Day 127, 5th January: Judges, John and Psalms
Look for the Signs
Andy Croft
Today’s readings
Judges 6:1-7:8a
John 5:16-30
Psalm 57:7-11
My first impression of Gideon is definitely not that he’s the ‘mighty warrior’ that the angel calls him. (6:12). I wonder if angels are allowed to be sarcastic? Gideon when we meet him is hiding in a winepress in case he’s attacked; the exact opposite of where you’d expect to find a mighty man. He’s afraid and he thinks God has abandoned Israel. When he goes to destroy Baal’s altar he sneaks out at night to do it, again because he’s afraid.
Gideon also has this habit of asking God for signs. He gets three different signs – the fire and then the wet fleece/dry fleece. But what I love about him is, to his credit, when Gideon had made up his mind that God really was telling him to do something he went for it. And he goes for it with style…
Can you imagine the scene – Gideon has managed to gather a vast army, thousand and thousands of men and he’s up against an even bigger army that the Bible describes as like a swarm of locusts. He was probably thinking ‘At least with 30,000 I’ve got a bit of a shot at these Midianites.’ And then God tells him to send his army home! His forces get cut back from 30,000 to just 300 but Gideon obeys. He follows the orders of God even when they seemed totally ridiculous – and that, ultimately, was what made him, ‘mighty’. As we’ll see tomorrow God leads Gideon to an unbelievable victory.
To me this is another reminder that the Bible isn’t about great men and women of God, it’s about the great God of men and women. Too often people slip into thinking that following Jesus is about being gifted, clever or super-spiritual. Actually it’s about obedience; it’s about sticking close to a mighty God. Jesus put it like this, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (Jn 5:16)
A lot of the time what this looks like in practice is looking to God, figuring out what He’s up to, and then joining in. Sometimes this might mean that instead of simply praying at for everyone ask God to put someone on our heart and then pray intentionally for them. At other times it might be instead of just evangelising to anything that moves we ask for signs that God would show us whose heart He’s already at work in. A ‘sign’ can be anything from an impression on our hearts to bumping into someone we’ve not seen in ages. The more we look for them the better we get at spotting them.
Today we learn a great strategy for the Christian life: paying carefully attention to what God is already doing. How carefully do you do this? When we see Him at work, then in obedience, like Jesus and Gideon we go for it, (however crazy it seems).
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Today’s picture was taken by…
Izzy Bolton, reading BIOY whilst producing music. Thanks Izzy!
If you’d like to take your own picture to potentially be featured on the blog, then get your Soul Survivor Bible in One Year, and take a picture of yourself – and your Bible – at some interesting or colourful location. Then email it to us at editor@soulsurvivor.com.
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