Key Verse: “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.” Judges 6:15

With everything that is going on in the world today, there are more people afraid than ever. War, the potential of wars, epidemics, and terrorism all make us fearful. On the more personal level, we fear rejection, failure, and loneliness.

We meet Gideon threshing wheat in the winepress, trying to save what he could of the harvest. He was scared, frightened, defeated, and hiding. Usually, people would thresh wheat in the field so the wind would carry away the chaff, but Gideon was down in a hole in the ground for fear of the Midianites.

The Midianites were an enemy with sinister strategy. They would let Israel do all the work. To plow and plant the fields, to weed and feed, ready for the harvest. Then at last minute, the Median and Amalek would come, and steal the harvest. Judges 6:5 says, “They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.”

It easy then for us to understand why Gideon was hiding. He had gone year after year, of working the land, expecting the harvest, just for it to be stolen from him. Can you imagine the disappointment he felt each year as it happened all over again? It’s amazing that he didn’t just give up and not even bother to plant anything.

Yet, Judges 6:12 tell us, “When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” God looked at this defeated young man, seen his situation, seen his weakness, seen his fear and yet called him ‘a mighty warrior.’

God saw Gideon’s potential long before Gideon. In the conversation that follows, Gideon doubt’s God’s word and promises. He asks God to prove Himself over and over again, and by pure grace, God confirms His promises (Judges 6:33-40).

We, like Gideon, can be so affected by our past failures and experiences that we doubt God’s promises to us. Often, we read a scripture or hear a message and conclude that it cannot be meant for us. God calls us to do something, and we try to convince Him that he has the wrong person.

God says to Gideon and us “Go in the strength you have… Am I not sending you? I will be with you.” God continues to show Gideon that the only thing that matters is that He is with him. Psalm 27:1 says “The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid?” God teaches us through Gideon that the only way to have a correct perspective of our problem is to have a correct perspective of God.

God reduces Gideons thirty-two thousand men army to three-hundred to show that better physical circumstances are not the solution to our fear. The only thing that matters is that God is with us. He is the almighty and nothing difficult for God (Jeremiah 32:27).





