A Dream Changes Things for Gideon.
It is the Gospel that really changes us!
God reduces Gideon's army to 300 people---No Way on Earth they could win this battle without God. No way on earth we can either. I am "taken" by a quote from Matthew Henry about this story: "In doing the duties required by God, we must not regard the forwardness or backwardness of others, nor what they do, but what God looks for at our hands. He is a rare person who can endure that others should excel him in gifts or blessings, or in liberty; so that we may say, it is by the special grace of God that we regard what God says to us, and not look to men what they do."
God speaks to Gideon. “Arise, go down against the camp of Midian, and afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go.” Judges 7:11. And, then, another confirmation. A dream interpreted ... that God would give the camp of Midian into their hands. That's it! Arise! Go take your spoil. "For the Lord." The dream was simple---a cake of bread rolls and knocks over a tent. Nothing special there. It's the interpretation that is Divine! "There is nothing else save the sword of Gideon." The sword is not in his hand. The sword is the Gospel in his mouth. Judges 7:14. Gideon takes this interpretation as a sure thing. He worships! Oh my soul! Can we worship God in the circumstances before us? Wherever we are. This moment. Providence is on our side! God's intervention may be a small event, maybe seemingly accidental. What is God speaking to you? What divine appointment encourages your faith today?
PRAYER FROM PSALMS
Psalm 42:6-8 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
I believe You will command Your lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night Your song shall be with me.
A prayer to the God of my life. May our Confidence be in Christ, not in Chariots.
BIOGRAPHICAL READING PLAN - Gideon: Judges 7
OVERVIEW: Judges 6-7
Image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2941496890/sizes/m/in/photostream/
My prayer today is that my confidence may be in Him and not in anything that I can see or touch. I need some "rescuing" but I want it to be so evident that it is of Him and not of anything or anyone else. That it will be so totally orchestrated by the God of the universe, for I do not want to boast in anyone or anything but of Him.
ReplyDeleteWhen we prepare for war, how many of us think we have too much provision? Don't you love how God works that He should get the glory! I'm so inclined to think it was something I did, right or wrong, that causes something. I'm looking in the wrong direction for help way too often. And inevitably I get disappointed.
ReplyDeleteHis Hand divinely orchestrates, provides for His children so completely.
Where is our confidence? "I know where my Help comes from. It comes from the Lord, Maker of Heaven and Earth."
"He is a very present help in times of need."