“The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
W
WHY DON’T MORE PASTORS
get involved in Christian education—
either by starting a school or by being a
vocal supporter? There are many answers,
but many of them come back to one main problem: self-
doubt. We fear that getting involved would require more
than we could give: more expertise, more courage, more
resources, more patience. If those are your fears, then you
can rest assured they’re justified. Christian education does
require more than you have.
But my point in this article is not to convince you to
walk away from the challenge. It is to help you to think
biblically about your weaknesses and how God can work
through them. The Bible confronts us again and again with
the need for faith. Those who step out on faith, putting
their full weight on God’s promises, find that His strength
is greater than their weakness.
Gideon’s Story
That’s what Gideon found. You know the story. Gideon is
threshing wheat in a winepress. A winepress is a terrible
place for such a task—unless you want to hide from
marauding Midianites while you do so. Then it’s a good
place. And that’s when the angel of the Lord appears: “The
Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor” (Judg. 6:12). An
ironic statement if ever there was one. Gideon is hiding
from the Midianites, and God calls him “a mighty man of
valor.” Or maybe it’s not ironic, not to God at least. This is
no human messenger. This is the angel of the Lord, and He
can see the end of this story from its beginning. He doesn’t
see a frightened man standing in a winepress. He sees what
this man will one day become.
In that conversation, Gideon is told to fight the Midi-
anites and defeat them. God will be with him, and He
will see to it that Gideon does not fail. After a great deal
of encouragement, Gideon agrees, and an army of 32,000
men is mustered (Judg. 7:3). That may seem like an impres-
sive number, but it looks different when you consider that
the Midianites have 135,000 on their side (cf. Judg. 8:10).
Gideon is hopelessly outnumbered.
That’s when things get really interesting. God tells
Gideon to announce that anyone who is fearful should go
home. The Bible tells us that 22,000 depart. Gideon is left
with 10,000 men to fight the overwhelming Midianite host.
I cannot mention this detail without thinking of the
many pastors and administrators who learn in July that
their enrollment numbers are down significantly or that
their staffing needs are far from met. These are real prob-
lems that leaders in Christian education face, and these
problems are not easy to solve. Sometimes we refer to
these situations as the “horror stories” of Christian educa-
tion. Let me assure you that they are true—just as true as
the story of Gideon and his 10,000.
But the number does not stay at 10,000, does it? The
Bible also tells us that the Lord told Gideon to send home
anyone who stooped down to drink from the spring of
Harod, instead of bending down to lap the water like a dog
(Judg. 7:5–6). Now the vast majority of the men are sent
home. Gideon is left with just 300 men!
But it is enough. Gideon leads this tiny band into battle,
and they rout the Midianites. In the end, Gideon gains
renown throughout all Israel as the mighty man of valor
God knew he would become.
It’s a great story, but we’ll misunderstand it unless we
ask ourselves an important question: Why? Why does
God seem to toy with Gideon? Why did God demand that
the army of Gideon be whittled down to a ridiculously
low number? If numbers don’t matter to God, then why
not save Gideon the emotional trauma and just send the
32,000 into battle?
Judges 7:2 gives us the answer—and it is the most
important statement in the whole story: “And the LORD
35