Gideon

Who am I? This is a question we all wrestle with. Some of us spend a lifetime trying to figure this out. For most of us, who we are has been told to us by others, and we are trying to live up to it. But for some, they are trying to make themselves into who they think they’re supposed to be. Maybe according to family expectations, or those of a friend group, or society as a whole. But, in reality, there is only One, our Maker, who can tell us who we really are, our true identity. And, it’s only our creator who can tell us what our individual purposes are in this world.

Who’s Gideon? Maybe you’ve never heard of him, and that wouldn’t be surprising. We find him in the book of Judges, in chapter 6. The book of Judges chronicles a period of time in Israel’s history after they’ve entered the Promised Land, when the nation is ruled by warrior leaders like generals, or judges as this book calls them. The nation is entrenched in a downward spiral of rebellion and sin as they become less and less like the holy people God desires, and more and more like the pagan nations around them. This rebellion leads God to allow other nations to overthrow them and rule over them as a form of discipline. Eventually, the nation would cry out to God in sorrow and repentance, begging God for mercy, and God would deliver them by raising up a warrior leader, to fight for them and to liberate Israel. Unfortunately, after increasingly shorter and shorter amounts of time, the nation would return to it’s wicked ways, and this cycle would repeat itself time and again. So, at one point, God turns to Gideon to be his next warrior leader, His next liberator of Israel. But who is Gideon? Even he is shocked by this. As far as he’s concerned, he is just an average guy from an insignificant tribe of Israel. So why does God choose him?  

Well let’s read Judges chapter 6 through chapter 8 verse 21 and take a closer look.