The Weak and the Lowly    

No one enjoys feeling weak, whether it is emotionally, spiritually or physically. There is something within the human spirit that wants to resist the thought of weakness. Many times this is nothing more than our human pride at work. Just as weakness carries a great potential for strength, pride carries an equally great potential for defeat.  Charles Stanley

Have you ever read the story of Gideon?  I have read it many times and Gideon was a very unlikely hero. During this time the Midianites dominated Israel.  Israel would plant their crops and then go to the top of the hill to the threshing floor.  They needed wind to thresh the crop and the Midianites would watch to see when the Israelites were threshing then they would go and take the crop.

Well, the hero of this story is down in the winepress threshing his harvest.  He was basically hiding in a hole to keep the Midianites from taking his crop.  This is where God comes in and I love what the angel of the Lord says to him.  “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”  Gideon was certainly aware of his abilities.  He in turn says, “But Lord my clan is the weakest and I am the least.”  Don’t you just love how God works?  He doesn’t pick the strongest. 

So Gideon obeys the Lord and blows his horn and 32,000 men show up.  So Gideon looks over the hills to the Midianite army of 120,000 and can you picture his face.  He looks at his army and then the Midianite army and probably thinks, “Why me?  Why did I pick today of all days to go out and work?  Why didn’t I just call in sick?  Well, it gets worse.

God proceeds to tell Gideon that he has too many men and he tells Gideon to send the scared ones home.  I bet about now Gideon was thinking can I go first.  But instead he sends the scared ones home and is left with 22,000.  It gets worse.  God then tells Gideon that he still has too many men so he tells Gideon to do the “scooping and lapping test”.  Anyone who laps like a dog goes home and anyone who scoops stays to fight. 

God didn’t provide swords or weapons other than Himself.  There isn’t anything in the story that shows that these 300 guys who were left were great warriors or even knew what to do if they had weapons.  God wanted them to understand how strong He was on their behalf.  If wasn’t by their hands that they would win, it was by God’s. 

Have you figured out that God uses us best when we are at our weakest point?  When we having nothing left to give and see ourselves as the very least, that is when he chooses to work through us.  When we are at our weakest, we then must realize that what we accomplish can only be done through God and not our own strength.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for making me weak because that is when I can identify You at work in my life.  It is when I am at my lowest point that I am able to see Your great works.  Your ways are not ours and that a great thing, because I don’t think I would understand as well if You worked through me when I am at my strongest.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I would take all the credit if you worked that way. I praise You and thank You for my weakness. 
  
Scripture: And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped.  He turned to the camp of Israel, and said, "Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand."  Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers.  And he said to them, "Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, 'The sword of the Lord of Gideon!"  Judges 7:15-18