Gideon said to him, "My Lord, if the LORD is with us,
why has all this happened to us?"
Here is a question we probably ask from time to time. It's interesting that the LORD doesn't spend much time answering it. Rather, he is interested in moving forward.
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have
and save Israel from the power of Midian.
It is I who send you."
What was going on in the past? Fundamentally God was at work somehow in spite of whatever Gideon perceived. But figuring out just how that is true is beside the point. The LORD is with Gideon now. He is ready to move forward now. This is true with us as well. It matters less that we make sense of our past, discerning every moment that God was with us (though this allows us to be thankful) than it does to recognize that the LORD is with us right now calling us to victory.
Our past brings us to our present to be sure. There is much in it for which we must give thanks. Yet we are called to break from it.
"We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?"
We are called to not let us distract us from our goal.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 3:13-14).
It isn't easy. Sometimes if we spend too much time thinking about our past we begin to long for the cucumber, melon, leek, the onions and the garlic (see Numbers 11:5) of Egypt and forget about all the slavery that went along with it. It's hard to make a break with Egypt when our hearts are still there. But as with Gideon, the LORD reveals that he is with us now. He reveals this by his active and dynamic presence in our day to day. He leads us to victory.
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you
that you who have followed me, in the new age,
when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory,
will yourselves sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
Let us listen to what the LORD proclaims. There may be battles which we seem to have lost. There may be battles which seem impossible to win. But in the end the battle belongs to the LORD. He is victorious and brings peace to his people.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD–for he proclaims peace
To his people, and to his faithful ones,
and to those who put in him their hope.
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