Bible in a Year… Day 37 (Judges 1-6)

We start a new book of the Bible today… Judges 1-6.

Today’s notes:

Judges 6:15-23 (NIV)
¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

    And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

²⁰The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. ²²When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”

²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

Judges 6:36-40 (NIV)
³⁶Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised — ³⁷look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” ³⁸And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew — a bowlful of water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” ⁴⁰That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

I find these requests by Gideon for signs very interesting. On one hand, the first request makes sense. Who wouldn’t want a sign in that circumstance?

But the latter two?

They certainly seem to me to show a lack of faith and trust.

It’s certainly not an uncommon thing for us to throw down our own “fleeces” of God, asking God to give us certain signs if something is His will. But I wonder… is this a Biblical practice? Jesus counters Satan’s temptation in Matthew 4:7, “You must not test the Lord your God”, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, “You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah.” Following back further, we find the root in Exodus 17, where we find the people complaining to Moses, wondering if God has deserted them to die in the desert. God provides a sign that He is with them by bringing water from the rock, but the people are admonished for their lack of faith.

Is that the answer, then? That we demonstrate lack of faith when we require “signs” of God?

It seems so to me. But then again, I understand completely the need for reassurance that we’re following God’s will. And given that we have Biblical precedent for God answering such, I have a hard time believing that doing so is always the wrong course of action.

Whatever the case, it’s yet another complicated matter of faith.