Friday, May 11, 2018

300 Mighty Warriors - a lesson in obedience

When I first woke up this morning, still lying in bed Abba started to talk to me about Gideon. Well not Gideon so much but about the 300 mighty warriors that were chosen by God to give victory to Israel and ultimately to God. These men were the top 300 picked out of the original 32000 that showed up for battle, these men were instinctive warriors it was what they were born for. They were all in for the fight willing to follow a man that Abba found essentially hiding in a dumpster scavenging for food for his family, the guy that responded to God by reminding that he was the smallest and weakest man in all of Israel. But Abba looked beyond that into what Gideon was made for and called that forth.

While I was pondering this dynamic I was reminded of way back in school when the gym teacher would pick the two least athletic kids in the class to be team captains not realizing that one of them was a born survivor and strategist. He showed me that guy was Gideon and he was now the leader of these mighty warriors and notice there is no mention of them questioning or scoffing at his directions. These 300 mighty men were prepared to go to war against an army of over 100,000. And in their very first battle engagement they were armed with trumpets, pitchers and torches. Not the usual warrior faire going into a massive battle. This initial engagement actually caused so much confusion that the enemy started to kill each other then they fled and the the 300 mighty warriors were released to go and do what warrior's do and because they were working in their calling and because they were obedient to the directions from the Lord they gained great victory and freedom for Israel.

A couple of things that stood out to me in this whole thing are:
• God will call who He needs, when He needs them to step into their destiny despite their current situation. And sometimes that person becomes the unlikely leader of a movement that will set people free.
• God has made us all with special, unique gifts to function in the world, to do battle, to heal and ultimately to love.
• When we are obedient to Him we will always be blessed. Sometimes that obedience will cause us to do something that is uncomfortable but He provides us the strength and the strategy to get it done.  Fear is not a factor.

For more context read Judges chapters 6-8