Gideon and the Threshing Floor
Judges 6 - 8
Gideon went from living small to leading strong in the nation of Israel.
It was at the Threshing Floor where Gideon’s destiny was forged, and his life transformed. A place of challenge. A place where the Holy Spirit launches us into a higher dimension of His revelation, power and authority.
Gideon’s story in Judges 6 begins at the Threshing Floor. It had been known as a place of celebration until the Midianites started attacking the workers and stealing their grain, leaving the people ravaged and destitute. Gideon no longer threshed his grain in the open fields, but instead hid in the family winepress —a hole in the ground.
This is where he was the day the Angel of the Lord called out to him.
“Gideon, the Lord is with you, you Mighty Man of Valor.”
“Stranger, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with me, why am I hiding to thresh our grain? Where are the miracles our ancestors talked about?”
“I will make you strong. Go and save your people from the Midianites. I’m sending you!”
Gideon was not happy. He must have thought, If this an indication of God’s favor—hiding in a hole in the ground fighting for my life, I want no part of it. And another thing—save the nation of Israel? He certainly has made a mistake because there is no way I can rescue my people.
The messenger argued, “Go with the strength you have, Gideon” promising that God would supply what he lacked within himself. In other words, God wasn’t looking for someone with might and power. That’s what He supplied. He was looking for someone who would be brave and do it scared. God was looking for the YES.
Finally, Gideon relented, “Then show me a miracle and prove it to me! Stay here until I return.”
I imagine that the angel leaned back against the wall of the wine press, not heeding the threshed grain scattered around as he settled down to wait for Gideon’s return.
After roasting a goat, Gideon returned with hot broth and meat for the Angel. When he set the pot on a rock, the fire of God came down and licked up the broth and consumed the meat and the Angel of the Lord immediately disappeared.
It was truly a miracle!
God had shown Himself by accepting the meal Gideon had brought as a sacrifice.
In that holy moment the threshing floor had become an altar. On that very spot Gideon bowed before the Lord, built a memorial and called it “The altar of peace and Jehovah.”
HE BECAME THAT GUY.
Anywhere God Does His work in YOU becomes your threshing floor. The releasing of your lack of faith, and willingness to be that clay pot, becomes a sacrifice to God. Throughout your journey with God, you will leave many memorial stones on your threshing floor.
Gideon’s first assignment was to remove the extra weight the Israelites had grown accustomed to… Idol worship. That night the Lord spoke to Gideon and said, “Get up. Hitch your father’s best oxen to an ox cart and pull down the family altar of Baal and the fertility Goddess Asherah that stands nearby.” Unable to do it alone, Gideon ran to get help from ten young servants and together they snuck through the darkness of night to do what God asked. Pressured for time they swiftly and skillful tore down the family idols and built an altar for the Lord. Using the wooden idols and his father’s cart for firewood, the crackling fire singed and penetrated the raw, sacrificial meat offered to Jehovah. What a bonfire that must have been.
Just as Gideon first dealt with the sin and compromise that he and his people had grown to tolerate, so do we. What extra weight has been slackening your pace? The sin that holds us back often isn’t some big scandalous thing. More likely, it is compromising our relationship with God to find security in something else, like our own abilities, our own success, or our own comfort. Christians particularly have trouble with this, because they believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. NOT relying on Him, for everything, in God’s eyes, is a faith issue, and hence a sin to be repented from. Whatever is holding you back, choose to see it not as evidence of failure, but as a deadweight that needs to be stripped away. To move forward and live faith-filled lives, we too must deal with the sin that weighs us down and splinters our relationship with God.
Gideon’s decision to “go in the strength he had” should inspire us all to take a few small steps of faith. His story is a great example of how God can use anyone who is willing to step into His might. No matter how small, settled, weak, or doubtful we might feel, the story of Gideon teaches us that God doesn’t see us the way we see ourselves. Our job is to be willing to “go in the strength we have” and let God handle even the small things.
Gideon has encouraged us to keep moving forward and not give up. He did whatever he could to feed his family—even if it meant threshing grain in a pit. He did whatever he could to survive. How do you respond when a bad situation smacks you in the face? Do you pretend like it’s not there until it goes away? Do you try to give it to someone else to take care of? Do you get stressed out or angry and try to take control? Or do you just give up?
Whatever your response, you’d probably argue that you are doing your best to adapt to the bad situation you have been given. This was true for Gideon, too. He was resigned to the oppressive circumstances in his life. On his own, he was incapable of conquering them, so he settled for the best he knew to do.
Gideon was brutally honest with God. He had to work through a few unresolved feelings about God’s care and power. Gideon felt his nation had been abandoned—left alone in their suffering. He wasn’t seeing any of God’s provision. Where was He when the enemy beat them up, stole their grain and left them starving? Though he did not say, directly, that he was angry at God; let’s just say he had trust issues. Instead of taking responsibility for the ways his people had abandoned God (Judges 6:1, 7-10), he was blaming God for handing them over to their enemies.
But God saw him for who he could become. A mighty man of valor. A hero. A man who would lead a nation to war and win. “That Guy” who would strip away old mindsets and build a new kingdom upon godly principles. God is expecting us all to be “THAT GUY” in our chaotic, evil infested world today.
When we let these kinds of emotions go unchecked, we too will question and doubt. Gideon couldn’t move forward in faith, and we won’t be able to either. Settling for less, not taking action, or being paralyzed by fear are signs that we may have unresolved doubts and emotions toward God. Doubts about whether he is powerful enough to help you, loving you enough to take care of you, or trustworthy enough to stick by you.
Just like most of us, Gideon was dealing with many unresolved emotions such as inadequacies, insecurities, fear and shame. Even when we get to where we believe God is powerful and caring, we don’t really believe that we have what it takes to do what he wants us to do.
God is strong enough to hear these doubts and help you work through them.
It’s where a lot of people get stuck. Seeing though our own eyes can be a stumbling block for God’s plan and purposes. Just as 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent into the Promised Land claimed that the Hebrews were as ants in their enemies’ eyes…it was Joshua and Caleb who came back with a different report. The situation was the same yet was seen through a different lens. That with God, the land promised to them was theirs for the taking. I for one would prefer to take the battle to the enemy rather than have God’s promises withheld from me for 40 years!
Just as God told Gideon to “Go with the strength you have” He is telling us the same. And then He said five simple words “I will be with you.”
Gideon didn’t just doubt one time – he did it multiple times throughout the story (see Judges 6:36-40). This is the very heart of Gideon’s story, He was afraid, but he did it anyways.
Going with the strength you have means moving forward with confidence, despite your fears, because you know God is in it with you. Gideon shared his heart, his fears and his concerns with Him and they came to a conclusion together.
This is what it means to wrestle with God in prayer–we keep hashing things out until we are on the same page.
As you keep reading Gideon’s story, you’ll find that he became self-assured, powerful, and successful. A man who ruled over Israel for forty years. This was a gradual process of resisting, responding, and drawing closer to God. He grew Gideon step by step, until who he was in battle was unrecognizable from that guy in the winepress. God wants to do the same with you.
Like Gideon, we don’t have to be someone we’re not. We might feel insecure, weak and inexperienced, but when we decide to act on faith anyway, that’s when you and God move best. Imagine who you could be and what you could accomplish if you chose to trust God and take small steps forward each day.
Take some time to pray about what challenge or difficulty God might be calling you to take on. Decide not to settle, work through what you’re afraid or doubtful of, and decide to take action on faith anyway.
With God’s help, we don’t have to live small.
With God’s help, we too can Be That Guy.
