There is one truth which shines out with uncommon lustre in the book
of Judges, and that is, that God is ever to be counted upon, even amid
the darkest scenes of human history; and, moreover, faith can always
count upon God; God never fails a trusting heart--no, never. He never
has failed, never will, never can fail the individual soul that
confides in Him, that takes hold of His precious word, in the artless
simplicity of a faith that trusts Him in the face of man's deepest
failure and shortcoming.
This is most consolatory and encouraging, at all times, and under all
circumstances. True it is--alas! how true! man fails in everthing.
Trace him where you will; mark him in whatever sphere of action or
responsibility he occupies, and it is the same sad tale, over and over
again, of unfaithfulness, failure, and ruin. Let man be set up in
business, as often as he may, with the largest capital and the fairest
prospects, and he is sure to become a bankrupt. It has ever been so,
from the days of Eden down to the present moment. We may assert,
without fear of contradiction, that there has not been one solitary
exception to the dismal rule, in the history of Adam's fallen race. We
must never forget this. True faith never forgets it. It would be the
blindest folly to attempt to ignore the fact that _ruin_ is stamped,
in characters deep and broad, upon the entire of man's story, from
first to last.
But, in the face of all this, God abideth faithful. He cannot deny
Himself. Here is the resource and the resting-place of faith. It
recognizes and owns the ruin; but it counts on God. Faith is not blind
to human failure; but it fixes its gaze on divine faithfulness. It
confesses the ruin of man; but it counts on the resources of God.
Now, all this comes strikingly out in the interesting and instructive
story of Gideon. He, truly, was made to realize, in his own person and
experience, the fact of Israel's fallen condition. The contrast
between Joshua and Gideon is as striking as can be, so far as regards
the question of their condition and circumstances. Joshua could place
his foot on the necks of the kings of Canaan. Gideon had to thrash his
wheat in a corner to hide it from the Midianites. The day of Joshua
was marked by splendid victories; the day of Gideon was a day of small
things. But the day of small things for man is the day of great things
for God. So Gideon found it. True, it was not permitted him to witness
the sun and moon arrested in their course, or the cities of the
uncircumcised levelled with the ground. His was a day of barley cakes
and broken pitchers, not of astounding miracles and brilliant
achievements. But God was with him; and this was enough. "There came
an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that
pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon threshed wheat
by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee,
_thou mighty man of valor_" (Judges vi. 11, 12).
What words were these to fall upon the ear of Gideon, cowering in the
winepress, through fear of the enemy! They were words from heaven to
lift his soul above the trials, and sorrows, and humiliations of
earth--words of divine power and virtue to infuse vigor into his
depressed and sorrowing heart. "Thou mighty man of valor!" How hard
was it for Gideon to take such wondrous accents in! How difficult to
apply them to himself! Where was the might or where was the valor?
Most surely not in himself or in his surroundings. Where then? In the
living God; precisely where Joshua found his might and his valor.
Indeed there is a striking similarity in the terms in which both these
eminent servants of God were addressed. The similarity of the terms is
quite as marked as is the contrast in their circumstances. Here are
the terms to Joshua: "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a
good courage: be not thou afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the
Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." And the terms to
Gideon are: "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor."
Precious words! Soul-stirring, heart-strengthening accents! And yet
Gideon was slow to make them his own--slow to grasp them, in the
lovely appropriating power of faith, which so delights the heart of
God, and glorifies His name. How often is it thus with us! How
constantly we fail to rise to the height of God's gracious thoughts
and purposes towards us! We are prone to _reason_ about ourselves and
our surroundings, instead of believing God, and resting, in sweet
tranquillity, in His perfect love and faithfulness.
Thus it was with that dear man of God on whose history we are
dwelling. The divine statement was clear, full, absolute, and
unconditional: "The Lord _is_ with thee." There was no ground, in
these words, for any question or doubt, whatsoever; and yet mark
Gideon's reply: "And Gideon said unto Him, O my Lord, _if_ the Lord be
with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His
miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us
into the hands of the Midianites" (verse 13).
Here, as is evident, Gideon reasons from his surroundings. Hence the
"_if_"--that little monosyllable of unbelief. It is a familiar remark
amongst us, "If you want to be miserable, look within; if you want to
be distracted, look around; if you want to be peaceful and happy, look
up--'look off unto Jesus.'" This is most true. So surely as we become
occupied with self, or with men and things, the circumstances which
surround us, we must be unhinged and unhappy. Our only strength, our
only comfort, our only light, is to keep the eye of faith fixed on
Jesus, and the heart firmly centred in Him. Most certainly Gideon's
surroundings were of the gloomiest character. His "sensible horizon"
was overhung with dark and heavy clouds. But there was one bright and
blessed ray which shone in upon his depressed spirit--a ray emanating
from the very heart of God, and conveyed in that one brief but
comprehensive sentence, "The Lord is with thee." There was no "if" in
this--no doubt, no reserve, no condition. It was distinct and
unqualified, and needed only one thing to make it a spring of joy,
strength, and victory in Gideon's soul, and that was to mix it with
faith. But then "if" is not faith. True faith never answers God with
ifs, for the simplest of all reasons, that it looks only at God, and
there are no ifs with Him. Faith reasons from God downwards; not from
man upwards. Faith has only one difficulty, and that difficulty is
embodied in the question, "How shall He _not?_" It never says, "How
shall He?" This is the language of sheer unbelief.
But, it may be asked by some, was there not some foundation for
Gideon's "if" and "why?" Certainly not in God or in His word, whatever
there had been in Israel and their actings. No doubt, if Gideon had
only cast his eye back over the pages of his national history, he
might have discovered ample reason for the sad and humiliating
condition in which he found himself. Those blotted pages would have
furnished an abundant answer to his question, "Why then is all this
befallen us?" But had Israel's actings dimmed the lustre of Jehovah's
mighty "miracles?" Not in the vision of faith, most surely. God had
done great and glorious things for His people; and the record of those
doings lay ever under the eye of faith, in all its soul-sustaining
virtue. No doubt Israel had failed--shamefully failed; and the record
of that failure lay also under the eye of faith, and furnished a
solemn answer to Gideon's inquiry, "Why is all this befallen us?"
Faith recognizes God's government as well as His grace, and moreover
it bows, in solemn awe, before each stroke of His governmental rod.
It is well to keep all this in mind. We are apt to forget it. God has,
at times, to stretch forth his hand and lift the rod of authority. He
cannot own what is contrary to His Name and His nature. Now, Gideon
needed to remember this. Israel had sinned, and this was the reason
why they were under the rod, of which the power of the Midianites was
the expression in Gideon's day.
Gideon, we repeat, was called to enter practically into the meaning of
all this; and not only so, but to taste the reality of identification
with his people in all their pressure and affliction. This latter, as
we know, was the portion and experience of every true servant of God
in Israel. All had to pass through those deep exercises of soul
consequent upon their association with the people of God. It mattered
not whether it were a judge, a prophet, a priest, or a king; all had
to participate in the sorrows and trials of the nation of Israel; nor
could any true heart--any genuine lover of God or His people--desire
exemption from such deep and holy exercises. This was pre-eminently
true of the only perfect Servant that ever stood upon this earth. He,
though personally exempt from all the consequences of Israel's sin and
failure--though pure and spotless, divinely holy in nature and in
life--did nevertheless, in perfect grace, voluntarily identify Himself
with the people in all their sorrow and humiliation. "In all their
affliction He was afflicted." Thus it was with our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ; and all who, in any degree, partook of His Spirit, had,
according to their measure, to taste of the same cup, though none
could ever come up to Him in this or in aught else.
But when we come to compare closely the angel's words to Gideon, with
his reply, we notice a point of deep interest, and one which
illustrates the individual character of the book of Judges. The angel
says, "The Lord is with _thee_." Gideon replies, "If the Lord be with
_us_." This is very interesting and instructive; moreover it is in
full keeping with a passage already referred to, in chap, iii.: "And
when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was _with the
judge_." It does not say, "with the people," but adds, with touching
grace, "and _delivered them_ out of the hand of their enemies all the
days of the judge; for it repented the Lord because of their groanings
by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them" (ver. 18).
There is peculiar sweetness and beauty in this. If Jehovah had to hide
His face from His people, and give them over, for the time, into the
hand of the uncircumcised, yet His loving heart was ever turned
towards them, and ever ready to mark and recognize the faintest traces
of a repentant spirit. "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His
heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in
mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will
subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy
to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of
old" (Micah. vii. 18-20).