God Judges Israel
There are many instances in scripture where those God appointed to lead God’s people question God and are punished severely. However, today we’re going to look at an example of God’s longsuffering through a lot of skepticism and hope to draw out the reason this was not challenged like the others.
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
Judges 6:1-6
The Midianites were a punishment against Israel for turning from their God. It was a severe punishment. The people were driven into the mountains or fortified cities for survival because anywhere in the open would be destroyed. They couldn’t even grow the crops needed for food without having most of them taken before they could gather it for themselves.
Questioning Blessing
With that background we come to Gideon.
Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
Judges 6:11
His life was shaped under the oppression of Midian to the point where he would take the wheat his family was growing and beat it out hiding in the winepresses so that the Midianites wouldn’t notice the food they still had. While it likely looked hopeless to him, this is where the angel finds him.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.
Judges 6:12-13
This question makes a lot of sense now doesn’t it? He’s trying to scrap together a little food for his family hiding in a winepress and the angel comes to him with “O mighty man of valor”! He wasn’t wrong to say that God has given them to Midian as punishment. He is a man humbled by circumstance and can’t see how this angel can claim he’s a “mighty man”.
Questioning Credentials
And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
Judges 6:14-16
His next question is about his own qualifications. He’s told to “go in this might of yours” and cannot even comprehend what this angel is talking about. Here he is, the kid who has to beat out the wheat in hiding for the weakest clan, and he’s being told to use his might. He probably figured his might was just barely enough to get the wheat done! God comes to him with a message that he’s going to defeat this powerful nation that has kept all of Israel in hiding!
Questioning Holiness
After this, Gideon offers a sacrifice to God. When he sees fire spring up and consume the offering his response is to question if he is worthy to be in the presents of this angel.
Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”
Judges 6:22-23
Good Questions
Now we come to the question for which Gideon is best known. He lays out the fleece and tells God that he will trust if the fleece is wet with dew but the ground has nothing. Then, says he needs more confirmation by doing the opposite the next night. In both cases, God patiently provides the proof he asks for that he will succeed against the Midianites.
Why was God patient with all this questioning? Shouldn’t he have expected Gideon to just trust him at his word? Why is he so hard on others in scripture when they question his messages but so patient with him? Let’s go back over the questions themselves.
First, Gideon is skeptical that God is actual with Israel. This was a valid question because God had turned against Israel. This message was the first evidence of God’s turning to help Israel again. They had been a humbled people and it makes sense that they would question if God were on their side, because until this very point he hadn’t been.
Next, he questions if he’s the best choice. Moses did similarly when called by God too. Ultimately, God was so patient with Moses that he even allowed for Aaron to go with Moses in order to calm his fears about public speaking. Again, these men weren’t questioning God’s ability, but only their own. They needed encouragement, not judgement!
At this point the realization that he is standing before a holy God finally sinks in and he is terrified because of his unworthiness. This is a healthy, humble response to God that we find in many other places in scripture as well. While God isn’t going to come to people and command them to do something if the very act of communicating to them kills them, a fear born from our unrighteousness is a reasonable response to the perfect God.
Finally, the fleece is Gideon’s last verification that this promise is really from God.
Our Answer
God preserved the story of Gideon because his questions give us some very important answers to how we ought to interact with him. After Gideon received his confirmation we see a man who is willing to give up a majority of the fighting force (which was already outnumbered) at God’s request and still march to war afterward because he had a confidence born not in his own blessedness (first question), nor his strength (second), and not even in his own goodness (third) but in the God who can deliver through much or little (final).
At no point was he actually questioning God. His questions were really about his own position, ability, righteousness, and discernment. Through all of this God encourages him until he is ready to stand.
Toward the scorners he is scornful,
Proverbs 3:34
but to the humble he gives favor.
If you have doubts about your own worthiness for what God is calling you to, know that you can come to him with those questions. God knows better than us that we are unworthy and easily mislead. We can come to him when we feel too weak and, like the Bereans, have no fear when seeking out confirmation from God’s word that what we are trusting in is what we have actually been promised.
However, we should never use doubt as an excuse for cowardice. When we’ve confirmed from scripture what God has called us to we can leave the results to God and humbly march in his might. Even after looking around and realizing almost nobody is marching with us. As Jonathan concluded in 1 Samuel 14, “for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few”.
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