Offering Hope

The reading for today is Judges 6-8 and Psalm 72. I recommend that you read these chapters today! The book of Judges is characterized by a cyclical pattern of the Israelites turning away from the Lord and then turning back to him. They are attempting to take the land that God had promised the Israelites. Sometimes with the Lord's help and sometimes without it, depending on whether they were following God’s will or not. Today’s reading in Judges 6 opens with the Israelites having done “evil in the Lord’s sight” (verse 1). So, the Israelites are in the “without the Lord’s help” portion of this cycle.

Then, the story directs its way towards Gideon, and this is the story I will focus on in today’s blog post. 

See, the Midianites were attacking the Israelites brutally. The passage says that all of their crops and animals had been taken, leaving the Israelites to starve. But God sends an angel to Gideon, a man in hiding from his enemies and making grain, who tells him that the Lord is with them and that he should save Israel from the Midianites. Yet, Gideon doubts. First, Gideon brings an offering to the angel of the Lord. The offering is burned up, and the angel vanishes. At this moment, Gideon realizes that he is truly talking to the Lord’s angel. Gideon immediately builds an altar to worship the Lord and does as the Lord tells him to do, he tears down his father’s altar to Baal. Later in the passage, it says that the spirit of the Lord “clothed Gideon with power” (verse 33). Yet, Gideon still doubts. Gideon asks God for signs to confirm that he is the one who will save Israel from the Midianites. He asks God to make a wool fleece wet with dew, but keep the ground dry. So, God does so. Yet, Gideon still doubts. He then asks God to make the wool fleece dry while the ground is wet with dew. So, God does so. But God does not reject Gideon because of these doubts; he still uses him. God, through Gideon, defeats the Midianites with only 300 men. There are two lessons I immediately took away from this story. First, God uses imperfect people in his plan. Despite Gideon’s imperfections (doubt, an unideal position, and cowardice), God uses him to accomplish his goals. I believe that, if we let him, God uses us to accomplish his goals as well. Sometimes I doubt whether I can be used for God’s purposes. For example, I often doubt whether I know enough about the Bible and about God, or about different religions more broadly, to have spiritual conversations with people who are far away from God. Yet, I should trust that God will use me despite this doubt because he can! I imagine that this is a common doubt that we have as Christians because it is scary to have those conversations with others, yet we should trust that God 

Second, despite our past sins and wrongdoings, God is still willing to use us and forgive us for those missteps. The passage opens with the Israelites doing wrong in God’s sight, so he allowed them to be punished. When they finally cried out to God, they were brought someone who could deliver them. As Christians, we need constant reminders that although we will fall short of His perfect standard, there is still redemption through Jesus if we call out to Him for healing. I make mistakes and sin, just as we all do. The key is to continue to rely on Him and to develop our relationship with Him through prayer, relationships, and reading His word. As we do that, we will continually grow to be more like Him. This theme is brought up again in Psalm 72, which says, “For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help… He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight” (verse 12-14). Just as God rescued Israel in Judges, He continues to offer hope to those who turn to Him.