A man, an angel, and a new destiny

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. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 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?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Judges 6:11-16

There are times when reading the Bible makes me smile – even when I’m not quite sure it’s meant to be funny. Here’s a case in point…

Israel is in deep trouble at the hand of the powerful Midianites. And here is Gideon, a man of no importance, pathetically trying to thresh out wheat, not in an open space where the wind can carry the chaff away, but in a winepress, would you believe, “to keep it from the Midianites”.

While he is doing this he notices a man - who turns out to be “the angel of the Lord” or simply “the Lord” - sitting watching. The stranger starts a conversation: not “Yes, these are bad days, aren’t they, Gideon?” or “You’ve got quite a job on your hands, haven’t you?” or even “Can I give you a hand?”, but “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior”.

Gideon may have thought that there was something slightly mad about this man, that he could say such an odd thing: that “God is with him”! that he is a “mighty warrior”! But he somehow senses that he needs to take him seriously.

So twice he questions these strange statements: “Pardon me, Lord…” (more polite than “Do me a favour, will you!” or “You must be joking!”). And back comes the answer: “I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites…”

The rest, as they say, is history, and you can follow up the story in Judges 6-8 to see how the angel’s words came true.

There are several lessons we can learn from this story. Let me pick out three, and then finish with a question.

First, God can turn things round.

Israel’s fortunes were about as low as they could possibly be. Many people must have been tempted to despair. And yet, what the angel predicted did in fact happen.

This is a recurring theme in Judges, a book which records the dark ages of God’s people; repeatedly we read that they fell away from the Lord, then cried out to him in prayer, and then received a deliverer such as Gideon.

As you read this, are you perhaps on the brink of despair? It may be to do with your personal circumstances, or to do with the sorry state of our world – or anywhere in between. But things look grim.

Well, the Gideon story holds out the message: dear child, hold on! Trust in God even through gritted teeth; after all we never know what infinite resources he has up his sleeve. He is a God of hope, and will, sooner or later, make all things right.

Second, God uses the most unlikely means.

Gideon was a nobody: yet God chose him. That really says it all.

This is often his method. Moses was a murderer, yet God made him  Israel’s hero and law-giver… David was a shepherd boy at the tail end of a queue of brothers, also a killer and an adulterer, yet God made him Israel’s greatest king… Mary was an unknown country girl, yet God made her the mother of Jesus… The original twelve apostles, several of them fishermen, were “unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13), yet God used them to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

Fact: God loves to take and use those the world despises.

And why shouldn’t that include you and me? The great thing is that God sees not just what we are, but what we can be and what we might be. Even, dare I say it, what we should be… And the key promise is the wonderful, simple words: “I will be with you” (verse 16). If we know that, do we need to know any more?

Third, God is wonderfully patient.

Reading on through Judges 6 we find that on two occasions God props up Gideon’s faltering faith by sending him spectacular signs. It reminds us of the experience of Moses in Exodus 4, when he stretches God’s patience to the very limit – even to the point where “God’s anger burned against him” - yet is still used by God.

We need to be careful here, for Jesus expressly condemns people who “ask for a sign”: they are “a wicked and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39). But the examples of Gideon and Moses remind us that as long as our hearts are humble and sincere we need not fear to press God a little. Remember Job.

Finally, the question: Is it possible that you and I are limiting God by failing to respond in faith to his call? Like Gideon, we have got used to our humdrum lives and simply never imagine that he has something else in store for us.

Not, of course, that there is anything wrong with living a humdrum life, so long as we live it in the power of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of God. But, well, just wondering…

God said, in effect, to Gideon: “You see what you are, but I see what you can be”. Is he saying a similar thing to you today?

Father, I recognise that in the world’s eyes I am, like Gideon, little more than a non-entity. But I glory in the fact that you love me as your child and that you can make me an instrument for your use. And I glory too that the day will come when, by your grace, I will be all that you intend for me to be. Thank you! Amen.