,
The first time I heard the name "Gideon" was when I started watching Criminal Minds.
I loved the character of Gideon!
A few months ago, I came upon this chapter from the Bible and I found another Gideon!
This one did not have the gravitas of the Gideon from Criminal Minds but his story is a great one and worth sharing with you.
It all starts under a great big tree in 0phrah.
To give you some contex, Gideon is an Israelite (Israelites are God’s chosen people) and they are being oppressed by this terrible enemy - the Midianites, who are evil and come in like locusts and take away everything from them. So, they are stripped of their wealth, joy and peace.
At this point, the angel of the Lord appears and sits under the great big tree in Ophrah which belongs to Gideon
And the conversation ensues:
Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer.
Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
I wanted to share this part of the story because I believe there is a Gideon in all of us.
I have recorded an audio with a message for you incase you relate to Gideon too.
You can listen to it here.
And as always, thank you for your time.
Stay blessed, happy and inspired.
xo
Indu
FYI:
I recently learnt that when you see 'the angel of the lord ' reference in the Old Testament, it is with reference to Jesus.
If you want to read the whole story you can look it up in the Bible - Judges 6&7