Mighty Warrior

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Judges 6:11-14 "The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, 'The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.' 'Pardon me, my lord,' Gideon replied, 'but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, "Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?" But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.' The LORD turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?'"

Think

There is a kind of hiding that looks exactly like working.

He has written songs for two years. Forty of them sit in the voice memos on his phone and not one other human being has heard a single one. He is not lazy. He works on them constantly. He just does it where nobody can see, because being seen is the part that actually scares him, and as long as nobody hears it nobody can tell him it is not good.

That is roughly where the Bible finds a guy named Gideon.

Israel is seven years into being occupied. Every harvest, raiders from Midian come through and take everything, so people are living in caves and burying food in the ground. This is not a rough season. This is a whole generation that has learned to expect to lose.

So verse 11 says Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress, and you need to know what that means, because the detail is the entire point.

Threshing wheat means beating the grain loose and then tossing it in the air so the breeze carries the useless part away. You do it in a high, open, windy spot. A winepress is the opposite of that. It is a pit dug down into the ground where you stomp grapes. There is no wind in a pit.

Which means Gideon is crouched in a hole doing a job badly on purpose, because doing it correctly, out in the open where it actually works, would get him spotted and probably killed.

And that is the exact moment the angel of the LORD sits down under a tree and says, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."

Read that again while picturing where he is standing. Nothing mighty is happening in this scene. There is nothing warrior about a scared man in a pit hiding food from an army.

God is not being sarcastic and he is not handing out a compliment to make Gideon feel better. He is speaking to a version of Gideon that does not exist yet. God does this constantly through the whole Bible. He calls people by what they are going to be, and then he goes to work making it true.

Now look at how Gideon answers, because it is more honest than most of us are with God. He does not say thank you. He argues. If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders our ancestors told us about?

That is a real complaint, said out loud, to an angel. He is saying the stories do not match his life. And nothing bad happens to him for saying it. God does not strike him down and does not scold him for asking.

Then verse 14. "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

Go in the strength you have. Not the strength you wish you had. Not the strength you will have after you get your life together and stop being afraid. The strength you have right now, which in Gideon's case is a pit, some wheat, and a bad attitude about God.

Then comes the question that carries the whole thing. Am I not sending you? That is the qualification, and it is not located in Gideon anywhere.

So think about the kid with forty songs nobody has heard. God is not waiting for him to become impressive before he is willing to use him. He has never worked that way with anybody.

What has God already called you that you have not agreed with yet?

Apply

Do one thing above ground – Take one thing you have been doing in hiding, something you are good at, a way you could serve, a belief you hold quietly, and do it once this week where somebody can see it. Not an announcement. One time, in the open.

Pray

God, I am better at hiding than I want to admit, and I have gotten comfortable there. I am not sure I believe the things you say about me. Help me take you at your word instead of taking my own word for it. Send me with the little bit I actually have. In Jesus' name. Amen.