Know the Word - week 8 - Gideon: a tale of a coward warrior

Gideon: a tale of a coward warrior

The awful lesson in the Book of Judges is that Israel seemed absolutely incapable of learning that when we dishonor the Lord, we lose the right to claim His protection over us. That is why Israel is constantly under oppression. At certain times, God raised up Judges to lead Israel. Gideon was one among them.

The angel calls Gideon a “mighty man of valor” but that is either irony or faith because at the point of his call, Gideon is trying to thrash grain secretly as he is afraid of the Midianites. He needs an extraordinary amount of reassurance before he is willing to act and when he finally does move to obey, he acts in secret, under the cover of darkness and then hides out and lets his father speak out to protect him from the angry mob!! There was nothing – absolutely nothing, in Gideon that qualified him for the job God called him to do!

God chooses very average, nondescript kinds of people to accomplish His mighty work!
Why does God so often chooses such unimpressive and unspectacular vessels. In I Corinthians chapter 1, tells us straight out – ‘God chooses the weak over the strong, the foolish over the wise, the things that are not in order to confound the things that are so that no flesh should glory in His presence.’ God chose Gideon then for exactly the same reason that He chose the battle plan that reduced the army to just 300 men before they engaged the enemy in conflict – so that when the day was done and the victory won, everyone would know that it was God and God alone who had done it and the glory would be His alone.

Gideon showed a unique way of discerning the will of God. There is a fair amount of debate about whether Gideon provides us here with a model of an acceptable way to solicit the will of God for our lives. Is it ever God's will for a Christian to “throw out a fleece?” Or is that the evidence of an unacceptable lack of faith? On the negative side of that question it may be observed that before Gideon asked for a faith building sign, God had already clearly told him what he was to do. It may also be observed that Gideon on a later occasion (just before the battle) needed yet another faith injection. This we are told is not a model to emulate. On the positive side of the ledger, it can be observed that God gave Gideon the signs for which he asked and never rebuked him in any way. 

Laying out fleeces is a practice calculated to strengthen the discernment and faith of a weaker Christian. The better we know the Word of God and the more mature our faith becomes, the less we will find ourselves in need of fleeces.

There was a pretty important phrase used in verse 34 of chapter 6. In describing what happened to Gideon we are told that the Spirit of the Lord “came upon Gideon” – that's the New International Version rendering. But the Hebrew language actually says that the Spirit of God clothed Himself with Gideon. One old poet has suggested that “Gideon was just a suit of working clothes that the Spirit put on that day.” That revealing bit of language which is mirrored in two or three other places of the Old Testament helps us with a couple of important things. The first is that the ability to do the work of God – the wisdom, the power, the understanding and even the faith – are not inherently resident in Gideon or any other servant of the Lord for that matter. They are given – endowments that come from the Holy Spirit of God.

Christianity is not a self-help religion (although that is what a good many speakers and writers of our day are trying to make it). It is not a matter of coming to faith in Christ and thereby unlocking all of this talent and ability that was there all the time but being “blocked” by our lack of oneness with the Creator and ourselves. Being filled with the Spirit of God does enable us to use what was already there more effectively, but primarily it has the effect of “connecting us” to resources, gifts and power that are resident not in us, but in Christ who through His Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us.

Know the Word - Week 7 Extra - Rahab: the prostitute who was chosen by God

Rahab: the prostitute who was chosen by God
I find in this story of Rahab a marvelous demonstration of the electing love of God. You need to realize that there was no military reason for the expedition of the spies into Jericho. Given the rather unique battle plan that God was going to adopt at Jericho, there was no need to send spies to discover troop strengths, fortification weaknesses, enemy plans, or even find food and water supplies. All those pieces of normal military intelligence are worthless if you are going to conquer a city in seven days without firing a shot or storming a wall. So why did the spies go? The only intelligence that we have any record of them bringing back is the fact that the inhabitants of Jericho were already in terror because the things God had already done for the Israelites. I believe that the purpose of the expedition was not military at all, but evangelistic. I am certain that it was God's purpose to save one family out of Jericho as a testimony to the sovereign love of God, just like God saved Noah and his family out of the judgment that he brought upon the ancient world, to testify to His sovereign love and mercy. It was to the household of a prostitute named Rahab that the spies were led. She is not the person that I would have chosen to save out of Jericho. But she is the one God chose. I would have looked for someone respectable, someone upright, someone whose sins were somehow less gross, less obvious. My judgment would probably have been that Rahab was beyond redemption, but that wasn't God's judgment. He chooses Rahab.

Rahab responds in faith - she believes in the God of Israel - and she is saved by a scarlet cord hung firmly from her window. (That cord has tremendous symbolic meaning. It points us to the blood of Christ.) If you think very long about this story, it becomes clear that it is a ‘miniature’ of the Gospel story. We, like Rahab, are living in the midst of a doomed civilization. For us, as for her, it is the grace of God, and that alone, which reaches out and saves us from the just desserts of our sin. Like Rahab, we are called upon to respond in faith, and are marked out by the scarlet cord of Christ's blood. Our salvation is made sure, even though we might continue to live for a time, at least, in a city marked out for destruction.

It is extremely significant that Rahab becomes an ancestor of none other that Jesus Christ Himself - not only does God rescue this woman from Jericho, He honors her by grafting her into the line of the Christ! There is something very prophetic about that, because the purpose of Christ, of course, is to redeem not only the Jews, but the whole world, and even this early in the working out of God's purposes through the Old Testament in planning the lineage of Christ, He takes this non-Jew and grafts her into the line.

Know the Word - Week 7 - Joshua: A life well-lived

Joshua: A life well-lived

1. Joshua was picked by Moses to be his successor. But the decision was God's. 

2. God prepares his leaders. Joshua did not just wake up one morning with God tapping him on the shoulder saying, ‘Joshua, go take Moses’ place.’ For nearly 40 years, Joshua had been the apprentice of Moses. When Moses went up on the mountain to talk with God and receive from him the Ten Commandments, Joshua went with him (though he did not go all the way to the top of the mountain). When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to talk with God, Joshua stood watch at the door. When Moses stood on the hill with his arms uplifted, it was Joshua who led the troops into battle. I do not believe that anyone could ever have been more thoroughly trained for the job he was being called to do than Joshua was. By now I am certain that you are aware that leadership training, through apprenticeship relationships, is absolutely critical in the church of Jesus Christ. We cannot thrive and grow without it!

3. When God picked Joshua to lead Israel, he would have felt overwhelmed. But God did three things:
a) He reminded Joshua of the promise he gave Abraham and Jacob
b) He prepared a plan for Joshua to follow - the Book of the Law
c) He promised Joshua that He will go with him.

He does that with us even now. He reminds us of the promise He has given us for our future - that we will be with him when the trumpet blows. He has given us an instruction manual for life - the Bible. He has promised us that He will be with us. 

Things to ponder: Why did God re-do the miracle on the river for Joshua, like he did for Moses at the Red Sea? Why did Joshua create a memorial out of stones in the river bed?

Remembering what God has done in our life is crucial for a healthy relationship with God.

We, too, need to remember, because like Israel of old, we too tend to forget. Not long before these monuments were built, Moses had taught the people much about remembering God. Remembering can keep us from future sin. The memorials were intended to help Israel to remember, and remembering is an extremely important thing for us to do as well. I trust that in your walk with God there are some memorials that you have established - some private monuments - to help you remember who you are, to remember who God is, and to remember what God has done.

Know the Word - Week 6 - Moses: A Holy Discontent

Moses: A Holy Discontent

Moses was a prince in the mighty Egyptian empire. He had every luxury possible for a young man. But his heart was grieving by the fact that his own people, the Israelites, were reeling under the burden of the Egyptian whip. He was discontent with what he was hearing from his palace courtiers.

And then, he decided to STEP OUT of his comfort zone. Read Exodus 2:11 where it says that he walked out to see the suffering of the Jews, his own people.

God had promised the father of the Jewish faith, Abraham, and the patriarch Jacob who was later called Israel, that He would prosper them in the  promised land. But here they were, suffering under Egyptians as their slaves for a long time. He heard the cries of His people. God's heart was also grieving for His people.

When Moses saw the suffering of his people, his discontentment met with the desires of the God Almighty. A holy discontent grew inside of Moses.

God picked Moses to be the chosen one to liberate Israel from Egypt's deathly claws.

Even in today's world, we see such men who have been affected by the sorrow and suffering they see in the society. And then God honors their desires with a purpose-filled calling. I can narrate two examples where Marthoma Youths have been moved by a God-given Holy discontent. 

1. Mumbai's Navajeevan center now takes care of the children of sex workers in the red street. It started out of a Holy Discontent in the heart of a young man named Mr. Anson Thomas. https://www.navjeevan.in/about-us/

2. Ernakulam's Girideepthi tribal hostel was borne out of a similar Holy Discontent that was affecting several youth league members in Ernakulam Centre.

There are countless numbers of similar interventions of the mighty God in our World. He is still working in our hearts. Are you affected by something you see around you? If so, it could be the beginning of a Holy Discontent. Pray to God that he fan the flames of such a feeling. Work on your Holy Discontent. God will bless you and use you to fulfill a purpose for your existence.