The Gospel Story of Gideon’s Weakness
The Gospel Story of Gideon’s Weakness.
“Then Yahweh turned to Gideon and said, ‘Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!’ ‘But Lord, Gideon replied, ‘how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!’ The Lord said to him, ‘I will be with you…’” (Judges 6:14-16).
In Judges 6 we find Gideon, the youngest member of an insignificant family in Israel. He was a farmer by trade, and by nature lacked confidence. Gideon was a bit on the timid side, and seemed to be a natural skeptic, perhaps even pessimistic. His nation of Israel was slowly starving to death because of their enemy the Midianites, a marauding force that often swept into Israel and stole their crops and livestock. This frightening state of affairs had been going on for seven years, and Israel was helpless with these devastating attacks. If the Israelites were honest with themselves, they would have connected the dots and acknowledged this as God’s punishment for their pagan idolatry. But this knowledge didn’t make life any easier for the Israelites.
A State of Readiness. Gideon was understandably fearful, but he also had a clever and resourceful streak. He decided to use the family winepress to serve as the place where he would secretly thresh his wheat. A winepress during that time was either a large pit dug into the ground or a wide vat carved out of a boulder in the ground, and it was big enough for several people to stand in and crush grapes. Gideon was afraid that some Midianite attackers would see him thresh his wheat out in the open and take away his wheat crop. So he was in hiding, threshing his wheat, in the protective barrier of the winepress. Gideon’s humility in recognizing his low stature in Israel actually was of spiritual benefit to him. Now the Lord knew Gideon was a ready receptacle for His power.
The Gift of Weakness. Gideon powerfully fleshes out for us a major Kingdom principle: He saw himself as weak, as insignificant, as powerless in the face of the Midianites. Gideon fleshed out this spiritual principle in his life, that God’s power hits its stride when he is at his weakest. Yahweh told Gideon to go in the strength that he had, no matter how little strength that was, and He would make up the difference. At this point, Gideon knew he had to start rallying the troops. He needed to gather some Israelite fighting men to go against the enemies that were camping along their border. What happens next is significant. The different versions of the Bible put it this way: The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power; the Spirit of the Lord enveloped Gideon; the Spirit of Yahweh empowered Gideon; the Spirit of the Lord came over Gideon; the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with Himself and took possession of him. The Hebrew word here literally means “put on.” So the Holy Spirit came onto Gideon as a garment. And Gideon was privileged to put on this powerful garment, enabling him to meet these challenges facing Israel. There was no other way to victory. Gideon was impotent without the Lord’s empowerment.
Too Many Troops? In Judges 7, we see the ingenious way Gideon assembled the troops to fight while listening to the Lord’s instructions. Gideon’s battle cry on his horn was an excellent way to gather his warriors. The problem was, Yahweh thought Gideon did too good of a job. There are too many troops, says the Lord. This is a holy war, the troops shouldn’t get the credit for the eventual victory. People might claim the glory due to Me. That’s not good. I want everyone to acknowledge that the Lord secured the triumph. This was not man’s doing. So Gideon is instructed to winnow out the men. If any of the troops are even a little fearful or timid, tell them to go home. So 22,000 troops left, while 10,000 remained. There are still too many troops! People might think they have earned the victory without God’s help. So continue to sift the troops in your brigade, Yahweh tells Gideon. The troops were taken to a nearby stream to get a drink of water. Now notice all those troops who get down on their knees and drink with their mouths directly in the stream. Those warriors are excused. Tell them to go home. And all those fighters who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues, they remain to fight. That is the way to fight effectively, ready to engage in combat if an enemy should come up behind them while drinking. These are my fighters, says the Lord. Gideon ended up with only 300 troops against the many thousands of the Midianites. Now I know, says Yahweh, that no one will boast about saving themselves by their own strength and numbers. The fighting troop was reduced from 32,000 to 300 men. There will be no doubt that the victory was from God. God’s strength does not lie in numbers. Sometimes God reveals His power in the unimpressive. The one God will always outnumber the countless enemy.
The Victory is Won. It didn’t matter that the Midianite horde looked like a swarm of locusts, or that their camels were past counting, like grains of sand on the seashore. The Midianites grew fearful because of the Lord speaking to one of them in a dream. and they were ready to flee. They were afraid of Gideon’s troops, even though they didn’t know a thing about them. Gideon gave each man a horn and an empty jar with a lit torch inside the jar. At the signal, everyone was supposed to blow their horns and shout, “For God and for Gideon!” When Gideon’s fighters came to the edge of the camp, they blew their horns, then smashed their jars, revealing the torches in the night. They were all stationed around the camp, so it looked like the enemy camp was surrounded. The enemy panicked and ran for their lives, even killing themselves in the process. Gideon’s clever strategy made the enemy think there were more troops than there actually were. The enemy was routed, and the victory was the Lord’s. A miracle, and the Israelites did not have to fight. The glory goes to Yahweh. (Judges 7:9-22). Throughout this battle, Gideon continued to have the Holy Spirit envelop and clothe him in the power of the Lord. The Holy Spirit was his spiritual armor.
“For though Jesus was crucified in weakness and humiliation, yet He goes on living by the mighty power of God. And though we too are weak as He was humanly weak, yet we will show ourselves alive and strong in fellowship with Him, to serve you through the power of God.” (2 Corinthians 13:4).
Treasure in a Jar. St. Paul seems to allude to one of Gideon’s battle props in 2 Corinthians 4:7. He talks about each of us being like a common clay jar that carries within a burning torch, the burning light of God’s glory in Christ. Jesus is our treasure in an earthen vessel, a pot that has cracks to reveal God’s light within us. And the purpose of this treasure in our clay jar is the same purpose that lay in Gideon’s victory over the Midianites… “That the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us.” As with Gideon, victory comes only in the power of God and His grace. We may participate in these battles, but only the Lord determines the outcome.
Weakness Doesn’t Look Like a Gift. A working definition of weakness as we consider how weakness may bring us delight: A lack of strength due to… sickness; a handicap; an ongoing difficulty; a distressing hardship; insulting opposition; a glaring vulnerability; a limitation that puts one at a disadvantage; the bearing of a difficult burden of someone else. But let’s not be fooled by appearances, for “the weaker I get, the stronger I become!”
Scripture Meditation: “I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me: ‘My favor and lovingkindness are enough for you; My merciful love is all you need. In fact, my strength comes into its own in your weakness. My power shows itself most effective when you are weak.’ Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weakness and delight in my infirmities, so that the strength of Christ Jesus may pitch a tent over me and dwell upon me. Now I take limitations in stride and with good cheer, delighting in opposition, in bad breaks, in insults, in weaknesses, in perplexities, in distresses, and in all kinds of hardships. I just let Christ take over! For when I am weak in human strength, then am I truly powerful in divine strength. The weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, a weaving together of the Message, NIV, and the Amplified Bible versions).
Thoughts along these lines from Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ:
“The Christian often tries to forget his weakness; God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply.
The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it; God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it.
The Christian mourns over his weakness; Christ teaches his servant to say, ‘I take pleasure in infirmities; most gladly will I glory in my infirmities.
The Christian thinks his weakness his greatest hindrance in the service of God; God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success.
It is our weakness, heartily accepted and continually realized, that gives us our claim and access to the strength of Him who said, ‘My strength is made perfect in weakness.’”