Year One, July 6

My Grace Is Sufficient For You1

Judges 6:1-16

1The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, (“A burnt child dreads the fire,” is a common saying, but Israel, after being burned again and again as the result of her sin, returned to it the moment the chastisement2 stopped or the judge was dead. Such is the strange fascination people have for sin.) and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. (This nation was but a puny enemy, and yet they were too much for sinful Israel. Israel had once brought the Midianites to a very weak condition and now they are unable to stand before them. See how sin weakens people.)

2And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number--both they and their camels could not be counted--so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. (These wandering looters were hard to stop. They were a terrible problem for Israel.)

7When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. (It seems that when the Lord sends his faithful ministers, their main job is to condemn. But when we look more closely we see that they also bring encouragement. First the scolding, then the comfort.) 9And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” (“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”3 God had a good reason to complain. By bringing up Israel’s great sin, the Lord’s servant was taking them on the most direct route to peace with God. Peace with God comes only by admitting we are sinners and pleading for mercy through the blood of Jesus.)

11Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” (The angel of the Lord found Gideon hiding from his enemy, working hard with little to show for it, and miserable. He had very little wheat, because he had no oxen to thresh it. He was in great fear of the enemy, so he threshed in the winepress instead of a regular threshing floor. And yet in his poverty, he received rich grace. “God shows no partiality.”4)

13And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” (These were sensible questions, and proved that Gideon had really thought about it.) 14And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (It is clear that the angel was the Lord himself. What power there is in that question, “Do not I send you?” And how inspired must Gideon have been when “the Lord turned to him” and spoke to him.)

15And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (God told Gideon to “go in this might of yours” and made him mighty. He sent him on his mission and went with him. He taught him faith and then honored his faith. How will the Lord glorify himself in each of us?)

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¹ 2 Corinthians 12:9

² chasten, chastening or chastisement - The act of discipline which may include scolding, criticizing or pain inflicted for the purpose of correction or moral improvement.

³ Proverbs 27:6

⁴ Acts 10:34