Based on Judges 6:11-32 (New King James Version)
“Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’ Gideon said to Him, ‘O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’ Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’ So he said to Him, ‘O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.’ Then he said to Him, ‘If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.’ And He said, ‘I will wait until you come back.’ So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And he did so. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, ‘Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.’ So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, ‘Who has done this thing?’ And when they had inquired and asked, they said, ‘Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.’ Then the men of the city said to Joash, ‘Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.’ But Joash said to all who stood against him, ‘Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!’ Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, ‘Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.’”
It is possible that people many times may ask just as Gideon did, “…if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” Or let’s put it how today many say, “If God exists, then why does He allow for so many bad things to happen?” I know that we are going through a very difficult time, in one way or another. There are problems with war and savagery, and not only as we see it in Europe at the moment, but also in many other parts of the world where thousands of people lose their lives, or are abused or mutilated, or persecuted by either armies, or militias, or the world of drugs and corruption. There is a lot of slavery and human trafficking all over the world. There are not only thousands, but millions of people that are suffering from terminal illnesses all around the world at this very moment while I write this message. There are serious hunger problems in different parts of the world. United Nations estimated in 2021 that more than 957 million people in 93 countries of the world did not have enough food. That is almost one-seventh of the world’s population. And there are many other serious problems. And the question still stands, “If God exists, then why does He allow for so many bad things to happen in the world?”
One very clear answer that can be given today, and it’s related to today’s passage, is that instead of judging God, why don’t we ask ourselves this question instead, “What have we done against God so that He would allow such things?” Gideon could have very easily started there. “What did we do Lord?” And just as the Bibles tells us, Israel had done what was evil in the sight of God for many years. And the Word tells us that God allowed for the Midianites to torment His people because they had departed from Him. What was the main sin we saw that Israel committed? The same sin we saw in Gideon’s father, looking to and worshipping idols and other gods. They turned away from the God that had given them everything, even a land that they never even dreamed of nor deserved, to other gods and idols. What do we see today? Much of the same. But the gods and idols of today not only involve darkness, but they also have pleasing and common appearances, like money, riches, known and unknown people, the gods of pleasure and deviancy, everything that glorifies sin, that in the end lead only to one thing: death. Everything outside of God leads to death.
Now, one might say, “Why does God punish rather than call with love?” And well, there is such blindness in the world that people do not want to see the good God has given. The problem is that there is such rebellion against God that they see what God gives as insignificant or of little value. No one would be alive in this world if it wasn’t for God. Everything that breathes does so because God allows it. And also, and now more than ever, there is even greater judgment pending on all of humanity, and it has to do with despising Christ’s sacrifice, by seeing it as ridiculous, or a small thing. So then, evil comes as a natural consequence, just like Gideon’s father said concerning Baal: “If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” What good is it to look for idols and gods that cannot do anything here and now, and least of all, in eternity? And moreover, what more good can God do if He has given everything to us? And also, will Satan fight against himself when a person clings on to the things that the devil produces himself? It sounds ridiculous, right? Well, that is what happens when a person deviates from God’s things and sees precisely that which produces life as something useless or of little value. It’s like if someone put the cure that a sick person needs in their hands and instead of taking it for their own good, they just throw it away. Nothing good comes from idolatry. Sin neither saves nor helps anyone. And while men continue worshipping their sin and honoring their deviations, there will be more problems, the same they create for themselves and for others, and they will be lost in eternity where Christ’s salvation matters most, the same salvation they despise. So then, will you decide to find favor before God like Gideon, or will you continue idolizing sin? Lord bless! John