“And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people
that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” Judges 7:2
The
next time someone says God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, point them to
Judges chapter seven. God instructing
Gideon to take on an army of more than 100,000 enemy soldiers with just 300 of
his own fits in the “more than you can handle” category. Imagine for a moment how Gideon and his
servant, Purah, must have felt while coming to grips with a humanly impossible
assignment? That morning God had judged Israel’s army of 32,000 as too big to
face the Midian’s. So Gideon sends home those who were too afraid and after
22,000 hit the road, Gideon had to come to grips with his own fear of being
outnumbered ten-to-one. Yet, the Lord still felt the odds were still too much
in Israel’s favor resulting in only 300 hundred men remaining who were not
afraid or cupped the water to drink rather than lapping it as a dog. With such odds seeming insurmountable, you
can hear Gideon bringing to light for Purah; during the Exodus, how many mighty
men did it take to destroy Egypt and its army or part the Red Sea? How many did
it take to bring down Jericho’s walls? How many did it take to feed two-million
in the wilderness every-day for forty years? During some of the greatest events
in Israel’s history the mightiest have not been the strongest warriors, the mightiest
have been those who trusted in the strength of God. Clearly, God was removing the human factor
from Gideon’s hopes and requiring him to place it in faith before Him. This is our truth, when we’re confronted with
an impossible situation or trial; Gideon’s men of 300 should preach to us “salvation…is from the Lord” (Psa 37:39) and “…if
God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)
Such truth is not domesticated
platitudes. God truly expects us to cast
all our on these massive truths and for them to make us “more than conquerors through him that loves us.” (Rom 8:37) It is
not hyperbole to say the defeat of our sin that Jesus accomplished on the cross
dwarfs Gideon’s victory in comparison; thus if God who “…spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he
not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom
8:32) So, God DOES
give us more than we can handle…just not more than He can handle! For the sake
of maturing us so that “…we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” (2 Cor 1:9)
HSAY…Todd
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