Helpful Correctives from the Old Testament, Part 2

Here is another great lesson from Judges. This one from chapter 6 (the Call of Gideon). Here is the context. Israel, again, has forsaken God and He has given them over to the oppressor—this time the Midianites. The lesson from this passage is: “You are what God says you are.”

When the Angel of the Lord comes to Gideon. He greets Gideon, “"The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." It is obvious, however, that Gideon is not. While the Angel is saying this, Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press because he is scared of the Midianites who are controlling God’s people through their maniacal version of Midianite Food and Drug Administration which does not allow the Israelite to grind grain. He is hiding because he is scared. The Angel tells Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and the Asherah (Baal’s female counterpart) beside it. Gideon, “the mighty man of valor”, does this, but he does it at night because…well…he is scared. Later, Gideon requires two (not one) signs from the fleece to get his act in motion. When Gideon is called, he is obviously not what the Angel says he is, but he becomes (in just a chapter) exactly what the Angel calls him. He defeats the Midianites host with 300 men. He becomes a Mighty Man of Valor.

The application of this passage is that we need to be careful to hear what God calls us and we need to tell our sons and daughters what God calls them. We need to encourage them to be what God says about them. Remember, our culture is speaking to your children. It is naming them. The names that our culture encourages are based on despair and, I fear, a desire to demean. Wicked people demean others mainly so that they can take advantage of them without opposition or qualms of conscience.

God’s names—“son,” “overcomer,” “tower of strength,” “mighty man,” “woman of discretion,” “stone,” “jewel,” “fruitful vine.” These images paint a very different picture of life than the titles that our culture shouts at them. Make sure your children know who they are. They are who God says that they are.

This is one of the glories of a classical Christian education. It wars against the voice of culture by showing children what people have been like at other times—both biblical times and past history. It lets the air out of some of our culture’s winsome, sly voice when it calls our children to be less than they are.