The Little God Needs

14The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

16The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”...

 2The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

4But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”...

7The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. (Judges 6 & 7)

Thoughts: Gideon did not feel adequate.  He was fearful, insecure, anxious and sad.  He felt he was a nobody trying to save his people from a way-too-powerful enemy.  But God prefers to pick the humble to show His glory.  It is the meek who will inherit the earth.  It was the shepherd, David, who became the greatest king.  It was the virgin in a small backwoods town who bore the Son of God.  God uses the small to do great things. 
     Then God showed He can do things without strength in numbers.  The Midianites numbered 135,000 in their army.  The 32,000 that the Israelites could muster meant they were still outnumbered 4:1.  When the fearful left (22,000 or 2/3 of the army), the ratio went from 13.5: 1.  But in the end it was 500:1.  It is not the sophistication of the weapon or the number in the army that assures the victory.  God had spread fear in the camp so that when the Midianites saw 300 torches and heard 300 trumpets and shouts- they panicked and ran for their lives. 
     In our anxious and insecure time when we are uncertain of the future with chemical weapons or a North Korean nuclear missile, we can rest in the confidence we have in God.  It cannot be based on a half faith- but in a pure faith like Gideon had.  God was gracious and taught Gideon and Israel to put their faith in Him. If we put the little we have in God's hands, amazing things happen.  

Prayer: Lord, let me find my faith and confidence and peace in you.  

Baal worship all over again

25That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^b Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^c beside it.26Then build a proper kind of^d altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^e bull as a burnt offering.” (Judges 6:25-26)

Thoughts: The Israelites had begun to merge and syncretize faith in God with the Canaanite worship of Baal and Ashtoreth.  Baal worship was not just religious.  It also involved sexual immorality as it sought fertility for the land.  It encouraged prostitution as a part of its worship.  Freud (who said sex is the most powerful drive of life) would easily be a Canaanite.   The Israelites suffered because they mixed their religion with sexual immorality.  Gideon started to change things when he tore down Baal's altar and the Asherah pole to seek God's help.   
      Today I heard a speaker talk about sex trafficking in my state of South Carolina.  It is a 100 million dollar business. About 1,500 children averaging 15 years old are coerced into prostitution.  Young girls are abused and treated as dirt.  This would not happen if mainly men would stop giving into lust.  Some are even addicted to sexual immorality like a drug addict is addicted to a drug.  Pimps prey on vulnerable teens who lack self-esteem and are lonely promising them attention and gifts.  Soon they are trapped and sent out of state.  In some ways, this is Baal fertility worship.  We turn away from God and turn toward false gods of sexual immorality.  Lighthouse for Life- is a house in Columbia that is filled before it is even finished building.  This is the secret epidemic in our land.  

Prayer; Lord, help me to worship you, and you only.  Keep me from objectifying and abusing others.