The Bible says that Midian had so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. This same cycle has continued until today.
However, God always has in mind deliverance, blessing, and restoration (or right relationship). When a people or a nation will turn to Him, He is faithful to raise up a deliverer.
We know of course that two thousand years ago He raised up our one Great Deliverer, His son Jesus Christ, who died for our sin and made a way for us to be eternally set free from the grip of the kingdom of darkness.
However, in the words of R. Arthur Mathews "God continues to incarnate his redemptive purposes in human lives. He still calls, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
Gideon was just such a man. The Bible tells us that God approached Gideon as he was hiding in a winepress. There he was threshing wheat in order to hide it from the Midianites.
God addressed him as He saw him, "the Lord is with you man of fearless courage." Gideon's response was typical, "If the Lord is with me then why am I hiding in this winepress?"
God's response was sobering, "Go, in the strength I have given you and deliver Israel out of the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
Of course what followed were the normal series of lame excuses, the Lord's rebuttal, an assurance that He would accompany him and a direct command that he go. Gideon exercised his new found freedom by first addressing the enemy within, the idolatry in his own household, before turning his attention to those who had enslaved them, the Midianites.
The Bible says in Judges 6:34, "But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with himself and took possession of him, and he blew a trumpet for all those in the land to come up and meet them."
This is the very definition of incarnation, God clothing humanity with deity. He had not called Gideon to bring about this deliverance alone. Gideon was just one of a great army that God intended to fulfill his redemptive purposes through.
Thirty-three thousand fighting men assembled at the spring of Harod, which literally means the fountain of trembling. There the Lord told Gideon that he was to send home everyone that was fearful and trembling.
The Bible records that twenty-two thousand men turned back, leaving only ten thousand men. The Lord told Gideon that He would test those that remained.
One translation said that He would sift them. The result of that testing was that only three hundred proved faithful and passed faith's test.
The Bible says that God did indeed manifest Himself through the faithfulness of those three hundred men. God brought about victory and deliverance with a small band of faithful men.
The manner of testing that was used in Judges is unimportant. Each of us will face different tests in our lives. The point that I want to make is that the fire of God's purpose in our lives will be tested.
We, of course, know that the tests do not come from God. The book of James tells us that God tests no man. However when we make a stand of faith and decide do to something for God, we will face opposition.
We will have opportunity to turn back from the plan of God for our lives. We will have opportunity to cower from the calling of God to be a vessel that He can incarnate his redemptive purposes through.
In the world that we live in today we have multiple opportunities every single day to succumb to the fear mongering that is all around us.
When the fire of God's eternal purpose in our hearts comes under attack, when we suffer setback, when finances become tight, when world conditions seem to be uncertain, we have a choice to make.
We can either walk in faith, pass the tests and march on, or we can succumb to fear, fail life's tests, and turn back.
Let's make a decision that we will be men and women of fearless courage, yielded to God as vessels for Him to incarnate His redemptive purposes and bringing deliverance to the nations.
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