When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Judges 6:12-13
If the Lord is with us then why are bad things happening to us? I’m sure that at some point in your life you have asked this very question. Perhaps you are at a point now where you are asking this question. Or perhaps you are a Christian and have tried to witness to someone who has asked you this question.
Well in the case of the Isaraelites, the answer is found in Judges chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. ” The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
We serve a loving and merciful God. I am so thankful for His mercy and His grace. I have needed it many times throughout my life. But we should never forget that we serve a God of justice and a God of righteousness. We serve a God who will not tolerate willful disobedience. Many times the Israelites fell into disobedience. They grumbled and complained, they worshiped idols. They rebelled against God. Through their sin, they separated themselves from God. When the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites, they cried out to God. He heard their cries and sent a prophet to them.
It’s the same way for us. You see, you can separate yourself from God through sin. You can make a huge mess of your life, but God is only a prayer away. You too can cry out to Him in times of trouble. You can repent and ask Him to help you get back on track. If you are sincere when you repent, God will help you every step of the way. He will put good God fearing people in your path to help you grow as a Christian.
When my dad spanked me he used to tell me that it hurt him more than it hurt me. I always wondered if he would allow me to do the spanking and test that theory, but I never had the guts to ask. As I began to grow up I realized that it did hurt my dad when I was disobedient because it temporarily changed our relationship. It changed our relationship from that of a loving father to a daughter to that of a disciplinarian to a disobedient child. When God has to discipline us, it changes our relationship with Him. No one likes to be disciplined. Being disciplined usually involves unpleasant consequences. This is what the Israelites were dealing with here.
Now God sent Gideon to defeat the Midianites and that in itself is an awesome story told in Judges chapter 7 if you would like to take time to read it. That is a whole other blog but the thing is that when they cried out for help God helped them. You see when my earthly father disciplined me it didn’t mean that he didn’t love me and wouldn’t protect me, but it did mean that he was greatly disappointed by my behavior. As I got older I realized that the rules my daddy had were to protect me. There were consequences to violating those rules because he wanted me to understand that I should obey the rules for my own good.
God had become so disappointed by the Israelites’ disobedience that he had just handed them over to their enemies. I’ve seen this happen in my life. I know what it is like to suffer separation from God because I have been willfully disobedient and I don’t like it. I have learned that staying close to God and doing my very best to be the person that He has called me to be makes for a much happier life.
Now Gideon is one man called to defeat the Midianites and he is asking God where were you when all these terrible things were happening to the Israelites. If I were in his shoes I would be thinking “hey wait a minute, you have all these Israelites but you called on little old me to fight this vast army?”. Another thought to ponder is this, remember way back when the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt? God sent Moses to free them and lead them into the Promised Land. Think about it. You have all these Israelites who can’t get themselves out of a bad situation. They don’t have what it takes to rise out of this bad situation they have gotten themselves into and both times God calls on one man to go in and get the job done. Now with Moses, he sent his brother Aaron and with Gideon he gave him a small army. But my point is how is one man supposed to do what all the Israelite men together could not do? Well in both cases, the man was a godly man. The man was appointed by God to do the job. If God calls us to do a job, he equips us to do the job no matter how impossible the task may seem. He sent these men to get the Israelites out of the bad situation that they had gotten themselves into.
So whether you have gotten yourself into a bad situation or you are trying to help someone who has gotten themselves into a bad situation, you need to know that God is the way to the Promised Land. God is the way out of the trouble you are in and into a life of peace and joy. First we must cry out to God. We may have strayed from His presence, but He is only a prayer away. We must confess our sin. God is already well aware of what you have done but He wants you to confess it to Him. You have heard that confession is good for the soul? What this means is that it helps us to admit that we are sinners. As you have heard, admitting you have a problem is the first step in getting help. Once you have confessed your sin, apologize. Let God know how truly sorry you are for what you have done or been doing. Let Him know that you want to stop your sinful behavior and ask for His help and His strength in leaving your sinful past behind. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit. By the way if you are a strong Christian, you still need to ask for God to fill you with His Holy Spirit daily. Just like gasoline in a car, we use it to fuel our daily lives so we need to refill often.
We live in a world full of sin and temptation. The last thing we want to do in this day and time is to separate ourselves from God through our sin and get to a point where he wants to turn us over to the hands of the enemy. If you are in a close relationship with God, then I encourage you to work at keeping in that close relationship through daily Bible study and constant prayer. If you are not in a close relationship with God then pray and ask Him to draw close to you. Ask Him to help you to overcome your sin.
No matter how far you have run from Jesus Christ, remember this one thing, you are still just a prayer away. Cry out to Him. He will save you!
Have a great day!