The Army of Gideon

Hello Zeteo community,

Hope you are having a great week! I'm back writing the blog this week - I hope you enjoyed reading what Brielle had to say last week! If you are interested in adding to the blog, please contact me.

God bless,
Olivia Fischer


Week 2:

At the last Zeteo event, Michael Chiasson discussed vision and how it takes bold and great faith. Vision in faith is vital, in fact, Proverbs 29:18 says that: Where there is no vision, the people perish. As I have mentioned in the past few blogs, spiritual discernment is an important part of our walk in faith, because it is through spiritual discernment that we are able to develop vision.

We gain a clearer vision as we grow in spiritual maturity and knowledge of Christ, as is explained in this blog. This vision allows us to see what we desire to accompany us in our walk with Christ, as well as what Christ desires for us.

In Michael Chiassons talk, he spoke about the army of Gideon. Upon researching this story, I realized there was so much more to it than a man leading a tiny army to victory - although this is an amazing part to the story, which I will be coming back to. Gideon was a poor farmer, but he had a bold faith. When the angel appeared to him proclaiming that God was with the Israelites, Gideon questioned him, according to Judges 6:13, saying, "if the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds, of which our fathers told us. [...] For now the Lord has abandoned us into the power of Midian."

When the Lord promised Gideon that He would be with him and lead him to victory, Gideon responded in humility, arguing that he was small and insignificant. However, the Lord assured Gideon that He had blessed and chosen him, and Gideon trusted.

Gideon rallies an army of thirty-two thousand men to fight the Midianites, and God asks him to trust by paring this army down. The men who admit to being afraid were sent home, and Gideon was left with an army of eleven thousand men. Again, God asks Gideon to decrease his numbers, and Gideon trusts - until he is left with an army of only three hundred men. With this army, Gideon conquers the Midianities.

Now, why would God so radically ask Gideon to go against the Midianite army with so few men? 

He wanted the victory to undeniably be attributed to Him, for the Israelites to see the glory of God through it, instead of the glory of Gideon's army. This is a remarkable example of how much bigger God's vision is, compared to ours. Gideon and the Israelites were praying for freedom from Midian tyranny, but God orchestrated a period of true peace for the Israelities in turning them away from their idols and back to Him. 

If God had told Gideon from the beginning he would be asked to conquer the Midianite army with only three hundred men, I am sure Gideon would have had a difficulty trusting. God, in His wisdom, allows Gideon to see only a small part of the picture - just one step of the staircase at a time.

We might ask God for the big picture, and feel we are capable of dealing with the entire vision, but the truth is, we often have difficulty enough with the small steps. Vision, to see what God desires for us, requires bold faith: it often means taking steps without seeing the entire staircase, and trusting that He will bring us safely every step of the way. Much like the bridge I spoke about in this post, God is walking with us every step of the way.

Sometimes, even the small steps seem too big for us, be it that He asks us to move, to start a new ministry, to continue being single, though we desire to be married. If God has placed something before us, however, we can only trust He will guide us through, that He will provide, that we are capable, because the God who calls us is infinitely capable. Trusting in God takes humility, as He required of Gideon, to say we are incapable of climbing - of winning the war against all the odds, without Him. He wants to be an undeniable part of our victory.

Truthfully, He already is an undeniable part of our victory. As Michael Chiasson pointed out, our track record for making it through seemingly impossible situations is already one hundred percent. I would say that is pretty good odds in favour of trusting the Great Orchestrator to lead us through.