Judges 6 & 7

Jeff Cutts

I recently re-read the story of Gideon, and I feel it has a timely message for us.

You can find the story of Gideon in the book of Judges, chapters 6 & 7. At this time the Israelites were in some trouble, you see they'd ignored God for a while, doing what the rest of the people around them were doing, worshiping idols, and things had turned bad for them.

Their enemies had come and ravaged their land, taken or destroyed all the food, and the people were hungry. It was when they were hungry they called out to God.

I see many similarities here with our lives and our land today, there are people who have been oppressed in many ways and their lives ravaged, and there is a hunger in people. When we get spiritually hungry we pray and call out to God!

If we want to see change in our lives and our nation we need to get hungry, and we need to cry out to the Lord!

Well, God answered and sent His angel with a message to a young man called Gideon.

Gideon was a little guy, and young, and he was fearfully hiding away doing his work. Yet the angel greets him by saying 'God is with you Mighty Hero!'

Gideon didn't see it at first. 'If God is with us' he asks 'then why has all this trouble happened to us? And where are the miracles we've heard about? The Lord has abandoned us...and me? How can I change anything, after all my family is the weakest of all, and I'm the least in my entire family?'

The hardships we go through can make us cynical, perhaps we think, 'oh yes, perhaps God is moving in Florida, or Africa, or anywhere else...but He's abandoned us.' Or maybe you feel God will answer other people's prayers, but He doesn't hear your own.

Perhaps you're feeling weak like Gideon did, he couldn't see how he could be used for anything since he was the weakest guy in the weakest family. He thought very little of himself. What about you?

The angel wasn't put off. He knew he had the right address, and so he tells Gideon, 'go with the strength you have and rescue Israel...I am sending you'.

As to being weak, God told Gideon, 'I will be with you, and you will win the battle against hordes of enemies as if you were fighting against just one person!'

Don't you know that God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong?

If you feel weak, unprepared, and like you are not up to the task then you are not alone - that's being human! When God calls you to something he knows He can achieve it through you. You can achieve it through Him - whether He calls you to be salt and light in your school, job and community and to love your neighbour as yourself; or even if He is calling you to give your life as a missionary to tell the good news of Jesus in another nation. God is calling you, hear what He says, 'go with the strength you have. I am sending you!'

Gideon went on to pull down the altars his father had set up to false gods. He rallied the people together, calling them to strength and action, and he followed God's plan to bring freedom to his people against the odds.

Many people need freedom in so many ways today, people whose lives are ravaged and oppressed, where the enemy of our souls has stolen, killed, destroyed. Many people are in bondage to false gods and worship at the altars of materialism, greed, selfishness, violence and they need freedom. Many people are hungry and think, 'there must be more than this.'

What is it you are hungry for? What do you want to cry out to God for to change? If you are a follower of Jesus then you are part of the solution. Put this hunger into prayer now, and allow that hunger to stir up your faith and get you into action!

1 John 4:4 tell us 'He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world!' Hear the voice of the Lord today calling you to strength and faith and courage. He has not given you a spirit of fear but of power of love and a sound mind!

Maybe you are young, maybe you are poor. Perhaps you feel weak or maybe just hungry, but that thing God is calling you to - He knows you can do it.

God is with you mighty hero! Go with the strength you have!