Valor or fear or complaint? How will we respond when God calls?
By Dean Collins
If you are feeling insignificant, weak, and forsaken, then God might be ready to use you! That was certainly the case for Gideon. It was true of several others in both the Old and New Testaments as well.
After Joshua and all of the elders of his generation had died, Scripture tells us the next generation did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:10). This led to continued attacks on God’s people. During the period of the judges, every few decades God would raise up someone to help his beloved who had put themselves in distress by their disobedience. The leaders God raised up as judges were often unexpected leaders, both to themselves and to others. Gideon is one we can probably relate to easily.
Gideon’s call
Here is Gideon’s call from the angel: “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
I suspect Gideon was first terrified. In Scripture, angels were not like the ceramic figurines that many people keep in their homes. I did a quick Google search to see examples of these figurines. And as I remembered, most are dressed in white, have sweet and kind faces, and look rather dainty. Many verses of Scripture suggest otherwise. There are angels with six wings and angels with four wings. Some have legs like stone pillars, and others have feet like the sole of a calf’s foot. Consider the cherubim who kept guard when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. Genesis tells us they had flaming swords in their hands. Not the gentle type for sure.
In the case of Gideon, the angel must have had a more human appearance as he sat under the terebinth tree. Gideon did not seem to be surprised by the angel, but had no hesitance in challenging what the angel said to him. The angel had opened the conversation by calling Gideon a mighty man of valor and that God was with him. Gideon pushed back by telling the angel that if the Lord was “with us” then why has all of this happened to us?
Why has all this happened to us?
The current situation was so bad that Gideon and the other farmers had to hide in caves, plant gardens in less visible places, and try to do their farming secretly. Midian and the army trolled the area and had many times swept in and taken the harvest, leaving it difficult for Gideon and his fellow countrymen to survive.
The nation had cried out to God for help (Judges 6:6), but until this discussion, God had appeared distant or absent. I suspect that like me, you have felt that same way before. Maybe you feel that way now.
Gideon’s frustration
How many times in a difficult situation have you prayed and asked God how long before he would get involved and help?! It is a fine and honest prayer. David and other psalm writers had no problem expressing their sense of hopelessness. I can remember a long, tough season in my life when I memorized Psalm 13 which opens this way: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
This psalm seems to capture the mood of Gideon as he spoke to the angel of the Lord. Gideon continued expressing his frustration and his doubt about God’s lack of help. “And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying,’ Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’” It may have been a while since Gideon had seen God’s intervention, but he remembered the refrain the Hebrews used to recall God’s rescue from Egypt. But Gideon was having a hard time believing in those stories of rescue as he and his neighbors suffered under the scarcity of their current oppressive captures.
The angel did not engage in defending God’s care. And neither did the angel correct Gideon. He simply told Gideon, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Gideon’s response
Gideon’s response was somewhat like the response of Moses centuries earlier. And it might be like our response to God when he gave us a tough or impossible-looking assignment. “Please, Lord, how can I save ______? I am a nobody. I don’t have the experience. I don’t have the resources. I have never done this before. I don’t know if I can handle it.” And on and on we go, trying to convince God to use anyone else but us.
Maybe our problem is similar to that of Gideon. God sees us one way and we see ourselves another. God saw Gideon as a mighty man of valor. Gideon saw himself as the youngest in an obscure family who possessed no power and had few resources.
In fairness, it takes practice to see ourselves as God sees us. We tend to look at ourselves from the old scripts of what others may have told us or what we told ourselves before God brought divine transformation into our lives. When we give ourselves to Jesus and proclaim him as Savior and Lord, he changes us. We are declared to be his sons and daughters and are given the Holy Spirit. As the beloved children of God, we have access to the Father through the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus taught in his parables and in his sermons, “God knows what we need. We do not need to be anxious. If he takes care of the sparrows then he can take care of us.”
It took a while for Gideon to be convinced that God would go with him and provide everything he needed. And part of the process was watching God remove the crutches he was limping around on so he would completely trust God and God alone. And when that happened, God moved and rescued Gideon and defeated the enemy.
Our challenge
Recently God has been working on me much like he worked on Gideon. And just like Gideon, I have wondered why me, why now, and how in the world I will get through this situation. But time and time again, the whisper of God’s Spirit tells me to trust God. As I read through Scripture each day, the resounding messages of “be strong and courageous” continue to be repeated.
As I read through Scripture each day,
the resounding messages of “be strong and courageous” continue to be repeated.
Whenever we are faced with challenges that seem impossible yet find ourselves called to the assignment, we must turn to the Lord and declare our dependence on him. If we try to operate outside of God’s involvement, we have a recipe for disaster. But when God calls us, God provides what we need. The psalmist said that when steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other.
God’s steadfast love and faithfulness met on the cross of Calvary. There Jesus made a way for us to have forgiveness and total access to God. Now as God calls us to service, we offer back to him our love and our faithfulness. When we do, God will embrace us, renew us, and provide what we need to get through the day and beyond. He will never forsake us.
I think it is time to move forward. I feel pretty sure I just heard God calling you: “O mighty woman of valor. . . . O mighty man of valor.” I am pretty sure he got the name right.
Your time with God’s Word
Judges 6:11-18; Psalm 85:10-13 ESV
Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash
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