Fleeced

Judges 6,7 & 8

Gideon is a longer story, in the centre of this book.   Right beside the story of Abimilech, his son.   They are as different as night and day.  Righteous and wicked. Completely opposed in their aims and goals, and heart’s desires. A crazy glitch, it seems, in God’s story.

We meet Gideon in the winepress.  Threshing wheat.  Secretly because the Midianites have been timing their raids to coincide with ripe harvests, trampling everything.   Allowing hope to grow in the hearts and pantries of Israel and then snatching it away at the last minute.  So much so that the people have moved off the plains and into the hill country.  

And the Angel of the LORD greets Gideon in the winepress, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior”.  

I don’t picture Gideon as a warrior.

I picture a barefooted man frightened within an inch of his life. 

But that’s not what God sees. 

And that’s not what God calls him. 

I love it that Gideon talks to the Angel of the LORD and comes right out and asks:

Ch 6:13 “ 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 in the hand of Midian.”

This implies that the stories were still being told, right alongside all the customs of the new land.

Old and new traditions

And the old ones slowly

Becoming mere memories and empty ritual. 

Legends without application.

I wonder if the people went searching for this GOD who promises to be found if we search with all our hearts. 

I wonder if anyone was curious or if they were just swept along with their neighbours in this good land.  Former nomads, finally home, just longing for some ease.  Where ease quickly becomes easy living. 

Who would you be looking for?

A God among so many local deities, whose one and only meeting place is in another town so very far away. 

Who would you search for?  A pillar of fire to guide you? Living Water from the rock to revive your dry spirit? The God of Angel Armies to accompany you in this fight for your life?  A shepherd to lead you to quiet waters and green meadows.    How would you know where to find Him?  If you didn’t have this Bible in your hands or your church down the street. 

These stories are so large but happen in just a few chapters. In the blink of an eye. Leaders rising and falling.  Legacies of war and of peace.  Defeating enemies but only when God is on their side. 

Where God calls ordinary, timid wheat threshers and equips them and sends His Angel Armies to fight alongside. Like Joshua.  To lead Israel into the way that God guides, with such a small human army that the outcome cannot be mistaken as a man’s victory at all.

We love reading the stories of the good guys making the right choices, asking questions, testing and asking God for signs and affirmation.  Breaking down pagan altars.  A deliverer called to rescue the oppressed people and restore Israel’s status as God’s Chosen people in a generation that gets harder and harder to steer.

God calling the ordinary. 

That speaks to our story today.

But ordinary is not what God sees.

And that’s not what God calls us.   

I love how radically lives are changed when we see ourselves the way God sees us. 

So I hope today that there are people around you, who see you with God’s eyes and tell you how extra-ordinary you really are.   People around you to affirm your decision to serve God where you are called, blooming where you are planted.   Walking in step with each other instead of alone in a winepress.  

I hope you have a great day today my lovelies!  

As you wind down in these last few days of 2016,

Looking forward to the brand new year about to dawn.  

So exciting, so full of hope.