Judges 6

[Steven & Candace Dahl]

Here is a surprise for you Rob. Gideon decides to test God! I love this. God seems to take no offense and in fact just takes the testing in stride. Perhaps the openness of the conversation is the most gracious part here. It helps me when I think that God is willing to deal with my questions, especially when those questions are aimed at doing what God is asking me to do.

I wonder what might be faithful and helpful ways for us to "test" God today?

Steve

[Rob McNair]

Funny you mention this. I just did my reading this morning (I am trying a new approach as I usually wait until evening but by then I am tired and unfocused) and found that fascinating. It makes me think of when Zechariah is struck mute by the angel Gabriel for questioning. Usually God is perceived in the Old Testament as strict and angry yet here is a great example of him being extremely patient. I love that part with the wool fleece where he says, put dew on the wool and make the ground dry underneath as a sign. So God does it and then he says, "Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on the ground let there be dew." You can just picture Gideon standing there thinking, "Well, maybe that dew on the fleece was just a coincidence. Maybe that just naturally happened." I know I have been there before! When you are seeking guidance from God and you read something or someone tells you something and you think, "Well, yeah...that's probably just a coincidence." But yeah, when I first read that story about Gideon I expected God to just slam him for all his squabbling.

That is a great question about how we "test" God. That's gonna require some thinking...

[Amber Kalina]

I always think it's weird to read about us mortals trying to command or pursuade God to do things. It's, like, taboo to me. When I pray, I hope I'm not trying to force God to do things that I want. We pray "thy will be done," but sometimes it is so hard to trust that God's will is always the way; we are used to getting what we want, when we want it. Trust is a biggie.