Re:Verse passage – Judges 6:1-16 (day four)
Like many times before and many times after, when God chose a deliverer for Israel, He did not choose the most powerful, most talented warrior. When Gideon first is introduced, he is hiding from the enemy in the wine press. Here he is, hiding, and the angel of the Lord addresses him as a valiant warrior. Gideon’s view of reality did not match the angel’s…he questioned first the presence of the Lord and then he questioned his own abilities.
We may be hard on Gideon for questioning the Lord, but don’t we do the same thing? God tells us something in Scripture like ‘ask and I will hear and answer’, or ‘it is better to give than to receive’ and we manage to discount the words and reinterpret them to match our reality. This is idolatry. Whose reality are we going to believe…our own or God’s? For Gideon’s part, at least he came to the point of obedience…after the Lord looked at him!
