FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
The Call
Judges 6:1-2
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.”
The times of Gideon were bleak for the Israelites. The Midianites had overrun them, “like swarms of locusts” they devoured the land, leaving the Israelites impoverished and crying out to the Lord for help. The people needed help. And God was ready to help them. He was going to call a hero to lead His people against their oppressors…but where would he find him?
This hero was in hiding. That’s right, the judge, the hero God was about to call to lead His people, was hiding, afraid, out of sight.
Judges 6:11
“The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.”
Of course, he had plenty of reasons to be hiding. He was at the mercy of his powerful overlords, and his livelihood, and even his life, was dependent on him threshing his wheat in secret, away from the prying eyes of the Midianites. Sometimes we think great men of faith have no fear, but that isn’t really true. Gideon had fears. But God saw through his fear and proclaimed boldly to Gideon that he was the man to lead his people out of their misery. Gideon was the man God was picking to be Judge of Israel. God looked at a man hiding in a winepress and addressed him as “Mighty Warrior.”
Still Gideon had doubts. He tested God, he resisted the call in many ways. But in the end, the man God saw in Gideon came out and became a great leader for his people (until he wasn’t, but that’s a story for another day!).
Don’t let fears you have define you. Sometimes God will call you to do things despite your fears, and in those times, take your courage in the fact that God picked you for the task. He obviously knows something you don’t!
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
