God sees what we don’t see in ourselves

1. What’s the problem?

When we turn to the Bible for the Word of God, it is not our intention simply to gain knowledge. We seek to apply what God tells us to our lives. The stories in the Word of God refer to people and events that occupied very remote moments in history. We are talking about situations that took place thousands of years ago. Those of us who believe in Jesus experience the miracle that those events continue to have meaning and contain a powerful miracle for us.

How will this story apply to us?

Jueces 6:1–6 ESV

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.

a. Sometimes we cause our problems ourselves.

This passage begins - specifically and directly - with the claim that it was the children of Israel who did things wrong. Then we are going to be told about enemies, injustices and negative circumstances, but here from the beginning we are pointed out what so often happens in our own lives: many times, we ourselves cause our problems. It happens on a personal level and also on a community level, as a society.

b. Can we identify with the problems of the children of Israel?

Thank God, there is no army invading our country right now, at least not physically or materially, as was the case with Israel at that time. So, in what way can we identify with that situation?

What they faced caused social, economic and relational problems. The children of Israel hid, lived in fear, life became insecure and unstable. It happens that we also feel insecure, of course for different reasons than them, but we also feel that way. Solid institutions of our society such as the family and the church are under attack. The economy has become unstable. There are wars and acts of violence on the planet that we do not know when they will affect us most directly. The climate also threatens us.

c. Difficult times have the virtue of leading us to God

I have always said that the best way to learn to pray comes from going through turbulence on a plane trip. “Oh, Lord, help us!” are the first words that come out of our lips in moments like this. In the same way, whenever we face worry or sadness, our souls are inclined to seek God.

In times of difficulty we need to tune our senses to hear the voice of God. Yes, indeed, God speaks to us in the midst of the harsh circumstances of life. Don't settle for seeing the problem, the pain, the sadness: listen to God, because he is speaking to you.

Although the children of Israel had been estranged from God, even engaging in idolatry, when they were in trouble they knew exactly who they needed to turn to for help. They cried out to God.

Today there are also people who cry out to God. They find themselves trapped in their problems, in the uncertainty of what is going to happen, in the instability of the situations that surround them and they realize that they need higher help, that of the One who can do more than all of us.

2. The leader we wouldn’t have selected

What does God do when people pray? This is a very important key. Sometimes we would hope (and even wish) that God would simply respond by sending us the solutions, so that we can move on with our lives, doing our thing.

When the children of Israel cried out to God, He did not immediately send a quick solution. The first thing he did was confront the people with the reasons why this was happening to them. He sent them a prophet who reminded them of all that God had done for them and that they had not obeyed his voice.

God does not want us to move forward without paying attention to our spiritual health. God wants to heal our soul, give us salvation, and for that to reach as many as possible around us.

Now let's look at the way God called Gideon to be his instrument in answering prayer.

Jueces 6:11–16 ESV

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. 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.” 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.”

Sometimes we can come to think that the people whom God uses to fulfill his purposes are consecrated, dedicated people, with a very strong faith. And we almost always think that we are not like that, that we do not qualify. However, the overwhelming evidence from the Word tells us that God uses ordinary people, like you and me.

This passage does not show us Gideon in a moment of worship or deep meditation. He was doing “his own thing,” what was necessary to provide for his needs and those of his people. That is where we can feel identified, since we also live doing what we consider good and appropriate. It is God who takes the initiative to speak to our hearts and call us to serve him in the development of his plan.

Notice how God sees Gideon and his circumstances differently than he sees them. For God, Gideon was a mighty man of valor with whom the Lord was. Gideon had his questions: was God really with them? And if he was there, why did everything go wrong for them? He had not yet understood that this was the consequence of the people's bad decisions. It sounds strong to affirm that the Lord has forsaken us.

But God has a plan, and he tells him.

Jueces 6:14 ESV

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?”

Maybe you too are wondering how you could help those around you. Gideon would say: “I am nobody!”

The difference, God tells you clearly, is not in human potential but in the presence of God Himself. I send you. I will be with you.

Today there are also people who are praying, just as in Gideon's time. What is the Lord doing? He is answering them. Just as at that time, God uses his children as instruments of his responses. You can be God's answer to someone's prayer, right today, right now. Are you hearing the voice of the Lord?

The most normal thing is that you respond with the usual excuses: “Who? Me? Why doesn't God use the pastor? I don't have much knowledge, nor much faith, nor many resources." The key is that God's work does not depend on your knowledge, nor on how much faith you have, nor on your resources, but on the presence of God with you.

What God did using Gideon is what he wants to do in your life today.

3. What was the outcome?

Jueces 7:19–22 ESV

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

This is the end result, what God's work produced in Gideon's life. With an army reduced to three hundred men, facing the enemy army of perhaps one hundred and fifty thousand, God gave them victory and freed Israel from oppression.

Can you see the difference? This is the same man who believed that God had forsake them, the one who he considered to be the least among his peers, and here we see him lead a group of three hundred brave men to defeat that enormous army of about one hundred and fifty thousand. Doesn't this inspire you to think about what God can and wants to do with you?

What happened in between?

God dedicated himself faithfully, step by step, to building Gideon's faith. That man had very little confidence in himself, and even little confidence in God. The Lord did not provide him with more powerful weapons or an innumerable army. God did not solve problems according to human logic. But when God built his faith, Gideon was willing to follow the Lord's illogical instructions to go to the battlefield and obtain that immense victory.

Gideon had to stop doing what he was doing, he had to stop being one more in society, he had to stop doing what seemed logical to dedicate himself to doing what God directed him to do according to his powerful plan.

The Lord continues to work that way. He will always be the one who answers prayer, but he will want to do it with us as his instruments, his servants, his collaborators. We need to be willing to abandon our human logic to allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit of God according to his will.

Consider the change: Gideon went from being the young man who hid to prepare some supplies for his family to becoming the general who led three hundred brave men to defeat an army of one hundred and fifty thousand.

The Lord wants to do something really big, that will affect the lives of others, using you. Prepare yourself: God is speaking to your heart.

Conclusion:

What great work will God want to do using you? Could it be that God is calling you, just as he called Gideon?

We too do the little we can and try to survive all the threats and dangers we may face.

But God has a plan, just as He had a plan in Gideon's time. Today there are also people who cry out to God, and He wants to answer them.