Judges.
Gideon started with a weak enough army in the first place, he had only thirty-two thousand men to go against an army that are described as being as numerous as locusts. But God says that is too many; you want a Miracle, Gideon, then the number needs to come down. So the number is reduced to ten thousand.
But God tells him that is still too many, ‘you’ll take the glory for yourself.’ And so next Gideon’s army is reduced to only 300. No one would ever consider that to be an army, and Gideon had to be wondering what he’d gotten himself into. But I love that he doesn’t second guess The Lord, nor disobey, he remains faithful and he follows God’s plan, and God’s power is displayed as the Midianite army is routed.
We are not out to defeat an army, at least not a flesh and blood army, though we do want to see some strongholds come down. We’d love to see God open the eyes of loved ones, friends and neighbours that they might know Christ and find salvation.
Like for Gideon and his army, small as it was, there is no room in the task ahead of us, for the glory to be ours, it belongs to The Lord. It is His saving power alone that is able to bring the lost to salvation, but we need to be willing to serve Him, because God is looking to show Himself strong through His servants.
Gideon was busy at his day-job, thrashing wheat at the winepress, when he heard the Lord speak to him from under the terebinth tree. And God led him on a new mission. I’ve no doubt that God is looking to lead others in a similar way.
There is a story in 2nd Chronicles, that is not so positive. King Asa of Judah hadn’t relied on God for his strength, rather reached out to other human powers to overcome his obstacle. The word of Hanani the seer came to King Asa and advised him of his mistake, and I pray that we learn not to make that same mistake ourselves, but rather, that we take the opportunities that God presents to us, just like Gideon did.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)
