=?us-ascii?Q?Devotion_for_Today =22Gideon's_Fleece=22_____Judges_6:36-38?=

Devotion for Today      “Gideon’s Fleece”     Judges 6:36-38

 

            I am told that a certain college student needed a small two-hour course to fill out his schedule.  The only one that fit was a course in Wildlife Zoology.  He had heard that the course was tough, and that the professor was very hard.  But since it was the only thing he could find, he enrolled.  After a week on the same chapter, the professor passed out a test for the class.  On the paper were illustrated many different kinds of birds’ legs and the students had to identify the species of birds just from a picture of their legs.  The student just could not believe it!  He didn’t have a clue where to start and the longer that he starred at the test, the madder he got.  Finally, the student reached the boiling point and stomped up to the front of the classroom and threw the test on the teacher’s desk and said, “This is the worst test I have ever seen, and this is the stupidest course I have ever taken!”

           

            The professor looked up at the student and said, “Young man, you just flunked the test!”  Then the teacher picked up the paper, saw that the student had not even put his name on the paper and said, “By the way, young man, what’s your name?”  At this the student bent over, pulled up his pants, revealed his legs, and said, “You tell me!”

 

            God’s man Gideon seems to present God with a similar test in Judges 6.  God had already told him that he wanted to use Gideon to deliver Israel out of the hand of Midian. God personally delivered Gideon and spared him from certain death after the incident where Gideon tore down the image to Baal.  However, Gideon’s confidence is still not secure.  Even after Gideon gets up the nerve to blow the war trumpet to call together the men of Israel to battle, he sets before the Lord a test: “Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” v. 37. 

 

            The next morning, it was exactly as Gideon had asked the Lord to do.  But the following day Gideon asked the Lord to do the same thing again, only this time he asked God not to put dew on the fleece, and it happened just the way Gideon asked God to do it.  This shows us not only God’s faithfulness, but also His mercy and love for Gideon.  How much did Gideon need God to show Him that He was with him?  Throughout the story of Gideon, we see Gideon putting God to the test over and over again.  But God passes all of them with flying colors.  This shows us that Gideon had trouble with his personal trust in the Lord.  But the one really to the test was Gideon himself, because in this process God is schooling Gideon over a long period of time to trust Him completely with everything. 

 

            Where are you today in your trust in God?  Do you have to have a sign from God in order to trust Him?  Jesus once said that it was a wicked and an adulterous generation that would look for a sign.  Just because God  reveals His signs to His people does not mean His people will be any more committed than they were before.  Its not the ability to see a sign from God that marks true spirituality-but the opposite.  Is it enough for you to hear from God and to be obedient to Him the first time?  Have a blessed day.

 

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com

jcrussell@liberty.edu

 

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