Gideon... Part One(?)

So I've been reading in Judges, and came across chapters 6-8, about Gideon.
I had sooo much fun reading about that dude. The story has so much to study in it and it's such a blatant showcase of who God is, and what we are.
So basically, Isreal's getting all crazy, they were worshipping a bunch of silly idols and stuff.
and God said "That's enough, I'm going to get someone, and knock some sense into you people" Okay, maybe he didn't say it exactly like that..
Anyway, so there's Gideon. Working away under a tree when, BOOM, the angel of the Lord shows up.
The angel just says this: "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior"
To which Gideon so humanly replies;
"But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said 'did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian"
His first word is "but"! And isn't that such a typical thing for us to say?
I think it often comes down to us not fully acknowledging God's power. But it looks like for Gideon, he was skeptical that God was even present with them at all. I mean, just look what's going on, here! How could God allow this? They say God's so great but Gideon just doesn't see it.
Completely worldy, human, questioning and skepticism of God.
Because we are so prone to believe only what we see. But faith doesn't work like that, not at all.
It's the exact opposite.
But Gideon doesn't seem like He was clinging to too much faith, here. Look what we see next.
The Lord says to Gideon "Go in the strength you have and save Isreal out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
And guess what Gideon says now??
"But Lord," he says. Hah! "But Lord"!!
(we're at Judges 6:15, by the way). Where Gideon doubts. Doubting Gideon, I've come to call him.
"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Isreal? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
I really, really, love this part. It's incredibly encouraging to me in this way: All throughout the Bible, God uses the most unlikely people to do His big works. I LOOOVE this.
Sure, He could use a great, powerful, fabulous, strong, person to do it, (and He does in some cases) but He also uses the "little people" because what better way to display His power?
I mean, really!
The Lord answers Doubting Gideon by saying "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the midianites together."
I like the promise that God says, there. "I will be with you", I love how He says it like, 'Gideon, that's all you need to know.'
It's all we need to know, as well. When we're feeling doubty, ourselves.
But, as we doubty humans are so often inclined to do, Gideon asks for more proof. In verses 17 and 18, he says "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."
and the Lord says "I will wait until you return".
So Gideon goes and gets his sacrifice stuff ready, brings it back, and to make this take a little less time, I'm just going to say that God definitely proves to Gideon that He is who he says he is.
(I'm hoping that you'll read through these chapters, because there's sooo much more than I'm including here, even if I do 2 posts on the subject)

So starting in verse 25, God tells Gideon to go and take down his father's alter to Baal, and the Asherah pole beside it (Asherah was a supposed Goddess), and build an altar for the Lord. Then offer his father's bull as a sacrifice to the Lord, with the wood from the Asherah pole. ~Which I think is a great touch, by the way~
So Gideon and ten of his servants go at night, rather than daytime, because they were afraid, and do as the Lord said.
The next morning the men of the town get up and see what happened and they're all like "Whaaaaattt??!?" (well... not quite like that),
it really says that they "asked each other, 'Who did this?'"
Then they proceeded to carefully investigate and eventually find out, Gideon did it! *Gasp*
So they go and get Gideon's dad, Joash, and say "Bring out your son. He must die because he has broken down Baal's alter and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."
To which Joash replies in verse 31 (this is great)
"Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar."
Yeahhh, you tell 'em, Joash.
So the people backed off and settled to just start calling Gideon "Jerub-Baal" meaning, "Let Baal contend with him"

So, now, God's getting ready for Gideon to take out the Midianites and their crew.
But uh-oh, Doubting Gideon is back.
He says to God in verse 37 "look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Isreal by my hand, as you said."
And sure enough, the next morning he's squeezing a bowl full of water from the fleece.

So okay now, Gideon really should know that God really means what He is saying.
BUT, Gideon's still got this little fear in the back of his mind. so this is what he asks the Lord next.
"Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew."

At this point in the story I'm noticing both how un-trusting we can be of the Lord, and how patient the Lord is with us. Notice how Gideon says "Do not be angry with me"... He knows that he's questioning an awful lot, but he really wants to be 100% sure.
And God was patient with him. He did what Gideon asked that night, and finally Doubting Gideon stopped testing God.
I think it's important that we make sure that we don't test God. I mean, I know this was a big deal and I totally understand why Gideon was so freaked. But like I said before, faith isn't about seeing and believing. It's about believing.

And I hope that I can learn to trust and obey the Lord and follow him without asking questioning or feeling the need to test Him.

Even if He asks me to go get the Midianites. :D

So that's the end of Judges, chapter 6!
Therefore the end of this post..
But you'll probably be seeing a Part 2 post, pretty soon.

Bye!!!
Chels