What are you?

"The Call of Gideon" by Gerard Jollain
Engraving, about 1670.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Judges 6:1-21


TO CHEW ON: "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!'" Judges 6:12

The description the Angel of the Lord gave Gideon — "mighty man of valor" — doesn't seem unusual until we read on and discover Gideon was anything but that. He himself argued against it when he said to the angel: "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house" - Judges 6:15.

Later, just beyond the end of today's reading, he did what the angel told him to do but at night, "...because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day..." Judges 6:27.

He reminds me of Peter. Remember the cowardly Peter, so intimidated by events that he couldn't even bring himself to admit knowing Jesus? Then, only weeks later, he was the one who stood up and explained the Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost, turned the healing of the lame man into an altar call, and just wouldn't stop talking about Jesus even when commanded and threatened (Acts 4:18-20).

What made the difference?

In Peter's case the priests themselves figured it out: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" - Acts 4:13.

Gideon would also turn out to become what the angel said—a man of valour. When we read his whole story (Judges 6-8) we see that as he spent time with God, heard His instructions and did them he truly came to impersonate what the angel said he was (though at the end of his life, there was slippage - Judges 8:27).

What does God say about you and me? Here is a sampling:

• We are the salt of the earth - Matthew 5:13.*

• We are the light of the world - Matthew 5:14.

• We are saints - Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2.

• We are God's living stones, being built up as a spiritual house - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

• We are children of God and will resemble Christ when He returns - 1 John 3;1-2.

Do these things seem true about us? Or would we like Gideon argue otherwise? We can make it so as we spend time with Jesus, letting Him change us.

PRAYER: Dear God, I would love it if people puzzled over the grace and power evident in my life — and concluded that the only reason for it was because I had been with Jesus. Amen.


MORE: Five more things we are:

• We are God's workmanship (handiwork) created (born anew) in Christ to do His work that He planned beforehand that we should do - Ephesians 2:10.

• We are righteous and holy - Ephesians 2:24.

• We are citizens of heaven and seated in heaven right now - Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6.

• We are sons/daughters of light not of darkness - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

• We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession to proclaim His excellencies - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

*Taken from "Who Am I?" p. 8 of Resolving Personal Conflicts workbook, Dr. Neil T. Anderson, 1990, Freedom in Christ Ministries.

(From the archives)

Spirit-clothed

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Judges 6:19-40

TO CHEW ON: "But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet and the Abiezrites gathered behind him." Judges 6:34

"The activity the Spirit of the Lord in the book of Judges is clearly portrayed in the charismatic leadership of the period," says my Bible's introduction to Judges. In Gideon's case the moment where God's power really took over is described in Judges 7:34: "But the Spirit of the Lord camp upon Gideon." A footnote in my Bible says. "In Hebrew this literally says 'the Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon.'" (New Spirit Filled Life Bible p. 324) What an understandable and powerful image!

But this did not happen all at once. Gideon seems to have been naturally timid and certainly cautious. When the angel first appeared to him and told him how he would save Israel, he asked for a sign (6:17-18). When God told him to tear down his father's idol images, he did it at night "because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much" (6:27). Even after he was Spirit-empowered, he asked for physical confirmation that God would really do what He said and God indulged him, twice (6:36-40).

The Holy Spirit in him didn't overpower his personality, but worked through his 'quirks' to bring him to the place of doing the needful thing: to obey. If he had heard God's destiny for him  yet balked at tearing down those idols, would the Holy Spirit have come upon him as He did? Perhaps not.

We can cooperate with God's purposes for us by modeling Gideon and obeying God's instructions to us. As Oswald Chambers says:

"If there is something upon which God has put His pressure, obey in that matter, bring your imagination into captivity to the obedience of Christ with regard to it and everything will become as clear as daylight….


The tiniest thing we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is quite sufficient to account for spiritual muddle, and all the thinking we like to spend on it will never make it clear. Spiritual muddle is only made plain by obedience. Immediately we obey, we discern."

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (September 14th reading).

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, I want my life to be clothes for You. Please point out and help me deal with areas of self-will, stubbornness, disobedience. Amen.

MORE: Signs?

Gideon's request for a sign has made its way into our language. We all know what it means when someone says they are "laying a fleece." But is asking God to confirm something to us with a sign a good thing?

In the New Testament, it was the skeptical scribes and Pharisees, those religious leaders who seemed determined to scoff in spite of everything, who were continually bugging Jesus for signs:

Mark 8:11; Luke 11:16; John 2:18; John 4:48; John 6:30

We hardly want to be lumped in with them when Jesus praises those believers (in His time and in the time to come) who trust without the need of a sign. (John 20:24-29)

(This meditation is a re-post from July 3, 2010)

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

What are you?

"The Call of Gideon" by Gerard Jollain
Engraving, about 1670.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Judges 6:1-18


TO CHEW ON: "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!'" Judges 6:12

The description the Angel of the Lord gave Gideon — "mighty man of valor" — doesn't seem unusual until we read on and discover Gideon was anything but that. He himself argued against it when he said to the angel: "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house" - Judges 6:15.

Later, just beyond the end of today's reading, he did what the angel told him to do but at night, "...because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day..." Judges 6:27.

He reminds me of Peter. Remember the cowardly Peter, so intimidated by events that he couldn't even bring himself to admit knowing Jesus? Then, only weeks later, he was the one who stood up and explained the Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost, turned the healing of the lame man into an altar call, and just wouldn't stop talking about Jesus even when commanded and threatened (Acts 4:18-20).

What made the difference?

In Peter's case the priests themselves figured it out: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" - Acts 4:13.

Gideon would also turn out to become what the angel said — a man of valour. When we read his whole story (Judges 6-8) we see that as he spent time with God, heard His instructions and did them he truly came to impersonate what the angel said he was (though at the end of his life, there was slippage - Judges 8:27).

What does God say about you and me? Here is a sampling:

• We are the salt of the earth - Matthew 5:13.*

• We are the light of the world - Matthew 5:14.

• We are saints - Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2.

• We are God's living stones, being built up as a spiritual house - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

• We are children of God and will resemble Christ when He returns - 1 John 3;1-2.

Do these things seem true about us? Or would we like Gideon argue otherwise? We can make it so as we spend time with Jesus, letting Him change us.

PRAYER: Dear God, I would love it if people puzzled over the grace and power evident in my life — and concluded that the only reason for it was because I had been with Jesus. Amen.


MORE: Five more things we are:

• We are God's workmanship (handiwork) created (born anew) in Christ to do His work that He planned beforehand that we should do - Ephesians 2:10.

• We are righteous and holy - Ephesians 2:24.

• We are citizens of heaven and seated in heaven right now - Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6.

• We are sons/daughters of light not of darkness - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

• We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession to proclaim His excellencies - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

*Taken from "Who Am I?" p. 8 of Resolving Personal Conflicts workbook, Dr. Neil T. Anderson, 1990, Freedom in Christ Ministries.