Broken Heroes PT8
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Questions From Gideon
Questions From Gideon
Last week we started this journey on questions that Gideon asks. The first question is does God really care about us? They were under duress and needed God’s help, but they couldn’t find it. We find later that it was due to their own sin and lessons they had to learn. God cares for us which is why he will discipline us and then we come to
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.”
And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them.
And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so.
Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
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.”
Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
What’s the big question?
Does God Know What He Is Doing?
At times it seems undoubtedly like he doesn’t. When I was in my early 20’s my Dad and I went to go buy a new truck that I could drive to college. We found one, a beautiful red Chevy Colarado 2 door. Beth called it a baby truck, but I fell in love the second I saw it. The issue was that it was just out of my price range. I couldn’t afford the payments. So my dad went through and started negotiating with the guy. They got close to my price range but couldn’t quite match it. I was devistated. I saw this truck which only had 13 miles on it slipping from my hands. My dad, realizing that we were at an impass, told me to get my stuff and started heading for the door. HE shook the mans hand and we walked out. I was protesting all the way and a bit angry because I knew he could do better. Just as we took 10 steps outside the door the sales manager came bolting out of the door yelling for us. My dad turned around and immediately told him that he wasn’t buying the truck because it’s priced too high. The man began to apologize and stated that there were incentives the sales person didn’t know about and that he could get the truck just under my ability to make the monthly payment. We walked back in signed the papers and I left happy with my new beautiful red truck.
I didn’t trust the process. At that moment I saw my dad a s big mean jerk who stopped me from getting what I wanted. Mean while he had it all planned out, or so he stated. I am not sure he ever planned for the manager running out, but it was a gamble and it worked. As Christians we begin to cry and complain about how unfair life is and how mean our dad is and we begin to ask does God even know what he is doing. Unlike my father, I know God not only has a plan, but knows (because he isn’t bound by time) how it will all unfold. There isn’t a surprise for God and yet when our life journey takes a detour we tend to get upset instead of patiently enduring.
It has often ben said that God’s commandments are God’s enablements. That once God has called and commissioned us, all we have to do is obey by faith, and He will do the rest.
Like Moses, when Gideon recieved the call from God he began to list excuses for why he couldn’t do it.
Gideon began to state don’t you understand how insignificant I am. My clan is in the ghetto. I am the lowest on the totum pole in this gheto, but what Gideon was really saying was
God because I am weak you cannot be strong. Because I am insignificant you are insignificant.
The worst thing you can do when God calls you is begin to tell him how insignificant you are because he created you. He position you. It would be like the rook from chess turning to the chest master and stating: Please don’t send me out there for I don’t know what I am doing. By default he states that the player who moves the pieces hasn’t a clue what to do.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
Someone here needs to stop questioning God’s ability to fulfill his call and start believing you are called. You need to begin to walk out what God has for your life because God has called you to it.
So Gideon asks for a sign. Gideon is given instructions and a fire begins and ends. With the ending of the fire the angel disappears. Without reasoning God tells Gideon not to fear.
In order to understand this you must know Jewish culture. It is believed that anyone who looks upon the face of God will die. So speaking to the fear in Gideon’s heart God reassures his fears.
God knows your fears and has an answer to them before you even are aware that there is something to be afraid of.
I hate the expression taking a leap of faith because it isn’t a leap if you know you’re going to be caught. It’s more of a jumping into the arms of.
One of the ways I test the spirits as we are told to in the bible is by the peace I carry.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
There is always joy and peace in faith, but fear and worry when we go our own way. When I begin to feel a sense of peace I know I am walking in the will of God. This doesn’t mean all my problems dissipate, but rather they just aren’t as big as my God—so why should I worry.
How do we battle unbelief?
How do we battle unbelief?
With Scripture when Gideon realized there was the call of God nothing could stop him.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
Matthew 1
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
You are called and equipped by God and you need to stop second guessing your call. Go with. Walk through it and you will see that God is faithful for those endure.