Re:Verse reading–Judges 6:1-2, 11-28, 36-40 (day three) “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” Note the passive construction of the question: “Why has this happened to us?” The phrasing reveals the way Gideon and his people thought about the world: Geopolitical turbulence and social unrest just happen, and Israel is supposed to exist as a little bubble of God’s favor in the middle of all that messiness without ever affecting it. As Isaiah made plain centuries later, however, Israel was to light the whole world so that God’s salvation would reach the ends of the earth. Right now, though, they couldn’t even light their own nation. With the rest of the world going to hell, can’t a nation get a little peace and quiet? Gideon’s answer lay within his own question. He eventually recognized that. Will we?
