We humans love titles, and we REALLY love them in America. When you first meet another person, often one of the first questions asked is "what do you do?" This means that the other person wants to know what you do for work, and we do this without thinking. In a way we are trying to classify a person when we first meet them, and this impacts how we think about the person from that point on. What is your title?
If God were going to give you a title, what would it be? I have wondered about this for a while now. In my prideful moments I drift to things that in my mind where great things I did "for God." This isn't the right mindset and I know it, but I would imagine you also struggle with thinking like this. In my better moments when I really have some conception of where I stand with the Lord, I can think of no good or noble title that he would give me. After all, I have absolutely nothing apart from his grace, including my own standing before him. And yet there are times when God seemingly gives us a title that does not fit.
Gideon was one of those guys who got a title like that. In Judges chapter 6 we see a man who is in hiding because his country has been overrun by invaders. We don't think much of that these days but what was happening was that Midianites, a nomadic people, had moved in literally overnight into Israel. God allowed it because Israel had turned its back to God, and this was allowed as discipline. The Midianites moved in on a sea of camels and would park in the middle of the fields where the crops were growing. The people and the animals would eat literally everything in sight, leaving nothing but starvation for the Israelites. And the people were too numerous to do anything about it.
For context, think about it this way. Imagine one evening you went to bed. Your neighborhood or village was quiet and nothing was going on. The next morning you wake up and there are literally thousands of people and animals literally everywhere you look. And they were all armed and hostile. That's what this was like. The Midianites rode on camels which were capable of traveling 100 miles each day, so they could swoop in quickly and take over literally overnight.
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
We find Gideon in the story hiding out in a winepress, which was a hole in the ground. It was deep enough to where you couldn't see him if you were a short distance away. He had a very small crop of wheat in the winepress and he was threshing it, meaning he was crushing it to separate the grain from the stalk of grass. His crop was incredibly small too. Normally threshing occurred on a hillside where the wheat was spread over a great distance and crushed. This would provide enough for a family and maybe some to sell. Gideon wasn't even close to that amount.
And Gideon was given a title that didn't make any sense in that moment. He clearly wasn't mighty and he was definitely nobody's hero. Why did the Lord call him by this name?
First, it is important for you to know that this "angel of the Lord" wasn't just a run of the mill angel. This was Jesus. Yep, that Jesus. We often think of him as coming into existence when he was born to the virgin Mary, but we forget that since he is God, he existed from the beginning. John 1 says this about him:
John 1: 1-5
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,[a]
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.[b]
So Jesus has been around forever, and he does appear on occasion in the Old Testament as "the angel of the Lord." And here, he appears to poor Gideon and calls him by this title that doesn't fit. Why?
We have to remember that since the Lord was around on the 6 days of creation, that has implications for you and me too. He was there at your birth. He saw your mother struggle in birth, watched you while you were a toddler, saw you in your teenage years, has watched you make the mistakes you made, the failures, the victories, everything. He has seen the times when you committed to him and the times you have turned your back on him. He has seen it all, and he still loves you.
Is it possible that this same Jesus, who has been around forever and seen every second of your existence on Earth, also sees you for what you will be? Of course it is. Gideon was certainly no mighty hero in this moment, but in the not so distant future the Israelites certainly would view him this way. And the Lord knew it.
What then would be the title the Lord would give you? I ask that because I know many of you probably are in a low point where you are just unsure what the Lord thinks of you. You ask why you are still here on Earth and what use he could possibly have for you, considering the things you have done in your days here. How could he use you? How can he use you now that you are a senior adult? How can he use you with the past that you have?
To understand that you have to remember one thing: the Lord is not like you and I. He never gives up on us. He's not happy about the bad decisions we have made or the times we have walked away from him, but he never gives up on us. Not ever. It doesn't matter what stage of life you are in or what is in your past. He still can do anything he wants with you. Be very encouraged by that.
The Lord appeared here to Gideon as a sign that things were about to change. And change they did. All Gideon had to do was to obey the Lord in that moment. That involved taking a step to get out of the winepress and do what the Lord commanded him to do. It's the same with you.
You may not be in a place where the Lord has appeared to you and commanded you to do something completely different. As someone who has experienced that firsthand, I can tell you with great certainty that you will know it when it happens. That encounter with Jesus changes everything about your life and your plans, and you won't want to miss it for the world. He can do that in you as well.
So while you may fear to go out your front door and talk to a neighbor, the Lord's title for you may be "mighty evangelist." And while you may fear speaking to groups of people the Lord's title for you may be "strong teacher." And while you may never have lived anywhere outside of what makes you comfortable, the Lord's title for you may be "strong missionary." It could be anything.
The point is, it is the Lord who can make any of these things happen in your life. It doesn't happen with your strength and knowhow. It never will. And that's why so many so-called Christians never experience the life the Lord has for them, because they refuse to accept that a power apart from their own will make it happen. Surely it is more training! Surely it is more personal development! Nope. It's more obedience.
My prayer for each of you is that the Lord will come have an encounter with you similar to what he did with Gideon. I hope you hear from him that he's commanding you to do something really different and out of your comfort zone. And I pray that instead of arguing with him, that you just put one foot in front of the other and you go. That's all of the effort that is required, but it is also the hardest effort you will ever make.
May the Lord show himself to you in a new way this week and give you a title that doesn't fit you right now. And may the result of that be deeper relationship with him as you walk through it!
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