Judges 6:13, “...where be all his miracles...”
I would like to share with you a verse I recently read in the
Bible and the many thoughts I had concerning it. I believe many believers
are discouraged nowadays, I wrote this article to help put some things into
perspective (at least from my point of view). I believe many believers are
failing to realize the big picture of what is going on in this world. Let
me begin with a very interesting verse...
“And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” —Judges 6:13
Gideon was discouraged! Where was the Lord God of Israel? Where were the answers to prayer, the miracles, which he had read about in the Scriptures? Do you sometimes feel like Gideon, wondering “why” the things in your life are going from bad to worse in spite of your many prayers and effort to live right? Why is it that Christians suffer as much as the heathen? Notice the verse which comes before the one we just read...
“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.” —Judges 6:12
The angel of the Lord came to encourage Gideon, telling him that the Lord God was with him. However, Gideon was so discouraged that he simply didn't believe it. After the Angel of the Lord told Gideon that God was was with, Gideon immediately responded by putting God to the test with a question: “Where be all His miracles?” Gideon is saying to the angel of the Lord, “Ok, I hear what you are saying, but I don't see it!” Have you ever felt this way? Oftentimes people get upset at God, as Gideon did, because they don't see the big picture of what's going on in their life. This is why it is so important to trust God at all times. Listen to the wisdom of the Bible...
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” —Proverb 3:5
How often do we foolishly lean upon our own understanding? Too much so! Much of the grief and frustration which people have is due to their insistence for answers. This is true of people in general. Many people claim to refuse to become Christians because they can't make sense out of the Bible. The irony is that no person can understand the Bible UNTIL he or she becomes a Christian (1st Corinthians 2:14). Salvation is of the heart, either you want to believe or you don't. 2nd Corinthians 3:15-16 tells us that the blindness of the mind is removed when we believe in our heart.
I want to speak of some of the main reasons why I
believe Christians get frustrated and discouraged. Gideon was frustrated. I believe Gideon was sincere, but he failed to realize why bad things were
happening. I'll get back to Gideon's situation in a bit, but first
I'd like for you to consider a few things...
Covetousness!
We read in the Bible that God cares about us and that we should cast all our cares upon Him (1st Peter 5:7). Yet, how often do we pray and nothing seems to happens. I believe much of the discouragement and seemingly unanswered prayers are the result of living in the United States. Yes, that's right! We have a freedom handed to us on a silver platter. We have steak and plenty of food. We have many things we DON'T really need (that we think we need). We really don't need a phone. We really don't need a radio or a TV. We really don't need a computer. We really don't need a car. We really don't need electricity. We really don't need all these things.
Before you think I'm way off base, picture yourself living back in Bible days. Did they have any of the things that you THINK you need? No, they had virtually nothing except the clothes on their back, water and enough food to survive (sometimes not even that). Owning anything more was considered a luxury. My point is that we are a covetous nation, a spoiled nation, a sinful nation.
Most Christians are covetous and spoiled as well, because it's hard not to become materialistic living in a materialistic nation. Some people get angry at God because they can't afford a newer car or because they can't afford a bigger TV. We simply don't need those things. Most people could not comprehend life without all the modern day non-essential toys that society idolizes. We have been spoiled and I believe it has caused many believers to view God as a genie in a lamp.
We need a revival of simple living in America (1st Timothy 6:8).
God intended for life to be simple! We get upset because God won't give us the money to fix a leaking roof on our home, but how many people in this world don't even have a shack to live in? People in Mexico are living in cardboard boxes. God sees all this! So do you think God is ignoring you because you don't get the money? On the contrary, God has given you a wonderful house with a leaking roof to live in. It's all how we look at things. I'm learning more and more to try to look at the world as a whole. What's going on in other nations? Does God love those people starving in North Korea? Does God love those people dying of AIDS in Africa? Of course He does, very much so.
However, God has told us clearly in His Word that we are living in a fallen world, controlled by the Devil. Many of those people are being deliberately starved to death by their own governments. Much of the food which the United Nations Provides disappears and never gets to the people. So, do we really have it that bad? Not nearly as bad as others. God had commanded the Israelites to allow the land of Israel to sit idle every 7th year (the Sabbatical year) to teach them not to be covetous. No crops were to be planted that year. Today in America, what do we have which teaches us not to be covetous? Instead, the greedy corporations use Christmas, and all the other holidays to market to the American people.
Many businesses are open 24\7, credit cards are maxed-out, lawsuits are filed by the millions, sexual advertising is used to sell everything from insurance to fast food, billions of dollars keep disappearing in government run programs, etc, etc, et cetera. America is a nation of filthy lucre, corporate criminals, crooked politicians, covetous citizens and greed. As believers, we need to memorize 1st Timothy 6:8... we are to be happy with nothing more than food and clothing. Scary thought, huh? What God is saying is that we ought to consider ourselves very blessed to have food and raiment, and to have anything more makes us rich.
“And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” —1st Timothy 6:8
Bad Things Happen to Everyone!
We read in Philippians 4:6 to “be careful (anxious, anxiety, stress) over NOTHING, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving letting our requests be made known unto God.” Yet, how often do we pray without actually seeing anything change for the better? I'd imagine the Christians about to be fed to the lions were desperately praying for deliverance, yet the lions had the victory. Do you think John the Baptist asked God to deliver him from the hands of Herod? If he did, it didn't work. John was beheaded? How about James in Acts 12? Herod killed him as well.
My point friend is that God may or may not deliver you from your miseries, but He has promised to always be there with you (Hebrews 13:5). Peter was delivered in Acts 12. Stephen was stoned to death in Acts 7, but Paul and Silas were delivered in Acts 16. Jacob was in love with Rachel, yet she died while giving birth to Benjamin (Joseph's brother). How sad this must have made Jacob! The Israelites had been in Egyptian bondage for 400 years. Don't you think they cried out to God day-by-day, asking for deliverance? Of course they did! But it wasn't until after 400 years before God finally sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt and bondage (Acts 7:6). That's 400 long years! Many of those folks prayed for a lifetime, never having seen an answer to their prayers.
You see, we have many many examples of miseries and hardships happening to the folks in the Bible, just as they happen to us today. Being a believer doesn't exempt us from tragedy and misery. Those Bible characters whom we consider “great heroes of the faith” were everyday people just like you and me. We read in the Old Testament about king David's child who died as a result of David's sins (murdering Uriah and stealing his wife).
Look how many innocent women had
their babies murdered by wicked king Herod in Jesus' day? They did nothing
wrong! They suffered because of wicked leadership. So be assured
friend that your suffering is not an indication that God has abandoned you, but
that you are a human being living in a fallen world, in a world filled with people
of sin and corruption. I cringe every time I hear Louis Armstrong sing, “What
A Wonderful World.” Tell that to the 1,400,000,000 people surviving on less
than $1 a day in this world. “Wonderful world?” I don't think so!
We Are Spoiled!
Keep in mind that we are living in luxury in America compared to what the slaves of Egypt went through. As a matter of fact, slavery was legal in America as recent as 150 years ago. It wasn't until the 13th amendment was passed in 1865 that slavery was abolished. You know, God could have easily placed your spirit into one of those slave bodies, but He made you who you are today. You ought to jump and praise the Lord that you have been born into freedom. Many of the Israelites were born into slavery and Pharaoh worked them 16 hours a day carving rock with rock in the hot desert sun. Pharaoh brutally worked them, forcing them to build the Egyptian cities of Pithom and Raamses (Exodus 1:11-14).
You are living in a miracle, the United States of America! So when you find yourself upset with God because you don't see Him working in your life, simply think about the horrifying situations you could have been born into throughout history (or even today).Everything around us today is a miracle of God: science, medicine, technology, communication, electronics, travel, etc. The problem is that we were born into freedom, spoiled with the modern miracles that people a hundred years ago would have given a right arm to have. Do you think the Old Testament saints would have considered all the blessings we enjoy today a miracle? You better believe it!
Something as simple as a refrigerator is a wondrous
miracle. Did you know that 100 years ago, businesses used to go out onto
the great lakes (around Chicago for example) to cut blocks of ice from the
frozen lake? Then they would drag that ice (and haul it by horse &
carriage) to customers houses to place into their ice box? They weren't
called refrigerators back then, but rather “ice boxes.” The only
thing keeping your food cool was a big block of melting ice for a week. Amazingly, we enjoy self-sealed refrigeration units today. Do you see how
blinded most people are today? Do you see how demanding and foolish we are
sometimes? We are enjoying thousands of modern miracles that people never
had for over 6,000 years of history. And yet we complain! How
wicked! How rotten we can be! If I have just described you, you need
to fall on your knees and beg God to forgive you, to renew a clean heart and to
decide to be more realistic in your prayer life.
A Wicked World!
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” —1st John 5:19
We are living in a sinful world where Satan is the god of government. This is why the wicked prosper over the righteous. The Bible addresses this very issue in Psalm 73...
“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
David was utterly disgusted at the Ted Turner's, Bill Gates, Brittany Spears, Madonnas, Dennis Rodmans, David Rockefellers, crooked politicians, dishonest lawyers, HollyWEIRD, lying business men and other successful heathens of his day. Life is not fair because this world is controlled by Satan. But God is fair! It is not God who afflicts us, it is mankind. This is what Jesus said in John 16:22...
“And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”
Notice that Jesus said there WILL come a day when “NO MAN” shall take our joy from us anymore. How often do people discourage us? Some people are discouraging just to be around because of their negative and sinful attitudes, words and actions. Is it not people that sue us? Is it not people that attack us? Is it not people that try to destroy us, get us fired, break us, hurt us, steal from us, lie about us, et cetera? Living for the Lord can be a lonely experience. The Apostle Paul found this out (2nd Corinthians 12:15). We must realize the true source of most of our miseries in life, i.e., sin! Most people are not living for God, and they don't care about pleasing God, only themselves! Most people are not saved, they know not the Lord Jesus Christ!
“And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” —Judges 6:13
Let's look back to Judges 6:1 to find the answer to Gideon's question...
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.”
God punished Israel as a nation! Evidently, Gideon didn't realize that it had been GOD who brought misery upon Israel because of their sins. Unfortunately, the righteous Christians suffered as well. This is very important for you to understand. Every citizen of a nation suffers because of the sins of a nation as a whole. Do you think when Nebuchadnezzar laid besiege against Israel that Jeremiah was the only person living for God? No, there were other believers in Israel who believed Jeremiah's word.
But just as today, they had no power to do anything about the corruption which had overtaken their government. King Zedekiah and his sons were wicked, stubborn and would have killed anybody who stood in their way. Sound like America? What about Vince Foster? What about John F. Kennedy? (and hundreds more). They threw Jeremiah in an underground, swampy, dungeon to die. God had pronounced Judgment upon Israel in Jeremiah 25:11 because of their continuous sin. When Babylon finally did invade Israel, most of them were tortured, raped and killed. Only 4,600 were taken into captivity. Many God-fearing believers suffered because of the heathen leadership in Israel. This will happen in the United States!!!
It's already happening today. Many believers are being wrongfully persecuted because our Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution are being trampled upon by ungodly men. If you don't believe me, look into the new Patriot Act 2 which the government is ready to pass into law. The government now has the right to find out which books you have checked out of a library. The librarian can be convicted and imprisoned if he or she doesn't cooperate. This is just one of hundreds of rights that you and I have lost. It's none of the governments business what books you read. The two biggest obstacles to the New World Order are Christianity and the U.S. Constitution (which includes the first 10 amendments, commonly called The Bill of Rights). Little by little, our freedoms are being eroded. It's scary to imagine what this nation will be like in the decades to come. It is sin that always undermines and eventually brings a nation to ruin.
Gideon was understandably upset (and I believe God fully understood why Gideon was upset). Most men get grumpy when they're hungry. Gideon did not realize why Israel was falling prey to the Midianites. After all, these were God's people. The Midianites had forced Israel to retreat to caves and dens in the mountains around Israel. There was little food. The Israelites tried to grow crops of food in secret, hiding it from the Midianites. It did Israel no good, the Midianites found their fields of crops and confiscated them. There was no food and the Israelites were beginning to panic, then they cried out to the Lord. Isn't that the way it usually is? We don't cry unto the Lord until we need Him?
According to Judges 6:1, it was Israel's evil which caused God to remove His protective hand from them. Now after seven years (Judges 6:1), things were really getting bad. The people were literally starving. God sends an angel to let Gideon know that He is with him. I think Gideon was like most of us, he was sincere and frustrated because things weren't turning out the way he had expected. The key thing for you to see in this passage is that God knew something that Gideon didn't. It is important to get it settled in our minds that GOD KNOWS BEST. It is a dangerous thing to ask God, “why?” Many people have become bitter and quit on God because they couldn't understand “why” something happened. We must trust upon the Lord. We must realize that His thoughts are not our thoughts.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” —Isaiah 55:9
You can't figure God out. Maybe you (as Gideon) ask ,“Where be all His miracles?” Perhaps you cannot see God working in your life right now.
Always remember: When you can't see the hand of God, trust the heart of God.
Would you like to know something amazing? Did
you know that “God” is NOT mentioned even one time in the book of Esther? Not even once! Even though God is not mentioned, we can see his sovereign
hand of power and wisdom working behind the scenes. What a wonderful God! Maybe you can't see God working in your life right now, but believe me, God IS
there with you if you are His child (Hebrews 13:5).
Limited Understanding and Faith
This passage spoke much to my heart as I read it for the first time. There has been plenty of times in my life where I wanted to see God's hand in motion, but nothing ever seemed to happen. I would pray and ask God for miracles that (to my knowledge) never came. I would ponder 1st Peter 5:7 about casting ALL my cares upon Him. I read in the Bible that God cared about me, yet where was He in my life? I did cast all my cares and concerns upon Him, yet why wouldn't God show His presence in my life?
In time, I learned that I was looking at things the wrong way. God was there all the time, but I wasn't able to see the Big Picture. God sees things in a perfect way, we only see life from a narrow and very limited perspective. The story is told of a young child sitting on the floor, looking up at his mother's crocheting work. From his point of view, he could only see the back of what she was making. It made no sense to him. But when his mother had completed the beautiful crochet, she turned it around for the boy to see. Now he saw the finished product. This is how it is with God, we can only see now “as though through a darkened glass”; but God sees the big picture and will someday share it with us in Heaven.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” —1st Corinthians 13:12
The same is true with baking a cake. No one likes to eat pure flour or salt, but mix all the ingredients together and you'll have a delicious desert to eat.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” —Romans 8:28
Notice that the Bible does not promise us that all things will be good! No, the Bible promises that all things will WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD! There were many seemingly bad events in the book of Esther, but it all worked out in the end. God is omnipotent and has the power to make all things work together for good in our life. Gideon didn't see any good in what was happening at the moment, but God was still on His throne in control.
The Book of Ruth begins with much sadness and loss, but did you know that Ruth would later become the great-grandmother of King David. It is amazing how God can take something so seemingly hopeless (like me) and turn it our for good. God knows best! Our primary responsibility as a believer is to have faith in God, because we cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). There are many born-again believers who have little faith in God. Faith is that which causes us to think, talk and live a certain way.
It is “by faith”
that I am typing out this Bible-study for you to learn from. Is is “by
faith” that we witness to people. It is “by
faith” that we don't go to
bars or live a selfish life. It is all by faith! Noah “by
faith”
built the ark. Ruth “by
faith” moved with Naomi to Israel. You see,
faith is dynamic (makes things happen), not passive. A believer who says
he or she has faith while living for the devil has very little faith. Most
believers have very little faith. There are two types of believers:
the believers and the make-believers.
America Today
Ok, I've already mentioned several items: covetousness, bad things happen to everyone, we are spoiled, we live in a wicked world, we have a limited understanding, etc. Now I would like to address one final issue, America today. Israel had endured seven years of affliction at the hand of the Midianites. It was their own fault, God had brought judgment upon them because of their evil ways. Here in Judges 6, we find Gideon hungry, tired and disgusted. He was really discouraged about the whole matter.
Gideon was so discouraged that when God sent an angel to encourage Gideon, he voiced his lack of enthusiasm by asking, “where be all His miracles?” I believe this is exactly how many believers feel today. What had brought Gideon to this point of pessimism? The truth of the matter is that Gideon was living in an evil nation, a nation which God had brought judgment upon. It was out of Gideon's hands, he couldn't force the people to live right. Israel was in a mess!
Likewise, the United States is a messed up nation! Though our nation is a miracle and a blessing of God, it is surely being run into the ground by foolish people. Many of the frustrations we are experiencing as believers today are because of the heathen nation in which we live. Urbanization (big cities) has literally destroyed America. Abortion has destroyed America. Liquor (beer) has destroyed America. Crooked and scandalous politicians have destroyed America. Rock Music has destroyed America. The public school system has destroyed America. The central bank (Federal Reserve System) has destroyed America. Television has destroyed America. The Council on Foreign Relations has destroyed America. The secret drug-trafficking industry has Destroyed America.
There was day where a family could survive living on a farm (not any more). Mom cooked, sewed and built up her home. Dad worked the field and provided food, clothing and shelter for his family. People raised their own livestock. Things were simple in those days. They didn't need all the toys and conveniences that we all THINK we need nowadays. They didn't have to worry about going to prison for not putting their children in school. Children did just fine without being forced to learn a bunch of garbage that they'll never use in life. They didn't have to fear the monstrous CPS system that has destroyed millions of lives.
By the way, no government has the right to force parents to drug their children! Money stayed in the local community back then, not a central bank in New York. Businesses were closed on Sundays. I hope Heaven will be like those good old forgotten days. I hope for much land with lots of big trees and a large creek flowing through. I want to live there without having to pay property taxes (which are unconstitutional by the way). No one should have the right to ever take away your property. We should not have to pay property taxes on land that we have paid for, it is OUR land.
By the way, there were no federal taxes in the early 1900's. My how we have been scammed by our own government. The government's countless socially-engineered programs have destroyed America (at our expense). Welfare has helped destroy America. It is part of the Communist subversion of America. America is very much a wicked nation manipulated by evil criminals in high places. There was a day when you didn't have to pay all these ridiculous taxes to fund government waste and “irrational exuberance” as Alan Greenspan termed it. I hope for some land in Heaven with no politicians, no heathen government, no television, no secret societies, no media, no phone, no taxes, no bills, no secret intelligence agencies, no corruption... Just peace and tranquility. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
America's days are numbered! The United States will face judgment (and in many ways has already). The great depression of 1929 was the result of the horrible Federal Reserve System (FRS). Ever since the FRS was established. we have suffered recession after recession. And now we are going into a massive depression.
The shootings and horrible problems in our public school system are the result of removing the Word of God, and teaching children that they are nothing more than an evolved form of a monkey. No wonder society has taken a turn for the worse. Sodomy is now widely accepted across America and soon Christians (and the Bible) will be considered as terrorists (hate propagators). We are living in perilous times indeed. I do not hate anyone, nor am I supposed to hate anyone. There has always been a battle raging between the righteous and the ungodly. Sodomy is sin, period! This is what the Bible teaches. God will NOT continue to bless any nation whose ways are evil (this is why God gave Israel over to the Midianites in Judges 6:1). They had done evil in the sight of the Lord.
God is still on His throne. So be encouraged friend, God is always with you (Hebrews 13:5). Unfortunately, we are going to suffer because of the corruption and sin of others (especially leadership). However, we must realize (as Gideon failed to) that we are living in a heathen nation whose day of judgment is fast approaching. Look at all the innocent people that spent their life working for Enron, saving up for a lifetime to retire in comfort, then the company lied to them, and forced them to lose their lifesavings and Uncle Sam did NOTHING about it. No one went to prison. Why? Wickedness in high places! Enron gave millions of dollars to the political campaigns of many Washington leaders, so they looked the other way. What about those people who lost everything? God WILL avenge them (Romans 12:19).
Gideon was really asking God, “Why are you letting us suffer like this?” Why God? Matthew 24:12 tells us that it is unpunished crimes (injustices) like the Enron scandal that are causing people to wax cold, very cold! Jesus foretold of these events. It was because of Israel's continued rebellion and evil that God punished them. Today, many Christians are suffering because of the decisions of ungodly people. You MUST understand this. For example: If you believe in a traditional type family where the mother stays home (which the Bible promotes, 1st Timothy 5:14), then you will never have much money (unless you have a great job, which most men don't). It is nearly impossible for a husband to buy a home nowadays without the wife also going to work. The hope of owning a home has become virtually non-existent because of this. This is Communism's ultimate goal, i.e., abolition of private property. If you don't own any property, then you have no rights. If you live on someone else's property, they make the rules. The government is confiscating massive amounts of property these days.
There's no more family time, no more family dinner around the table, everything is artificially prepared out of a box, the TV is the main attraction, et cetera. There was a time when the dinner table was the highlight of the day, where a home cooked meal was eaten. Nowadays, there is hardly any time because mom and dad are both working (to pay for a house with a 40-year mortgage!). Real estate costs have skyrocketed. One of the main reasons is because women were willing to continue working after WWII to “get ahead.” Many women were forced to go to work during WWII while their husbands went off to battle. Sadly many men never came home. So women continued to work. Families enjoyed the extra income and so lots more women began to enter the workforce. People started buying two homes and leveraging their investments.
Greed has driven the cost of real-estate by 1,500% over the last 30 years. Today, a home that would have cost only $20,000 in 1970 is worth over $300,000. So a Christian woman who chooses to work in the home as a wife and mother is wrongfully punished today. It's either go to work or rent an apartment (or buy a cheap home in a very bad neighborhood). This is all because men and women over the past 60-years were willing to sacrifice their families on the alter of greed. One house just wasn't enough. Give us more, more, more!
I'm not against women working if they need to; but unfortunately most working women don't need the money as much as their kids need a mom. It's getting harder and harder to make it these days, America is headed for economic disaster. It will happen in the next few years! Every year, companies offer less and less. I've learned not to listen to the so-called “pros” who talk about inflation. While their telling us that inflation has remained steady, property taxes jumped 30%!!! There was a time in America where we didn't have to pay federal income taxes. What a criminal scam!
America has changed drastically for the worse in the last 80 years. The government has far too much money and power. Iniquity abounds everywhere (Matthew 24:12). Sin is running rampant in this nation. The evils of abortion, booze, HollyWEIRD, rock music and the Godless public school system have destroyed America. It is up to us as believers to humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face and turn from our wicked sins if America is to be saved (2nd Chronicles 7:14). We can make a difference. God can turn the king's heart any way He chooses. Gideon asks the all-important question, “Where be all His miracles?” The answer to Gideon's question can be answered with another question, “Why should God bless a heathen nation who ignores His Word and spits in His face?”
Israel brought judgment upon themselves, many innocent people suffered. For us today, we are surrounded with miracles on every side. Our great nation is a miracle. Never has such a great land of freedom existed throughout history. Unfortunately, we have already lost many freedoms. America's evil will cause us to self-destruct.
