"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others." 2 Timothy 2:2
After Joshua's generation died out, Judges 2:10b tells us this sad news, "Another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel." Why had that happened? Apparently Joshua's generation had fallen down on the job. Moses had instructed the people, "Only be careful, watch yourselves closely, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." Deuteronomy 4:9. We in our generation need to take these instructions to heart and pass our faith and beliefs to our children and grandchildren, taking every opportunity to do so.
The generation after Joshua's generation forsook God, intermarried with the Canaanites, and worshiped their gods. God was angry with them because of their idol worship, and He allowed their enemies to overtake them. In their oppression, they cried out to God, and God raised up a leader named Othniel. Under Othniel's leadership, the Israelites defeated their enemies, and there was peace in the land for forty years, until Othniel died. After him came Ehud, Shamgar, and Barak, who rescued Israel from her enemies. The cycle of idol worship, oppression, and rescue was in full swing.
After forty years of peace under Barak, the Israelites again turned away from God, so for seven years God gave them into the hands of the Midianites. These people would swoop down like a swarm of locusts, raiding the crops and taking the sheep and cattle. They were so fierce and invasive that the Israelites hid in the mountains and caves to escape them.
This time God chose a man named Gideon to lead His people to victory. As the scene opened, our hero was hiding in a winepress to thresh his wheat to keep it from the Midianites. God told Gideon, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Judges 6:12b. Gideon certainly didn't look like a mighty warrior, but God had a plan to give him victory.
When God told Gideon He was calling him to lead Israel's army, Gideon asked God how he could save Israel, saying his clan was the weakest one, and he was the least in his family.
Has God ever called you for what seemed like an overwhelming or impossible task? Do know something of how Gideon must have felt in the face of such a challenge? Do you shrink back as Gideon did when God calls you to step out in faith, or do you follow Him bravely into an unknown future? God tells us to go in the strength we have, though it be but little, and He will do the rest. Gideon did step out and trust God, and God made him victorious in freeing the Israelites from the Midianites.
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