TODAY’S READING IN THE ONE YEAR BIBLE
Judges 7-8:17; Luke 23:13-43; Psalm 97-98:9; Proverbs 14:7-8
Yesterday we read of Gideon putting a fleece before the Lord, not because he doubted God’s ability to deliver His people from the Midianites, but because he doubted whether God could use an insecure person such as himself to do it.
Then Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, [37] behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken." [38] And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. (Judges 6:36-38)
Gideon knew that he was no savior. He needed to be saved from the fear and unbelief that gripped him. God can deal with the enemies within as well as the enemies without. In the cases of both Moses and Gideon the angel of the Lord appeared to them (Exodus 3:2; Judges 6:12) to make this point. Both Moses and Gideon shared haunting doubts whether God could use them for the works He was calling them to accomplish.
Contrary to the teaching of popular “self-esteem” gurus, the answer for the “insecurity problem” of Moses and Gideon was not that they thought too lowly of themselves. The problem was that they were not thinking lowly enough. They still were thinking too highly of themselves, and not highly enough of God. They were still measuring and evaluating their own fitness for the task. They had not yet realized that God is so great that He can use any old bush in the wilderness to manifest His power and presence.
His fire was not fueled by anything in the bush that burned before the eyes of Moses (Exodus 3:2-3). God also did not need any naturally kindled fire to consume the offering that He received from Gideon (Judges 6:21). The angel commanded that the entire offering be put on the rock, which speaks of Christ. The angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the end of His staff and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed it all. It was not consumed with any fuel provided by Gideon. The spark and fire came from the staff in the hand of the angel of the Lord, the life and authority of God Himself.
This is the way of God- to take an insecure man and make him insecure enough to realize that he must turn to the Lord Who is our complete security. He takes a man who is insecure about his adequacy for the task and brings him to the place where he realizes that the Lord is our complete adequacy. He is our strength. He is our sufficiency. He is our confidence. The battle is His. The strategy is His. The weapons are His. The victory is His! The peace is His!
During the period of Judges the peace is short lived because the people fail to live in the Lord who is their peace. It is a picture of God’s people failing to abide in Christ.
Gideon, rather sheepishly, asked if he could put out ANOTHER fleece before the Lord! He does this knowing that God had every right to be angry at his unbelief (Judges 6:39). This reminds us of the man with the demonized son who said to Jesus, “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). In some cases we believe the right things in our heads but our hearts need some emotional reinforcement.
The epistle of John teaches us that there are better ways to assure our hearts before God! (1 John 3:14-24). Throwing a fleece is not the Biblically prescribed or divinely sanctioned method for discerning God’s will.
Gideon has reasons to be insecure if God were banking on his personal qualifications. He was not a military man, he was a farmer. There were other men from families and tribes who currently had more influence to rally the troops. There were others who were more competent, naturally winning the vote on being most likely to succeed.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He is sympathetic to our human limitations (Psalm 103: 14) and stoops to Gideon’s request. As the fleece is left out overnight it is completely dry while the ground is wet with dew.
Now Gideon was without excuse. He must confront the enemy. But he and his army were to confront them as ONE man. The word for ‘one’ in the Hebrew in this instance (Judges 6:16) is ‘echad’, meaning a ‘composite oneness’ reflecting the community of oneness figured in the Trinity (Deut 6:4), in marriage (Gen 2:24) and grapes joined in clusters to the vine (Numbers 13:23). The army would be identified and joined together as one man, prefiguring Christ and His church.
But once again the Lord challenges natural sensibilities. Gideon, who blew the trumpet to rally 32,000 men, is told that the number of men with him are too many! The enemy’s troops number 135,000 or more (Judges 8:10).
The Lord tells Gideon to dismiss all those who are afraid. 22,000 leave! This would have been shattering to Gideon’s ego, if there was anything left of his ego to shatter! The ability of the leader to encourage the faint-hearted was not the quality God was looking for here.
Those who remained did not do so because their trust was in themselves or their leader’s natural abilities. Their trust was in the fact that God had promised to deliver the enemy into their hands and would use His servant Gideon to do so.
The Lord then tells Gideon that the 10,000 who remain are still too many.
To whittle the army down to a miniscule size of 300, the Lord announces that he will test or sift those who were already trusting His ability to deliver them from the enemy. He would do with the ‘water test’.
How did the Lord determine those who would be joined together as one man to fight the enemy?
With the men that lapped.
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." [6] Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
[7] The Lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place."
What does it mean?
We may not be entirely sure but it appears that those who lapped brought the water to their mouths with cupped hands, maintaining a position of alertness to their surroundings and readiness for the battle for which they were called. Those who prostrated themselves, bowing down or kneeling, would have lost sight of where they were and why they were being summoned. We will have situations in our lives that test whether our faith in rooted in God. Do we forget the big picture and lose sight of why we are called?
The greatest ability that God looks for is AVAILability- the availability of faith. The word ‘avail’ refers to ‘prove worthy’, ‘profitable’ or ‘valuable’. Faith sees the value and worth of God’s ABILITY to the degree that we make ourselves ’present and ready’ to do what God has called us to do. We are confident in God’s ability to perform so we avail ourselves to God’s marching orders.
“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” (1 Thess 5:24)
Those who lapped were not afraid to look like dogs in the eyes of the enemy or others. They would not dawdle to indulge themselves by putting their heads in the water. (Some commentators infer that the getting down on their knees smacked of the religion of the Midianites and Amorites in the worship of Baal. I am not convinced that nearly 10,000 of those who were coming forward were doing so trusting in Baal to deliver them!)
How is it with your faith? Is your heart attitude one that “joins together” with the people of God, identifying with the person, work and mission of Christ?
We cannot borrow faith from our next door neighbor. Some people view faith as being the ability to believe something to be true. No, that is not Biblical faith. Faith is the transfer of trust to a person or thing considered reliable. Faith must take a valuable, trustworthy object. True faith is not faith in faith. True faith is faith in the One who is Faithful and True! (Rev. 3:14; 19:11)
It has been said that faith is like a toothbrush. We all need one, but you should not use someone else’s! Is your own trust in the One who is trust-worthy?
-Pastor David
PRAY FOR THE NATIONS
TODAY- CONGO (from the Prayer Guide “OPERATION WORLD”)
Republic of Congo [Brazzaville]
Africa
Geography
Area: 342,000 sq km
West of Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo-Zaire), with which it is often confused. Around 60% of the country
is covered with tropical rainforest, which is declining from deforestation. Grasslands and bush in the central and southwest, forest in the north.
is covered with tropical rainforest, which is declining from deforestation. Grasslands and bush in the central and southwest, forest in the north.
Population: 3,758,678 Annual Growth: 1.93%
Capital: Brazzaville
Urbanites: 62.1%
HDI Rank: 136 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)
Religion
Largest Religion: Christian (89.72%)
Challenge for Prayer
The Congo is a land of past troubles, but future potential. Two decades of Communism have been followed by a sham of a democracy, with the past dictator reinstated as president after provoking a civil war that devastated the land, killed thousands and displaced over 300,000. Congo is a land rich with natural resources, but the majority of the population live in or very near to poverty level. Pray for benign government, for wise economic policies and for justice to prevail in society.
The Church needs revival and restoration. Congo has been Christianized – superficially, at least – but never truly converted. The majority of the population are Christian, but some sources claim that up to 50% are actually animists. What is undeniable is that for a vast number, Christianity is a thin veneer over traditional African religion. The upheaval of the 1990s was a major setback for many ministries. Pray for a new move of the Spirit, greater than the revival that blazed through the region more than 50 years ago. Churches need to be swept clear of flawed worldviews and false beliefs, and instead filled with the Spirit’s power and led by biblical truth.
New Life Community Church, Concord, MA 10742
Meeting Sundays at 10:30 AM at the Emerson Umbrella for the Arts, 40 Stow Street, Concord MA
Mailing Address: Post Office Box Five, Concord, MA 01742
Church Offices: 35 Bypass Rd. Lincoln, MA 01773 978-369-0061
Home Office: 978-371-3176
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