Pick Me, Pick Me!

Deuteronomy 20:1-4; 2 Chronicles 20:15; Psalm 33:16; Proverbs 21:31; 1 Corinthians 15:57; 2 Corinthians 2:14

I never liked the picking process of pick-up sports in school or with the neighborhood kids. That's because I was usually near the end of the line to be picked. You tend to sense the captain saying "well, I guess we're stuck with you so come on over here." You kind of feel like you should just stay out of their way and let them play.

I think Gideon must have had a similar feeling when he met up with the messenger of God under the oak tree on his dad's property as we read in Judges 6:11. When the messenger of God tells him that he has been chosen to deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Midianites, he begins to immediately explain why the Lord has picked the wrong guy. He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15). The Lord assures him that He will be with him and that he is the one that the Lord has chosen for this job.

We all know the awesome story of how God whittled Gideon's army of 32,000 down to 10,000 and eventually 300, to go up against an army of 135,000. We don't even have to wonder why God would do such. He gave the reason in chapter 8, verse 2: The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ God wanted to make sure that Gideon, and all of Israel, knew how this victory was going to be secured. The part that Gideon was responsible for was to trust and obey the Lord. 

Maybe you've felt God tugging on your heart to do something for Him. Maybe you have felt like it MUST be a mistake; there's just no way that you could possibly do what God is asking. Well, you would be correct; you can't, at least not on your own. But if God is calling you, then He will provide. All that is required of you is to trust and obey. He'll take care of the rest! 

Judges 6:15–16 (NASB) He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”

Pastor Mike Deese