Help for me from Gideon's story

The last couple days in our Bible reading plan, I’ve been sitting at the feet of Jesus and seeing a theme. The theme is that God is the one who fights his people’s battles.

It was there so clearly this morning. Amazingly, God thinks that Gideon’s army of 32,000 men is too big. God says: ‘The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand’ (Judges 7.2). Why? Because God does not want Israel to boast, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ God downsizes the army to 10,000 and then to 300. And then he wins a mighty victory. The battle victory is clearly God’s.

This theme was there yesterday morning in Judges 4-5, in the story of Deborah and Barak. After God gives the victory over Jabin king of Canaan, Deborah and Barak sing a song to God. They sing: ‘LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked before the LORD…’ (Judges 5.4-5). In other words, God was marching out to war. And he won the battle.

This theme was there yesterday morning in Psalm 138.7: ‘Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.’

Emma and I talked over breakfast about how this truth – that God fights our battles for us – applies to our lives. We came to two conclusions:

1. It allows us to take more risks. If God fights our battles, we can win even with impossible odds against us. Consider Gideon and his three hundred men. In leading my family and my church, I want to start stepping out more in faith, taking risks and aiming higher, because I know God is fighting the battle.

2. It gives us comfort and security. We know that God will give enough grace on Thursday for Thursday’s challenges, and the same on Friday, and next Tuesday, and Wednesday and…

Be encouraged. God fights the battles for his people.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on May 19, 03:40 PM