Judges 6:11-16: Courage To See

There is a difference between courage and bravery. It is slight, but there is a difference, and it is important. To be brave is to be able to confront pain, danger or attempts of intimidation without any feeling of fear. And in many cases it is inherent.

My daughter Trinity is brave. When we take her to the playground she sees her older siblings climbing on the equipment made for bigger kids, and she follows suit. She doesn't consider the fact that she is undersized, and can do significant harm to herself, she just goes. She is brave.

My son Gabriel is not brave, and this is not a bad thing. For he looks at the same playground, and the height of the monkey bars (or whatever) helps him decide to play on something else. He sees the risk, and decides that he isn't going to take the chance. That is one illustration of bravery.

Courage, unlike bravery, is never inherent. It is not something that you either have or don't have. It's simply not that sort of thing. Because to be courageous is to be mindful of what is involved. It is to know the risks that are included, to be aware of your fears, and all the consequences, and still, with all that in mind, go through with a particular task.

The image of a parent rushing into a burning building is a picture of courage. They know that they face significant harm, perhaps even death, but because of the love for their child within the house they go forward courageously.

It is interesting that when one looks through the pages of scripture you will find that the word brave is rarely used; indeed, one can probably count the total number of times on both hands. Courage, on the other hand, shows up all over the place. See, we are called to be people of courage. That is one of the qualities that should mark the people of God. We are to know the risks, name our fears, be well aware of potential consequences, and still go forward, courageously trusting God.

In Judges 6:11-16 we find the Israelites living an oppressed life. The Midianites and the Amalekites routinely come to bully them, and steal their goods. Israel, the once conquering nation, responds to this bullying by hiding their goods in the mountains. They are not the picture of courage.In the midst of this God decides to do something about this. And, as he often does, he selects a person to be the one through whom he would bring the change. Human wisdom would recommend a natural leader, maybe someone with military training, of someone who exudes confidence. We get none of that in this passage. Instead we get introduced to a man who is threshing wheat, an activity meant to be performed in the wide open air, in a winepress. His name is Gideon, and he is fearful.

To this man the angel greets, saying, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Clearly, the angel is speaking from a different vision of Gideon. For what we see does not resemble a mighty warrior. But the angel speaks to him and names him, not according to what he sees, but according to how God sees him. He is the God who, as the apostle Paul says, "calleth those things which are not, as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

Therefore, in the same way you don't call your kids stupid when they bring home a bad grade, but you tell them about their potential, God doesn't look at us and name us according to what we currently are. But he looks at us and names us according to who we can be when we are in union with him. Therefore, Gideon is not a coward, but in the eyes of God he is a mighty warrior.

Now here is where courage shows up in the story. Whenever we hear a vision of life that is better than the life we currently have, we are forced to analyze our current life, and answer the question, Why does my life not look like that? And it takes real courage to be able to take a hard look at who you are, who you really are.

Alcoholics Anonymous has made great strides in helping men and women move from a place of dependency to alcohol to a life of freedom. And the way they do it is by first laying out a vision for what life might be like if a person was free from the bondage of alcoholic. They help them see how their relationship with their spouse can be restored, they show them how they will be able to be a great parent to their children, and how they will once again thrive on the job. In other words, they do just like the angel in our story does.

But did you know that the majority of people who make no progress in Alcoholics Anonymous can’t get past step 1?  For step 1 involves admitting that you are powerless over alcohol - and that your life has become unmanageable. It involves taking an honest look at yourself, and that requires courage. Because when you look closely at yourself you will often see something that frightens you. But until we are able to look closely, and honestly, at ourselves, we will never make it to the vision of life that God has for us. For a person cannot get to where they need to be, unless they begin where they are.

Imagine someone who happens to believe that they are in California using a map to get from Seattle to Florida... They would never arrive at their destination, because they are not beginning at their true starting point. The same is true in our life with God. We will never arrive at the vision of life that God has for us unless we have the courage to see where we are, and begin there.

Gideon had the courage to see himself. He eventually cried out, "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

"My name is Gideon, I see myself as weak and pathetic."

It takes courage to say that. Because there are several other alternatives. He could've said, "I'm actually fine threshing wheat in this winepress. I'm getting pretty good at it." That's what several people and churches have been doing. Instead of venturing on the vision of God, and striving to embody his vision of life, we settle for what is familiar. We simply settle for getting by–threshing wheat, as it were, in a winepress.

But God has called us to more. We are called to be mighty. But we will never become mighty, if we do not first have the courage to see, and name, who we truly are. 

Gideon had the courage to see. 

Will we?