Here am I

Panic and absolute terror seized the 120,000 Midianites and Amalekites as 300 men attacked them with trumpets and torches.  Mistaking friend for foe, with desperation they slaughtered one another.

Midianites.  That word held a foul taste in the mouths of the God's chosen people, the Israelites.  With cruelty they ruled Israel with a rod of iron, subjecting them to utter deprivation and humiliation.  God had removed His protection from Israel when the people turned away from Him.  But now the time was ripe for deliverance, and the Lord raised up a deliverer.

Threshing wheat in a winepress, a young man cries out to the Lord for the deliverance of Israel, when suddenly, a heavenly being appears to him.  Astonished, Gideon listens with surprise and shock as the angel says, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor."  Gideon had been trusting and hoping someone would be raised up as a deliverer, but surely not him!  Was he not the least in his father's house and from the small tribe of Mannasseh?  But God had called him.

Is God calling you to do something for Him, but you assume someone else will do it instead? 

"To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."  - Hebrews 3:15

Will you answer God's call, as did Isaiah and Gideon, and say, "Here am I; send me."  - Isaiah 6:8

Looking at his battle plan from a human standpoint, Gideon could clearly see that his 22,000 recruited men wouldn't stand a chance against the 120,000 of the enemy.  But God told the distraught but trusting Gideon that he had too many men.  Twice men were sent home at God's command until only 300 remained.  With these committed and faithful men, God wrought a miracle as they defeated the entire army with torches and trumpets. 

"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26

What if Gideon hadn't obeyed?  What if he had ignored God's call?

What is God calling you to do for Him?

"With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world!" -MYP 196

Jesus is coming soon!!

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1,2