The history according to God

"And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD for the sake of Midian, that the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, saying : Thus saith the LORD God of Israel : I brought up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage ..." Judges 6, 7, 8

Gideon is a judge aroused by God to deliver the people of Israel from the oppression of Midian. The account the Bible gives us of it is a striking example of how the Bible relates history. The verse of the day makes us understand the spirit : in the work of God to deliver, everything is from him.

The combat itself and military preparation are described in fewer than 30 verses out of the 100. The narrative underscores the severe decrease in military strength from 32,000 to 10,000 and then to 300. It also mentions the type of weaponry Chosen : trumpets, jugs and torches. The other parts of the narrative, that is to say the essential, are interested in the spiritual formation of Gideon. This formation consists in revealing a God of grace and truth, a sovereign God who controls everything, nature as well as peoples.

In this context of idolatry, God delivers the people through His power alone ; He reminds Israel of what he has already taught him. He is a God of grace who awaits trust from those whom he has chosen to be his people. He also reveals himself as the only God by showing the nothingness of the idols: Gideon will destroy them. Today Christians have been delivered from this form of idolatry, but we are always tempted to put our trust in something other than God.

What matters to God is the spiritual state of his witnesses. One understands the importance taken by the spiritual exchanges in this narrative. Gideon learns to know God who makes him experience to support his faith. By obedience to God, he renounces idols and a great army. He accepts the sound of trumpets, the sound of broken pitchers, and the light of torches as the only weapons. All this represents a powerful testimony for his contemporaries who are subject to their idols.

It is the same for us. In a world open to many currents of thought, we must, through our behavior, our priorities, bear witness to our faith in God before those who surround us and are so disoriented.

Source (To pleasing the Lord)