Brown's Daily Word 10-22-07

Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for this new day. The Lord blessed us yesterday through worship, fellowship, and the ministry of the Continental singers. It was a glorious day full of His splendor and majesty as the autumn colors were in peak this weekend. Every time I hear the songs of praise and worship by the gifted and talented Continental Singers I get excited about Jesus our Lord. I am provoked to love Him more and serve Him with devotion and self-abandon. Every time I hear the call and the challenge of Jesus in my life afresh and anew I get humbled and propelled to follow Him and serve Him with joy and gladness.
Gideon was a man in the Old Testament who was called by God for a special purpose at a special time, but there were several things that kept Gideon from understanding what God’s purpose was for him and how he fit into God’s plan. These are the same things that keep us from discovering the reason for which we were born. Gideon’s first challenge was the challenge we all face: We have to overcome discouragement. The people of Israel were horribly oppressed. They were starving because the Midianites kept destroying their cattle and crops. There was great suffering and discouragement in the land. Hope was gone. Gideon was hiding in an old wine press that had been dug. He was threshing a few stalks of wheat that he had somehow managed to keep hidden from the Midianites. He was depressed. But the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior’” (Judges 6:12). I’ll bet he was tempted to laugh out loud. Mighty warrior? He was a scared young man hiding out in a wine press. But then, God always sees us in a different light than we see ourselves. We see our inadequacies and failures, and use them as an excuse. He sees our potential and what could be.
Gideon’s discouragement came pouring out. He said to the Lord’s messenger, “But sir, 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 Midianites” (Judges 6:13). The angel did not argue with him, but said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” God promises to be with him, as he does with us. But Gideon was filled with thoughts about his own inadequacy. He said, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord simply answered, “I will be with you” (Judges 6:14-16). The answer to your discouragement, as it was with Gideon, is the knowledge that God is with you and makes up for your inadequacies. You don’t have to do it in your own power, or by your own ability. You go in the strength of the Lord.
But Gideon is not sure about this, even though the angel of the Lord is standing right in front of him. We, like Gideon, not only have to overcome discouragement, the second point is that: We have to overcome doubt. Gideon says to the Angel of the Lord who is standing right in front of him: “Give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” So Gideon prepared an offering to the Lord, and as a sign, the Angel of the Lord touched the offering with his staff, and fire flamed from the rock and consumed the offering. Then the Angel of the Lord disappeared from his sight. Wow. A visit from God and a special sign. That should have been good enough for anybody. But it still was not good enough for Gideon.

The Midianites were encamped against Israel, and Gideon summoned the men from all the towns of Israel to come and protect the land from the invading army. Then the Bible says, “Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised — look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.’ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew — a bowlful of water” (Judges 6:36-38). This is the passage where we get our phrase of “putting out a fleece before the Lord.” What more could you ask. Gideon asked for a specific sign and God gave it to him. But then he thought, “Oh, I made a mistake. That could have been a perfectly natural explanation. The fleece would naturally hold water longer than the ground around it.” So then he said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” Then the Bible says, “That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew” (Judges 6:39-40). Gideon finally decides to trust God and do what the Lord has been telling him to do.

I find it interesting that many people take this as an example of what we should do when faced with a dilemma — put out a fleece — as though it is a biblical principle. Putting out a fleece was actually a lack of faith on Gideon’s part. He had already been given clear direction by the Lord, and he had received a miraculous sign. But all that is not enough, and now he wants more proof. But there is never enough proof where there is no faith. Evidently, having faith is important to God, for the Bible says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

The third point is that if we are going to realize the purpose for which you have been born: We have to overcome obstacles. There will always be obstacles. And some of these will be God testing your faith so it can grow. That was the case with Gideon. As he faces the army of the Midianites, which stretches as far as he can see, he realizes that he is overwhelmingly outnumbered. But God tells him that it is not that he has too few men to win the battle, he has too many. And you remember how this wonderful story goes. God directs Gideon to tell his men that if any are afraid that they may return home. With that, 22,000 men leave, and only 10,000 men remain to fight the hoards of Midianite warriors riding on their camels. But then the Scripture says, “But the Lord said to Gideon, ‘There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, “This one shall go with you,” he shall go; but if I say, “This one shall not go with you,” he shall not go’” (Judges 7:4). Then, as the men went down to the water to drink, three hundred of them kept going through the water as they scooped up the water in their hands and drank. All the rest fell to their knees and gulped the water down. And the Lord said, “With three hundred men I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go.”

This is a new obstacle for Gideon. He had a little hope when his men numbered over thirty thousand, but now he is down to three hundred. And as he looked at the enemy, here is what he saw: “The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore” (Judges 7:12). But God was about to introduce unconventional warfare to Gideon. The Lord directed him to have his little band of men go to the edge of the enemy’s camp at night. He gave each man a ram’s horn trumpet and a clay jar. The men were to take a torch and place it inside the jar. At Gideon’s signal they were to break the jar to reveal the fire, blow their trumpets and shout, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” And then God caused a panic in the enemy camp, and those who came to fight against Israel began to fight each other. Those who did not die in the battle fled back to the country from where they had come. They never threatened Israel again during the lifetime of Gideon.

It is a great story of overcoming depression, discouragement, doubt and huge obstacles. But, unfortunately, it is not the end of the story. The fourth thing that is necessary for finding the purpose for which you have been born is: We must remain faithful. Gideon has discovered God’s purpose for him, and God has wonderfully used him. He was used by God to deliver Israel from her enemies. But the reason that Israel was being oppressed in the first place was because she was worshiping foreign gods. In the beginning of the story, the prophet spoke the word of the Lord to Israel saying, “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” (Judges 6:10).

Gideon let down his guard when it seemed the imminent danger was over. The people of Israel came to Gideon and asked him to rule over them. But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). Sounds great, but now Gideon wants to please the people. He had taken away the pagan gods, the Baals and Ashtoreths, but now there is a spiritual vacuum. He tells them that the Lord will rule over them, but he asks them to create an ephod so they can consult God. The high priest used to wear an ephod, a sort of breastplate, for this purpose, but there is currently no high priest. The Bible says, “Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family” (Judges 8:27). Gideon permitted this religious article to become an idol. It led the people into idolatry and spiritual unfaithfulness, and implied in the passage is that sexual immorality became a part of the ritual surrounding this ephod. So, in the end, the very reason that God brought judgment on Israel is going on once again. Even Gideon and his family are caught up in it. Gideon began well. He accomplished some important things that God had called him to do — things he was born for. But he failed to remain faithful. His wealth multiplied. He had many wives. His heart was proud, and he turned away from the Lord. We never hear of any other visitations from the Lord.

If we are going to discover the purpose for which we were born, we are going to have to overcome discouragement, doubt and obstacles. But most of all we have to remain faithful. It is important to finish well. Faithlessness in the end cancels out a lot of good that we may have done.
In Christ,
Brown