The Godly Measure
It is very common in this world and even among ourselves to value things according to what we physically see. We have a measure for ourselves which is based on facts and reality. Yet there is a measure that does not go hand-in-hand with ours. Most of the times it can even be in contradiction to ours. That is what you call as the God’s way of measure. It need not be in line with facts and reality. It is beyond our measure and an unbelievable intellect for human understanding.
When God called Gideon to be the rescuer of his nation from the hand of it’s enemies, He said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12). But the real state of Gideon was contradicting what the Lord told him. Israel was living in fear and suffering as the hand of the Midianites prevailed against them. “So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.” (Judges 6:3-5). Their enemies who surrounded them were as good as numerous locusts. In that state of being, Gideon was found threshing wheat in a winepress which was not meant for it. In order to hide it from the enemies so that he can save some food for himself. This shows the fearful state of Gideon. And it was in that state, God appoints Gideon to save Israel saying, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:14). Gideon was not able to take this to him at the moment he received his call. It was because he was fear-struck and also was scaling according to “his measure” of his own strength. “So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”” (Judges 6:15). But he did not realise that he was called and being scaled according to “God’s measure”.
“And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”” (Judges 6:16). This was the strength that God enabled Gideon with. Looking at him only after having strengthened him with His own might, He measured him as a “mighty man of valour!”. Gideon anchored his hope on this word from the Lord that made him a rescuer of his nation. Because an anchor is meant to be put on something which is immovable and unshakable. The word of God is the best place of choice to anchor our hopes. If our anchor of hope is on the unshakeable, we too are unshakeable with might and valor.
