As Is The Lord

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

AS IS THE LORD

Judges 8:10-21

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. 11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and fell upon the unsuspecting army. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army. 13 Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. 14 He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Succoth, the elders of the town. 15 Then Gideon came and said to the men of Succoth, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, 'Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?'" 16 He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Succoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. 17 He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town. 18 Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, "What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?" "Men like you," they answered, "each one with the bearing of a prince." 19 Gideon replied, "Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you." 20 Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, "Kill them!" But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid. 21 Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Come, do it yourself. 'As is the man, so is his strength.'" So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels' necks.

NIV

As the story goes on, we see that Gideon kept his word to the men of Succoth and Peniel. It is strange that he only punished the elders of Succoth by whipping them with desert thorns and briers, but he killed the men of Peniel after tearing down their tower. Nevertheless, our story is seen in the words of Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of the Eastern people. When Gideon had defeated the last fifteen thousand of the Eastern people with his three hundred warriors under the hand of God, he was at the point of killing them and offered his young son the opportunity to draw his sword and kill them. However, he could not because he was afraid. We cannot be certain what his fear was, but here is where these men, Zebah and Zalmunna, made this prophetic and profound statement, “Come do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his  strength.’” First, it would have been more demeaning to die at the hand of a child, but what is interesting is that if we move this statement into our lives, as believers in the one true Living God and have accepted his Son Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then our strength is in the Lord. So, as the man or the people we are, followers of Jesus, so is our strength. When we must do something ourselves, as in doing a task, or obeying the command or calling of the Lord upon us, then we do not look to our flesh, or strength, for it is far to weak, so we look to our Lord for His strength and in some sense, we can then draw our sword, the word of God, and defeat any situation we face, or win the victory and fully following the call upon our lives. Therefore, we can say, “As is the Lord, so is our strength”.