WHY HAS ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO US?

     When an angel of God approached Gideon, he hailed him as a mighty warrior who had found favor with God. In response, Gideon questioned how God could be with him and his people when they were being oppressed by the Midianites. Expecting things to go our way is a common thing... but it is NOT a substitute for faith! It is a good thing when we are free to express ourselves to God... but it is a greater thing to trust him in all circumstances. Our passage is based on the 6th chapter of Judges and it invites all of us to put ourselves in Gideon's shoes.
      Some people go to church to earn God's favor. They believe that good things will happen to them if they do good things for God. If they invest in good deeds and hang out with good people, they expect health and wealth to come their way. Rather than being unabashed acts of love, their acts of charity are more akin to insurance premiums. They expect to be blessed for blessing others, and this perspective in hardly new. Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:9-11) asked God to "expand his territory" because he had been obedient, and Job's friends were absolutely convinced that misfortune came his way because he had sinned. Indeed, when a number of Galileans were killed in an accident, Jesus' disciples asked, "Who sinned? These men or their parents?" (John 9:2ff) Their reasoning was simple: if God is pleased with us, God will bless us. If we have found favor with God, we will have a lot of friends and a lot of money. If we are faithful, we will have a happy marriage and a long life!
      It all seems logical and it's easy to live a life of faith if things are going our way. It's easy to preach about all things being possible if all things have come to us. It's easy to claim that we are God's "chosen people" when everything is going our way... but what happens when the bottom falls out? What happens to our faith when we're hanging on a cross? What happens when we're told that we have stage 4 cancer? What happens to our faith when we bury our children... or lose our jobs... or watch our loved ones die?  It was hard for the Hebrews to see how they could be God's chosen people when they were exiled in Babylon... and it was hard for the Jews to see how they were chosen when they were being slaughtered in Hitler's concentration camps! Likewise, it was hard for the Israelites to believe that they were living in the "promised land" when they were being suppressed by the Midianites. After Joshua died and before Saul was anointed King, Israel was a tribal people without an appointed or elected leader. They were decentralized and it was common for neighboring countries to wage war and oppress some of their tribes. Thus, the promised land was not all that it was promised to be, which is why an angel (messenger) of the Lord found Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress, for fear of the Midianites. (Judges 6:11ff) Hey, Gideon, the angel said, "the Lord is with you, might warrior." Oh really? Gideon was not so sure, and he spoke his mind- "if the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened to us?" (6:13) In fact, Gideon went on, it seems more like the "Lord has now abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian." (Judges 6:13)
      Well, Gideon asked more questions of the angel, but in the end, he trusted God and defeated the Midianites. We've already noted (in a previous blog) that God can do anything, and I have no doubts about this at all. However, Gideon's question is our question. It is every defeated, broken, frightened and disappointed person's question... and it is an important question because it forces us to deal with the true meaning of faith... which is living AS IF God's promises are true. Faith is CHOOSING to believe in all circumstances and trusting God in all things. God does not attempt to explain His actions to us, but he does invite us to trust Him each day. God does not rationalize his decisions, but he expects us to embrace his will.
      Over the years, I've come to these conclusions: 1) People who base their "faith" on their circumstances in life... will surely lose it; 2) Surrender, and only surrender, sets us free... from worrying if God is doing his part or not; 3) honest doubt often leads to great faith (remember Thomas). Doubt is not the opposite of belief- disbelief is- but nursing our doubts will keep us from making the life-changing commitments we need to make. Gideon was right, of course. It doesn't look like you're a mighty warrior when you're hiding in a winepress, and Gideon's question is legion. Who, among us, hasn't heard... and said, "Why me?" God has heard it too... and he can handle it. He has heard "why me," and "it's not fair," again and again and again... and he knows that many of us see our relationship with him as some sort of a "deal." Still, he invites us to free ourselves from circumstance. Still, he invites us to trust and obey. Still, he invites us to live as a chosen and saved people. Amen.