Our Fourth Traveling Companion: Gideon
. . . who was stronger than he knew
Go in this might of yours.
(Judges 6:14)
In 1898 two traveling salesmen stopping in the same hotel in Wisconsin got to discussing problems common to every traveler. Loneliness. Uncertainty. Temptation. Out of this chance meeting grew the organization known as The Gideons, which places "Gideon Bibles" in hotel rooms around the world-making the name Gideon synonymous with travel.
But who was the man named Gideon?
When we first meet him in the Bible, he is a timid young farmer living at a dismal moment in the history of the fledgling nation of Israel. The chosen people have established a foothold in the Promised Land but their scattered settlements in the Canaanite Hills are far from secure. Bands of nomads sweep in off the desert, strike the settled communities, and vanish again into the wilderness.
In Gideon's time, the twelfth century BC , these sporadic raids have assumed a new and terrifying dimension. As in our day, technology has made one of its sudden leaps, leaving people bewildered and demoralized. The Midianites, a tribe of nomadic Bedouins, have invented camel warfare, swifter and more unpredictable than anything yet known. Against these attacks there is no known defense. . . except to flee to the mountains and hide.
The invaders, "like locusts for numbers," camp on the Israeli farms for a few weeks, devour everything in sight, then move on "and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or ass."
After which Gideon and the other farmers creep down from their mountain hideaways to start again from scratch... pulling their own plows for lack of draft animals... re-staking the trampled vineyards - until at harvest time the whirlwind attack comes again.
"And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the people of Israel cried for help to the Lord."
First things reached rock bottom; then they turned to God. What the alcoholic, the gambler, the overeater - anyone at the mercy of "Midian" eventually discovers is that his own strategies don't work. Alcoholics Anonymous and the programs copied after it do work. That is because their starting point is the admission: "I am powerless to help myself."
God's response to the Israelites' cry is to send instructions to Gideon through an angel. But Gideon doesn't believe that the stranger sitting under the oak tree comes from God, any more than we recognize the various guises in which He appears to us. It must be some newcomer who's never seen an armed camel rider and doesn't appreciate our situation. Because what this ill-informed visitor is saying makes absolutely no sense: "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor."
The Lord is with me?
Our response is apt to be Gideon's: "Pray, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us?" Why is my child sick? Why am out of work?
Me, a mighty man of valor?
Valor is not exactly Gideon's hallmark. At the very moment that this preposterous greeting comes to him he is hiding from the Midianites at the bottom of a wine press. "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh," he whimpers, "and I am the least in my family. "
But the angel continues: Gideon is to tear down the local pagan shrine. The young man obeys all right... but after dark "because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day."
And this is the man God is going to send against a camel corps? Yes: "Go 1n this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian."
This might of Gideon's... of yours and mine. A might we do not know we have, and therefore cannot use, until God shows it to us.
A contemporary to whom this happened is Terry Law. Incredibly to those who know him today, Terry was a shy Canadian college student - a "born loser" in his own eyes-when he came upon the story of Gideon. Struck by the change in the frightened young Israeli farmer, Terry began to use the Bible in a new way. He'd always known he could find God described there. Now he began to ask also: How does the Bible describe me as a child of God?
And there he was, Terry Law, unbelievably but unmistakably! Perfect. Victorious. Beloved. Tireless. Invincible. Blameless. Terry began to read the Bible daily, not only to get to know God better, but to become acquainted with himself as God saw him. Terry launched a worldwide outreach to communist countries, operating through direct confrontation with hostile authorities.
At the start of each day, ask God to give you a special word that describes you as you appear to Him. He may speak through another person, through something you read, or directly to your spirit. Will He call you Courageous? Upright? Beautiful? However it wars with your own self-concept, accept it as true in Him; then live the rest of the day as though it were perfectly realized in you.
"A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" This was the rallying cry that aroused the victimized Israelites to go on the offensive against Midian. Before long, 32,000 men had assembled. But "the Lord said to Gideon, 'The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, "My own hand has delivered me."
God wants there to be no mistake about where the strength comes from. He wants us confident, not cocky; valiant, but not vain. And so He instructed Gideon to send all but 300 men back to their homes. With this handful He - and valorous Gideon - ended the Midianite scourge forever.
Lord of the Journey, I accept the assets You have given me as Your perfect provision for the road ahead.
Meet our next companion now >
Go in this might of yours.
(Judges 6:14)
In 1898 two traveling salesmen stopping in the same hotel in Wisconsin got to discussing problems common to every traveler. Loneliness. Uncertainty. Temptation. Out of this chance meeting grew the organization known as The Gideons, which places "Gideon Bibles" in hotel rooms around the world-making the name Gideon synonymous with travel.
But who was the man named Gideon?
When we first meet him in the Bible, he is a timid young farmer living at a dismal moment in the history of the fledgling nation of Israel. The chosen people have established a foothold in the Promised Land but their scattered settlements in the Canaanite Hills are far from secure. Bands of nomads sweep in off the desert, strike the settled communities, and vanish again into the wilderness.
In Gideon's time, the twelfth century BC , these sporadic raids have assumed a new and terrifying dimension. As in our day, technology has made one of its sudden leaps, leaving people bewildered and demoralized. The Midianites, a tribe of nomadic Bedouins, have invented camel warfare, swifter and more unpredictable than anything yet known. Against these attacks there is no known defense. . . except to flee to the mountains and hide.
The invaders, "like locusts for numbers," camp on the Israeli farms for a few weeks, devour everything in sight, then move on "and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or ass."
After which Gideon and the other farmers creep down from their mountain hideaways to start again from scratch... pulling their own plows for lack of draft animals... re-staking the trampled vineyards - until at harvest time the whirlwind attack comes again.
"And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the people of Israel cried for help to the Lord."
First things reached rock bottom; then they turned to God. What the alcoholic, the gambler, the overeater - anyone at the mercy of "Midian" eventually discovers is that his own strategies don't work. Alcoholics Anonymous and the programs copied after it do work. That is because their starting point is the admission: "I am powerless to help myself."
God's response to the Israelites' cry is to send instructions to Gideon through an angel. But Gideon doesn't believe that the stranger sitting under the oak tree comes from God, any more than we recognize the various guises in which He appears to us. It must be some newcomer who's never seen an armed camel rider and doesn't appreciate our situation. Because what this ill-informed visitor is saying makes absolutely no sense: "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor."
The Lord is with me?
Our response is apt to be Gideon's: "Pray, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us?" Why is my child sick? Why am out of work?
Me, a mighty man of valor?
Valor is not exactly Gideon's hallmark. At the very moment that this preposterous greeting comes to him he is hiding from the Midianites at the bottom of a wine press. "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh," he whimpers, "and I am the least in my family. "
But the angel continues: Gideon is to tear down the local pagan shrine. The young man obeys all right... but after dark "because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day."
And this is the man God is going to send against a camel corps? Yes: "Go 1n this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian."
This might of Gideon's... of yours and mine. A might we do not know we have, and therefore cannot use, until God shows it to us.
A contemporary to whom this happened is Terry Law. Incredibly to those who know him today, Terry was a shy Canadian college student - a "born loser" in his own eyes-when he came upon the story of Gideon. Struck by the change in the frightened young Israeli farmer, Terry began to use the Bible in a new way. He'd always known he could find God described there. Now he began to ask also: How does the Bible describe me as a child of God?
And there he was, Terry Law, unbelievably but unmistakably! Perfect. Victorious. Beloved. Tireless. Invincible. Blameless. Terry began to read the Bible daily, not only to get to know God better, but to become acquainted with himself as God saw him. Terry launched a worldwide outreach to communist countries, operating through direct confrontation with hostile authorities.
At the start of each day, ask God to give you a special word that describes you as you appear to Him. He may speak through another person, through something you read, or directly to your spirit. Will He call you Courageous? Upright? Beautiful? However it wars with your own self-concept, accept it as true in Him; then live the rest of the day as though it were perfectly realized in you.
"A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" This was the rallying cry that aroused the victimized Israelites to go on the offensive against Midian. Before long, 32,000 men had assembled. But "the Lord said to Gideon, 'The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, "My own hand has delivered me."
God wants there to be no mistake about where the strength comes from. He wants us confident, not cocky; valiant, but not vain. And so He instructed Gideon to send all but 300 men back to their homes. With this handful He - and valorous Gideon - ended the Midianite scourge forever.
Lord of the Journey, I accept the assets You have given me as Your perfect provision for the road ahead.
Meet our next companion now >