The Mighty Warrior

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

THE MIGHTY WARRIOR

Judges 6:11-16

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." 13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." 14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" 15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." 16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

NIV

We now get to meet Gideon, the one the angel of the LORD called, a mighty warrior. From what we know about Gideon from the text, he is a humble man, or he has a very low opinion of his position in life. He said his clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and he is the least in his family. That would be the lowest of the lowest in both position and respect. He was threshing the wheat in a winepress, so the Midianites would not take the wheat and destroy it as we just saw in those previous verses. Gideon is hiding, yet the Lord came and sat down where Gideon was and called him a mighty warrior. Of course, that is because the LORD said He was with Gideon, meaning that because the LORD him with him, he was a mighty warrior. We have come to the conclusion that we should be able to be called mighty warriors because the Lord is with us. Of course, Jesus told us that he gives us his peace, not as the world gives, but his peace. That does not mean we are not mighty warriors, but that our soul is at peace, we do not have any anxieties or fears, but our inner being is at peace because the Lord is with us; in fact, the Spirit has taken up residence within us. How could we not be mighty warriors in the army of the Lord? When Gideon, who thought less of himself than the rest of his family and clan, the LORD assured him, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together”. Is there anything else that we need to do all that we are commanded to do by the Lord, then to know that he is with us? We will see that Gideon goes the extra mile to believe the LORD will be with him, by the famous fleece test. For now, let us simply know we do not need to test the Lord for us to believe him, and trust him because we know, without a shadow of doubt, that he is with us, and thus we are a mighty warrior of God.