Jerubbaal; The Path to Finding Your Faith.
š¶š¶: Why We SingĀ ~ Kirk Franklin
Itās no news to most of us that life is difficult, particularly right now. Things areā¦ delicate, with a lot of people. Most of us are walking around on a tightrope, with a burden of some kind or the other, and some even consider it fortunate if that burden is singular.
Prices are sky high, finances are contrastingly low, but even worse than most struggles to live well on the outside, is the constant internal struggle against despair and misery.
We live in a time where information abounds, and yet people truly know the least about themselves. Everything external seems to be uncertain, from the larger economic picture, down to whether or not we might wake up to a civil crisis at any given point. But much worse than what our current economic conditions worldwide, is the utter confusion many of us are experiencing today when it comes to our very own selves.
Introspection seems like a long road towards the darkness of our own minds, and so many people avoid it altogether. We are so scared to sit still in the silence of our own hearts, and so we fill our lives with the clamour of this world and the things it gives. But if we do not even know ourselves, then how can we pretend to know what we are capable of? How can we know enough of who God is, understand what He has done for us, if we shy away from the barest possible interactions with our inner selves?
Before we get to the message of today, Iād like to ask us to play a little game, and see how much we depend on the noise of the world and its distractions. Itās a challenge, because I know some of us have already rolled our eyes and decided that this doesnāt apply to us. But please, humor me, and maybe learn a thing or two about yourself.
So the challenge is pretty simple, itās this; set a timer on your phone for 4 minutes. Not 3, not 5, just 4. Before you start the timer, please place all your devices on airplane mode and retire to a place where you can remain unbothered for the duration. Then, get comfortable and start your timer. I want you to notice exactly how long it takes for you to begin to feel uncomfortable with doing nothing but being quiet by your own self, with just your mind for company.
Maybe the more we do this, the more we realize our need for the certainty and assurance that we can only find in Christ, gladly fixing our minds on Him and trusting that He is indeed coming back to take us away from all the variables we deal with now.
Now that weāve hopefully been in the quiet of our own minds and hearts, I want to ask a somewhat shocking question;Ā do you truly believe in God?
And because I know that the knee jerk reaction is to recoil and answer the question with a bewildered look and a blustering, āof course!ā, I want to ask another question. Itās simple, but itās a question you really have to ponder on to answer honestly.
Why?
WhyĀ do you believe in God?
Why doĀ youĀ believe in God?
Why do youĀ believeĀ in God?
Why do you believe inĀ God?
Itās one question, and yet itās not. Itās the same exact sequence of words, and yet you know that the meaning changed with each reading. Please keep this question in mind as we delve into todayās word, as you might be forced to confront some truths on our way.
Today weāre looking at the life of a man, a young, seemingly inconsequential man by his own standards, who didnāt think he was much of anything to anyone, as most of us believe of ourselves today. This manās name was Jerubbaal, although he was also known as Gideon, and he ended up being a judge in Israel, disproving his own theory (Judges 6-8).
So what changed? What took this youth with self esteem issues, who had resigned himself to the tedium of daily life, to the forefront of his peopleās liberation and to become one of the most discussed judges in Israel? Easy,Ā God.
But God didnāt lift Jerubbaal by supernatural wind and transform him into someone else in the air. No. Gideon did not become assured and convinced he was a different person overnight, like most of us wish we can do. Nope, didnāt happen then, most likely wouldnāt happen now my dear. So what did happen? Well, letās see.
Jerubbaal lived in a time when Israel was really going through it. They had been doing their usual nonsense, committing evil in Godās sight, and so God had allowed them to be subdued by the people of Midian (Judges 6:1-2). These Midianites were wanderers, desert nomads, who would move from place to place, seeking to increase enrich themselves by laying siege and fighting others to to claim their property. And this was exactly what they did to the Israelites.
In fact, they did it so well that the people of Israel had to retreat into secret places like caves and dens, just to have peace. It was even worse when the Israelites tried to farm, because the midianites would come with all their family members and āhelpā the Israelites pack all their harvest, leaving them absolutely nothing to survive on (Judges 6:2-3).
By the time hunger and abject poverty hit the Israelites, their brains recalibrated and they went back to Yahweh to cry (Judges 6:6). God, being the Most Merciful, first sent them a prophet to remind them of their foolishness (Vs 7-9), but then He also decided to send them a deliverer to rectify the situation.
So He sent His angel to Jerubbaal AKA Gideon, the son of Joash. Now, as a sharp guy, Gideon was hiding in a wine press, the place where they crushed their grapes, to beat the small wheat he had managed to see, before the Midianites would come and collect that one too (Judges 6:11). When the angel came, he hailed Gideon with a unique greeting and said,
āThe Lord is with you, you mighty man of valorā.Ā (Vs 12)
But Gideonās response was basically a disbelieving scoff at what the Angel said. Judges 6:13 reads,
āGideon said to Him, āO 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, āDid not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?ā But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.ā
āāJudgesā¬ ā6ā¬:ā13ā¬ āNKJV
Simply put, Gideon did not believe. He had heard the stories, as had most of his generation, but he didnāt witness them, and since all he had known was lack and want, it was very difficult for him to believe in a God that had caused abundance and performed miracles in the past. He had no faith of his own. Now, there are different dimensions to this, and we can never be sure which one he fell into. It could have been that he believed there was a God, but He had been before his own time.
Or maybe he believed God had forsaken them finally. We donāt know, but we do know that his faith was at an all time low. So I can only imagine his surprise at the next thing the angel told him,Ā to go and deliver Israel from ā¬ā¬MidianĀ (Judges 6:14). His incredulous reaction in verse 15 can easily be summarized in pigin English as, āDeliver Israel as how??ā BecauseĀ e reach to ask.
Gideon was the last son in the weakest clan in the half-tribe of Manasseh. Where would he even want to start from? He didnāt believe in his ability to do anything, didnāt believe he could do anything, didnāt even want to start thinking about trying.
But with the angelās reassurance that God was with him, that it was God who was sending him (Judges 6:16, Gideon gradually began to see that his reality could be better, so he built an altar to God and offered his gift, realizing that he had just had a divine encounter that would change everything for him (Judges 6:16-24).
With Gideon, God started his work of deliverance immediately. His first assignment was given to him that same night, to tear down his fatherās altars to baal and his false counterpart, and build an altar to God in its place, and then offer his fatherās bull as a sacrifice (Judges 6:25-26).
To show you that his encounter with the angel did not automatically transform him from doubtful to brazen,Ā ogaĀ quietly obeyed GodĀ in the nightĀ (Vs 27), because he was scared of his family and his townsmen. Guess what? He was very right to be terrified, because remember that the Israelites were worshipping false gods, so they would have dealt with him mercilessly for destroying the altar, as they still even tried to do.
Even worse, there was no food in the land, and after destroying their altar this boy carried one whole bull, animal that they had probably been feeding and using to farm and do whatnot, and he offered it to God. Nahhhā¦ they were ready to handle him properly when they found out. It was his father that saved him and basically asked them to let baal fight his own battles, leading to his name, Jerubbaal which means ālet baal contend against himā (Judges 6:28-32).
As if that was not enough, when the Lords Spirit came upon Jerubbaal, he sent messagesto some tribes to call the men to war, in response to the Midianites and Amalekites that had risen against them. It was after he had done this bold thing that his humanity came knocking on the door of his reason. I truly believe Gideon didnāt like to take risks with his life, because this guy had mind when it came to confirming exactly who was sending him, and where He was sending him to.
He didnāt want to take chances, so he decided to test if it was really God (Judges 6:36-40). What I love most about this scripture is not that Gideon doubted, or that he went to God with his doubts, itās that God answered him each time, and reassured his heart at every point. Even when the men came in their numbers, and God cut them down from around 32,000 to 300 men, and Gideon was hesitant to attack with so few men, God still put reassurance in place for him (Judges 7:1-15).
God did not count Gideonās fear or his doubt as sin, neither did he abandon him to seek someone else. He strengthened his faith, and gave him confidence in Him and in himself . God also gave him victory when he went into battle, completely throwing the enemy into confusion and ensuring that the enemy fled before him (Judges 7:16-23).
For Jerubbaal, or Gideon as we popularly know him, the path to his faith lay in Godās reassurance that He was with him, that He was the one who sent him. It wasnāt in the fact that his fathers had believed in Adonai, or in the stories they passed down. His faith was rooted in his own conviction, in his own knowledge of who God was, and who He had called him to be. Now, donāt get me wrong, Iām not saying that your parents or people canāt show you the way to God, or history cannot tell you what He has already done. Iām saying that you need to define your own convictions.
Yes, your parents serve the Lord, your friends might as well, butĀ why?? Because they have encountered God, have experienced his reassuring love, and have chosen to walk the path with the Way. God still reassures us today, through every possible situation we might be dealing with, through every sadness, every pain, every circumstance that confuses us and leaves us feeling numb and helpless.
He gave us His Word, the Book of Scripture that details md describes His Love and intentionality concerning us and our lives. Like that was not enough, He literally gave us a map, by personifying His Word and becoming flesh, becoming the only true Way to Himself. He gave us the Son, the Christ, the Sacrifice. His ultimate reassurance that thereās nothing He would not do for us, that He loves us with an unconditional, unimaginable, unwavering love.
He gave us the Word to lead us to the God-Man, a written blueprint to show us the Path to follow, the Road to righteousness, the Way to Salvation. By giving us Christ, God ensured that we would never lack for reassurance, never want for His validation, never doubt His devotion to us. The Cross counters every uncertainty that could arise in our hearts, it points us to the One who holds us up when life beats us down. But you need to know this One for yourself.
You canāt lean on a wall when you donāt even know thereās a wall to lean on. Itās a waste to go through life, beaten and weary, when thereās Someone who can help,Ā has helped us.Ā If you donāt know a Path exists, youāll forever wander around aimlessly.
So thatās my answer to the question I asked earlier. I do believe in God.Ā Why? Because He believes in me. He believed even when I didnāt know He existed, even when I didnāt believe. He believed enough to give Himself up for me, on the off chance that one day, over 2000 years later, I would believe. He believed enough to draw me a map with X marking the spot at Calvary, pointing me to redemption and salvation. Thatās my answer. Thatās my faith. But thatās just me.
Now, child of God, itās time for that self reflection you avoid. Whatās your answer? Do you believe?Ā Do you??
Calvary greetings from my heart to yours,
Gabrielleā¦
Ā
