“If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us?”
Here are some words that you may have heard before. “Where is the Lord?” It’s the question we ask when God doesn’t fulfill our wishes. We wonder why God doesn’t prosper us. We question his existence when we experience suffering to any degree. We doubt his love when tragedy falls upon us.
Gideon had these words for a God, but left out the history of his people. They had abandoned God to walk their own way, giving themselves to sin and idol worship. His own history was the answer to his question. God seems far away, or not there at all, when we are suffering from the due punishment of our sins.
What is interesting in this passage is how the Lord answered Gideon. He didn’t say to him that it was israel’s fault. He simply declared how he was going to use him to save Israel. When God decides to save, he doesn’t recount all the details of our sin, he simply moves to save. He is gracious to us.
What trouble are you in today? What is of your own making? Of what are you oppressed? Our greatest oppression is that of our own sin. And God’s act of salvation was to bear our sins on the cross, through Jesus. Jesus is the answer to our question, “Where is God when ___________ (you fill in the blank).
Memory Verse
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (II Peter 3:9).
Application
Remember that the Lord punishes sin, but does so, so that we might come to repentance. Review your troubles. What is of your own making that requires repentance? Bring that to the Lord in confession.