Judg 6:12-16 | KingComments | STEP | Gideon will have looked up frightened when he suddenly hears a voice saying to him: “The LORD is with you.” Yet he doesn’t get scared. He only becomes this in when he realizes Who has visited him. And what about “O valiant warrior”? At first sight, there is nothing of combativeness to be seen in this man hiding from the enemy. But for God it counts that Gideon is determined to provide himself with food. Despite the supremacy of the enemy, despite the fear of the Israelites, here is a man who is busy with the fruit of the land. Personal faithfulness, in a time when everyone accept things as they are, is here in the foreground. That’s what God calls combativeness. Then, in His eyes, we’re a warrior. If we are personally engaged in deepening food from God’s Word and not participating in or resigning to the ‘strife’ around us, we will experience the special nearness of the Lord. We will hear Him say that He is with us. This commitment applies to every moment we engage with the Bible in a way that we can clearly hear the voice of God. This promise also applies to all the commands He gives us. This is how God begins His conversation with Gideon. Isn’t that an encouraging start?

‏ Judges 6:12-16

The LORD Is With You

Gideon will have looked up frightened when he suddenly hears a voice saying to him: “The LORD is with you.” Yet he doesn’t get scared. He only becomes this in Jdg 6:22 when he realizes Who has visited him. And what about “O valiant warrior”? At first sight, there is nothing of combativeness to be seen in this man hiding from the enemy. But for God it counts that Gideon is determined to provide himself with food. Despite the supremacy of the enemy, despite the fear of the Israelites, here is a man who is busy with the fruit of the land. Personal faithfulness, in a time when everyone accept things as they are, is here in the foreground. That’s what God calls combativeness. Then, in His eyes, we’re a warrior.

If we are personally engaged in deepening food from God’s Word and not participating in or resigning to the ‘strife’ around us, we will experience the special nearness of the Lord. We will hear Him say that He is with us. This commitment applies to every moment we engage with the Bible in a way that we can clearly hear the voice of God. This promise also applies to all the commands He gives us. This is how God begins His conversation with Gideon. Isn’t that an encouraging start?

Where Are All the Wonders of God?

A conversation starts between Gideon and the LORD. It is wonderful to see how the LORD gives Gideon all the space to say how he experiences things. The LORD always answers Gideon’s questions and answers him in the way only He can do. The answers are full of encouragement for everyone who receives a certain assignment from the Lord. We will see that much can be learned here about the formation of the servant – as we hopefully want to be one – who is to do a work for the Lord. Similar conversations are more common in the Bible, for example between Moses and the LORD (Exo 3:11-22 ; Exo 4:1-12) and between Ananias and the Lord Jesus (Acts 9:10-19).

If we know that God is calling us to do something for Him, we may talk to Him about it. We may lodge any objections we may have. God listens to us and takes our objections seriously. He answers. There is one condition: God enters into dialogue with us as long as He sees in us the willingness to do what He asks of us. If our objections stem from unbelief and unwillingness, God will not continue with us (Exo 4:13-17).

There is still a beautiful character trait to be seen in Gideon. God has said: “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” What does Gideon say? “If the LORD is with us.” He identifies himself with the whole people. Although Gideon is personally faithful, he does not claim God for himself alone. God is the God of the whole people. The welfare of the whole people is close to his heart and not just his own welfare.

Then come the questions. Gideon has heard of all that God has done for the benefit of His people when He led them out of Egypt. Gideon believes it. He does not doubt the history of the people and what God has done with and for them. But where is God now? Is He not the same anymore? Yes, He is, but the people are not. The LORD has abandoned them, at least Gideon experiences it like that.

In Romans 11 this question also arises: “God has not rejected His people, has He?” (Rom 11:1a). In the next verse the answer comes: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom 11:2a). God had to give them up to their enemies for a time because of the unfaithfulness of the people, but with the goal of bringing them back to Himself. In this way God will continue to take care of His people through the great Deliverer, the Messiah of the people, the Lord Jesus.

Here too, with Midian, God shows He has not rejected His people. He prepares a deliverer for his task and that is Gideon. When we hear him speak in this verse, we see two things which always go together in someone who is called by God to a task in the midst of His people. These two things are that he identifies himself with God’s people and that he believes the Word of God as it has been handed down to him by the fathers.

The Command

Gideon told God how hopeless the situation is. Now he gets the command to change that. Often it is the things we bring to God as a need that He tells us to do something about. We are then for God the most suitable instruments. If someone sees there is a need for children’s work, he or she will pray for it, possibly without thinking that it would be something for him- or herself. Yet the sense of need already indicates something of the commitment to this work for the Lord.

We can apply this to many other things. However, it only applies to people who, like Gideon, live in fellowship with God. It is about people who give the Lord all the space in their lives. In the lives of such people, Bible reading and prayer take a central place. That’s what their lives are all about, that’s what they draw their strength from.

God does not give Gideon any new power for His command, but says: “Go in this your strength.” What strength is this? It is the strength with which he has kept his food out of the hands of the enemies to enjoy it for himself. This also gives him enough strength to deliver Israel.

What the LORD then says to him must take away all doubt about his commission. Gideon may go in the Name of his Sender. He hears Him say: “Have I not sent you?” This is all that is needed, but also necessary to do a service work. Without Him telling us this, we cannot go. If we go anyway, we will make chunks.

Another important lesson in connection with the call to service work is that God calls someone who is busy. Gideon is at work when he is called. The same can be seen in the calling of the disciples by the Lord Jesus (Mt 4:18-22). God does not seek people who have nothing to do, but people who are diligent in doing ordinary, daily things.

A New Objection

Gideon puts forward a new argument, which leads him to believe that he cannot meet God’s command: he does not feel able to do so. Now it is always good not to think too high of yourself. To this end, each of us is exhorted in Romans 12, where Paul says “to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” (Rom 12:3). But this should never be an excuse to withdraw from what God asks of us.

Gideon points out his humble background and the place he occupies in the family to which he belongs. Manasseh is the tribe that is the only one which is divided. One half lives in the land and the other half lives outside of it. He knows what it means to be in a situation of division. Often you have already seen so much quarrel and strife with the additional misery that you no longer like fighting any more, even if it is the good fight.

His place in the family – he is the youngest – seems to indicate that he has never really been involved into family life. This also happened to David (1Sam 16:4-11). David is simply forgotten when Samuel has called the whole family together. This can give a feeling that you are worthless, unimportant, that you are of no use. Gideon may have felt like this.

Maybe that’s how we feel. Yet we can be sure that God can start something with us just then. Our weakness and not being counted with others makes us suitable as a tool for God. What God wants to do through us must be ascribed solely to Him and not to us. Is it not great that God wants to use us in our smallness and weakness?

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12. When he has prayed to be delivered from something that makes him weak and despicable, the Lord says to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2Cor 12:9a). Paul’s answer is: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:9b-10). Well, this is what we have to come to. Not feeling strong in our own ability, but feeling weak; then God can do His work with us.

Gideon looks upon himself and then there is no strength. But the small ‘I’ is just as great an obstacle to being used by God as the big ‘I’. If we acknowledge this, we may say what Paul says: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

I Will Be With You

The way the LORD deals with Gideon’s last argument is encouraging. In Jdg 6:14 he is supported in his commission by the consciousness that the LORD is his Sender. This gives value to the task he has to perform. In this verse it goes one step further. The LORD says He Himself goes with him.

This promise of the Lord also applies now. After His resurrection He commands His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). To this He adds, and with this concludes the Gospel according to Matthew, so that these words, as it were, continue to resound in the disciples’ ears: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20b).

In the past centuries, many people have been encouraged by these words and have fulfilled the task assigned to them. Let us also be encouraged by these words for the tasks we have been given. Even if we have an army of helpers around us, but we do not have the Lord, we will still lose. Even if we are all alone, but we have the Lord at our side, we will be able to defeat the greatest enemy army “as one man”. The history of Gideon will teach us that this is truly the ‘logic’ of faith.