IV.
In the last post I asked us to focus on how Gideon voiced his reluctance to accept the task “offered” to him by the angel of the Lord.

Let’s look again and pay attention to what we notice in the exchanges.

V.
Judges 6:1-2, 7-16 (NRSVUE)

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds.

When the Israelites cried to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.’ But you have not given heed to my voice.”

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”

VI.
What do you notice in the conversation?

For me, I notice the give and take of a conversation.

And as I think about it, it seems while Gideon did not say (as some have), “Here I am, send me;” neither did he run in the opposite direction as Jonah did initially.

So, as you pay attention to Gideon’s words, what do you think of him?

And particularly what do you notice you might call a strength of his?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}