It was the national championship game for my sons' football team. The battle on the field was intense as players vied for who would return home victorious and titled National Champions. In the heat of the day, I pressed into the railings play after play praying for safety for the teams and hoping for a win for my guys. Standing around the 50 yard line, I watched one of our star players intercepted the ball at the thirty. He tucked that ball by his side as he had been trained and ran with every bit of strength he had along the sideline. As he flew by, his opponents would approach him from the side or from behind to hinder his efforts. Time and time again, they were unsuccessful. With each attempt, he stuck out his stiff arm tossed them aside and continued to press on to his goal. They did not distract him or even slow him down. He ran with such a confidence that he had this play in the bag. Not pridefully, but confidently. His eye never once turned to face them. He fiercely guarded the ball that had been entrusted to him and focused on the end zone with all of His might. He scored!! We roared!!!
His intention and focus was so great he made the play look effortless. He understood his assignment and he drove the ball home. The equipping that had occurred at practice after practice along with the perfect positioning at the edge of the field at the perfect time created for him the play of the game. He only had to confidently run with the ball that had landed in his hands.
As I watched the play unfold, it was as though the Lord was using it to draw an illustration for me. There are times the Lord will pass us a ball to us so to speak. We may not feel qualified, but it's clearly our turn to run with all our might and when we do we should not be surprised that there are those who for a variety of reasons will reach in and try to sabotage or remove that ball from our hands... Oppressors and opponents. Be aware but keep going. Until we have made it to the end zone, we are to protect it and run with all our might. Not turning to the left or to the right (Proverbs 4: 25-27)... pressing on to the goal before us (Phil 3:12-14)... not growing weary in well doing for in due time we will reap a harvest (Galations 6:9).
Gideon's story reminds me of what I watched on the field that day. In Judges 6, Gideon is found on the edges of the playing field so to speak. He is threshing wheat not centerfield at the threshing floor but tucked away in the winepress. He's actually in a place of hiding to protect his harvest from the enemy, the Midianite. It's there that an angel of the Lord approaches Him and calls him "Mighty Warrior." In real time, this is not what Gideon was identifying as, but the Lord called Him as He created him to be... Strong and with Purpose. Gideon's place of hiding felt like a place of abandonment as evidenced by his response to the angel of the Lord, 13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. 14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
Have you ever had similar thoughts to Gideon? If God is good and He has done all these things I thought I witnessed from His hand and heard about with my ears, then how can He also be abandoning me? The first two thoughts are correct. The second is tainted by emotion and limited perspective. That word abandon is written as forsaken in the King James Version. Forsaken in its original form was understood as to thrust off, let fall, suffer, to stretch out, to pound or beat out, to join as in battle. As I looked up that word in the context of this scenario I could see both sides of the situation in that one word. What felt like abandonment as Gideon is the threshing floor beating out his wheat for the chaff to be separated from the grain the Lord was joining him in a battle that would indeed stretch Gideon to trust the Lord in new ways and identify the truth about who he was... not just the least and weakest of them but one who would do great things as the Lord Himself went with him. It's almost as if the physical place and activity of Gideon at the time of the angel of the Lord arrived was a physical representation of what was going on in the spiritual.
1 Samuel 12:22 says the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake; because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Psalm 94:14 For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. That feeling of abandonment must be brought to the light of God's Word. In that place we can recognize the perceived abandonment perhaps is our Father's positioning and preparation for the next good work He has prepared for us since before the beginning time. (Eph 2:10)
Gideon's doubt ran so deep that he set out to have the Lord confirm for him three different ways that this is indeed was what He would have Him do. He even turned the tables and asked the Lord to wait on him and He was willing to!
Unlike our football player that day, Gideon was not anticipating to catch the ball of opportunity to save his people. When it landed in his hands he requested confirmation from the Lord then started out his obedience, his run to the end zone, in full reliance on the Lord. He knew that it was only in the strength of the Lord that this task could be completed successfully.
Hebrews 10:35-36 encourages us saying, "35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." We must be a people that trusts in the Lord with all our hearts and who do not lean into our own understanding but acknowledges the Father in our ways knowing He will direct our steps. He is faithful and His salvation is sure.
Psalm 121: 1-2 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Proverbs 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Forsaken:
נָטַשׁnâṭash, naw-tash'; a primitive root; properly, to pound, i.e. smite; by implication (as if beating out, and thus expanding) to disperse; also, to thrust off, down, out or upon (inclusively,
reject, let alone, permit, remit, etc.):—cast off, drawn, let fall, forsake, join (battle), leave (off), lie
lie still, loose, spread (self) abroad, stretch out, suffer. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5203/kjv/wlc/0-1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUXUK1cfHzs "Oh God I Need You!" Elevation Worship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcC1Bp13n_4 " Who You Say I am" Hillsong Worship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVC6rfX3Z8 "You are My Hiding Place" Selah
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