The why or the what...

The sixth chapter of Judges begins to tell us the story of a man called Gideon. When we first meet him, Gideon is, like the rest of the Israelites, hungry and hiding. (See post above.) The story begins at night time: Gideon is hiding in a winepress, secretly threshing a little bit of wheat that was left over after the most recent Midianite invasion... when suddenly an angel appears and announces: "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

I wonder if Gideon began to freak out. I wonder if he spun around in a panic, thinking that a mighty Midianite warrior had crept up behind him. It certainly seemed in those days that God was with the Midianites and not with the Israelites. After all, Gideon was hiding in a winepress for fear of the invading troops, and fully aware that his/their lives didn't bear the hallmark of a people whose God was with them.

Once he realises that the angel is actually speaking to him and not to someone else, Gideon asks the why question: "If the Lord is really with us, why have all these things happened to us? Where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?"

Now, the Lord had already answered this question. At the beginning of the chapter we read about an unnamed prophet that God used to speak to the people, making sure they understood the reasons for their difficult circumstances: it was because they had ignored the Lord and turned to worshipping foreign and false gods. Perhaps Gideon hadn't heard about the words of the prophet, or perhaps he just wanted to check for himself: why are things so hard?

Whether our difficult situations are our own fault or whether we're the innocent victims of circumstances, our tendency too is often to ask why? We want answers and understanding. But sometimes there are no answers. Sometimes hard things happen, not because we caused them, but simply because we live in a fallen and sinful world. 

We're not told whether God gave Gideon any further understanding about the why. Instead, we read that God drew his attention to the what, and began to tell Gideon what he needed to do in order to see the situation changed.

The rest of the story is well known and you can read the chapter for yourself: Gideon spends considerable time lamenting his inadequacy and helplessness, instead of paying attention to what God is telling him about the solution.

It can be so easy for us to do the same thing today when we find ourselves in hard times: we wallow in the "why," focusing on the pain, injustice or hopelessness of our situation, instead of listening to "what" God wants us to do to have the victory. Often this is because we just want to see the circumstances changed and we're not open or willing to see ourselves changed. We put all the onus back on God to do something,  and completely reject the wonderful reality that He is asking us to do something.

So we get hung up on the fact that we're not seeing healing (of ourself or another family member) and ignore the fact that God is asking us to keep trusting Him and believing He is good. Or we complain about the fact that our circumstances are too hard or too much for us, and don't pay any attention at all to the fact that God wants to increase our strength and faith and endurance. We put all our attention on the things that we lack, instead of listening to what God wants us to do and discovering the ways that He wants to provide a solution for us.

That's what Gideon did. Even when God was promising him victory, he was moaning that there was no hope. Even when God was doing miracles for him, he was wailing, "I am doomed!" Despite all the promises that God gave him about a good future, Gideon kept choosing instead to face the future with pessimism and worry about all the bad things he imagined could possibly happen to him.

All that fleece stuff... It's not the story of a man of faith or a model for how we should seek God's will. It's an example of an insecure man, struggling with unbelief and still saying, "If.... this is true" - questioning the things God had been telling him over and over again.

Gideon's journey is an illustration of the principle that often we need to deal with our inner obstacles before we can ever see change in our outward circumstances; we need to win the internal victory before we can ever hope to win the external battle. Gideon wasn't ready to destroy the Midianites until he had first destroyed the idols and the wrong beliefs within his own life and family. And it's telling that, when he finally takes a hesitant step of faith, he does it secretly at night because he is still so afraid of the opinions and reactions of others.

When life throws challenges at us, it could be helpful to focus on:

• what does God want to do in me?
• what internal victory do I need to win before the external victory can become possible?