Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 6-7.
During the time when the Midianites were oppressing Israel, the people cried out to God. As He regularly did during this time period, God raised up one to deliver the people from their oppressors. On this occasion, God called Gideon for this task. Gideon, however, showed reluctance in accepting this role.
“The Lord looked at him and said, ‘Go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’ He said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man’” (Judges 6:14-16).
God nullified Gideon’s excuses with the promise, “Surely I will be with you.”
- It did not matter that Gideon was the youngest in his father’s household. The fact that he was not in a position to receive respect or to be looked upon as a leader was irrelevant.
- It did not matter that Gideon did not come from a prominent family. If no one knew who he was, he could still do the work God called him to do.
Gideon needed to do two things:
- Do what he was capable of doing: “Go in this your strength…” (Judges 6:14).
- Trust in the Lord to be with him: “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man” (Judges 6:16).
In serving the Lord today, we need to do the same two things:
- Do what we are capable of doing: “Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
- Trust in the Lord to be with us: “He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
No matter who we are or what others think of us, we can faithfully serve the Lord. Rather than make excuses, let us do all we can in service to Him.
Tomorrow’s reading: Judges 8-9
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
