Gideon's time as a judge over Israel was a time of warfare. Others of the judges offered differing gifts. Gideon is able with few soldiers to overthrow the armies of Midian. When the battles are finished, the people come and want to make Gideon their king. Gideon refuses.
Gideon says to the people, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you."
In his first sermon, preached in Trinity Church, Berlin, after Hitler's take over of Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Gideon is victorious, the church is victorious, because faith alone is victorious. But Gideon does not overcome, the church does not overcome, we do not overcome, but God shall overcome. And the victory of God means our defeat."
God is able to be victorious, God shall overcome, when we cease to take pride in what we are able to do and remember instead what it is that God is doing through us.
Judges 8 reports that after Gideon's death, the people turned again from God. How did this happen? They had been set free from the oppressive rule of the Midianites. They were no longer punished for following their own God and their own observances. Perhaps it was because they lacked the witness of one who would remind them that it is God's action which saves us and not our own. As mighty as Gideon may have been on the battlefield, it was the strength of his faith and his insistence that no one but God be lift up which made possible the renewal of Israel and all her people.
"The victory of God means our defeat." The victory of God occurs when we turn not to our own strengths or resources but to the One who created us and sustains us and invites to be His children.
No comments:
Post a Comment