Judges 8 - When God is all You Have

Few of us would dare to ask God to remove all our resources so that we can experience a situation where God is all we have to rely on. But when God removes all our supports, we find God is all sufficient. Gideon had his faith stretched way beyond what most of us will ever experience. He was an unlikely leader who didn't enjoy confrontation, but God allowed confrontation to mold Gideon into a mighty leader of Israel. 

As we open this chapter, we find that after the victory over Midian, the men of Ephriam resented not being invited to the party. In Judges 6:35 we see Gideon did not call Ephriam to stand against the Midianites in battle. We aren't told why, but given God's parsing of the fighting men, there were likely few that would have made the cut anyway. We do see in Judges 7:24 that Gideon did call on Ephriam as the Midianites were fleeing. It was the men if Ephriam that killed the leaders Oreb and Zeeb. Gideon got nothing but strife from the men of Ephriam and so he responds that God delivered the army leaders into their hands. They do share in the greatest glory. You see Ephriam didn't care for service to God necessarily but they wanted glory and the spoils of war. 

After the maneuvering with Ephriam, Gideon's 490 fighting men were exhausted and hungry. When Gideon asked for bread for his men at Succoth and Peniel, they were refused leaving These men in a weakened state as they pursued the kings of Midian. 

Upon capturing the Kings, Gideon called on his son to kill them as they had killed Gideon's brothers, but he wouldn't. The bible explains he was just a boy and afraid. So Gideon was left to finish the conflict himself.   Gideon was named ruler over Israel because of the great victory God gave over Midian. 

Perhaps if there had been help from any other source Israel might not have seen the hand of God at work. Because Gideon trusted God to save them from Midian, the story is recorded for all generations to know how faithful God is. We see evidence that he uses unlikely people to accomplish his work. We see that God can supply all the resources needed and it doesn't take might or wealth, but faith to see the victory. 

When we are deprived of our resources, it may just be that God is planning to use our situation to demonstrate to the world that he is real, he can be trusted, and he is Almighty to save from any foe. 

Our challenge is to be faithful with the strength we have and not to rely on it for the victory, but rely on God. He gets the glory, we are merely the children of his love. 

We serve a God who is writing His story right now in the midst of our lives with the direction and resources He supplies. There is no resource too small to be used and none so large that cannot be removed at God's discretion. He is all that is needed. When He is all we have we learn that truth in a very special way. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him.