As I was reading back through the Book of Judges, something struck me from the story of Gideon. It was a detail that I had not considered before.
By way of introduction, the Book of Judges covers a time in the history of the Israelites marked with a constant cycle of national sin, God punishing them through various enemy nations, the people crying out to God, and God sending a deliverer, the people forgetting God, and the cycle would start all over again. During this particular cycle, God had sold His people into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. 1 Now read the excerpt below from Judges 6 detailing Gideon’s call:
11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor! 13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” 15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Judges 6:11-15, New King James Version
Now notice the following details for the call of Gideon:
- The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and spoke two basic truths to him: (a) God is with you, and (b) you are a mighty man of valor.
- Gideon’s response was to doubt this proclamation on three fronts: ‘If God is with us, then…’
(a) why are we persecuted by the Midianites?
(b) where are His miracles we heard of?
(c) why did He forsake us? - Notice the Angel of the Lord never responds to Gideon’s questions regarding the Lord. Instead, the Angel only tells him to, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” 2 To this Gideon confesses he feels inadequate and ill-equipped.
Next we see Gideon asking the Lord for reassurance after he offers Him a sacrifice. Now we see the Lord’s first mission for Gideon:
“25 Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the [a]wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this [b]rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.”
Judges 6:25-27, NKJV
Here again, we see that Gideon carries out this first directive at night, under the cover of darkness, because he fears both his family and his oppressors–the Midianites. The next morning, the people all sought out the guilty party, and they discovered Gideon had torn down the altar to Baal. Now, not only do the Midianites assemble their army, but they also get the Amalekites to join them. 3 Now what is interesting is what happens after these two armies come against Gideon and his people. Verse 34 tells us:
“But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.”
Judges 6:34, NKJV
The Take-Aways
- Gideon lived in a culture of fear. Because of their enemies, the Israelites were always in fear for their safety, their food, and their lives. When we first find Gideon in the story, he is hiding as he threshes the wheat. This too can and will happen to us if we take our eyes off the Lord and set up other idols as they did.
- We can also glean from the story, that Gideon had thoughts about God that he was wrestling with. This is evident because of his first words to the Angel of the Lord that spoke with him. He was wrestling with ideas about God, testimonies of God, and covenantal promises made by God. He was wrestling with his theology. This is something you and I will experience when we are at our lowest…when we feel persecuted on every side. Gideon, as well as his people all through the Book and time period of the Judges, would miss their obligations under their covenant with God. Instead, they would focus solely on what they felt God owed them.
- Finally, coming back to the title and focus point of this study, notice again what verse 34 says, “But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon.” When God first called Gideon and gave him his first assignment, to destroy the altar, we do not read of God strengthening Gideon. There is no mention of God sending His Spirit to indwell or impower him. Instead, Gideon fearfully obeyed. Yes…it is true that he did so by night because of his fear of men…but ultimately, he feared the Lord more. So it was only after his initial act of obedience that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon to give him courage to go to war with two armies. The same may be the case for you and I. The first step of obedience towards God for us, maybe something terrifying in which we have to conquer our own fear of man. Additionally, at the time we may not feel as though God has filled us, empowered us, or given us anything supernatural to make us feel equipped to do what He asks us to do. Yet, we must fearfully and reverently walk in obedience to the Lord. We must learn and trust in the Lord’s admonition. Jesus Himself warns us, “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” 4 Maybe then, when we are called to something else, we may feel the Lord empower us with His Spirit as He did with Gideon. The courage may come only after the first act of obedience.
Personal Testimony
As I reread this account of Gideon, I realized that this is my testimony with the Lord. Shortly after I was saved in the fall of 2000, I met a missionary couple 5 online that ministered in Ghana. The couple live in the UK, but were both from Ghana. After doing some website work for them for a few months, the Lord began nudging me to go on a mission trip with them to Ghana. This terrified me. I was terrified of flying. I certainly did not feel equipped as a new believer. I knew nothing about missions work. I knew nothing about preaching or teaching. I did not know how to evangelize. And…I am a very picky and peculiar eater, and was truly afraid I would starve. As if that wasn’t enough, the Lord was burdening me to take NO MONEY…and just show up in Ghana, and trust people whom I had never met in person, to pick me up at the airport and allow me to stay with them. And by way of confirmation, the couple independently offered just that as a blessing for me since I had blessed them with all the free website work for several months.
So…I fearfully went. I spent 18 days in Ghana, way out of my comfort zone. The whole time I was there, I felt inadequate. I felt like every time I spoke and taught that I was flat and ‘powerless.’ Although I saw God do great things each and every day, I still felt like that trip was an utterly complete and personal failure in nearly every way. Although I could invest volumes in attesting to all that God showed me on that trip, the take-away here is that I silently convinced myself that I would never do missions work again. I resolved that missions was certainly not where the Lord would have me.
A few months later, I would receive a phone call from the couple inviting me to go to a different country in Africa. It was the country of Malawi. On the phone, my intentions were to say, ‘No.’ And yet…somehow the what came out was, “Yes…I would love to go.” The point is, that when I got to Malawi, the first time I opened my mouth to speak, I truly could sense the Spirit of God come upon me. At that moment, preaching outside at the hospital in Blantyre, I could truly feel the Lord supernaturally equip me to preach. The Lord took something I had just read from the Book of Joshua in my personal Bible Study, and turn it into a message that touched many. It was not until this second act of obedience that I actually felt equipped and empowered to do the work of the Lord.
The lesson for me was not to give up. The first time the Lord calls us to something, and we walk in obedience, we may not feel as though it was a ‘success.’ The Lord however, may define success as simply walking in obedience. Our courage may actually come after the first act of obedience.
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