Day 6 — Gideon, the Least

“And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, ‘The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.’… ‘Please, my Lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.’”

— Judges 6:12, 15 (BSB)

Gideon was hiding.

For seven years, an enemy people called the Midianites had been raiding Israel. Every harvest, they swept in like a swarm of locusts and stole everything. God’s people were so afraid that they hid in caves in the mountains.

So Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress, a pit dug in the ground, trying to hide his little bit of grain from the enemy. He was scared.

Then an angel of the LORD appeared and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

Valor means courage in battle. Can you imagine Gideon’s face? Mighty man of valor? Me? I’m hiding in a hole!

Gideon had lots of reasons why God had the wrong guy. “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” In other words, I’m the least important guy from the least important family. I’m nobody.

But God didn’t call Gideon a mighty man of valor because of what Gideon already was. He called him that because of what God was going to do through him. “Go in the strength you have… Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14). And then God promised, “Surely I will be with you.”

God later told Gideon to send most of his army home, because God wanted everyone to know that He was the one who saved them, not Gideon’s strength or numbers. With just three hundred men, God gave Gideon a huge victory over the Midianites.

Maybe you feel like Gideon sometimes. Too young. Too small. Too scared. Not important. You might have a list of reasons why God couldn’t use you.

But God loves to use guys who know they can’t do it on their own. He doesn’t need you to be the strongest or the bravest. He just needs you to trust Him and go.

A true story: When Samuel Crowther was about twelve years old, raiders attacked his town in West Africa and carried him away to be sold as a slave. He ended up chained below the deck of a slave ship, sure he’d never see home again. But a British ship chased the slave ship down and set everyone free. In Freetown, Sierra Leone, the boy who had been a slave learned to read, came to know Jesus, and later translated the Bible into his own people’s language. The boy nobody thought mattered became the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. You can read his whole story in Brave for God.

Think about it: What reasons do you give for why God couldn’t use you? What does Gideon’s story say about them?

Try this: Write down one thing you think you’re “too young” or “too small” to do for God. Then pray, “God, go with me, and I’ll go.”

Dear God, sometimes I feel like Gideon: too small, too young, too scared. Thank You that You see more in me than I see in myself. Go with me, and help me go in the strength You give. In Jesus’ name, Amen.