LIVE Before You Die
it was harvest time in israel in a palpable sense of anxiety was in the
air
at any moment the wary farmers might lift their eyes
to see a tidal wave of Midianite i soldiers pouring down from the hills
like a flash flood from a broken dam. The Bible describes the Midianites
as a nation of grasshoppers. Whenever the harvest was ripe
they would descend upon israel's fields and crops
in vast numbers like a swarm of locusts
leaving nothing in their wake but struction and desolation.
The Israelites went on the defensive hunkering down in caves
hiding in the mountains and building protective strongholds. The nervous harvesters
quickly reaped what they could and hid it away in anticipation
of an imminent invasion
God had a plan to deliver israel from the hand of Midian and He had chosen just the man for
the job
But Gods choice seemed highly unlikely
Gideon was not a superhero by any stretch of the imagination. He was a
victim
of his society's ills. A man who had been influenced by the climate of
cowardice
that had crippled and enslaved the Israelites. He was such a prisoner of fear
that he would hide in a wine press to thresh his small harvest of wheat
a wine press is no place to thresh wheat, but Gideon had chosen
this inappropriate place because he was afraid of the Midianites
he was afraid of losing his harvest and his life
so he hid both underground. It was in this dungeon
fear that the Lord found Gideon - frustrated
trembling and perspiring. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him
and said to him the Lord is with you you mighty man of
fearless courage. No one would have anticipated the Lord's declaration that
day:
"Gideon", Lord says, "You are a mighty man
of fearless courage." Where others saw coward
God saw deliverer.
I'm you know what's amazing to me
about the story is that when God encountered Gideon
Gideon was in his most shameful condition laughable actually.
Have been caught in a moment of weakness, when you felt
and look absolutely ridiculous? Well my friend that's exactly what happened to
Gideon. God caught him
in his most ridiculous moment; trembling like a coward,
hiding in fear and yet in that moment
God called Gideon a "mighty man of fearless courage."
Aren't you glad that God doesn't see us the way that we so often see ourselves?
When you look in the mirror maybe see somebody who's undereducated or
inexperienced.
We might see someone who belongs to the wrong social class race or gender
Maybe we see someone who is too young or too old they're always a million excuses why
God can't use us but
the truth this that God sees more in us then we see in ourselves
and all the shortcomings that bother us so much they just don't intimidate him
at all.
I'm also glad that God doesn't see is the way that other people do.
You know many times when God begins to lift us up and we begin to break out of
the box that we're in
were surprised to discover that people aren't as happy for us as
we thought they would be. We thought they were going to applaud and cheer
and then we discover that often our greatest opponents
are close friends, fellow church members even family members.
In fact it's interesting to note the Midianites were actually the cousins
of the Israelites. They were family members if you will and yet
it was these family members who are oppressing
Israel. You know the enemy knows how to use those closest to us
to bring discouragement. They say, "Who do you think you are?
You think you're better than us? We've known you since you were a child.
We've seen all your failures. We know all your faults. You're just one of us. Get
back in your place.
A while back I became interested in purchasing
an aquarium and as I began to research I was amazed to
discover all the different kinds of aquariums that can be bought.
There are large ones, there are small ones, there's freshwater and saltwater
aquariums
There's aquariums for fish,
aquariums for corals, aquariums for reptiles and invertebrates and
all different things. But what really fascinated me was the aquarium for crabs.
And I discovered that these particular crab aquariums had no lids on top
and I was amused when I discovered why. Apparently,
when you have an aquarium for crabs you don't need to have a cover on the top
because
if one of the crabs tries to climb out the other ones will reach up and pull
him
back down again. And when I heard this I thought to myself, you know
I know a lot of crabby christians. We don't like to see someone succeed where
we have failed.
we like to see someone blessed more than we've been blessed ourselves.
And if they are then we reach up and try to pull them back down
into the miserable box that we are in ourselves. But the wonderful reality
is that god doesn't see us .the way that other people do
Let's go back to the story in Gideon for a moment. Here's Gideon
in the wine press, hiding for his life, trembling,
perspiring and then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in calls Gideon,
"A mighty man a fearless courage."
I think if I had been Gideon that day I would have looked around in the wine
press
and said who is God talking to? Surely God couldn't
be calling me courageous. In fact I think if you get a dictionary and you
look up the word "coward"
there's a picture of Gideon's face right next to the word. But my friend God saw
something in Gideon
that nobody else saw, not even Gideon himself.
How comforting it is to know that God's ways are not our ways
and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Oh my friend, when you understand what
God's seeds
when he looks at you it will change your life.