Judges 6:17

Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 

From Background Notes [BN] for January 18^th & 19^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

 

In this week’s study we watch Gideon come to terms with God’s call. He is a cautious man, not easily given to easy certitudes, but operating with what Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) called “the hermeneutic of suspicion.”

 

Things are not as they seem and beneath the surface of human life are unconscious forces that must be named if they are to be tamed. Gideon hides in what looks like a winepress but is really a threshing floor. He doesn’t trust the Midianites and so his whole life is shaped by mistrust. When an apparent messenger from God shows up, he doesn’t automatically accept what’s being said or what’s being offered. As we noted last week, Gideon questioned whether God was any longer at work within Israel. As noted, the text is peppered with “But, Lord …” followed by reasonable objections from someone who wasn’t taking things at face value. God’s hardest “sell” with Gideon was the assurance, “I am with you…” or “I will be with you.” [BN,1]

 

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am