Listening to people reason and try to understand the ways of God, I am reminded of how much we know and yet, truly, how much we have to learn. When walking through a trial of unimaginable heartache, sometimes the greatest gift we can offer is our silence and our presence. When we sit in the dust with those that are hurting and just sit, there is comfort in knowing we are never alone.
I want to be more like my dog, quite honestly. Her presence with me, her sweet head resting on my lap when i am in pain. she goes wherever I go. She loves me even when I’m grumpy or happy or sad. Obviously there is no conversation, and honestly, it is beautiful.
Yet, in community, I have found encouragement. I have found people who love the word of God. People have carried me with their prayers and I try to do the same. So, we do listen. We do talk. We do try to understand what is truly unimaginable. Our presence. Our words.
So, as I come to the text I am studying today, i am reminded, God’s presence is the ultimate blessing. I’m jumped past all the mentions of peace offerings, any mention of “offer your peace to this nation or that”, and came to the book of Judges. Now, I know what I’m thinking when I come Judges. UGH. The book of so many mistakes. So many stories of turning away from the LORD. Yet, in the midst, we find Gideon.
“The angel of the LORD came and he sat under the oak that was in Oprah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Mindianties. Then the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said: ‘The LORD is with you, valiant warrior.’
Judges 6:11-12
I’m going to stop right here. first, the angel of the LORD (probably a theophany/it’s Jesus), came. Let’s just ponder that. God is intentional in his pursuit of relationship with us. He came to a man who was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide. The Midianites would come and steal the entire harvest, all the livestock, and wipe them out. So Gideon is hiding.
What does the angel of the LORD call him? Valiant warrior. I am encouraged my present does not dictate my future. i am encouraged to remember that God saw what Gideon could not see. He saw Gideon as he would become.
“Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the LORD brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”
Judges 6:13
Notice, Gideon does not fall to the ground. He doesn’t answer with fear and trembling. This could be construed in many ways, but i wonder if Jesus masks his divinity here, to start a conversation. Also, the LORD sent a prophet in verses 7-10 of this very chapter, answering all these questions. “You did not obey me.”vs.10f And the very act of the angel of the LORD being here right now means, he has not abandoned. He has not forsaken.
“The LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!’”
Judges 6:14
The LORD doesn’t answer his questions. When the LORD is in it, he will answer all the questions with his presence. Gideon needs the LORD. He needs the presence of the LORD. In that, he will accomplish. In that, he will succeed. Please read the rest of this passage for yourself, I am going to jump to verse 22.
“When Gideon realized that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, ‘Oh no, Lord GOD! i have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!’ But the LORD said to him, ‘Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.’ So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it the LORD is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites today.”
Judges 6:22-24
Our God is with us. He is our peace. A friend said this to me yesterday, “Peace is a person. It is Jesus.” Amen? Amen.
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