Gideon, Part I

Gideon 

Man of IDENTITY – Part I

The account of Gideon is an interesting one, let's do a cliff-notes version of the scenario in Judges 6:

- the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord

- the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Midianites for seven years

- the Midianites & the Amalekites would destroy the produce of the land

- the Lord then sent an unnamed prophet to the people of Israel, reminding them that He delivered them from the Egyptians & that He was the Lord God

- this was all because they had not obeyed (šāmaʿ = listen, obey, heard) His voice (v 10)

- Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites

- the Angel of the Lord sat under an oak & made Himself known (appeared) to Gideon

The Angel of the Lord called Gideon as God Himself saw him, a mighty man.

Judges 6:12, 14 

“...The Lord is with you (ʿim = beside, in spite of), you mighty man (gibôr = strong, brave from gāḇar = to prevail, to give strength) of valor (ḥayil = ability)!” ... Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go (yālaḵ = live, manner of life) in this might (kōaḥ = power [of God]), and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent (šālaḥ = to let loose) you?”

Look at this again, the Angel, in effect said:

- God is with you [in spite of you]

- you are a prevailing man of ability

- now live [your life] in the power of God

- I've loosed you [from your previous mindset/to do God's will]

Romans 4:17

“As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth (zōopoieō = by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate, endued with new and greater powers of life) the dead (nekros = destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God), and calleth (kaleō = to give a name to) those things which be not as though (hōs = even as) they were.”

Gideon = discouraged, no hope,  no direction/purpose

Angel = encouraging, giving hope, giving direction/purpose

Earlier, I purposely skipped over verse 13, so now I want to go back to it:

“And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

Here's something I never noticed before but this time it jumped out at me:

- did Gideon not hear the word of the unnamed prophet as to why this was happening to his people?

- if Gideon did hear the word from the prophet, did he simply not understand it or did he not receive it?

The same sun that melts wax is the same sun that hardens clay, it's not the source it's the substance. When the word of the Lord came to King David, his heart softened, when the word of the Lord came to Pharaoh, his heart hardened.  

This got me thinking: it's in God's nature to show us what's wrong or where we went wrong but because of our hardened hearts or mindsets or entrenched beliefs we don't see it or receive it. We still ask the question “why is this happening?”.

ACTION POINTS: 

- ask God to see [people/situations] through His eyes

- be sensitive to the Spirit, learn to speak to the potential of a person