When I started in ministry, I worked with a small group of young adults in running a youth ministry. To my shame, I saw two of these young men and thought they weren’t going to be very useful. One was neurodivergent, which made him quite socially awkward, and the other had a very serious stutter. But I saw God use these men to disciple young people in incredible ways—especially young teenage boys who felt they didn’t fit in themselves. God used them in their weakness, and he can use any of us in our weakness.

Once when I was about 4 or 5 years old, my older cousin came over to babysit. When it was time to put us to bed, he thought that it might help us get to sleep if he told us some stories. Stories that I still remember, word for word, to this very day, and stories that were so gory and disturbing that I can’t retell here. Except to say there was one with little boy chased by a zombie groaning: “Johnny, I want my liver back” – it’s a long story.

Of course, I was scared. From then on, I couldn’t go upstairs to my bedroom in the dark alone. My sisters were no help – they just made it worse by following me around taunting “Johnny, I want my liver back”. In short, I, little Timmy, was scared and weak.

But of course, it was my mum who saved the day. My mum who reassured me, tucked me in and made sure there was nothing under my bed. My mum who told my sisters to cut it out. And my mum who made sure that cousin never babysat again. In my fear and weakness, I needed my mum’s reassurance and strength.

But fear and weakness aren’t reserved for kids. And neither are scary stories. In recent years, the horror genre has exploded again, with a constant stream high-brow scary movies feeding a hungry audience. The audience is there because these stories tap into primal fears and our sense of vulnerability that are especially present in these times. These movies play on our fears about killer viruses, out-of-control AI, climate disaster, divided communities, sky-rocketing prices, and strong-arm governments, and our feelings of weakness and a sense of confusion about what God could be doing.

Context

In this next instalment from the book of Judges, the Israelites live in a time of incredible fear. They fear what’s out there in the world around them. And they’re intensely aware of their own weaknesses.

The Israelites are in this spiritual amnesiac spiral of turning away from God, facing God’s judgment, God sending a saviour, and then them turning away again.

And in this next cycle, we meet Gideon. A man who, like his people, is scared, and feels very weak.

But as we get into Gideon’s story, we’ll see how God comes to meet Gideon in two ways: God meets Gideon’s fear with his reassuring promise, and he meets Gideon’s weakness with his strength. And we’ll see how God comes to us in our fear and weakness, like a tender mother caring for and protecting her children.

Gideon’s fear is met with God’s promise (6:11–16)

Gideon’s fear

When we meet Gideon in v. 11, he’s threshing wheat in a winepress. I’m no wheat-grower or winemaker, but that doesn’t sound right. Normally, you would thresh wheat in an open place, above ground, where you can throw the wheat into the air and the wind would blow away the chaff, and you’re left with the seed. But Gideon is in a winepress, a hole in the ground.

Why? Because he’s hiding scared. And the source of his terror is the Midianites. They were nomadic marauders, who invaded the Israelites and devoured their crops and livestock like swarming locusts, leaving them poor and starving.

So you can understand why Gideon is scared! He’s scared for his nation – how will they ever be secure? Scared for his family – how long will their food and their home last? And he’s scared of his own God – it really looks like God has abandoned them.

Gideon’s Encounter with the Angel

But then, in v. 12, something changes. For the first time in Judges, we meet an angel of God. ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!’ he says.

This bodes well. Gideon’s name means “hacker,” or “one who cuts down”, and this appearance of an angel is unfolding like God’s choosing of Moses, the great prophet who led Israel out of Egypt.

So this Angel’s words are a hint at a promise. A promise that Gideon is the next deliverer of God’s people.

But Gideon isn’t so sure. So he snaps back “If the Lord is with us, why has this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian”

Gideon names an age-old issue – the problem of evil. If we’re suffering like this, then either God can’t do anything about it—like an impotent government official, powerless to control the mob. Or, he’s he doesn’t want to—like a cruel despot, callous to the suffering and starving of his people. Either way, for Gideon, God has left them to languish, and their only option is despair.

Even if you don’t explicitly say this, it’s easy to believe it even subconsciously we face hardship. Sometimes when I’m in a crisis, it’s incredible how I act like God isn’t there or isn’t interested. I fret and ruminate and worry; or I race around the fix the issue. I act as if the Lord has abandoned me, and it’s all up to me.

Despite Gideon’s cutting doubt, the angel persists: “go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

This is an explicit promise and commission: God is sending Gideon to save Israel. What more does Gideon need?

But Gideon’s not sure about this ‘strength that he has’. “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh (one of the tribes of Israel), and I am the least in my family”.

But again, God persists: “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites”

Gideon is scared! But God meets Gideon’s fear with his promises. He will be with him; he will save Israel.

God’s Promises in our fear

In our fear, God gives us his great promises, too.

Thankfully, God isn’t promising to make you or me his saviour. You are not his ‘mighty warrior’. Gideon was Israel’s saviour for a time, but Israel’s ultimate saviour—and the saviour of the world—was Jesus Christ.

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