Gideon

The story of Gideon is one of the most beloved stories in the Old Testament. The text is so transparent and honest that it helps support the fact of divine inspiration. The book of Judges documents a period of time where the fledgling nation of Israel is transitioning from their desert wandering experience to the time when they would begin to set up a kingdom in Jerusalem. It outlines a time when, because of their disobedience to God, they where reaping the consequences of their actions. But even during this tumultuous time of testing God was still watching over the nation, patiently waiting for them to return to fellowship with Him.

The nation of Israel began marrying foreign women from the other nations living around them. This new influence brought Baal, Ashtoreth, and idol worship to the high places. As the nation falls away from fellowship with God and embraces other gods, the Lord allows them to be oppressed by many other nations. The Midianites, Amalekites and Egyptians would encamp against them and destroy their produce of the earth. They destroyed their livestock too, making it very hard for the people of Israel to sustain life.  Day to day living was extremely agonizing and difficult for the average Israeli. They were in survival mode.

God forced them to hit rock bottom and cry out to Him for help. God heard their cry and chooses Gideon to lead the army to battle their enemy. The only problem is that in Gideon’s eyes, he is the least in his father’s house and his clan was the weakest in the entire nation of Israel. The first step in God’s plan of restoration for the Israelis was for them to repent. The Angel of the Lord commands Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and sacrifice to Him upon the burned remains. Gideon complies with the Angel’s command but, because he is afraid, he does it under the cover of darkness.

Let’s jump ahead to a New Testament verse,1 Cor. 1:27, where the apostle Paul records a great truth about God and how He accomplishes His will in the power of His might. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” God always uses the weaker vessels here on earth to accomplish His will. When God wanted someone to tell the pharaoh of Egypt to let His people go, God chose Moses. Moses did not really want to talk to anyone let alone the pharaoh of Egypt. He even admits to us that he is slow of speech. Now we have another underdog, Gideon, chosen to lead the Israelites into battle, who by his own admission is the weakest in his family.

As God prepares Israel for His great victory over their enemies, he instructs Gideon to tell the 32,000 armed men that whoever is fearful and afraid should return home. As the dust from 22,000 men leaving the area begins to settle, God now asks the remaining 10,000 armed men to drink from the stream. All who drink directly from the stream are to return home leaving only those who used their hands to cup the water to remain to fight. At the end of the day, Gideon would have only 300 men to fight against their enemy who was described as numerous as locusts and, in a number, like the sands of the seashore.

So, as the story goes, the battle plan was that the 300 were to go under the cover of darkness with trumpets and torches concealed in clay pitchers. At the sound of Gideon’s trumpet they were all to blow their trumpets, saying ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon’ and then break their clay pitchers. The biblical text explains that, in the darkness of night, the enemy in the resulting confusion turned on each other causing them to defeat themselves. 

What’s really quite amazing is that it’s always in God’s power and might that we win the battles of life. You might win an occasional skirmish on your own but the biggest battles in life are always won by and through the power of an almighty God. Just as with Gideon, we must be willing to repent and tear down the altars we have constructed to the false idols in our own lives. Then as we begin to turn towards God He renews our fellowship and restores our relationship with Him. God is thrilled with us as we begin to make godly decisions that spill over and influence the others in our lives.  

 

The very best gift

The presents are all gone from under the Christmas tree. Mountains of brightly colored wrapping paper are spilling out of garbage cans that line our streets. Our refrigerators are packed full of leftovers that will add pounds to our bodies, extra weight we will all want to shed next year. All the last minute gift shopping is over as people now return to exchange those not so perfect gifts back to the stores from which they came. Trash truck drivers frown at a plethora of large, stiff dried out conifers that will need to be hauled away, eventually chipped into mulch and returned to the ground from which they came.

The Christmas season is so much more than shopping for gifts and preparing food for family and friends. Its all about the One gift that is available to all people; it can’t be bought or worked for as it  is a gift from God. The advent of the birth of the Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Many times through all the hustle and bustle to search for those perfect gifts, we often miss the true meaning of Christmas.

The Christmas story is about sacrificial giving. It’s about a Father who gives away His most precious possession to save people who don’t deserve being saved in the first place.  God gave the world His only Son to be born of a virgin, to grow into a man and finally to die a substitution death for all mankind. The bible says that we are all sinners who have fallen short of requirements a holy God demands. Our free will along with the choices we make in life fall far short of a holy God’s standards.

The pressures of this joyous season can often frustrate and cloud our good sentiments. While we often find great gifts, they seldom fit just right or last very long. Many new  toys will be broken by the very next day. However the gift that God has given to the world, His One and Only Son, is the greatest gift of all time and will never break or wear out. It is a gift that the bible says we don’t deserve; we can’t purchase or work to attain. It is a gift of God’s grace where He offers us His son, baby Jesus. It’s not only the story of a miraculous birth, it’s the greatest story ever told.

Mary and Joseph endured many  hardships  as they traveled to Bethlehem for a birth that took place outside in an animal portico. The baby Jesus was then wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the animal’s feeding trough where His only visitors were humble shepherds. Sometime after His birth, while still living in Bethlehem, an unknown number of astrologers from the east would follow a bright star leading them to the new born King of Israel.

It’s this majesty, of the Christmas season, that draws all men to celebrate the world’s only true hope. Decorations, food and fellowship are all wonderful reasons to enjoy this festive season and the closing of yet another year. For many people the season offers them a chance to reach out to others who do not know God’s love. The birth of the Christ child offers them the reason to reach out and herald in the news of the birth of the world’s Savior.

However, the birth of the Savior of the world is just the beginning of God’s plan to redeem all mankind.   The child grows up to become a man who has an deep connection and understanding of God, His laws and His plan to redeem the world. The end of the story takes place 32 years later, on an old rugged Roman cross in Jerusalem with the brutal death of Jesus.

What’s paramount to realize is that the birth this baby, Jesus, would eventually lead to His horrible death. Jesus would be executed alongside two  criminals on a hill just outside Jerusalem. His death would be the payment for our sin. God in all His wisdom created the only way for all of us to have a chance to be saved.

So as all the paper wrappings get thrown away, the colored lights get taken down and put back into their boxes it’s so important to remember the reason for the Christmas season. A baby was born in a manger 2000 years ago grew up into a man who would take upon Himself all the sin of this entire world. As Jesus hung on a Roman, wooden execution device, His feet not quite touching this earth, His hands not quite touching the sky but His death bridged the gap that has always separated us from our Creator.  

The Child

It was getting late as Zacharias sat in front of his oil lamp. He set an extra log in the fireplace, stoking up the fire one last time before going to join Elizabeth and baby John who were already asleep in the loft. Before retiring he had a feeling, a desire to take out the scroll of the prophet Micah, searching for words of encouragement there. The hair on Zacharias neck and arms began to stand straight up as the words from the text in Micah 5:2 made his heart skip a beat “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” He knew that his niece Mary was carrying the Messiah, the Christ and Immanuel inside her womb and by now would already be on the road headed south to Bethlehem to register for the worldwide census.

As Joseph was passing through Scythopolis, the clickity-clack sound coming from the wagon’s rear wheel bearing was getting louder and he knew he had to find a place to stop for the night. Mary was in much discomfort as the baby was continuing to be very active. She tried rubbing her belly, talking to the baby but nothing helped. Her time to delivery was getting very close and each bump in the road hastened the birth of her child. Joseph stacked up some flat stones and squeezed them under the axle of the wagon raising it up off the ground just enough to get the wheel off. Stowed in the back of the buckboard he found the clay pot that held the bee’s wax and packed the wooden wheel bearing with wax. Mary went down to the edge of the Jordan River, knelt down and washed her hands and face with the cool water from the river. She praised God for this beautiful river, Joseph, and the baby God had given to her to carry.

The baby immediately calmed down and ceased kicking Mary as she sang the words from psalm 2:6,7 while watching the water pass slowly through a calmer section of the river “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”  She knew their journey was bringing on her labor and that she could not hold back the inevitable for very long, as the baby was well on His way.

The road was getting very crowded with travelers from all over Judea as the donkey plodded into the city limits of Jerusalem. There were many travelers going to the city and all of its surrounding suburbs to register for the census. Many street vendors had set up shops wherever there was a turn-out in the road where they sold skins of wine, water, bread, woven cloth and trinkets of every kind. Mary couldn’t help but notice a beautiful red home spun blanket as the donkey waited for cross traffic to clear out. Joseph asked the merchant the price and after a bit of bargaining, Mary wrapped the lovely blanket around her shoulders.

The temple was shimmering in the late afternoon sunlight as the priests busied themselves finishing up with the daily sacrifices. The golden clad cedar doors of the temple were blinding when you looked at them directly during the right hour of the day. The white limestone blocks of the complex looked pristine in the orange glow of the afternoon light. Once out of the congestion of the city, Joseph prayed that Bethlehem would be much quieter. Just outside of town the road cleared out a little for the last five miles. Joseph didn’t think Mary could endure the extra mileage to Zacharias and Aunt Elizabeth’s house in the Judean hills so he remembered an inexpensive but comfortable inn where they could spend the night, and made his way there.

“Now there were in the same country shepherds, living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, for I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!’”

Meanwhile, back in Bethlehem, Joseph had pleaded with the inn keeper for a room where his wife could deliver. The inn keeper wished he had a place for them but there was no vacancy due to the festival and census traffic. But being a decent man, the inn keeper allowed Joseph and Mary to stay with his animals in a hollowed out limestone cave adjacent to the inn. Joseph thanked him while Mary laid down on a pile of fresh straw the inn keeper had just put down for them. The animals kept some distance from Mary, standing directly in the opening of the hollow.  They shielded the birth from the cold Judean night and any stray travelers.

As the baby was born, Joseph tied off and cut the umbilical cord. Mary, while exhausted, wrapped the baby in the new blanket Joseph had purchased from the street vendor and laid him in the animal’s feeding trough. A very bright light was born that night in Bethlehem, the new born King of Israel and the Savior of the entire world!