Against The Odds

The book of Judges tells about the period of time sandwiched between Israel’s exodus from Egypt and the coronation of their great king, David.  The people had taken possession of the Promised Land, under the leadership of Joshua and were 205 years into their lives as property, business and home ownership. Just two centuries into a way of life far removed from the slavery, wilderness and conquest chapters of their history and we find the people already having rejected the Lord’s instruction to not become like the people they were living among. God’s people had rejected His warning to not honor the gods of the Amorites. During those 5 generations they had lost sight of who they were.

Judges chapters 6-8 tell the fascinating story about the way God delivered them when they found themselves at the mercy of a merciless enemy suffering under the marauding tyranny of the Midianites and the Amalekites. 

Before we go any further, let’s look at some definitions that shed a clarifying light on their situation and brings this 3,000 year old story right into the reality of our present circumstance. 

            Amorites:  sayers

            Midianite:  strife

            Amalekites: low valley dwellers

What are some 21^st century equivalents to these ancient enemies of God’s Kingdom?  I'd consider the media and entertainment as the sayers of our time.  An industry with an agenda void of Truth, and determined to shape the minds of people to accept a view of reality that is contrary to the truth of Christ.  Do we live among this?  Yes.  Have we been lured into a distorted reality?  Yes.  Have we lost sight of God’s warning and instructions concerning how we are to not get deceived by their message?  Yes.   Hmmm, maybe there’s more we can learn from this dusty old story.

We learn that the people of Israel continued to live on their land, plant their crops, harvest their fields but for 7 years, after putting all that effort into trying to provide a living for themselves,  the Midian and Amalekite armies would swoop in and steal the Israelite’s harvest.

Again, what does that look like for us today?  Spiritually? Economically? Socially?  Can you recall times in your life where you have watched your efforts be destroyed by agents of strife or a low-level mentalities like greed, lust, jealousy, hate, pride, self-centeredness or vengeance and been powerless to stop it?  Yeah, me too.  Every April 15^th, or while thumbing through a magazine with air-brushed standards, or listening to a friend lament that God must not love them because they want His love to be proven in a way that is different than it was at the cross. 

And then there is the campaign of 2016.  Wow.  Talk about a strife producing environment that one feels absolutely powerless to defuse.  Okay, let’s get back to the story in Judges.

Because the people had exchanged their true identity – (who God said they were) – with who the sayers said they were, for 7 years the Israelites suffered defeat at the hands of those enemies.  The authentic owners of the land found themselves cowering and desperate. And that’s where we first find Gideon.  He is threshing grain in a winepress, for fear of Midianites making off with what little harvest he had scraped together.

An angel of the Lord shows up at the winepress-turned-threshing-floor with a message from God for Gideon.  He has been selected to lead an army against the thieving troops of strife and low-level thinking.  Gideon was less than thrilled with the commission.  But hey, that’s where we got the popular cliché’ about putting out a fleece when we want to confirm whether we heard God accurately when we feel tempted to do something crazy like give to the poor, help a person in need, forgive someone who wronged us or ignore an offence.  Or maybe something really crazy like standing up against strife that threatens to invade our own thought processes with low level thinking that ignores our identity in Christ and exalts the identity this world has tried to force on us. Because, after all, that’s who the sayers say we are… but I digress.

Gideon finally accepts God’s invitation and is able to muster a standing army of 30,000 to face off against an army of 120,000.  One to four odds.  Yikes!  Then God says, “no – you have way too many.  Tell every man who trembles in fear of this battle to go home.”  What?!? Are you kidding me?  Nope.  22,000 men went home.  Wow.  But that was still too many.  When God got finished with His unique selection process there remained 300.  There was going to be absolutely no doubt about how this enemy was going to be defeated, it was certainly not going to be by human might.

Well, by now I hope you are inspired to read the account for yourself.  And read it over and over again, allowing the Spirit of God to show you things that can instruct you in your own battle with identity and the struggle to think with the mind of Christ.

God had a fascinating battle plan that involved trumpets and torches with embers encased in clay pots.  Gideon’s men held veiled torches in one hand and trumpets in the other.  And in unison broke the pots, igniting the hidden embers and they sounded the trumpets.  The 120,000 low-level strife mongers turned on one another, and destroyed themselves. 

I think that strategy will still work today.  I think the Body of Christ needs to stop letting the sayers tell us who we are and establish our identity in who God says we are.  And let our representative be only those who are not tormented by fear or desire to prove anything.  People who will follow a prompting (no matter how unconventional) from the Spirit of God rather than cave to the pressure of this is how it’s supposed to be done. 

Let’s see what happens when this is the caliber of people who stand in the darkness with their lights blazing bright and their trumpets blaring the message of Truth.  Strife, by its very nature, will destroy itself.  And because lower level thinking is not equipped to sustain growth in the light of higher level truth, it will have to shift up or shrivel on the vine. 

So the next time you are tempted to say we are too few against too many, remember Gideon. Remember that you are who God says you are.  Remember that the Cross of Jesus Christ is the unifying rally cry for a victory powerful enough to change an entire nation.