Sometimes I blog about random things from my day or life, but today I want to write about a portion of the story of Gideon. There is so much to learn from this story, but I want to focus on what stood out to me most today: God meets us where we are. Growing up I have always heard two sides to this story of Gideon. One side says, “test God just like Gideon did and God will confirm himself to you,” the other side says, “who are you to test God, it is a sign of unbelief”. So, there we have it, I have always danced around these two never really known what side to believe in but always leaning strongly towards the latter because that is what most people speak of.

I decided to do some reading of my own and I see things differently. The story of Gideon starts in Judges 6. The story starts out by establishing that the children of Israel had been captives and treated badly by the Midianites for 7 years. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and called him Mighty Warrior it was like he could not recognize himself and associate with what he was being called because nothing around him spoke to that reality. Gideon’s response was one of uncertainty like ummmmm “who are you talking about” lol.

You have to understand, all Gideon had heard of God are these awesome things he did for the children of Israel, but somehow, he and his people were suffering and mistreated and held as captives. So, we can understand why Gideon went straight to attack the legitimacy of who God was because to him if God was who Gideon has heard of them why were bad things happening? When God charged Gideon with his new mandate he asked for confirmation before he believed. The first time was when the angel appeared to him, he needed confirmation on if it was truly God, then when God told him to go to war, he asked for confirmation twice before he believed.

I have come to realize that both theories are equally true. When we are unsure, we can ask God for confirmation because we are in a relationship with him and so there is nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, it is also true that his needing so many confirmations were from a place of unbelief which he had reason to be skeptical. Judges 6 tells us of how the children of Israel had been in exile and treated so badly for seven years and he was fearful and lacked confidence and belief in God. One thing that I can say is that sometimes my fearless belief in God and what he says is out of a relationship and it seems to me that Gideon though he was raised hearing stories of God he had lost confidence and belief. So, I think the two are both true, sometimes we need confirmation from God to be certain in our faith and sometimes we need to just believe in faith with no confirmation based on who we know God to be.

All that being said, one thing that stands out to me from all this is how God meets us where we are. We don’t have to try to be someone else. He loves us as we are, values us as we are, and cares for us as we are, he can use us where we are and meets us as we are. He did not chastise Gideon for not believing or for needing to be reassured because he knew what Gideon needed and met him there. This thought is so liberating. We don’t have to be anything else; God will meet us where we are and then shape us into who he wants us to be, he will work with us to build faith and relationship in him so we can be anchored and not shaken with unbelief but certain of our place and identity in him and who he has called us to be.