Strength in Our Weakness: Learning to Rely on God
Hello COAH,
A couple of weeks ago we covered Judges 6 in the Emerge bible study, which runs every Sunday from 10:45am to 12pm in the vision chapel. Judges 6 shares the events of God working in Gideon’s life, who was at that time going to be the fifth Judge of Israel. There is a lot that we can learn from this chapter, but the two points that I want to encourage us from God’s story of working in Gideon’s life is that “God is the comforter of the fearful, the uplifter of the weak, and the encourager of the failed sinner” (as one author put it) and second, that God does not require us to be brave, capable, wise and so forth, but only requires us to rely on Him.
When God called Gideon and declared him to be a “mighty warrior” and that God would use him to deliver his people from the Midianites, Gideon’s response was clear that he was anxious, fearful and weak as we see in v. 15 where Gideon said, ““Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Even though God responded that He would be with Gideon, Gideon continued to need reassurance by asking for a sign (v. 17) and even doing something that one should not do (Deut. 6:16), which was to test God not once, but twice (vv. 36-40). Even Gideon knew he was pushing his relationship with the Lord, when in v. 39 he asked God not to be angry with him with the second test. However, throughout their entire interaction, God knew Gideon and knew that he was fearful, weak and a sinner and throughout the whole time he showed comfort and encouragement, rather than rebuke. Even in Judges 7:8-11 God knew that Gideon was fearful, even without Gideon voicing his fears, God encourages, comforts and reassures Gideon that the battle would be won. Yes, God does rebuke and shows that it is needed in situations, but He also shows that in some situations that encouragement, reassurance and comfort is needed in the midst of repeated disappointments and failures, due to weaknesses. It could be easier for us to rebuke someone and move on (and yes there are times for this), but there are times where if our all-holy God does this with Gideon and us, how much more do we need to be sensitive to God’s direction and know that we as sinners need to do this with other sinners? When we look at Gideon, we can see ourselves in him, anxious, fearful and weak. We also need to realize that we should see others like Gideon as well. But praise be to God that He is a God who comforts and encourages us in our failures and weaknesses. It is through God and His strength that we can find strength and comfort.
Finally, when God called Gideon a “mighty warrior”, Gideon was far from that reality and that it was not in Gideon’s ability to become a mighty warrior on his own. We later see in Judges 7 that it is God that made Gideon a mighty warrior and qualified the title and call. Likewise, with us, God calls us to be His children (1 John 3:1), a royal priesthood, a holy nation and special possession (1 Peter 2:9) and we too are far from this reality, but again it is not we who earn and qualifies this title and call, but it is Christ who did for us. Gideon had no bravery, skill or cunning to deserve to be called a mighty warrior and nor do we have any bravery, capability and righteousness to be called children of God, but the only thing that God called Gideon to do was to rely on Him and all God calls us to do, is to do the same. Once God works in us to rely on Him, it is God who qualifies us and brings us into who we are supposed to be. I pray that as we look at God’s story with Gideon, we can see ourselves and others like Gideon and be reminded to rely on God in everything and know that God will comfort and encourage us and that it is God who will qualify us and bring us to be more like Him.
Blessings,
Pastor Edgar