Where be all His miracles?

In Judges, chapter six, verse thirteen, Gideon’s question should be in consideration by New Testament believers. If God’s miraculous power is lacking among us, we must seek His kingdom and righteousness until God’s mighty acts until the manifestation occurs in our midst. 

The Angel of the Lord has appeared to Gideon as he works secretly. Gideon is threshing wheat in a winepress to avoid detection by invading marauders, as in Judges six, one through eleven. This stranger, who likely did not look like an angel, greeted Gideon by describing him as a strong warrior in verse twelve. Such praise is ironic for a timid man verses seventeen, twenty-seven, thirty-six through forty, respectively, hiding his food from potential enemies. Yet the phrase Gideon responds to is the first part of Angel’s greeting: that the Lord God was with him. 

The idea that God was with anyone in Israel conflicted with the situation of Gideon’s everyday life. The nation had been “brought low:” humiliated and beaten down by foreign enemies. People were hungry and scared for the future. They had no hope of stopping the Midianites from taking everything from them, year after year. Gideon carries this idea beyond himself to apply to all of Israel, asking a bold question: if the Lord is with Israel, why has all this happened to us? Where is the miraculous rescue the Lord performed when bringing us out of Egypt, as our ancestors described in their stories?
Gideon acknowledges his generation had heard the stories of God’s goodness and power as in Exodus three, verse twenty, and twelve, verse fifty-one, respectively. That knowledge did not keep them from turning to the depraved, evil gods of their neighbors in Canaan, as in Judges two eleven through nineteen. Israel’s current predicament is part of a repeating pattern of faithlessness. Gideon was probably not the only person in Israel who understood that their sin had caused the Lord to turn them over to Midian. The people have finally cried out to the Lord for rescue.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *