4-minute read
Here’s a Bible story found in Judges 6, retold by me.
A long time ago, God’s chosen people—the Israelites—weren’t doing well.
At one time, they had flourished, but in days of late, they suffered.
These awful Midianite people had the Israelites’ number.
They attacked them…
Stole from them…
Abused them…
Hurt them…
And scared them.
It was a bad, bad time for the Israelites.
They asked God for help… and God heard them.
He just didn’t answer their prayer in the way they expected.
*****
There was a guy named Gideon.
Gideon was a regular guy.
Actually, he was even less than a regular guy.
He was a Sub-Regular Guy..
He was the weakest guy in his family…
And his family was the weakest in the tribe…
And the tribe wasn’t the strongest in the nation, either.
Sub-regular guy, that Gideon.
One day, Gideon was threshing wheat.
Threshing wheat is not a fun job.
It entails taking big bunches of wheat and beating it against a rock so that the outer husk of the wheat kernels—called the chaff—flies off and you’re left with the good part of the wheat.
Threshing makes a big mess.
Usually, threshing is done outside, on the top of a hill.
That way, up there, the wind can blow the chaff away and clear the air so you can see what you’re doing and all that nasty chaff stuff doesn’t get into your mouth and nose and eyes.
But Gideon wasn’t threshing on a hilltop.
He was threshing inside.
(“Inside?!” you say? That’s right, “Inside.”)
He was threshing the wheat inside a stone cave normally used to press grapes and make wine.
This caused a terrible mess.
In the confined space, the chaff got all up in every hole of Gideon’s face.
Gideon—the sub-regular guy—was probably coughing and sneezing and rubbing his watery eyes, all while he beat bunches of wheat against a stone.
And why was Gideon inside?
Because he was scared.
*****
To be fair, almost all of Israel was scared.
They were scared of those ol’ Midianites.
They were scared that if they did their work outside—work like threshing wheat—the Midianites would see what they were doing and come steal the wheat (and, well, probably kill the thresher while they were at it).
So everyone hid inside.
Especially sub-regular guys like Gideon.
*****
While he was threshing wheat inside that dark, dank (those two words usually go together, right?) cave, he decided to take a quick break.
He stepped outside and saw…
Someone.
I bet that, at first, Gideon was shocked and scared.
I bet he thought, “Uh, that’s a Midianite. And he’s going to take my wheat. And my life. Gulp.”
But then this someone said something to Gideon: “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
Now, hang on. (I bet that’s what Gideon thought, too: “Now, hang on.”)
“Mighty warrior?”
Here’s Mr. Sub-Regular Guy Gideon… covered in dust… eyes watering… sneezes shooting out everywhere… and he’s emerging from a cave where he’s hiding because he’s afraid… and this Someone is calling him, “mighty warrior”?
Now, hang on.
Gideon must’ve thought, “Well, this guy isn’t a Midianite because a) I still have my wheat and b) I’m not real dead,” so he treated him like just some strange traveler and said—
“Okay, dude,” (NOTE: this is my personal translation and I haven’t really been to seminary, soooo…) “but if God’s ‘with us’ like you say, why has all this nasty junk happened to us Israelites? Seriously. We’re always told, ‘Oh, God rescued us from Egypt!’ and all these other Amazing Stories and here we are hiding out in caves, sneezing our brains out, and maybe even some of us are peeing our pants because we’re too afraid to come outside some time. (Not me, of course. I’m talking about my cousin…. Teddy. Yeah. Him.) God has abandoned us and let these jerk Midianites mess with us big time.”
That Someone turned to Gideon, blew past his little speech, and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
(Now, it’s important to note here that when the Bible tells this story, at first this Someone is called an angel.. and then, all of a sudden, the Bible calls this guy [get ready] the LORD. See, suddenly this angel wasn’t just an angel anymore, it was God Himself. So, that’s crazy and cool and yeah, get with that.)
Gideon (probably rolling his eyes) said, “Pardon me, boss,” (again, my translation) “but how in the world am I going to save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. In other words—and in case you didn’t read what was written earlier in this story—I’m a Sub-Regular Guy. Not a mighty warrior or a nation saver or someone who could be counted on to not sneeze for more than a minute achoo.”
The LORD answered Gideon, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
And do you know what happened next?
Gideon started to believe.
*****
The story really picks up steam after that. (Read it yourself! Judges 6 and 7 and 8! It includes a dwindling army, guys drinking from a river like a dog, and a certain someone dragging a couple of loudmouthed dudes through a briar patch because they sassed more than they helped!)
Cutting to the chase: Gideon starts to live out the calling God has on his life.
He actually becomes a mighty warrior.
He becomes the mighty warrior.
The guy who saves the Israelites from the Midianites’ hands.
I want to sit on that for a moment—that moment when Gideon changes how he sees things.
The Lord says, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior!”
God Himself calls Gideon a “mighty warrior.”
At first, Gideon thinks it’s kind of a joke.
Then he just flat out disagrees.
But this disagreement is based on some real facts, right?
He has facts: “I’m the lowest of my family and my family is the lowest of the larger family and look at me hiding and sneezing and wheezing inside a winepress because I’m too afraid of the bad guys to go out and do my work in public where I probably should achoo.”
But God looks past all those facts and sees…
The person He knows Gideon is meant to be.
If only he’ll listen…
If only he’ll believe…
If only he’ll trust what God says about him rather than what he thinks about himself…
If only he’ll become the person God sees.
And, eventually… he does.
And all sorts of good things come out of that.
*****
I love the story of Gideon because I feel like him all the time.
I look at my life and think, “Man… there’s a lot of junk going on. There’s a real enemy who seems to have my number. He’s taking me down.” And then I follow that up with, “God, could you do something about it?”
And then sometimes God says something remarkable: “Okay, mighty warrior… do it.”
I’m not saying God passes the buck to me…
I’m just saying that oftentimes God looks at the wars around us and plops a sword in our hands and says, “Fight, pal. Fight.”
“Be the mighty warrior I know you’re meant to be.”
I just have to take Him up on His offer…
I just have to believe.
*****
There’s a lot to that—learning to fight in the spiritual warfare that’s going on all around us—but I just want to sit on that idea of believing you have more within you—BECAUSE OF GOD INSIDE YOU—than you probably think.
Maybe it’s time to move away from going, “Me? Nah…” to…
“Me? YES. YES. Me.”
This is our destiny…
We just have to choose to receive it.
*****
Where are you at with this?
Are there things—habits, lies, discouragement, temptations—that are eating your lunch?
Brave up (is that a phrase?), mighty warrior.
Own the calling God has on you…
Fight for yourself…
And the people around you…
Stand up for what God has for you and the people you love…
Move beyond Sub-Regular and…
Step into your mighty warrior-ness.
Today?
Yes… today.