What Do You Fear?
We remember Gideon as a man of towering faith. After all, the author of Hebrews ran out of space to tell about the faith of “Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets” (Heb 11:32). However, when Gideon first burst on the scene, he had a weak faith, to put it politely.
God told Gideon to destroy his father’s altar to Baal and to cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Gideon “did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night” (Judg 6:27). Yes, Gideon did precisely what God had told him, but he waited until the coast was clear presumably so that no one would know he had destroyed the idols (but the people of the city quickly ascertained the culprit, cf. Judg 6:29).
When God instructed Gideon to capture the camp of Midian with his army of 300 men, the Lord said to him, “If you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp” (Judg 7:10-11). You guess it—Gideon was fearful, went to the camp, and heard a man was telling his comrade about a dream he had, and the comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, the man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp” (Judg 7:13-14). Only after hearing the dream’s interpretation did Gideon muster his men and take the camp.
Gideon, “who through faith . . . [was] made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Heb 11:33-34), really struggled with cowardice. However, he didn’t allow his fear to interfere with God’s commands; he “saddled up” and did what God had said in spite of his fear. No wonder the author of Hebrews mentioned him in the Rollcall of the Faithful. Gideon’s actions define faith. Define courage. Define trust.
Fear comes to us all. We may fear what people will say about us if we do right. We may fear what consequences we’ll face. We may fear what relationships we’ll lose. However, faith is obeying in spite of our fear. Courage is going ahead and doing right. Trust is following God even when we’re shaking in our boots.
What faith will you display today? What courage do you need to demonstrate? How will you show your faith today?
This article was originally written by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., for the weekly newsletter at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.