Gideon the Reluctant Hero: How to Strengthen Our Faith?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JUDGES
A period of about 300 years from Joshua until the monarchy judges rescued Israel as needed. The quality of the judges seemed to decline over time. God was their King and they had limited government and maximum freedom under the Judges. One of the great things Gideon did was after he delivered Israel with God’s power he refused to be king. Just like George Washington refused to be King and left office after only 8 years in power and set a standard that lasted until F.D.R. He almost had 16 years in power if his health had allowed. The book chronicles the moral spiral downward of Israel. They followed a pattern of obedience and blessing for a generation then they mostly forgot God and followed the paganism of the other nations. God would then allow them to be abused by their enemies. They then would remember the true God and call for his help. He would send them a new leader. The leader would save them from their enemies and restore true worship. The cycle would repeat itself when a new generation would forsake the true God for the hedonistic fun of paganism.
THE ACTIONS OF THE RELUCTANT HERO GIDEON
First God sent a prophet to inform Israel as to why they were being punished. Then God choose the deliverer Gideon. God had allowed them to be plundered by the Midianites. Gideon had doubts and required a sign to be sure that he was the chosen one. After Reassurance he followed the first command given to destroy the pagan alters. Often when we are first called by God we must forsake the paganism in our society to the consternation of friends and relatives. Most of us however do not face the blatant sex laden paganism of ancient times.
After surviving this destruction of a pagan alter he gained some fame as Jerubbaal which means ‘let Baal contend’ then the enemies saw him as a potential threat and mobilized their armies. Gideon asked and got volunteers from a number of tribes. But his army was too large even though they were outnumbered greatly. God wanted to ensure that the credit for the victory belonged to him and not the Israelites. So Gideon had to release all the frightened men and others to win a stunning victory with a mere 300 men. God was patient with him while he asked for several reassurances. See Judges 6:11-8:33. We to rely on grace also and not our own strength.
LESSONS ON HOW TO STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH WHEN WE HAVE DOUBTS AND FEARS
- ENDOCTRINATION: We all need to fill our minds and hearts with knowledge of all the wonders the God of Israel has done. Learn of the promises of Jesus. Remind ourselves of all the many examples of Gods power and his mercy and grace. The angel helped Gideon to be convinced and we can use the Bible and the Holy Spirit from God to strengthen us.
- ACTION: Act on the faith you do have and God will help you thereby build more faith. We should obey God even with our doubts and fears. If God said do it as revealed in the Bible we should step out on faith and obey. Our faith will be deepened thereby. It is not abnormal to have fear in a stressful situation. Gideon burned the pagan idols. We need to also walk away from earth worship (Global environmental extremism) and Ishtar or Asherah. We can do the same strengthening of our faith and commitment by so doing.
- IRON TRUST: We need to grow and learn that we can trust God no matter the odds. We might like Gideon say ‘why me and did God really pick me’ but trust that God has called us out of all the billions in the world if we understand the full true Gospel Message. God wins victories and not us like in Gideon’s battle. We are saved because of Christ not or own inherent goodness. See I Cor 1:26-27. When we need more faith ask for it and keep obeying and following God anyway. See Mark 9:24.
I would ask all of us to try and find each one an additional example beyond Gideon of a Biblical or experiential example of something that increases ones faith.
