Mighty Man of Valor

THIS WEEK has been different. No, I'm different. You see, God talked to me in a funny way last week that has given me a lot of joy and peace. I mean, I had joy and peace before, but I feel that "blessed assurance" that we sing about. And on top of it, I read a story that I really connected to. I read the story of Gideon, who was the nobody of nobodies in Israel when it was being harassed by the Midianites. He was a humble, timid guy. But God called him to drive out the Midianites. Judges 6:15-16 "So he said to Him, 'O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.' And the Lord said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.'" What I notice about Gideon is that with every step to his calling, he acted in obedience but with fear. He was terrified. He made a sacrifice to God when He visited him, and when He revealed His glory he thought he was going to die. God told him to break down the neighborhood idols, and he had to do it in the dead of night for fear of his neighbors. But God knew this about Gideon. Nevertheless His first words to him when He visited were "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" I wonder why this statement was not enough to make Gideon see himself as a mighty man of valor. Whatever the reason, God knew that before he went to the hill of Moreh to face the Midianites, he needed something more to encourage him. Gideon had 32,000 men, but God said that was too many. Judges 7:2 "And the Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" So the number went down to ten thousand. That was still too many, so the number went down again to 300. Plus Gideon. Also, they were going to war each armed with a trumpet, a torch, and a pitcher. God knew His servant was scared. So He told him to grab his servant Purah and go spy on the Midianites: Judges 7:11 "'and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down agaist their camp.' Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp." This is the part that I really love. It's where the fearful, self-doubting Gideon becomes the mighty man of valor that God called him from the start. v. 13-15 "And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, 'I have a had a dream: to my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it cam to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.' "Then his companion answered and said, 'This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered the camp of Midian and the whole camp.' "And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, 'Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.'" Barley bread is a symbol of poverty, because barley was the most affordable grain for the poor to use for bread. He could have sent a bulldozer, but He sent a barley loaf. That's why it took so much to convince Gideon: why wouldn't God send a king? Why would He send an average guy hiding in the winepress from the Midianites? The same reason He sent away most of his men: the victory would be for the glory of God alone. It's amazing what assurance can come from a few revealed words from God. What can make a man braver than hearing that God has revealed him as victorious, even to his enemies? I don't know why it is, but He knows that sometimes we need to hear it from more than one source. That's why I relate to Gideon this week. The blessed assurance I mentioned comes from a few words spoken by my new friends on my mission team. We asked God to give us each a word or a picture that would help encourage each member of the team. God used this occasion to give these people, most of whom I'd never met before that day, words that really touched my heart. All of the words they shared were personally relevant, but especially the phrase "light in a dark place." I needed God to tell me this, because just the night before I'd been confessing that I didn't know whether I was doing any good in leading my friends to Him. My school was the dark place. This told me that even if we cannot see it, God is doing more with His people than we can imagine. It gave me hope that I will indeed "see His goodness in the land of the living." I can begin to understand the assurance Gideon must have felt when he heard how his enemies were already trembling. The next day, the 300 men surrounded the camp and blew their trumpets, and they won. v. 21 "And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army cried out and fled." Comrades killing each other, fleeing from the valley. Gideon called other Israelites to track them down, and they won. After that moment when God revealed his plan through a stranger, we never see Gideon afraid again. He acted in boldness, as the "mighty man of valor" God called him to be.