Daily Manna|Friday, August 2, 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 assumption of who the nice guy of a man could be, was built on erroneous premises. His initial retort at the man’s encouraging words to rise up to his responsibilities of the deliverer that God was going to use to bring freedom to Israel would have taken a totally different attitude had he known that this was an angel of the Lord that had the word of the Lord.
Gideon’s dramatic change in attitude when he realised that it was the Lord that could be speaking through the strange visitor, showed the levels to which people could go in making the necessary adjustments in their lives in order to accommodate persons that are highly regarded or to whom they hold in high esteem. The change in the attitude of Gideon that saw a transition from questioning with a tint of an arrogant posture to a man that wanted to know more about the God that brought Israel from Egypt, showed that change is possible with any man, even with the most repulsive of attitudes.
The speed of Gideon’s attitudinal change, transitioning from passivity to accusatorial and then to inquisitorial, provides a useful insight into the kind of masks that the same person could wear at different times in response to different challenges based on their opinion of the person or clout of personality that they’re dealing with. Many people have voluntarily imprisoned themselves behind a false personality that they’ve decided to show to the world as representative of who they are.
The desire to put up a façade, wear a mask that doesn’t look anywhere near the real, hidden person, has become the new culture where people have adopted as normal, a duality in identity that can best be described as a split personality. Gideon’s attitude of hiding behind a façade that portrayed him as a tough, uncompromising and hard man, but with concealed fears and frustrations like any ordinary man in Israel, was compelled to capitulate to the awesome presence of Yahweh when the light of God’s revelation shone through him.
Food for thought: There’s nothing inside of man, no matter their social standing, that can be hidden from the light of God’s word.
Declaration: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
