Little Messages with Big Impact
When God created man, one of the mandates of man is that He replenishes the earth, and the only way to do that is by being fruitful. This fruitfulness comes by putting to work all that is inside of man, and maximising the presence of God in our life. Now, we concluded yesterday that there is God’s part to play, but there is also man’s part to play in the fulfillment of the promises of God.
Yesterday, we looked at how God chose to save Israel by three hundred men, and His choice of men was so that no man could glory in himself. God indeed was the one who got the victory. But, even though God has given the victory, and He is the one who is worthy of the glory of the victory, we as men still have a very important part to play in the implementation of God’s victory.
Yesterday, we saw that fear is never the way of God, but He only uses and works through those who hold unto Him by faith. Therefore, we must reject every suggestion of fear and hold unto faith in Christ Jesus. So, after Gideon had sent the fearful packing. God still moved further with other credentials to reduce the population to three hundred. How did he do that?
Yesterday, we saw that God wants to take the glory over every situation in our lives, and is not pleased when anyone takes it. So, in this victory over the Midianites, God told Gideon to reduce the men because He wants it to be evident that it was not by the help of man but by the help of God that victory was received. The problem here now is that, “How was Gideon going to select His few men to go to battle with him?”
Gideon has decided to heed the calling of God and lead Israel to deliverance from the Midianites. He had pulled a lot of crowd to himself to achieve this vision, as he must have thought that he needed the crowd to overcome the numbers the Midianites had. It is just common sense, if he had enough people, they should at least be able to go to battle with the Midianites. Unknown to him that the ways of God are different.
Yesterday we saw how Gideon was asking questions on the evidence of God’s presence. And we saw that God’s presence on its own does not guarantee anything yet, until we engage His presence adequately. The beautiful thing here is the Angel’s response to Gideon. He didn’t even answer his question. Someone might wonder how his response answers Gideon’s question about the presence of God.
Yesterday, we saw that God is with us at all times, and He wants us to be aware that He is with us. We must become more aware of His presence and maximise His presence in our lives daily. But, Gideon heard this same statement that God is with him, but he had a different reaction, just like many of us must have heard several times. Gideon asked the angel for proof that God is with him. He asked about the miracles the fathers spoke about, he wanted physical evidence of God’s presence.
I remember watching a short video where a young lion cub was trying to stand its ground against a hyena. The hyena was almost on it before it suddenly turned back and ran away. The cub was trying to open its mouth and roar, but I saw behind it a large male lion charging in. Then it dawned on me why the hyena fled. It wasn’t the cub, it saw the lion coming. This is exactly the same way we are very feeble and powerless without the presence of the One who holds all power.
Yesterday we saw how it is important to be aware of the workings of God in our lives. We saw it is easy to ignore many of the things that God does in our lives because they looked normal or like a product of luck or any other reason. But, we understand that God is at work. This is the foundation upon which Deborah writes her song, taking into account the things she had observed God do for Israel.
Yesterday we saw how it is important for us to always engage God’s presence by His Spirit in all that we do, and that we must not take the glory for ourselves as all glory belongs to God. This is what we see Deborah doing in chapter five, as she sings a song to glorify God for the defeat of their enemies and the victory that God has given to them.