A lot of times when I come to the television my kids have been playing the Wii or the XBox. I have to find the remote and push the “source” button to get the TV feeding in the right stuff. Gideon needed to push the source button. His focus was still himself.
14 And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him,”But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:14-16–ESV)
Gideon is sent, has the wrong source and is scared
If one looks at verse 15 the response Gideon shows that Gideon has not gotten to the point of reliance upon God. He is settling in to the notion of this task a little bit. Now he begins to consider the how. When a task needs doing we look at our resources.
Where did Gideon look? He looked at himself and he looked at his family.
“Exactly!” thought the Lord
Gideon is small. God works with small things. If God uses big things or things that think themselves big they get the source all confused. In Proverbs 30 a lesson is given saying we should seek only what we need for if we have too much we may become too confident and say, “who is the Lord.” Gideon has not won God’s sweepstakes. Gideon is not going to be winner of a God-lottery. God came to a man whom he knew was of little strength. God wants Israel to see his strength again. The very thing that Gideon spoke to the angel of the Lord about Gideon will be the conduit of. “Where are the wonders?” Gideon had wondered. They are coming an Gideon will be person through who God’s power flows in answering the cries of the tormented Israelites. These tormented must not get confused about how the delivery comes.
What about us?
Do we, like Gideon, wonder about God’s great works while we are busy about the things in our lives? When God answers with a task do we realize that he is there tasking us with the next step? When we recognize the next step are we obeying? When we obey do we figure it is to be all about our own strength? This is a spectrum and we may be at various points along it. Each point though is a stepping stone toward maturity.
We need to be obedient and push the source button.
Key points from this section:
- God sets the agenda
- God gives the strength
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