GOD SEES US AS WE CAN BE!

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12). The angel uttered these words and for a moment the earth stopped in its orbit, the wind died, and birds stopped chirping . . . the world went silent and still. This was the angel of heaven talking to the wimp in the hole in the ground and calling him a “mighty man of valor.” All of nature knew that something was going on here, because in the natural Gideon was about as far removed from being a man of valor as one could be.

The year was about 1256 BC and the Midianites were making life miserable for the Jewish nation. In the roughly 200 years since Joshua had led the victorious nation into the Promised Land, Israel had turned from their wholehearted devotion to Jehovah and become stubborn, rebellious and compromised. Israel was given opportunity after opportunity to make things rights and like a pig, they returned to the mud and grime of disobedient living. Out of the desert came a raiding tribe of nomads, the Midianites. They were cruel, relentless raiders so persistent in devastating the Jews that they finally drove them into hiding. The Jews lived in constant fear of the Midianite raiders.

Gideon was in a winepress, in this case essentially a large hole in the ground, trying to thresh enough wheat to feed his family. Threshing by hand requires a little wind so that as the kernels of wheat are separated from the stock, they fall to the ground, and the breeze blows away the chaff. A simple lesson of life is that you do not thresh wheat in a hole in the ground, and that is what Gideon was trying to do. There was no wind down there, threshing is hot work, there is lots of dust and chaff, and Gideon was a mess.

I think when the angel uttered these words to Gideon he had to stifle a laugh, because the scene before him was not that of Davy Crockett at the Alamo or General George Patton charging up his troops for the push into Germany in WWII. It was more like Pee Wee Herman playing in a sandbox. The incongruity of the depiction of Gideon as a “mighty man of valor” and the obvious timidity and fright of the man in the hole in the ground was startling.

When I graduated from college I had no idea where I would fit in God’s kingdom. It seemed like I learned to find where God wanted me to be by listening to the no’s that came from heaven. Several churches extended invitations for us to join their staff but as we prayed, heaven would say, “No, that’s not for you.” To make a long story even longer (I jest), we have always followed the doors that were open. And as the Lord said to go or at least didn’t say no, one thing has led to another and to another and to another.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that it is often easier for others to see your potential than it is for you to see it in yourself. David Wilkerson gave me much encouragement in this area. David saw where my gifts were when I couldn’t see them for myself and graciously moved me into areas of  leadership and administration that I didn’t think I would ever be good at.

When the angel stood on the edge of the hole and looked down at Pee Wee threshing wheat, covered in dust, dirt and sweat, that is not what he saw. Yes, that was what was standing there but what the angel saw by faith was the man God would use to lead Israel out of the pit and into freedom. God didn’t need a John Wayne who had his act so together that he didn’t really need anyone but himself. God wanted a man who had no confidence in his flesh and simply wanted to please the Lord. That was the man the angel saw in the hole.

 God sees us not as we are but as we can be!

When the Apostle Peter first met Jesus, he was a vacillating, impetuous, lying fisherman with little hope for the future. Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas (which means Peter)” (John 1:42, ESV). Both names in their original language mean “rock.”

Jesus did not see Peter as he was, He saw his potential and what he could and would become. I do not believe the Lord was saying that Peter would be the rock upon which the church would be built but that it would be built by men and women who, in the natural, did not seem to have the potential to do anything great. Men and women who would make themselves available to God for His service. Peter would be one of those "rocks" upon which would become the foundation of His church.

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29, NIV).