[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 8:23 (NIV) “Gideon told them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.’”

[Meditation]

The war against the Midianite coalition ended in a great victory for Israel. But the people missed who the true master of the war was. Instead of praising the LORD God, they fixed their eyes on the visible victor, Gideon, and wanted him to be their king. “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson,” they said (v. 22). When the man who trembled in fear at the winepress was called by God, and when the battle was won with only three hundred men, who was it that did it? It was the LORD, the God of Israel, yet they turned their eyes away from Him so easily.

It is at that very moment that Gideon makes the greatest confession of faith in the entire Book of Judges: “Neither I, nor my son, but the LORD will rule over you.” Not forgetting his own nature, he returns all the glory to God and directs the people’s attention back to Him. How great it would have been if the story ended here!

However, Gideon soon crumbles before the sweet idol of ‘success.’ Though he refused the position of a king, he coveted spiritual authority by making a golden ephod from the spoils of war, and he mimicked the life of a king by taking many wives and having seventy sons. He harbored two hearts: a confession that ‘the LORD is King’ and a desire that ‘I want to live like a king.’

We are this Gideon. Yesterday we walked on air with faith, and today we plummet with disbelief. We ride this roller coaster several times a day. But grace means that our story does not end in failure. As we learn humility with our whole being through the repetition of falling and rising, our failure becomes not despair, but a song of praise. Because we get to sing of the Lord who does not give up on us and raises us up when we fall.

[Prayer]

ord, it is true. We are so very weak. But You, Lord, are so very strong. On this new day, let it be a blessed day of learning that we are nothing without You, but we are everything in You. Amen.
__________________

(Daily Reading)

Judges 8:10-24