DEVOTION
JUDGES
THE SPIRIT AND THE FLEECE
Judges 6:33-40
33 Now all the Midianites,
Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan
and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon
Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He
sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher,
Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them. 36 Gideon said to
God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I
will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the
fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by
my hand, as you said." 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the
next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew — a bowlful of
water. 39 Then Gideon said to God,
"Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one
more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered
with dew." 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the
ground was covered with dew.
NIV
Here is the fleece test, and God
did not disappoint, for he passed the test. Of course, God would pass any test we
could even conjure up because he is pure wisdom, power, and glory. We wonder
why Gideon needed God to prove He was with him, or that God was truly capable
of that power. Had Gideon ever seen the LORD perform any miracles?
Surely he knew all the stories of Moses, Joshua, and even more recently of Deborah
and Barak. But had he ever seen any of the power of God firsthand? So the test was to ensure God is real and that He would fight with Gideon against a strong
foe. Gideon has already blown his horn, summoning other tribes to come to fight.
Although the fleece test is a great story, and once more, it proves to us that
God is the all-powerful and compassionate One, who answers the requests of his people.
The LORD is the one who called Gideon. It was the Angel of the LORD who came to
Gideon and called him, “Mighty Warrior,” telling him, “The LORD is with you”. We can also see the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and that is when he blew
his horn, or shofar, which is a curved ram’s horn. Although we could ask the
LORD anything because He told us we could and He would do it, we believe the best
part of this narrative is when we are told the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon.
That would be our top priority, to have the Spirit of the LORD come upon us. Of
course, we have faith. Of course, we live with the assurance of our salvation,
and wait with patience and courageous endurance, and enthusiasm for his return to take us where he is. Yes, we
have the Spirit dwelling within us, and that should be like the Spirit of the LORD
being upon us, but we believe that there is a difference between having the
indwelling of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, or having the Spirit
of the LORD come upon us. When that happens, we believe we will be so full of
God, we must blow our horn. However, full of the Spirit of the LORD, Gideon was,
he still needed God to prove He would be with him. We do know that the LORD has
been with us many times throughout our lives, and there has been times when the
Spirit has been upon us and we have obeyed his command, but not by our attributes,
talents, skills, education, or anything else of our abilities, but only by the
Spirit of the LORD. That is our desire, to have the Spirit of the LORD always
be upon us, so that we move and breathe according to His will, just as Gideon
did when the LORD told him he had too many men when he only needed the Spirit
of the LORD upon him. We will see it wasn’t Gideon who defeated the enemy, for it
was the LORD, or the Spirit of the LORD was upon him. Spirit be upon us, move upon
us, fill us to overflowing with your power and glory that we might be your
mighty warrior.
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