9 Gideon
Gideon’s Call
Well, here we are again. In the beginning of chapter 6, the Israelites are back to their evil ways in the eyes of the Lord. How does that work out? Pretty much like the last post on Deborah, only this time Israel is oppressed by the Midianites for seven years. When the Israelites cried out to God for help, God sent them a prophet who said “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.” (Judges 6: 8-10). The angel of the Lord came and sat down under an oak tree near where Gideon, son of Joash the Abiezrite was threshing wheat to keep it from the Midianites. The angel greets Gideon and calls him a mighty warrior and tells him that God is with him. Gideon’s reply is not surprising, he doesn’t believe that he is either a mighty warrior or that God is in fact with him. He asks if God is with Israel, then why has all this happened. He was referring to the enslavement by Midian. The Lord said to Gideon “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Gideon is skeptical so he asks the Lord to wait for him to prepare an offering and the Lord agrees. The angel of God tells Gideon to place the meat on a rock along with the bread. The angel touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff he held and fire appeared from the rock consuming the meat and bread.
Gideon then says to God that he has seen the angel of the Lord face to face, fearing he would die. God says to him picking up in verse 23: “But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. (Judges 6:23-27).
Needless to say this did not go over well with the people in the town. When the people of the town discovered Gideon desecrated Baal’s alter and destroyed the Asherah pole, then sacrificed a bull on a newly built alter, there were not happy. They told Joash to bring his son out as he must die. Joash however basically tells the townspeople that if Baal is really a god, then he can defend himself when someone desecrates one of his alters.
The Bible tells us that the Midianites, Amalekites and “other eastern peoples” join forces, crossing the Jordan river and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Gideon summoned the Abiezrites and sent messengers to Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali.
Now you might think Gideon has had enough proof that God was with him but he asks for two last confirmations. God provides the proofs Gideon requested.
It seems odd to me that Gideon is asking for 3 signs after being called by God. Most of the time in the Bible, that doesn’t work out very well. Another thing of note, Gideon claims his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and he is the least in his family (verse 15). We see this over and over again. God does not care about the “pecking order” decided by people, God chooses whom God wishes to choose. How about David? Youngest of his family, yet he is anointed as king by Samuel. Mary and Joseph, from David’s line, they were neither wealthy or privileged. Keep this in mind when God calls you. You may feel unworthy, ill equipped, frightened. That’s OK, God does not call the equipped, God equips the called.
God has a purpose for your life and mine. They are likely not the same. Paul sent a letter to the church at Corinth telling them that we are like parts of the body. We’re all different, but all are important. Oh, and don’t worry what other people think of your calling. God is the only one you have to please, and God loves you!