From Chapter 13: “And God Said…”

In just the first nine verses of Judges 7, the words “The Lord said to Gideon” occur five times. The entire thread of the story up to this point hangs on the ongoing conversation and the growing relationship between Gideon and the Lord, beginning with the presence of God – the Angel of the Lord – breaking into Gideon’s world, followed by the instruction to break down the altar to Baal, then the ensuing call to arms and the selection of the 300. We tend to think of the story of Gideon as one of the great examples of God using us in our weakness: Gideon, the weakest member of the weakest clan; the 300, a tiny handful of men against an enemy swarm beyond counting. This is of course a real and important aspect of the narrative, but as we read through the story from the beginning, the recurring theme that stands out most strongly is this: “And God said . . .” Whatever else he may or may not have been, Gideon was a man who listened to the voice of the Lord and did as he was told. He was fearful, he gave expression to his doubts, but all the time he engaged in a dialogue with God and acted on what he heard. When God chose Gideon to be the leader through whom He would bring deliverance, I don’t think it was just so that He could demonstrate that “his strength is made perfect in our weakness”: I think it was also because He wanted to use Gideon as a demonstration of one of the essential qualities of kingdom leadership: to lead, we have to be listeners.