“God helps those who cannot help themselves.”
~Charles H. Spurgeon (from my pastor’s Twitter feed)
“So Gideon gathered together an army to fight against Midian. At last, he had gathered together thirty-two thousand men. Surely that was enough to defeat Midian.”
I asked my Sunday School class if they thought 32,000 men was a big enough army.
They nodded, said that it seemed pretty big to them.
“Well, you know what God thought? God thought Gideon’s army was too big.”
I could see the puzzlement on their faces. Too big? Seriously?
“Yeah. God said that if they had that many men, they’d get proud and think they were the ones who had defeated Midian, instead of realizing that God had defeated Midian.”
One of the kids raised his hand and interjected a bit of what he’d learned last week from the book of Joshua. “But the important part wasn’t how many men they had or how good their plan was. It’s only whether God’s on their side.”
“You’re right. We learned how God defeated Jericho when the people were obedient to God’s battle plan–and we learned about how the people lost at Ai because Achan had been disobedient, even though they thought they could easily win. The important thing was that God was on their side–not what their battle strategy was.
And now, when Gideon was getting ready to fight Midian, God wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the reason they’d win was because HE was on their side. He didn’t want anyone else to think that they’d been responsible for the victory.”
I told how God whittled Gideon’s army down to 300 men, how He sent terror of them to the Midianite camp in front of them, how He ultimately won them the victory.
I’ve been struck this week with the tender mercy of God. When we think we can help ourselves, when we think that someone other than God can help us, God mercifully pares down our army, such that we realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was He (and He alone) who effects our salvation.
In my Sunday School “flock” meeting last night, we read in Hosea, and I was reminded again of God’s severity and His mercy when He says:
“For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
I will return again to my place
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.”
~Hosea 5:14-15
Unwilling to let Israel go on pridefully playing the whore, God comes at them like a lion, tearing them to pieces until they recognize that only God can heal their wounds.
My church’s songwriters (Highland Park Writers’ Collective) wrote a beautiful piece that describes this well.
“Because He is so faithful,
He will always tear apart
Every gleaming idol
Built inside the human heart”
~Tearing Down by Christensen, McCann, Qualsett
Don’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.
Reading this post brought the phrase “severe mercy” to mind — then I had to look it up to see if I remembered it from something else, saw it was a book, and put it on my wishlist. :-) Ah the one-thing-leads-to-many-others-ness of the Internet.
It’s hard to digest, but God’s tearing is a greater mercy that letting people continue on in sin and idolatry.
I’ve thought sometimes how Israel’s battles depicted much of the Christian life. Sometimes we want a “formula” — a series of steps that we follow that equal success. But sometimes God fought for them, sometimes He enabled their efforts, sometimes He took all the props away. Some of the biggest things God has done in my life occurred when He took away everything else I leaned on so that I had Him alone — and found Him sufficient.
It is hard to imagine an army being too big. That is SO like God. But I love that story because it reminds me that it’s only God’s power that counts, not mine.
A beautiful song. What a treasure to have you own team of songwriters at your church. At best we just tweak words here or there, or add a verse now and again.
“Because He is so faithful,
He will always tear apart
Every gleaming idol
Built inside the human heart”
I LOVE that!