I feel like trusting God is one of those phrases that has become a cliche in the church. Don't get me wrong, I think that there is lots of faith in God in many churches and in the hearts of many Christians, but nonetheless it has become a really easy thing to say rather than do. An old saying comes to mind as I often find myself talking the talk of faith, but not walking the walk with action.
Enter Gideon. In chapters 6 and 7 of Judges we meet Gideon, a man who was in the weakest clan and was least in his family. Essentially he was worthless in the eyes of his community. But in these two chapters we see Gideon show true and extraordinary faith in God and lead the Israelites to freedom from the Midianites. Gideon accepts his task, puts his trust in God, then follows through.
As Christians we have all been given many commands from Christ. A cover-all would be "love God" or obey God, and thus by doing this we would essentially follow every other command. Two other important commands come to my mind as well (not to say there aren't many others), which are Love others and share the gospel. Gideon was tasked with the job of saving the Israelites from oppression. If we continue with the oppression = sin metaphor than we could see this as freeing others from the oppression of sin, a.k.a sharing the gospel. That said, lets compare stories.
God came to Gideon and told him to save the people (Judges 6:14), Jesus has commanded us to take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Gideon felt like he was not fit for the job but God encouraged Gideon that he would be with him (Judges 6:16), Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit will be with us when we proclaim the gospel (Acts 1:8).
Gideon asks for a sign (Judges 6:17-18, 36, 39), When the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples at Pentecost, God shows us an amazing display of his power (Acts 2:1-41).
Gideon accepts his task, of course it takes him a few signs from God before he accepts, but by the end of chapter 6, Gideon is ready to take an army, outmatched as they were, to fight the Midianites. We too need to accept our task of sharing the gospel. You don't need to hop on a plane and fly to Tuvalu or some obscure place to share the gospel, that would be amazing but that is not what I'm getting at. Rather, I know for a fact there are people in your life who don't know Jesus and they are the people you can share the gospel with. Maybe someday you will go to the ends of the earth, but right now, proclaim the gospel in your Jerusalem, in your Judea.
Next we see Gideon put his trust in God. We first see a small token of this when he tears down his father's idols. That was quite the leap of faith as the next morning the townsfolk wanted him dead (Judges 6:25-32). However, I think the biggest way we see Gideon trust God is in the way he sends men from their already under matched army home. In the first 8 verses of chapter 7, God on two occasions has Gideon send men home so that only 300 men end up fighting against the Midianite army. Gideon humbly accepted God's guidance even though it was suicide in any human logic. What are your limits for trusting God? Gideon let his army dwindle to 300 men when facing an army of well over 30,000. How far out of our comfort zone do we trust God. It is hard for me to share the gospel with others, I know I need to let go of fears and truly trust God with the faith Gideon had. Maybe God is prompting you right now to let go of something in your life. Many of you reading this know a couple who are leaving everything to share the gospel of Jesus Christ far from family and friends. I think that that is a wonderful example of faith in God.
Finally, as I said earlier, we need to walk the walk. It is one thing to put that faith in Christ but then we need to act on it. After God struck the Midianites into a frenzy where they simply attacked each other, the survivors fled. However, Gideon and his men finished their task. They chased all of them down, even traveling quite far to finish off the Midianite army with no help from surrounding nations (8:6, 8). We too need to act. Think of someone you can share the gospel with, pray about it, figure out a way that you can share with them, then do it.
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