The Sign of the Fleece

 

 

Judges 6:36-40

 The Sign of the Fleece

 

 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,  behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.”   And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.   Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.”   And God did so that night, and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

 

This obscure wheat thrasher of a small clan and the youngest of the family first was addressed by the Angel of The LORD, and then the LORD twice, and he asked for a sign.  You read the account above, and if you read Chapter six you have seen what God has done for this young insecure man.  The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 

 

I wonder if Gideon looked around the threshing floor to see who the angel of the LORD was referring to, I am sure that I would, then and now, for I’m not mighty or a man of valor.  But neither was Gideon and that was the rest of the story.  When God does for a person what He has done for Gideon, it is a game-changer.  Do you recall God telling the following to Gideon;  And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”  This is not a church program, Gideons is not at the temple, he is hiding from the enemy, trying to save some wheat for the family, no, it is an encounter with the Creator, and God has picked Gideon the never was to be somebody in God’s power.

 

Did you take note that God did not get angry about Gideon his small faith, and I am so glad for I often have small faith, in my big God,  In some ways, most of us are fleece people, and many of us are more in tune in to the latest program, and not the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  My wife and I got into one of those programs, it is a good and needed thing in our Church, but we never asked the LORD if that was where He wanted us, it was a very long year.  I’m of the old school, and I learned, you do not quit a job, because it is hard, or not enjoyable, you finish what you agreed to.  But one day at coffee with a brother in Christ, I was sharing how it was almost like taking the prep for a colonoscopy each week.  He asks a question, did God tell you to do it, or was it is a need.  That is the first time I understood, it was not a call, it was a need, and I was doing it in my power, and we finished the year, but now we wait for the LORD to assign our service.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice