Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree. The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” “It is all right,” the Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.
Judges 6:11-24
Dear God, sometimes you call us to do things that we feel totally unqualified or unable to do. I was talking with my wife this morning about how awful the gift of prophecy would be. It would be terrible, in my opinion, to know the future. I have zero desire to want to know the future. If I had known how hard it would be to obey what I felt was your leading in 2002 to leave my secure job and step out in faith on an unknown adventure, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do it. Ignorance was my ally. It still is.
Even for Gideon here. If he had known how much work lay ahead for him as a leader he probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do it. You gave him just enough information to move him forward, but not too much so that he would be frozen into inaction. Back in 2003, I developed a line that you keep me on a need-to-know basis and I very rarely need to know. I hold to that.
I know some people who are preoccupied with the end times and understanding them. I don’t know why that intrigues them. That makes no sense to me. I doubt you have much of a role for me in your end-times plans except that, in the unlikely event that I find myself alive and in the middle of them, you just want me to be faithful to you in the moment–doing what I can within the sphere of influence you’ve given me. Frankly, I doubt I would be able to tell if I was in the middle of your end times or not. I don’t think any human can figure that out this side of heaven.
Going back to the idea of being able to tell the future and how awful that would be, the movie Encanto had a character named Bruno. The family members were given different gifts such as super strength, creating flowers, shape shifting, etc. The one gift though that seemed like the absolute worst to me was Bruno’s. Bruno got the gift of seeing the future. And, spoiler alert, it doesn’t bode well for him or the family. They can’t handle the knowledge Bruno gives them. And, frankly, they don’t need it. He has visions of the future, but they don’t really bring any solutions. Only fear, dread, and confusion.
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for reminding me to simply keep my head in this moment. I don’t have to worry about the past because your grace has given me hope and peace from the mistakes I’ve made and sins I’ve committed. And I don’t have to worry about the future because my life is worth nothing to me (Acts 20:24). All I have to worry about is what you’re calling me to do in this moment. So I give you this moment right now. I’m sorry I didn’t give you more moments this week. I’m sorry I haven’t sat down to do these prayer journals since Sunday, although my week wasn’t totally devoid of you. But I’m grateful for you. I’m grateful to be loved by you. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to love you. Thank you.
I pray all of this completely submitted to who you are–the one true God,
Amen
Emails to God 