Daily Manna | Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Scripture: Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. Genesis 45:20
Note: Judges 6:16, “And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” Gideon’s initial interaction with the angel of the Lord revealed him as a firm believer in Yahweh. Gideon was knowledgeable about God as the deliverer and the redeemer of Israel. Gideon’s reference to Yahweh as the one that brought them up from Egypt was instructive of his acknowledgement of Yahweh as the Almighty One. It showed the reverence and awe which Gideon had for God.
However, the unusual spell of long silence in the face of the obnoxious dominance that the Midianites exercised over Israel in ways and manner that were disrespectful, shocking and frightening, compelling Israel to run into hiding, remained a baffling and sore point to Gideon. This had created a battle of confusion in the mind of Gideon. His inability to reconcile why God would exercise so much power and demonstrate such an intensity of love in the extent to which He brought deliverance to Israel from Egypt, but ignore protecting the gains of what He had begun, had left Gideon in a conundrum.
What Gideon failed to include in his analytical equation, in doing an inquest into the shocking humiliation of Israel, was the part that Israel contributed to its own bondage. The failure of Israel to extricate themselves from their current predicament was not about the power or the indestructible nature of the Midianites, but self-inflicted as a result of disobeying the God who had for time immemorial been their only saviour. Israel therefore, caused its own defeat and humiliation.
Very often, the classic example of Israel’s failure and humiliation has remained the typical failure of most people. Just as Gideon’s critical analysis of the national situation failed to include Israel in the equation, so have people failed to include themselves in their own failure equation. Usually, the probing microscopes used in looking for the causes to our problems, are pointed away from us in other directions that we know have always proved critical to us in the past. Introspection has become an alien practice due to arrogance and a haughty spirit, which are the ingredients that contribute to a man’s fall from grace.
Food for thought: Arrogance and a haughty spirit, have blinded many from the saving grace of Calvary’s redeeming power.
Declaration: And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
