Author: Bryan Richardson

Re:Verse passage – Judges 8:18-34 (day three)

“And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon.”

Gideon’s campaign gave Israel two generations of peace. What they did with that peace unfolds in disturbing fashion in the succeeding narrative. For now, however, they had the peace for which they had longed, dreamed, and cried. There are incalculable differences between the ancient Israelite culture and current Western civilization. The one similarity, though, is that Gideon’s peace and the peace which currently characterizes the West both mean freedom from existential threat. In other words, nobody is about to eradicate your world. Do you take that for granted? Everybody does. But now is the time to build a good future. That’s been God’s command from the beginning: “Be fruitful.” That means more than population. Israel did not build a good future in the days of Gideon. With Christ, you can.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 7:23-24, 8:1-9 (day three)

“What was I able to do in comparison with you?”

With this remark, Gideon displays the humble character that enabled him to remain attentive to his own motives: “Am I just making things up?” “Can I really lead these soldiers?” “Do I have what it takes to do what’s needed?” He regarded his own abilities with curiosity and his own conclusions with self-doubt. That kind of posture might seem like weakness to some, but it made room in Gideon’s life for others to join him in the mission. He saw his limitations, and so he had the ability to let others do what they were good at doing. He didn’t feel the compulsion to be the hero. You can find the same characteristic in Jesus’s cousin John: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Re:Verse passage – Judges 7:12-22 (day three)

“This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash.”

Within the span of just a few moments, it all became spectacularly clear to Gideon: he was living rent-free in the heads of Midian’s fighting forces. They had already lost. For an army this spooked, it would only require a small push to tip them over into complete chaos. Gideon’s 300 was that small push. With this last-minute reconnaissance mission, God afforded Gideon a heaven’s-eye view of reality. From that point on, Gideon possessed the confidence to meet the task at hand. A very Gideon-inspired prayer is one which asks God, “What is the larger perspective in this situation?” That perspective won’t show you what’s easy, but it will show you what’s possible.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 7:1-11 (day three)

“Let all the others go home.”

The Bible says, in various ways and repeatedly, “You have more resources than you think you do.” Elisha told his servant, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The Israelites in the desert learned that “the one who gathered little did not have too little.” A little money amounted to an extravagant gift. A shockingly low word count from a political prisoner signaled to Pilate that he was dealing with somebody who knew a different source of authority than he had ever encountered. These are some examples. There are many more. Gideon could discharge thousands of soldiers and yet grow stronger. The Bible is consistent: What you think is mighty hardly ever is, and what you think is weakness is stronger than you’ve realized.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 6:36-40 (day three)

“And it was so.”

Why would God have responded any other way to a humble request? One might view God as working up against our limitations, but the witness of the Bible is instead that God works with our limitations – especially when it comes to doubt. We give doubt a pretty hard time. And though it is possible for doubt to harden into a default posture for dealing with the world, doubt is really just a function of our limitations. We understand that our senses have limits, that we can’t always trust that what we think we understand is the way things actually are. Gideon was not acting from a place of hardened skepticism, but rather from a place of honest doubt. We might even say that he was “doubting in good faith.” God will work with that all day long.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 6:22-35 (day three)

“Will you contend for Baal?”

Whose case are you making? If you will not learn humility by seeking the forgiveness of a person you’ve wronged, isn’t that making the world’s case that toughness is survival? If you will not reflect on how your economic choices affect the most vulnerable among us, isn’t that making materialism’s case of more at any cost? Sin is hardest to part with when you’ve invited it to shape your habits and your thinking. It’s a crisis of existence, really: How will I live if not this way? Herein lies the riskiness of faith in God. It’s not for the brave, but for the terrified. Sometimes the townspeople see only the terror, and they turn away. But sometimes, people sense God’s possibilities breaking through the terror. That happened to Gideon.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 4:4-23, 5:7, 24-27 (day three)

“Now Heber the Kenite…had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim.”

When you and God live together within a life of love, his purpose is that all events in the universe – even the randomness that God allows – occur in such a way as to bring good to you. This actuality informed Jesus’s deep calm and confidence as he walked this earth. It fueled Paul’s courage in the face of suffering. Even seemingly unconnected occurrences form the fabric of reality that will strengthen and protect you. A decision made by Heber prior to Israel’s military campaign positioned his family’s tent in a location that would intersect Sisera’s flight from Israel’s army. Jael took care of the rest. Happenstance? Well, consider that “it just so happened” precisely because God made a universe that works for your good.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 3:31  and Acts 2:42-47 (day three)

“After [Ehud] came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.”

“All the believers were together and had all things in common.”

If there is any commonality between these two passages, it might be that they each present a view of a nation in its formative stages. The former passage from Judges chronicles the rise of Israel in its middle period between wilderness wanderer and geopolitical player on the world stage. The latter passage from Acts narrates the dawning of the church as it represents the eternal community. Hopeful prayers arise in each age. In Judges, one might say the prayer was “In Canaan as it was promised in Egypt.” In Acts, as profound fellowship took shape, their experience echoes another prayer: “In earth as it is in heaven.”

Re:Verse passage – Judges 3:11-30 (day three)

“They struck down at that time about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men.”

There were some deliberative and judicial responsibilities attached to the position of judge, depending on the judge. Each judge was remembered, however, not so much for the cases he or she decided, but for the moments they opened up for Israel – opportunities to live out from under the oppressive grip of other geopolitical entities. Judges did not solve all the problems; rather they cleared a space for Israel to act, both in war and in spiritual pursuit. Ehud killed Eglon, but there remained a formidable force of “robust and valiant men” yet to see defeat. Would Israel rise to this opportunity? In this ancient time, war provided the proving ground for spiritual and national focus. The church will have opportunities no less than Israel. What are they?