“What else can I say? There isn’t enough time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets” (Hebrews 11:32 CEV).
The Old Testament book of Judges contains the following admonition from the Lord to the people of Israel: “I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.’ But you have not obeyed me” (Judges 6:10 CEV). This passage is worthy of our attention, for we may leave ourselves open to a similar admonition whenever we choose to neglect our relationship with God.
This recalls the cautionary message given to us earlier in Hebrews 2:1: “We ought, therefore, to pay the greatest attention to the truth that we have heard and not allow ourselves to drift away from it” (Phillips). If we drift from our relationship with Christ in such a manner, it may only be a matter of time before we begin to make bad decisions that lead to painful repercussions. The nation of Israel repeatedly engaged in that type of behavior throughout the Biblical book of Judges and suffered the consequences as a result.
One way to avoid that negative example involves a few simple practices that are given to us in the New Testament book of Acts. You see, Acts 2:42 identifies four important spiritual disciplines observed by the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (NIV).
We can understand this to mean that the early church focused on four specific areas: prayer, Bible study (the apostles’ teaching), communion (breaking of bread), and regular church attendance (the fellowship). These four spiritual disciplines can help us maintain the priority relationship with God that He deserves and avoid the circumstances that led to Gideon’s introduction in Judges chapter six…
“The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’
‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.’
The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?'” (Judges 6:11-14 NIV).
We’ll continue with a look at Gideon’s response next.