The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!
A quick side-note, the Hebrew word translated as “valor” is “chayil” - also translated in Scripture as “strength” and “virtue.” The woman mentioned in Proverbs 31:10 as a “virtuous” woman – this is “Chayil.” She also is a woman of virtue, strength, and valor, just as Gideon is called a man of valor.
Because here we find Gideon as he’s going about his day threshing wheat in a winepress, hiding from the Midianites. Imagine his surprise (and yours if you were to experience the same) to suddenly encounter an angel and hear these words which changed the course of his day and his life: “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor.” (And for the women: “The Lord is with you, mighty woman of valor.”)
And how does Gideon respond? With a rebuttal, cleverly designed as a series of question. Gideon doesn’t understand how what the Angel has spoken could “be.” His circumstance dictate otherwise. Gideon is not yet grasping that the Lord doesn’t break covenant; the Lord doesn’t alter the thing that has gone out of His lips (Psalm 89:34) That this word of the Lord that’s
been spoken is already established and cannot be altered. It already is so. What the Angel has spoken is truth, truth that is immutable.
Gideon seems to also have forgotten the Lord’s previous and continuous promise, “I will be with you.” For the Lord isn’t merely with us in places of victory, He’s also with us in places of defeat. He’s with us even in the winepress, the place of pressing, the place of hardship. God has promised He is with us, He will not leave us, He will not forsake us, no matter where we find ourselves.
Therefore and not surprisingly, Gideon’s rebuttal is of no avail. Just as our rebuttal (“but God…”) to the Lord is futile. Because when He speaks, it is so; particularly when He speaks in regard to our identity. And here we see this when the Angel respond’s to Gideon’s response:
Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?
Gideon’s previous response had no effect on the establishment of the Lord’s purposes, and his continued response - his recitation of the facts of his life - do not change the assignment the Lord has given him. (And as for us, we can refuse God’s assignment for us, but it doesn’t make the assignment go away, it merely goes to another, for the assignment, once establish, is established) But this time the Lord is gracious and reminds Gidon once again:
Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man, this final phrase a hidden reference to another meaning of “valor” or “Chayil” – a force, as in a force of men, means or resources. Gideon will be as a force, God’s force, that cannot be withstood by the enemy. And eventually Gideon comes into agreement with his God-spoken identity. Gideon, whose name means “hewer” or “feller” (of tress) first cuts down his father’s idols, and then, through agreement with his assignment, cuts down the Midianites in a way that God get all of the glory. As God had ordained it to be.
Let this be a cautionary tale in regard to rebutting God when He asks you to do something. “But God, I _______________ ” You can fill in your own blank. The assignment doesn’t go away because you feel unqualified or unready. And likely there are “midianites” in your life He is calling you to deal with…The assignment may be large, it may be small, but it’s an assignment the Lord wants to entrust to you, to take you to your next level. Will you step into it?
And like Gideon, each one of us has doubts we must deal with and peculiarities to our personality, but this doesn’t hinder God. After all, He chooses and uses the foolish things of this world to put to shame the things which are mighty…that no flesh should glory in His presence
(1 Corinthians 1:27 & 29). He will use you…as you yield to Him, whether it’s through an unction, a nudge, or an encounter.
And if you still have any doubt that wants to and will use you, remember - God used four leprous men to save a city. He also used an unnamed woman to drop a millstone on King Abimelech’s head as well as people well advanced in age who may have thought their time had come and gone. So let’s lay aside all doubt and all other things that hinder us. For there is much grace given - as much as we need – for the race set before each one of us.
Exemplary Verse:
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. Jesus, John 9:4