Thursday, September 20, 2018

God reaffirms our faith

Judges 7 finds the Israelites facing the large, intimidating Midianite army. (Their count was "without number"!) Gideon, the Israelite leader, has an army of only 300 men, so things look dire! But God tells Gideon (Judges 7:7, KJV),
I [will] save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.
Gideon, faced with such improbable odds, probably struggles to really believe this. But then a member of the Midianite army has a vision in a dream, and an interpreter conveys the meaning that dream to Gideon (Judges 7:14, KJV),
This is ... the sword of Gideon ... for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.
Gideon, encouraged by this message, proceeds to worship God and eventually defeat the Midianites.
 
The amazing part of the story is that, rather than punish Gideon for his (understandable) doubt, God seeks to boost his faith by sending Gideon a reaffirming message. And this is after God has already told Gideon that he will defeat the Midianites.

The larger message, as it seems, is that God understands our day-to-day weaknesses in faith. And, if we keep our hearts open to him, he'll send reaffirmations to boost our faith.

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