‘Mighty in God’s service’
The Rev Richard Baxter begins a new series focussing on the important roles often played by the overlooked, beginning with Gideon in Judges 6:1-21.
THIS month we start a new series of Bible studies looking at some of the most underrated people in the Bible.
Overlooked by their peers and assumed to have little to offer, yet they are often the people who turn out to be at the centre of God’s plans. Winston Churchill is reported to have once said of Clement Attlee: “Mr Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed, he has a lot to be modest about.” However, Attlee’s government, not Churchill’s, rebuilt a nation after the Second World War, built a welfare system and created the National Health Service. We should not underestimate the modest!
The poster boy for all the underrated people in the Bible must be Gideon. He is the subject of one of the greatest put-downs in history, and it came from his own lips.
Gideon is a frightened man living in an occupied land. His country is dominated by the Midianites, who are stripping it of anything and everything they can get their hands on.
Often God sees more strength and potential in us than we can ever identify in ourselves.
In this disordered world, Gideon has an extraordinary encounter with an angel who greets him as “a brave and mighty man”. Hiding in a winepress to thresh some wheat away from the gaze of the eagle-eyed occupiers, Gideon doesn’t feel brave or mighty. When asked to become leader of the resistance to the rapacious Midianites, he replies: “How can I do that? I’m the least important member of the least important family in the least important clan of the least important tribe in the land?” Since his family have some land, own a winepress, retain some grain to thresh and can provide a generous meal for a visitor, Gideon’s assessment that he is the least of the least is demonstrably wrong, and it tells us more about his state of mind than about his social standing.
Gideon is underrated, but not by God. Gideon is underrated by himself. His assumption is that he is weak and helpless, able to do nothing. That assessment would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, unless he is persuaded to see himself in a different light. It takes an intervention in the form of an angel’s visit to shake his mindset. Even when he realises he has a heavenly visitor, he still needs the confirmation of a further sign before believing God could really want Gideon as a leader.
Too many of us are our own worst critics. Internally, we put ourselves down, telling ourselves: “You could never do that! Who do you think you are anyway?” Of course, we’re not called to the brash over-confidence of the proud and self-important. However, we are asked to recognise that sometimes God calls us to serve, and when he does, He also equips us for that service. Often God sees more strength and potential in us than we can ever identify in ourselves.
Gideon’s fears, hang-ups and selfdeprecation prove to be ill-founded. He turns out to be a gifted leader and a clever strategist who serves his people well. First of all, however, someone who is underrated, most of all by himself, needs to see the potential that he carries within him. Not even the least of the least is without the potential to be mighty in God’s service. ¤
The Rev Richard Baxter is transition minister at Glasgow: Wellington.