God Works Through People

I quickly felt the other one and I thought, “oh, I’ve got one there, too!” (laughing) and then I thought, “it’s a muscle!  I’ve got a muscle!” (applause) oh, i got excited! I called five people and told them, “I have a muscle!” (laughing) it’s kind of nice when that part of your arm quits swinging in the wind. Well, you guys know me; I can’t do anything without telling the whole world. Praise the lord. Judges, chapter 6, beginning in verse 12. A little bit of background: the Israelites had done evil in the sight of the lord. God had allowed the midianites to capture them and they’d been living in captivity for seven years being cruelly treated. God, because he is merciful, was now wanting to deliver them. As always, he looks for a person to work through. Now god is sovereign and he can do anything he wants to, any time he wants to, but he uses people; god works through people.

Even what we call miracles, very often it’s god working through someone to meet someone else’s need. Now, obviously, there are healing miracles and things like that that people have nothing to do with but I’m just trying to make a point that very often god works through a person. So he found Gideon. And in verse 12, this is the way the angel of the lord approached Gideon and this is what he said to him: and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the lord is with you, you mighty man of [fearless] courage.  And Gideon said to him, (Joyce whining) o sir, if the lord is with us, why is all this befallen us?… I can just hear him sounding like this… And where are all his wondrous works that we’ve heard about? Did not the lord bring us up from Egypt?  But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of midian. So god says, “the lord is with you, you mighty man of fearless courage.” and he begins to rehearse all of his problems. Verse 14:  the lord turned to him and said, go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of midian. Have I not sent you? Verse 15:  Gideon said to him, oh Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. “I can’t do that, Lord. I’ve got too many problems. I mean, have you not noticed, Lord, my age, and my learning disability, and I don’t have anybody to help me.” (laughing)