Mighty Warrior...sort of

The book of Judges records the constant cycle of: Israel's rejection of Yahweh, their subsequent bondage to foreign powers, Yahweh's deliverance using a "Judge", a human he empowers, peace for a while, and then the whole cycle starts over again! 

Samson, a muscle-bound man, who desperately avoided hair cuts, was one such judge; as was Deborah, a prophetess with an aptitude for leadership. Her victory Song in Judges chapter 5, is thought to be the oldest part of the Bible because of its grammar and vocabulary.

Samson and Deborah epitomized the typical larger-than-life qualities of a judge. But there is another judge who is worthy of our attention, one that was the farthest thing from a Samson or a Deborah, and that was Gideon.

Gideon's story starts in Judges chapter 6, where the Israelites are back in trouble, this time with the Midianites and Amalekites, who are terrorizing them and eating all their food (6.3). The Israelites cry out to their god for help and Yahweh responds, telling them:

Look, I have rescued you from being enslaved to the most powerful nation in the known world, given you a place to call your own and all I have asked is that you pay attention to me and not the gods of the surrounding people! But you don't listen!

After this, Yahweh, like any good parent, begins to orchestrate deliverance. But he doesn't choose a guy with big muscles, or an amazing leader, he chooses our man Gideon, who happens to be threshing wheat in a wine press at the time God calls on him!

The irony here is simply brilliant: threshing wheat requires an open space, where the wheat would be thrown into the air and a light breeze would separate it from the chaff:

But Gideon, fearful that his enemies will come take his food, is attempting this process in a dug out wine press:

A wine press found in the Shephelah (lowlands) of western Israel.

This is the image we get when Yahweh comes to Gideon saying, "Yahweh is with you, mighty warrior" (6.12). I can just picture Gideon looking around, "Are you talking to me?" And not in the De Niro Taxi Driver inflection, but in the incredibly timid, "I think you have the wrong guy."

But Yahweh didn't have the wrong guy and although Gideon was quick to point out that his "family was the weakest in the entire area, and he the least in his family" (6.15), he would go on to  powerfully deliver God's people. 

The story of Gideon is a great example of God meeting us where we are - hiding knee deep  in our inadequacies, with all of our doubts, and using us to accomplish his ends all the same.

Go Mighty Warrior, Go!