The first thing Gideon finds is that two-thirds of the
people who show up to fight are so fearful and trembling that they will
immediately take their chance to cut and run.
That isn't exactly a confidence builder but it would give you confidence
in the third who remained even after the fearful walk away en masse. Those people are really committed and ready
to roll. Then, since they won't walk on
their own accord the Lord gives a test no one can "game" because no
one could know the right answer in advance.
Who could have guessed that which way you drink matters in going to
war? Gideon only knows in advance that
there will be two groups. He surely breathed a sigh of relief when he looked at
the groups and thought, well, that cut was only about 3% and then God sent the
97% home! I am not sure the writer could
have stressed any more how many were there enemies, " the Midianites and
the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their
camels were without number, as the sand
that is on the seashore in abundance."
And Gideon has three hundred men who were chosen simply for their manner
of drinking water. Yet, like the people
of the city of Jericho, the Midianites and Amalekites and all the people of the
east fear the Lord's ability to defeat them.
Gideon is roused by their faith to His own faith and is prepared to
fight.
John is absolutely certain who he is not and who he is. He is not Elijah (though Jesus will say that
John was indeed the prophet who will herald, in accord with Malachi's prophecy,
the Messiah). He is adamant that he is
definitely not Messiah. Who are you
then? I am the voice of one crying in
the wilderness, the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, the one whose job it
is to prepare the way of the Lord as though for a king. In South Carolina there are several roads
called King's and their purpose was to expedite the king's travels by making a
straight, level path to his destination.
That is what John's work is, the same was done in his time for royalty
and John was doing exactly that, clearing the obstacles. He baptized to prepare a people not in
opposition to the king but those who were prepared to embrace the kingdom
values. That is the work of the church
today.
The crippled man simply wanted and expected alms. When Peter told him that he and his
companions had neither silver or gold it surely came as a disappointment. Peter's admonition to "look at us"
sounds like Charles Stanley's preaching style.
I wonder if the man reluctantly raised his eyes to look at them, without
expectation. What happens next, his
utter healing, his feet and ankles were not only healed, they were made strong,
strong enough that after never having walked in his entire life he not only
walked, he leapt into the temple, the first time he could ever enter due to his
handicap! He came in leaping and
praising God, he knew how to worship because he knew what God had done for him. It is most important that we know who the
king is and who we are, His servants, but only because of what He has done for
us. In the eyes of the world we may be
insignificant but He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine.
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