Perspective (Part 2)
Picking up where I left off in Part 1 of Perspective. Immediately after Moses death the people mourn for 30 days and then Joshua, their new go-to man sends them into Canaan, the promised land to take what is rightfully theirs. (FINALLY!!!) The land is divided amongst the tribes of Israel. There is peace and victory. Joshua dies and others take over after him. Israel is faithful to God up until the last person from the Exodus dies. Then all hell breaks lose. Rampant sinning and idolatry. Israel has quickly forgotten God. He is not pleased and begins to hand His people over to other powers. Kings come and conquer Israel and the people cower. Then they call out to God and He sends judges to lead them out of their opression and to keep them in order. Several come and go…
In Judges 6 we find that Israel has been once again doing evil in the sight of God. They are put under the opression and domination of Midian. For 7 years Israel is overpowered and hiding out in caves, forts and mountains. Anywhere out of the sight of Midian. Whenever the people of Israel would plant their crops to live off of the Midianites would invade them, camp in their fields and destroy their crops. They had nothing. No animals, no crops and no hope. They were, I would imagine,a pitiful sight.
But once again we find the people of Israel call out to God for help. God sends a prophet to remind them of all His mighty miracles in getting them to where they are now. But God commanded that they fear no other god but their God. Of course we can assume based on their current circumstances that they did not heed the advice of God. Here is where Gideon comes into play…
One day the angel of God pops a squat under an oak tree on the land of Joash. Gideon is bunkered down in a rock formation that is used for pressing grapes into liquid wine.
that hole in the floor of the rock would be the type of winepress Gideon was threshing wheat in
He is in there threshing wheat out of the line of sight of the Midianites for fear they will take what little wheat he has. He is acting like a 5 year old who is afraid of the big bad 5th grader on the playground. To man’s eyes and even to Gideon himself we would say he was a coward. Our limited perspective tells us all this within 1 verse of scripture.
When the angel of God appears to him he says “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me??? Other translations of the bible word it as hero or warrior. There is no mistake made here. God is calling out Gideon’s potential. He doesn’t see Gideon with human perspective but with eternal perspective.
What does the world call you? Your friends? Your family? Your significant other? Your co-workers? Your boss? I could pile a mountain of negativity on you right now but I won’t. Sometimes the “world” tells us a lot of negative things about ourselves. Failure, loser, stupid, poor, weak and really I could go on and on. We hear it so much we actually begin to believe that crap. What I really want to challenge you to do today is forget about what the “world” says and what you think. Listen and hear today what God is calling you? Chosen, beautiful, cherished, loved, accepted, powerful, warrior… Remember there is no perspective that matters but God’s and he always looks for the best in people. More tomorrow on Perspective. Gideon will remain with us through part 3.
