Judges 6:11-16: Courage to Go

In the last post I focused on the courage it took for Gideon to look at his life, and admit who he truly was. This is a necessary requirement if one is to get to the place God has called them to be; they must understand God's vision for their life, and understand their current place in life, this way they can begin taking steps to abandon their current life, for the life God has for them. This, too, takes courage.In the passage being studied the angel turns to Gideon and says, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand."

The strength that Gideon had did not look like much. By his own admission he was, "the weakest in Manasseh, and the least in [his] family." Therefore, looking upon his strengths (his resources, intellect, skills, etc...) he must not have seen anything of value. When one looks upon their self as weak and least, they will undoubtedly see their strengths as weaknesses. So in order for Gideon to "Go in the strength you have..." he will need to look at his life, not through the "weak and least" lens, but through the lens that God uses–the mighty warrior lens. For when he looks through that lens, he will see what can be done rather than what can't be done.

The 21st century church, and her constituents, can learn a lesson from this. For we have been given a vision of what our collective and individual lives can be. The image is of people living supernatural lives in the manner of their teacher Jesus Christ. We are, as the apostle Paul said, "more than conquerors." That is how God sees us. That, and much more. But is that how one would describe the contemporary church? Is that how you would describe your life? Are you living into the supernatural vision that God has for you?

Some are, but many are not. Therefore, like Gideon, we need to hear and heed the command, we need the courage to "Go in the strength that [we] have." We need to begin looking at our lives through the eyes of God, and looking at our "strengths" as tools to accomplish the mission of God in this world. When we do, we will realize that we have always had what we needed.

From looking at the Gideon story (Judges 6-7) what would you say were Gideon's strengths?

Well, from what we see Gideon doing he was clearly a creative person, for he learned how to thresh wheat in a winepress, and still get results. That’s no small task, so we know that one of his strengths is creativity. He was also very stealthy and he had a great lay of the land. For we are told that Israel would hide their grain within the mountains to keep them from the Midianites. So not only was he able to move around quickly and quietly, but he also must've had an abundance of clay pots to store his grain in. And since they lived in perpetual fear of the Midianites, you'd imagine that they had some sort of warning system, perhaps a trumpet.So those are Gideon’s strengths. He is creative, he has the advantage of stealth and speed. He has a trumpet, and tons of clay pots for storing wheat. Those are his strengths, those are the things the angel tells him to use to defeat the Midianites.

No sword, no battle skills, no martial arts training. Just ingenuity, a good lay of the land, a trumpet, and clay vessels used to store wheat. Can anyone remember how Gideon and 300 men defeated the Midianite army?

We would expect that his 300 would be similar to that of Leonidas if they were going to defeat Midian. But the bible says they snuck up on them at night, surrounded them, smashed clay vessels, shouted out loudly, and began blowing their trumpets.

That has to be the worst military strategy I have ever heard! Would you agree? But this is the way the Midianite army falls.

See, when we use what we have, to the glory of God, when we give God our best, God has a strange way of adding super to natural, and helping us snatch victory from, the jaws of defeat.

Go, in the strength that you have.