Bible 104 Discussion

With each word being worth 10 cents, write four $12 summaries of the reading from any four of the following chapters in Courageous Faith:

• Chapter 2 – Overcoming Obstacles
• Chapter 3 – When Dreams and Heroes Die
• Chapter 4 – BChapter 2: Overcoming the Obstacles:

  Hanging Tough in the Tough Times

  “Everything rises and falls on leadership!” How many times have we heard that statement? It has become the maxim that runs entire corporations and their management decisions. Whatever is wrong with the organization is usually a reflection of what is wrong with the leader on the corporate level as well as on the personal level.

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  The success or failure of leadership shows up first in the home. The biblical plan for the man is to be the head of the home. His loving leadership is intended to build a canopy of protection over his wife and children. When the man is not the spiritual leader he ought to be, the whole family suffers. If he doesn’t set the example, there will always be conflicts that could have been avoided.

  God calls men to be leaders at home, in the church, and in the community. But men will never succeed at church or in the community until they succeed at home, because being the right kind of husband and father is essential to having the right kind of family. It won’t work fully without godly male leadership. God can certainly bless the efforts of believing mothers, and He often does. But His ideal plan is to work through both parents, with the man taking the spiritual leadership. And with the privilege of leadership comes the responsibility of leadership.

  The husband’s responsibilities toward his wife are to

  1. love her (Ephesians 5:25),

  2. honor her (1 Peter 3:7),

  3. trust her (Proverbs 31:11),

  4. praise her (Proverbs 31:28),

  5. sanctify her (1 Corinthians 7:14),

  6. protect her (Ruth 1:9),

  7. provide for her (1 Timothy 5:8),

  8. teach her (1 Corinthians 14:34, 35),

  9. cheer her (Ecclesiastes 9:9),

  10. befriend her (Song of Solomon 5:16).

  As fathers, men also have basic duties to fulfill in a biblically based Christian family. We need to set the example for our children by modeling the attitudes and behaviors we expect from them. Raising children has never been easy, but it has always been rewarding. Parenting is one of the greatest joys of life, both for us and for our children.

  Dad’s responsibilities toward his children are to provide a

  1. positive example (Psalm 103:8–13),

  2. spiritual heritage (1 Peter 1:4),

  3. financial security (2 Corinthians 12:14),

  4. biblical instruction (Deuteronomy 6:6–9),

  5. consistent discipline (Proverbs 22:6),

  6. practical advice (Ephesians 6:4),

  7. future blessing (Mark 10:13–16).

  A Divided Family

  After Abraham died, Isaac received confirmation from God that the promise given to his father, Abraham, would continue through his family line. The Bible tells us that Isaac had twin sons—Esau and Jacob. However, they were not identical twins. Esau, the eldest, was the rugged, masculine, macho type. He had red hair—lots of it—all over his body, which fit his masculine image. He quickly became his father’s favorite because he loved the outdoors—especially hunting and everything that goes with it. Isaac was the typical proud father who enjoyed reliving his youth through his son.

  Jacob, on the other hand, was a quiet, less rugged, smooth-skinned boy, and definitely not an outdoorsman. The Bible says that he was Mama’s favorite. He liked to hang around the kitchen and help prepare the food. However, the favoritism of Dad toward Esau and Mom toward Jacob created division in the family. Eventually that division surfaced as rivalry and a competition arose between the boys.

  Isaac and Rebekah lived very prosperous and peaceful lives—except for their two sons. Esau and Jacob were at each other constantly. They wore their parents out. And they brought pain and heartache to their lives.

  In ancient Near Eastern families, two traditions were vitally important. When the father neared death, he always gave his eldest son the birthright and the blessing. The birthright automatically gave the eldest the position of leadership in the family when the father passed on. The blessing meant he received a double portion of his father’s inheritance. In other words, he got twice as much as the other brothers.

  Ripped Off by Your Own Brother

  One day Esau came home from a long, unsuccessful day of hunting. He was famished. Meanwhile, Jacob has been at home all day making a big pot of chili (or red bean soup as the Bible describes it).

  Jacob teased Esau: “Hey, Big Red, did ya catch anything today?”

  “No I didn’t, Mama’s Boy, and I’m starving. Give me some of that red stuff.” Esau reached for the chili, but Jacob pulled it away.

  “First, sell me your birthright,” insisted Jacob (Genesis 25:31).

  Yes, Jacob might have been joking. However, there is always a little truth behind every good joke. In Hebrew, Jacob’s name means “conniver, manipulator, deceiver.” In literal terms it is translated “supplanter”—one who steals the place of someone else. And remember, in this family there was a big inheritance at stake.

  Yet, Esau was so hungry, he didn’t care. Genesis 25:34 says that he “despised his birthright.” He took it lightly.

  “What good is the birthright to me when I’m about to die of hunger?”

  So he exchanged his birthright for a bowl of Jacob’s soup. He probably figured he could beat Jacob up anytime he needed to anyway. But God noted a character flaw in Esau’s attitude. Esau did not take the responsibility of leadership seriously.

  There has always been an argument over whether leaders are born leaders or whether they become leaders. Certainly some people seem to show leadership qualities from a very early age. Natural gifts, talents, and physical prowess can lend themselves to one’s success. Esau was certainly born with a natural physical advantage.

  But leaders are also made and developed by their response to their natural circumstances. Some, like Jacob, have to learn to lead. In fact, his physical weakness enabled him to develop a psychological edge over his brother.

  The Ultimate Deception

  Time passed and Isaac became ill. His eyesight was failing him. In fact, he was nearly blind, and he thought he was going to die. According to ancient tradition, Near Eastern patriarchs didn’t write down their last will and testament. They gave it verbally. Isaac called Esau in to give him his blessing.

  “Son,” Isaac said, “I want you to go hunt some wild game for me. Prepare it how I like it so I can have one last good meal, and I will give you the blessing before I die.”

  The Bible says that Rebekah was eavesdropping the whole time. She ran to Jacob, her favorite, and said, “We’ve got to do something! Your brother is going to get the blessing! Why don’t you go in and tell him you’re Esau? I’ll fix some venison the way he likes it. You can take your meal in first, and beat your brother to the blessing.”

  “But Esau is big and tough and hairy. What if Father reaches out to touch me and figures out who I am?” questioned Jacob.

  “We’ll put goat skins on your arms so if he touches you, he’ll think you’re Esau for sure. Remember, he’s practically blind!” said Rebekah.

  Sure enough, they deceived old Dad. Isaac unknowingly gave the blessing to the wrong son—Jacob. However, the irony is that before the twins were born, God had predicted “the older [Esau] would serve the younger [Jacob]” (Genesis 25:23). It was God’s original plan for Jacob to have the blessing. God knew that Esau would not be a responsible leader before he was even born. But instead of waiting for God to work it all out, Rebekah and Jacob interfered and took matters into their own hands. They tried to do it their way, but they ended up creating a mess. Really, there are no real shortcuts to success.

  When Esau returned and discovered that Jacob had stolen the blessing, he was furious!

  “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob [“deceiver”]? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!”

  Esau vowed to kill Jacob, so Isaac and Rebekah were forced to send Jacob away. The family was now divided not only by favoritism and rivalry, but also by physical distance. And, tragically, Rebekah never saw Jacob again.

  Deceiver Meets Promise Keeper

  Jacob left home in a hurry, promising to return in “a few days.” But he was gone for twenty years. Jacob fled from Esau to Haran, in Syria, where his Uncle Laban (Rebekah’s brother) lived. En route between Beersheba and Haran, Jacob stopped to rest for the night. The Scripture says that he used a stone for a pillow (no wonder he had a dream!). He dreamed of a stairway (KJV, “ladder”) that came down from heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. At the top of the stairway, the Lord stood and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac” (Genesis 28:13).

  Notice, God did not say “I am your God” to Jacob, because He wasn’t. Jacob’s life was a mess! He had tricked his brother out of the birthright, stolen the blessing by deceiving his father, and now he was running for his life. He was leaving the very land he had hoped to inherit by stealing the blessing. But God intervened. He came to renew the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac. God implies that He is willing to be Jacob’s God also.

  “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.… I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13–15).

  What an amazing promise! God was telling Jacob He would stay with him, take care of him and bring him back to where He planned for him to be. God was promising to do for Jacob what he could not do for himself—bless him, protect him, and bring him home again.

  God does not expect us to be perfect to receive His promises. He meets us right where we are because we could never get to where He is. Just like God promised to help Jacob, He promises to help us. Nothing we do can cause God not to keep His promises. He is the ultimate Keeper of Promises! Second Timothy 2:13 tells us that even “if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” He cannot be anything else but faithful to His promises.

  Jacob woke up, but instead of being excited about God’s presence, he was scared to death! He was afraid because he had seen God face-to-face. Usually when we have sin in our lives, we are not in a big hurry to see God face-to-face because we know that our guilt will be exposed. But we need to have our sin exposed in order to recognize our need for God to remove it and replace it with His grace.

  A New Direction

  Considering the number of mistakes he had already made, Jacob finally made a wise choice. He came to a point of genuine conversion. He totally committed his life to God, saying, “The Lord will be my God … and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Genesis 28:21, 22). The fact that he promised to tithe is dramatic evidence that he had been changed. The taker promised to become a giver. And that meant a whole new direction in his life.

  Then Jacob did something else to indicate his commitment to God. He built an altar of worship. On that altar he poured out oil, which he had carried for his long journey. It was the only valuable thing he had with him. He did not have an animal sacrifice. He simply gave all that he had. He called that place Bethel, which in the Hebrew language means “the house of God.” There was no building there. There was no structure there. It was just a hillside on the edge of the Canaanite city of Luz, but it was the place where Jacob met God.

  I have observed over the years that our relationship to the house of God tends to run parallel to our relationship with God. When we are in a right relationship with God, we enjoy being in God’s house. But when we are not in a right relationship with God, we do not want to be in the house of God. So when people say, “I’ve kind of gotten out of the church,” what they really mean is, “I’ve gotten away from God.”

  Where were you when you came to know the Lord? I have asked this question to audiences all over the United States. The majority raises their hands to indicate that they were saved in a church or in a church-related service. Far more were converted in the house of God than in a camp or citywide rally or something else. I have concluded that while God blesses para-church evangelistic enterprises, most people meet the Lord in a local church where the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed week after week.

  When you experience true conversion, the place where you meet God, the house of God, becomes the most important place in your life. Likewise, Bethel became the most important place in Jacob’s life. It would mark every major turning point in his walk with God.

  What Goes Around, Comes Around

  I will never forget the feeling of becoming a father for the very first time. My wife and I invested every spare minute we had into our innocent little angel. Although she changed our lives dramatically, she was still our beautiful, perfect little girl—Linda.

  A few years later, I came home from work one day, kissed my wife as usual, but this time she burst into tears. “What’s wrong?” I asked calmly.

  In between sobs she said, “It’s Linda … she … she …”

  I immediately panicked. “Is she all right? What happened? Did she fall? Did she get hurt? Where is she?”

  Still crying uncontrollably, Donna managed to reply, “She … stole something, and then she … lied to me!”

  Linda, our three-year-old “angel,” had refused to eat her lunch. As a result, my wife refused to give her a Fudgesicle for dessert. While Mom was out of the room, little Linda sneaked into the kitchen. She stole a Fudgesicle out of the freezer. Then she gobbled it down and threw the empty stick and wrapper in the trash can. But she forgot one minor detail: the chocolate mustache across her lips. It was a sure giveaway!

  What really hurt Donna was that, in spite of the evidence, Linda lied about what she had done. Even after my wife retrieved the empty wrapper from the trash can, Linda insisted she didn’t know where it came from. It was our first parental lesson in human depravity.

  About a year ago, I was talking to our daughter Linda on the phone. She’s now a married woman with a daughter of her own. “Dad, you’ll never believe what happened,” she said in a shaky voice. “I don’t know what I’ve done wrong! Jennifer (her three-year-old daughter) cut the neighbor girl’s bangs off!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh! I reminded Linda that she had done the same kind of thing at the same age. It wasn’t much comfort to her. But it reminded me “what goes around, comes around.”

  Jacob had come to a turning point in his life at Bethel, but he still had some tough obstacles to face and a lot of growing up to do. The consequences of the bad choices he had made earlier in life were about to catch up with him. When he got to Haran, he received a “taste of his own medicine.”

  Jacob arrived in Haran looking for his Uncle Laban. He didn’t have a telephone directory, and there were no street addresses. So he went to the well on the edge of town, hoping to find somebody who could direct him to Laban’s house. When he arrived at the well, the young single girls of the city came out to water the sheep. Somebody had left the stone on the mouth of the well, and the girls couldn’t roll the stone away.

  Jacob thought, Hey, here’s a chance to show off my muscles and impress the girls.

  “Step aside, ladies. I’ll roll the stone away. No sweat!”

  He rolled the stone away, and then met the eyes of a girl who really made his adrenaline flow. It was love at first sight! In fact, he went right up and kissed her! Genesis 29:11 says, “Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.” I don’t know if he was disappointed, or if she bit him on the lip! Actually, they were both overjoyed to meet one another. Jacob probably wept because he was relieved to find someone who cared about him.

  Love at First Sight

  Jacob soon discovered that Rachel was Laban’s daughter. She was his cousin. Actually, his “kissing cousin” now. “I’ve traveled a long way to find your father,” Jacob might have said. “Did I mention that my parents wanted me to find a wife among your people while I’m here?”

  “This is great! You can stay with us. We have plenty of room!” replied Rachel, looking like she had just won the lottery.

  Rachel took Jacob home to Laban. Now Laban was thrilled to see Jacob because he remembered when Abraham sent an entourage up to Haran to find a wife for Isaac. They had selected his sister, Rebekah. But most of all, he remembered all of the gold and silver and precious goods that they had brought. Laban literally ran to meet Jacob.

  “Jacob! So good to see you! How’s your money … I mean your family?” Little did he know that Jacob had left home in a hurry and didn’t bring anything with him—not even a credit card!

  Jacob fell in love with Rachel. One day he mustered up the courage to ask Laban if he could marry her. He didn’t have any money for a dowry, so he agreed to work for Laban for seven years to pay for the dowry. Jacob was so madly in love that the Bible says he “served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her” (Genesis 29:20). He lost all sense of time. But it made him forget about all his problems back home. Finally, the day of the wedding arrived.

  In the Near East, the bride was traditionally covered in veils during the marriage celebration. Realistically, you couldn’t even tell what she looked like. Some fathers may have started this tradition so they could get rid of their daughters! Well, Laban decided that he couldn’t allow the younger daughter to marry before her older sister, Leah. So Laban switched brides. Because of all of the veils, poor Jacob didn’t even realize that he had the wrong girl until the next morning.

  Getting What We Deserve

  The great “deceiver” was deceived! He found out what it felt like to be taken for a fool. He complained to Laban, “What have you done! You gave me Leah, and I wanted Rachel!” But it was too late. It was then that Jacob made his next big mistake. Instead of seeking God’s will or waiting to see if maybe God had picked Leah, he made a decision and created another mess. If you read all of Genesis 29, you will discover that Jacob made his decision without ever praying or asking God what to do.

  Jacob decided to marry both girls. He agreed to work another seven years for Rachel. But he married her as soon as the required seven-day honeymoon with Leah was over (verse 28). Now Jacob was married to two jealous sisters. Trying to earn his favor, they entered into the greatest childbearing contest known in the history of humankind. Within eight years, he fathered twelve sons and a daughter.

  From its beginning Jacob’s family was split by division. Favoritism and rivalry ruled the house. It was far worse than anything he and Esau had ever experienced back home.

  Men, by nature, like to fix things. When my wife tells me about a problem, she usually just wants me to listen. But I don’t want to listen. I want to fix it. We like to feel that we are capable of fixing any problem happening in our family. However, our biggest problem is that sometimes we cannot see God’s plan, and it is impossible to fix what you can’t see.

  Jacob couldn’t see God’s plan for Leah in his life. He only saw the problem—he had the wrong wife! He did not realize that Leah would become the mother of Judah. And from the line of Judah would come David, and from the line of David would come Jesus—the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise. That’s right! Jesus Christ came from Leah and not from Rachel!

  Because Jacob had interfered again, everything went wrong. Not only was Jacob’s own family divided, but Laban got angry with Jacob as well. The fourteen years of labor finally passed. Laban started paying Jacob for his work, but he unfairly changed Jacob’s wages and cheated him every time he had a chance. Then he complained that Jacob was stealing his livestock and cheating him. Once again, Jacob’s life was a mess!

  Turning Back to God

  In spite of his mess, God blessed Jacob as He had promised and caused his flocks and his wealth to multiply. Then God appeared to Jacob to remind him that He was still with him and said, “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land” (Genesis 31:13). God did not literally say, “Go back to Bethel,” but His command implies that it was time for Jacob to go back to the “house of God.”

  Instead of trusting God and facing Laban, Jacob “escaped” while his uncle was out of town. Laban pursued him, but God convinced Laban to let Jacob and all of his family leave. Surprise! God changed Laban’s heart! He could have changed it in the first place, but Jacob didn’t want to wait for Him to do it. Instead, he ran away—just like he had run from Esau.

  While Jacob was on his way back to Canaan, another problem occurred to him—Esau! What if Esau still wanted to kill him? Again, Jacob didn’t ask God about it. Instead, he sent messengers ahead of him to talk to Esau to find out if he was still angry. The messengers returned and reported, “Esau your brother is coming to meet you, and he’s bringing four hundred men with him.” Four hundred men! Jacob panicked! Then he did something really brave and heroic. He sent his wives and his children on ahead, while he stayed in the back.

  It was that very night that the angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob and physically wrestled with him. They wrestled all night long. Jacob kept saying, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” He was already guilty of stealing the blessing from his brother, and now he was struggling to keep the blessing of God in his life. He was going about it completely wrong! He was going after the blessing by his own power. God’s blessing isn’t something we can earn by our own merit. It is something He gives by His grace.

  The angel finally blessed Jacob and said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel” (Genesis 32:28). Israel means “a prince with God.” It also became the name of God’s chosen nation. Jacob left this encounter limping. His physical condition was altered as a reminder that he had struggled with God. And it was also a reminder that God would still fulfill His promise in spite of Jacob’s failures. Jacob would struggle with waiting on God for the rest of his life, but God would still keep His promise to make him into a mighty nation.

  Later, Jacob caught up to his family and finally met Esau. It had been twenty years. Esau ran up to him and hugged him and wept. Obviously, God had changed his heart.

  Esau expressed his greetings and asked, “Whose kids are these?”

  “They’re mine!” Jacob replied.

  “You can’t fit all these kids into Dad’s house,” Esau may have said. “Why don’t you move in with me, down in Edom?”

  Jacob thought, I’m not going anywhere near that place! I’ll get down there alone with him, and he’ll try to kill me! Again, he didn’t talk to God about it. He told Esau, “You go ahead and tell your family that we’re coming. We’ll be there in a few days.”

  Afterward, Jacob turned and headed the opposite way. At this point, Jacob was only about ten miles from Bethel, but instead of going on to Bethel, he turned around and went twenty miles north. Again, he took his problem into his own hands. Besides, what could go wrong?

  Jacob settled his family just outside of the ungodly Canaanite city of Shechem, and everything went wrong. His daughter Dinah was kidnapped and raped. Then his sons killed every man in the town to get revenge. Once again Jacob is in trouble! Again he had to run for his life.

  Going All the Way

  Finally, in desperation, Jacob cried out to God. And God appeared to him one more time. “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar to God,” the Lord instructed him. God also told Jacob to get his family in order. “Put away the strange gods,” He told them, “and change your clothes.”

  This time Jacob listened. He gathered his family together and demanded that they give up their idols, change their clothes, and start looking and acting like God’s people. He finally became the leader that God wanted him to be. And he marched his family back to Bethel.

  It was time to come back to the “house of God.” Jacob had been away for too long. Even though he got close to it, he didn’t get close enough. This time, he really meant business with God and went all the way.

  When Jacob arrived at Bethel, he built an altar to God. But this time he did not call it Bethel. This time he called it El Bethel, which means the God of the house of God (Genesis 35:7). Jacob was making it clear to his family that he was not just “going back to church.” He was going back to God. He was going back to the God of the “house of God.”

  From this point on, God began to turn Jacob’s life around.

  Jacob had to learn that going back to the house of God would not change his life, but going back to God would.

  At the end of Jacob’s life he said, “My years have been few and difficult” (Genesis 47:9). God had a plan for Jacob before he was even born. Unfortunately, Jacob often interfered with God’s plan and brought unnecessary suffering into his life. Instead of waiting on God to give him the blessing, he took it by deception. In return, he himself was deceived by Laban and later by his own sons.

  Jacob spent years running for his life, instead of trusting God’s promises. But God graciously pursued him until He brought him home. And that same God will pursue you until you surrender to His will and His plan for your life.

  It was the Person, not the place that changed his life. Similarly, going to church, joining the church, and volunteering to be an usher or to sing in the choir are all good things. But they won’t change your life. Coming back to church may be the first step in the right direction, but it’s only the first step. You may need to come back to God Himself.

  Ask Yourself

  1. What things are threatening division in your family?

  2. Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

  3. Is your relationship with God what it should be right now?

  4. Is your relationship with the house of God (your local church) what it should be right now?

  5. Take a minute to reflect on the time and the place where you first met God.

  6. What obstacles or difficulties have come into your life since then?

  7. Are any of those difficulties still unresolved?

  Making It Real

  If you could change the way your life has turned out, what would you do differently?

   

  Closing Thought

  You do not determine a man’s greatness

  by his talent or his wealth as the world does,

  but rather by what it takes to discourage him.

  —JERRY FALWELL

   

  Ed Hindson, Courageous Faith: Life Lessons from Old Testament Heroes (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2011), 33–48.

   

  Chapter 3: When Dreams and Heroes Die:

  Starting Over When It All Falls Apart

  Bob and sandy appeared to have the typical all-American family: two kids, great jobs, upward mobility, a measure of success, and financial security. It all looked great—on the surface. Then the bomb dropped. She ran off with his best friend.

  “I was so shocked I couldn’t begin to deal with it,” Bob told me. “I just walked around in complete confusion. I felt totally abandoned!”

  Sandy divorced Bob. Eventually, she married Bob’s friend, who was in the military. They took Bob’s two children and got transferred to Iceland. For the next five years, Bob never saw any of them.

  By the time Bob interacted with his daughters, they were already grown. Time and distance had placed a barrier between them. When he did see them, he felt estranged from them. He couldn’t figure out why. He assumed they just didn’t want a relationship with him any longer.

  It was years later, after his daughters married, that Bob finally began to realize what had happened. He had felt abandoned by their mother, but his daughters felt abandoned by him. They never saw him. So they lost contact.

  Only as adults did the girls begin to realize that their mother kept them isolated from their father. She didn’t want to have to deal with Bob. So she (and the girls) stayed away—deliberately. In the girls’ minds, Dad just seemed to disappear from their lives.

  The real tragedy with divorce is that it hurts so many people. Bob felt abandoned by his wife. The kids felt abandoned by their dad. And Bob felt abandoned by his own children.

  Being abandoned, for whatever reason, hurts so deeply that it is difficult to deal with. Anyone who has ever been hurt by rejection, betrayal, or divorce knows the pain of feeling abandoned. One feels helpless, hopeless, and all alone.

  Most of us don’t deal with that kind of pain very well. It’s easy for hurting people to hurt people. We want revenge. We want to lash out at someone else. Often we become a powder keg of emotions waiting to explode.

  Daddy’s Boy

  The story of Joseph is unique. He was the son of Jacob and Rachel—her firstborn and his favorite. You would think that after all Jacob went through, he would have been more careful, but he wasn’t. Leah’s sons were such a disappointment to him that he always favored Joseph over the others.

  Joseph had the advantage of growing up after his father’s spiritual turning point at Bethel. Unlike his half brothers who had witnessed Jacob’s conniving and manipulative lifestyle, Joseph knew a dad whose life had been dramatically transformed by God. So Joseph grew up respecting his father and likewise followed Jacob’s godly example.

  Joseph’s brothers were another story altogether. They were liars, deceivers, manipulators; those were some of their better qualities! They had even committed murder. By contrast, Joseph was a “goody-goody” and a “daddy’s boy.” So it was inevitable that there would be problems.

  The family eventually left Bethel and migrated south toward Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16–20). En route, Rachel, who was pregnant, delivered her second son, Benjamin. But in the process of the delivery, she died. Jacob was heartbroken over the loss of his favorite wife. And Joseph experienced the first pains of feeling abandoned.

  To make up for his mother’s loss, Jacob showered Joseph with presents, such as his multicolored coat. This favoritism only caused his half brothers to resent him even more. And then he experienced constant dreams about all of them bowing down to him, which only made matters worse.

  The Dream Becomes a Nightmare

  When Joseph was seventeen years old, a crisis occurred that changed his life forever. His ten brothers took the family flocks north to graze them near Shechem. After a while, Jacob asked Joseph to go and check on them and the sheep.

  When Joseph arrived in the region, he was told his brothers had moved on to Dothan. So he went looking for them. But when they saw him coming, they resented his intrusion so much they plotted to kill him.

  “Here comes that dreamer!” they shouted. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dream” (Genesis 37:19, 20).

  Reuben, the eldest, tried to rescue him, but to no avail. Then Judah suggested they sell him to a passing caravan of Arab traders. They all agreed. And Joseph was sold into slavery for twenty pieces of silver.

  To cover their ill-gotten gain, the brothers tore up Joseph’s colorful robe and soaked it in goat’s blood. When Jacob saw the bloody robe, he assumed a wild animal had eaten Joseph. Again, the deceiver was deceived, this time by his own sons.

  Jacob’s grief was so great that he refused to be comforted. He sobbed uncontrollably. “In mourning will I go down to the grave to my son,” he insisted (Genesis 37:25).

  Jacob remained in agony over this deception for twenty years. This was the same amount of time he was separated from his own parents when he fled from Esau. In the meantime, his son Joseph had plenty of problems of his own.

  From the Pit to the Prison

  The Arabs eventually sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. In the providence of God, Joseph was sold to Potiphar—an Egyptian official who was the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. And he was taken to Potiphar’s house, where he quickly rose to the position of chief steward and his master’s personal attendant.

  It wasn’t long until new problems arose. Potiphar’s wife took an interest in Joseph. Perhaps she was bored and felt neglected by her busy husband, or perhaps she was attracted to Joseph’s handsome physique. Whatever the reason, she risked telling him how she felt.

  “Come to bed with me,” she suggested.

  But Joseph refused. He had already witnessed enough heartaches in his own family from illicit affairs, involving Dinah and Judah (see Genesis 34 and 38).

  “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” he protested (Genesis 39:9).

  The biblical account indicates that she kept at him day after day. Most men would have given in to the temptation: He’s gone. There’s no one home. We’re both adults. Besides, she needs it. Why not? What harm could it do?

  Not Joseph. He stood his ground and refused her advances day after day. That’s when we see what this young man is made of. The depth of his character was impeccable and his confidence in God incredible. Most other men would have been bitter. They would have blamed God, and they would have given in to temptation.

  The real test of human character comes when the bottom falls out of our lives. That’s when our faith in God is challenged: Can I still trust after everything that has happened? If He really loves me, how can He let this happen? Living for Him just isn’t paying off!

  When Joseph continued to refuse Potiphar’s wife, she turned on him with a vengeance. She threw herself at him. But he ran off, leaving his cloak in her hands. He got into more trouble over his clothes! Angered by his rejection, she then went to her husband and falsely accused Joseph of attempting to seduce her.

  Being a slave meant being very susceptible to an accusation. Joseph had no legal recourse. He was condemned and thrown into the royal dungeon. But even there, Joseph refused to turn against God. He became a model prisoner. In time, he was made the warden’s assistant.

  From Prison to the Palace

  We don’t know the exact time line of all the details in Joseph’s life. We do know that he was sold by his brothers when he was seventeen (Genesis 37:2). And he languished in prison until he was thirty (Genesis 41:46). Thirteen years passed until his big break came.

  Think of all that Joseph had been through:

  1. Painful death of his mother.

  2. Jealous resentment of his brothers.

  3. Betrayal and abandonment by his family.

  4. Humiliation of human slavery.

  5. False accusation and imprisonment.

  Despite all this, he never gave up on God. There was no hint of bitterness or hostility. In every situation, Joseph rose above his circumstances by the power of God.

  Genesis 40 records the story of Pharaoh’s butler and baker being thrown into the royal dungeon and their personal encounter with Joseph. He interpreted their dreams and begged them to plead his innocence to Pharaoh. Even though the interpretations came true, the butler (cupbearer) forgot about Joseph for two more years. Finally, a change occurred when Pharaoh had a troubling dream of his own (Genesis 41:1).

  The butler told Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams. Pharaoh issued a royal decree to release Joseph from prison. He quickly shaved and changed into white linen—proper Egyptian attire—in order to stand before the king.

  “I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it,” Pharaoh said inquisitively.

  “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires” (Genesis 41:15, 16).

  Pharaoh had dreamed about seven fat cows and seven lean cows. Joseph interpreted that to mean seven years of prosperity, followed by seven years of famine. Not only did Joseph give the monarch a glimpse into the future, but he proceeded to give him some administrative advice as well.

  “And now,” he suggested, “let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:33). Joseph further advised that they store a fifth (twenty percent) of the annual harvest during the years of plenty. This would provide ample reserves for the years of famine in the future.

  Pharaoh was so impressed by Joseph’s advice that he appointed him grand vizier of Egypt. Joseph would personally oversee the great task of collecting, storing, and distributing the grain.

  “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Pharaoh asked. “There is no one so discerning and wise as you,” he added. In one of history’s dramatic reversals, Joseph went from the prison to the palace instantly. One cannot help but wonder what Potiphar and his wife must have thought!

  If Only They Could See Me Now

  Everything changed overnight for Joseph. No more restless nights in the dungeon—he was sleeping in the palace. No more ragged clothes—he was dressed in royal robes and riding in the royal chariot. They even gave him an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife (Genesis 41:45). He was a big deal. If only his brothers could see him now!

  Just as he had predicted, the seven years of plenty came. And Joseph stored up so much grain he couldn’t keep up with it all. Then the famine came, and Joseph sold the grain to the Egyptians, which greatly increased Pharaoh’s wealth. Eventually people began coming from other countries to buy grain.

  Joseph was now thirty-seven years old. It had been twenty years since he had seen his family. But in all those tough times God had not forgotten him. Neither had He forgotten the promise. In fact, if Joseph hadn’t been in Egypt, all might have been lost. God was going to preserve the entire family through Joseph’s provision.

  The famine was so severe it reached Canaan as well (Genesis 42:1, 2). Jacob sent ten of his sons to Egypt to buy grain, but he kept Benjamin at home. When his brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph immediately recognized them, but they did not recognize him. He looked like an Egyptian, walked like an Egyptian, and talked like an Egyptian.

  “Where do you come from?” he asked them harshly through an interpreter.

  “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”

  “You are spies!” Joseph insisted.

  “No!” they replied. “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man.… The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more,” they added (Genesis 42:13).

  Joseph proceeded to tell them that one of them would have to remain behind as a hostage while the others returned to Canaan to get their younger brother.

  “You must bring your youngest brother to me,” Joseph insisted.

  The brothers turned to each other and said, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother.” And they proceeded to discuss what they had done many years before and how guilty they felt.

  All the time, Joseph was listening to every word. He never let on that he understood them. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and he began to weep. In order to protect his secret, he walked away.

  Bad News and More Bad News

  Joseph kept Simeon as the hostage. I’ve often wondered if he was the one who had treated Joseph the harshest in the past. In the meantime, the other brothers set off for home. Their bags were loaded with grain, and their money had been returned as well. But when they got back home without Simeon, Jacob threw a fit!

  “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” (Genesis 42:36).

  On the surface of things, it may have appeared that everything really was going against Jacob. But in reality, God was moving for Jacob. He was at work in every circumstance to accomplish His will and purpose in Jacob’s life and in his entire family. It was all coming together like some grand masterpiece.

  Reluctantly, Jacob finally agreed to let Benjamin return to Egypt with his other sons. It was a risky choice. Benjamin was Joseph’s full brother—Rachel’s other son. Jacob couldn’t bear the thought of losing him too. But Judah spoke up and promised to personally guarantee his safety.

  “God Almighty grant you mercy,” Jacob said. “As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved” (Genesis 43:14). He had experienced so much pain that he finally abandoned himself and his family to God.

  When they arrived in Egypt, Joseph was anxious to see them. But the sight of Benjamin was more than he could bear. Again, he ran out of the room and sobbed. When he returned, he tried to act tough with them again. But Judah begged him for mercy, even offering to be his personal slave if he would not harm Benjamin.

  Judah begged Joseph, telling him what their father had said: “If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery” (Genesis 44:29). “He is so close to the boy, he’ll die if we go back without him,” Judah explained.

  The Truth Comes Out

  The grief they were all expressing was more than Joseph could bear. Finally, he burst into tears in front of them and told them who he was.

  “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” he asked.

  They were absolutely terrified! All ten of them stood there in stunned silence.

  Joseph! The prime minister of Egypt? The grand vizier of the whole land? Second only to Pharaoh?

  “Come close to me,” he said. “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed … for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you … to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:4–7).

  He explained the famine would last for seven years. Then he asked them to go home and insist that Jacob and the entire family move to Egypt to keep them alive.

  “Tell him God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come quickly. Don’t delay,” Joseph insisted. Then he loaded them with provisions for the trip home. He sent a caravan of twenty donkeys and carts.

  The brothers then had to tell their father that they had deceived him for all those years.

  “Joseph is still alive!” they announced. “In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt” (Genesis 45:26).

  Jacob was so stunned he could not believe them at first. But as they unraveled their story, he realized it was true. And his spirit revived. Hope sprang anew in those old eyes. The deception was finally over. The deceiver was relieved. The truth was finally out.

  “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive,” he shouted. “I will go and see him before I die” (Genesis 45:28).

  It was an incredible sight! They packed up their belongings, took down their tents, rounded up their cattle, and seventy of them pulled out of Beersheba, heading toward Egypt. Excitement and anticipation beat in every heart. The men, women, and children who would become the nation of Israel were headed to an appointment with destiny.

  Jacob wasn’t running for his life this time. He was riding in style. His son was the prime minister of Egypt. He was going to meet the Pharaoh. But more than anything, he was going to see his beloved Joseph again face-to-face.

  When Jacob arrived, Joseph threw his arms around his father and wept a long time. The son that was presumed dead was alive. Jacob was finally satisfied.

  “Now I am ready to die,” Jacob said. “I have seen you for myself.”

  What a great reunion it must have been. Not just of a father and a son, but a whole family was reunited. And in that family the promise was kept alive.

  All’s Well That Ends Well

  They settled in the fertile delta area in lower (northern) Egypt. There they prospered and multiplied. God had reversed the brothers’ hostility into blessing. He had overruled their wickedness and made Joseph ruler of Egypt.

  Several years later, Jacob died. Joseph had the body embalmed, and then a royal procession carried his mummified remains back to Canaan to the burial place of Abraham and Isaac. Jacob’s wanderings were over. He was finally coming home. What a homecoming it was!

  God is still in the business of happy endings. He still takes shattered lives and rebuilds them to His glory. Remember Bob at the beginning of the chapter? God sustained him through the divorce and the separation from his children. He later remarried and committed his life to full-time service. Today, he is one of the nation’s leading ministers to singles. And his marriage is a model of Christian love and devotion.

  You may feel that your life has been shattered by some personal crisis. But God can still turn it all around to His glory. Trust Him! He’s already in the process of working it out.

  Ask Yourself

  1. Have you ever felt betrayed or abandoned?

  2. How did you handle it? How are you handling it now?

  3. Are you facing any situations in your life right now that seem impossible?

  4. Is God the same today as He was in Joseph’s time? Can He do the impossible for you?

  5. Are there any conflicts in your family that need to be resolved?

  6. What steps might God want you to take to help resolve them?

  7. If you were to look back over your life, what would you have done differently?

  Making It Real

  List those times when God did the impossible for you. And trust Him to do it again!

   

  Closing Thought

  Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of

  your changing moods and circumstances.

  —C.S. LEWIS

   

  Chapter 4: Becoming a Leader:

  Overcoming Your Past

  Everyone fails sooner or later. Failure is a normal part of human life. There are things on the road of life that we would prefer to leave behind: sins, fears, mistakes, disappointments, and heartaches.

  Failure is especially hard on leaders. We don’t want to fail. In fact, we fear failure because we’ve seen what it does to people. And as for all those little talks about learning from our failures—forget it! We don’t want any part of it. But then it happens! We find ourselves face-to-face with failure and with ourselves.

  This is the hardest part of dealing with failure—dealing with ourselves. It is so hard for people to face failure. People don’t want to fail. People don’t want to admit failure. People don’t want to do anything about it.

  That’s where God comes in. He turns failures into leaders. Take Moses, for example.

  The book of Exodus tells us that the Israelites prospered in Egypt, even after the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. But as time passed, a problem arose. The Bible explains: “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt” (Exodus 1:8). That was the beginning of trouble. There was a new CEO, if you will. And he didn’t know about all the good work of the previous managers and employees. So he started cleaning house.

  Actually, a whole new dynasty of Pharaohs came to power. All the previous policies were revoked. And the Israelites became the target of many of those changes. Many scholars believe these newcomers were the Hyksos—outsiders who briefly ruled Egypt. That would explain why they were concerned about the Israelites becoming too numerous for them.

  The new Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites and enslaved them. He reduced them to forced labor: field hands, brick makers, and builders. But the Israelites continued to multiply. Next, the Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the newborn male babies. When they refused, he ordered the Egyptians to throw the babies into the Nile River. It was into this desperate situation that Moses was born.

  Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

  A couple from the tribe of Levi (who would become the family of priests) had a baby boy. Not wanting him to die, they hid him for three months. Finally, in desperation, the mother made a papyrus basket, coated it with tar, put the baby inside, and set him among the papyrus reeds (KJV, “bulrushes”) in the Nile River. In desperation, she did what she felt she had to do. She abandoned him to God.

  In the meantime, Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe and found the basket. We’ve all heard the story of “Moses and the Bulrushes” ever since we were little kids. When I was young, I mistakenly called it “Moses and the Bulldozers.” Here is a child, born into poverty and slavery, discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised as her own son in wealth and splendor.

  Since the Egyptians considered the Nile River to be a god, the princess took the child to be a gift from god (probably Hapi, the “spirit” of the Nile). Her heart was moved by the baby’s cries. She “adopted” him as her own son and named him Moses after the royal throne name of the Pharaoh (Thutmosis). There can be little doubt that she hoped her son would rule Egypt one day as the new Pharaoh.

  Perhaps you have read the debate in the newspapers about who is going to ascend the throne of England next. Will this one or that one be king? And what about the queen? We Americans can hardly imagine the intense anxiety of ancient royal families over who would be the next ruler.

  Moses had the finest education, military training, and social training that money could buy. He looked like an Egyptian, walked like an Egyptian, and talked like an Egyptian. His heart, however, was with the people of Israel. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he couldn’t restrain himself. He tried to intervene and inadvertently killed the Egyptian. It was an offense punishable by death, even for a member of the royal family.

  Moses, who had spent years living in prosperity in the palace, ended up running for his life. He fled from Pharaoh into the wilderness of Sinai and came to the outpost of Midian. And there he remained for forty years. The person born in poverty, but raised in prosperity, now ended up living in obscurity on the backside of the desert. It was almost as though God had given up on him. But in reality, God was preparing him for an even greater and more effective ministry in the future.

  If there was ever a time when the promise seemed to fade, it was during those long difficult years in the desert. All hope seemed lost. The Israelites were in bondage. Moses was in exile. And God was silent.

  But all was not lost. God had not abandoned His people. Exodus 2:24, 25 says, “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant … So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” Three things were happening while it seemed nothing was happening:

  1. God heard.

  2. God remembered.

  3. God looked.

  And then, God called!

  Learning from Your Mistakes

  Every time I read the story of Moses, I am reminded that it really doesn’t matter what your background is. You can either benefit from it, or you can rise above it. You may come from a very prosperous background. For some it is a blessing. For others it is a curse.

  Or, you may come from a very poor background. You may have had to learn to make your own way in life. I come from a long line of truck drivers. My father was a truck driver. My uncles were all truck drivers. My grandfather was a truck driver and my great-grandfather drove wagons. As far back as anybody can remember, all the men in our family were truck drivers.

  My dad dropped out of school in the ninth grade. My mother dropped out in the tenth grade. I grew up in an uneducated family. Today, I have seven earned degrees. People often ask me, “Don’t you have enough education yet?” I answer, “I’m trying to make up for my family background.” But one of the things I have observed in my life is this: Because I grew up in a truck driver’s home, I never became so educated that I lost touch with the average person. All we spoke in our family was “truck driver” English: “Where’s the food? What’s for dinner? Hurry up!”

  God will always use your background, even with its limitations, to prepare you for what He wants you to do in life. I believe God has called me to communicate His Word to average people in a way that they can understand in spite of all my education. I appreciate the education I received. But I still talk like an ordinary person, because that’s how I was raised.

  It doesn’t matter what your background is. Look at Moses, the son of a slave. His bed was a basket adrift on the Nile River. He was picked up by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in a palace with the greatest luxury of his time. Now he ends up out in the middle of the desert in total obscurity.

  A Second Chance

  After forty years of keeping the flocks of his father-in-law, Moses met with God in the desert. He came to Mount Sinai and saw a bush burning and blazing with fire that was not burned up.

  The burning bush caught his attention and he said, “I’m going to turn aside and see this great sight. This bush is on fire and is not consumed!” It is not unusual for a bush with a high phosphorous content to catch on fire in the desert. But ultimately it would burn up completely. This bush kept burning and burning and burning because it contained the very presence of God. The shekinah glory of the Almighty had settled there.

  Moses didn’t realize this and he came up the mountain to get a closer look. The Bible tells us the angel of the Lord appeared to him out of the midst of the burning bush. He said to Moses, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground … I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:5, 6).

  God explained what He had been doing during Moses’ time of discouragement. “I have indeed seen … I have heard … and I am concerned … so I have come down to rescue them” (Exodus 3:7, 8). That was good news to Moses’ ears. What came next, however, shocked him senseless.

  “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt,” God told him (Exodus 3:10).

  Forty years earlier he had run ahead of God. Now he hesitated to move at all. Then the excuses began flowing:

  1. Inadequate. “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11).

  2. Ignorant. “What shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13).

  3. Insecure. “What if they do not believe me?” (Exodus 4:1).

  4. Inferior. “I have never been eloquent … I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10).

  5. Insufficient. “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).

  When God Takes Over

  Finally, Moses gave up and listened.

  God said to him, “Say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me’ ” (Exodus 3:14). I am the God who always was, who always is, and who always will be. I am the God who is eternally present. I am the great self-existing God. I AM, that is the name you can use. And they’ll know who I am. I AM the One who can help them. I AM the Promisor.

  Moses’ excuses are not unlike our own. God may have tugged at your heart and said, “I want you to teach Sunday school, or serve as a deacon or an elder (or in some other position of leadership) in your church.”

  And you said, “You’ve got the wrong guy! I can’t do that! Look at all my other responsibilities. Find somebody else!”

  That’s what Moses said. “I can’t do it! Why, who would take care of the sheep? Besides, I’m a wanted man back in Egypt!”

  But God said, “They’ve forgotten who you are!”

  “But I’m not eloquent,” Moses protested.

  God’s reply was, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or dumb?… Is it not I?” (Exodus 4:11). In other words, “If you have what you think is a limitation, could I remind you, Moses, I am the God who made people. And I am the God who made you with your limitation. I want to use you despite your limitation so that you will bring glory to Me. I will be your mouth, and I will put the words in your mouth to let you know what to say. Besides that, if you need help, go back to Egypt and find your brother Aaron. He can speak for you.”

  God took away every excuse Moses had. When Moses finally went back to Egypt, he let Aaron speak only one time. And he did such a terrible job that Moses never let him talk again. From that point on, Moses did all of his own talking. Moses finally returned to Egypt—out of obscurity, into adversity, and on to victory.

  No One Said It Would Be Easy

  It is not easy for leaders to come back, because we expect so much of them and because they expect so much of themselves. But Moses had been fully prepared and equipped by his past. He was the only Israelite who had ever walked into the royal palace before. He was the only one familiar with Egyptian royalty. He was certainly the right person for the job.

  Moses was also prepared because he had failed. He had tasted the bitter fruit of disappointment. And he knew what a second chance really meant. It meant a whole new life; a chance to redeem the moment and to right the wrong that had been done.

  Many of us have been there. I certainly have. One moment we have so much, and then it’s gone! You’re in the desert, on the bench, or in the penalty box—alone but with God. This is when He becomes so real to us. When there’s nobody else to lean on and when all the props are removed. That’s when faith is put to the ultimate test.

  In those lonely moments we are forced to reexamine ourselves—our beliefs, our values, and our future. We begin to realize what really matters most in life: our relationship to God and our relationship to our family. Everything else is secondary. Yet, in the success of life, it is easy to forget. It is easy to neglect and overlook the thing that really means the most to you.

  While you are standing in the desert, you are consumed by the enormity of a seemingly vast wilderness of empty space. Yet, even in the desert, there is life, there is survival, and there is God. He is ready to meet you at your lowest and loneliest point. God is ready to ask, “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:1–5). The answer is always closer than we think.

  Back to the Beginning

  The journey back to Egypt was long and hard. Moses had plenty of time to think it over. He even had some close calls along the way. But there was no turning back now. He had made his decision.

  Moses and Aaron gathered the elders of Israel together and explained to them what God had said He would do for them. Their response was positive. The Bible says, “And they believed” (Exodus 4:31). Their renewed faith triggered a hope for the future.

  Then the Scripture adds this further note: “When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them … they bowed down and worshiped.” When people are convinced that God cares about them, they cannot help but fall at His feet and worship Him. Faith, worship, and hope—these were the keys to their success.

  Moses was now ready to face his past. He went to Pharaoh with a tremendous sense of courage because he had met God face-to-face. No fear. No hesitation. He simply said, “Let my people go!”

  Pharaoh said, “You’re out of your mind! Get rid of this free source of labor? Are you crazy? No way!”

  Moses was undeterred by the king’s resistance. Initially Moses only asked that his people be allowed to go out in the desert to worship God for three days. Later he would ask permission for the Israelites to leave for good. God, however, had to prepare the way for this to happen.

  God placed plagues on the people of Egypt. They had to go through a whole series of confrontations, involving plagues of lice, frogs, flies, bugs, and everything you can imagine. Some plagues were tragic. The second plague was almost hilarious. In that plague, Egyptian houses were filled up with frogs—in their beds, in their ovens, and on their floors. The frogs multiplied by the millions! The Egyptians could not get rid of them.

  Moses came to see Pharaoh and said, “How do you like these frogs?”

  Pharaoh said, “I don’t like them! Get rid of them!”

  “Let my people go!” Moses insisted.

  “You may go,” Pharaoh agreed.

  Then Moses asked Pharaoh, “When do you want me to get rid of the frogs?”

  And Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow!”

  Why didn’t he say, “Right now?” Was it because he wanted to spend one more night at home with the frogs? No, when he said tomorrow, he meant as soon as possible.

  Each successive plague, sent by the God of Israel, was aimed at the gods of Egypt. Each was designed to convince the Pharaoh that the Lord was superior to their idols and false gods. There were ten plagues in all:

  1. Nile turns to blood versus Hapi and Osiris (Nile gods).

  2. Frogs versus Heqet (frog goddess).

  3. Beetles versus Khepri (divine scarab).

  4. Flies versus Uatchit (fly god).

  5. Livestock death versus Apis and Hathor (cow deities).

  6. Boils versus Imhotep (divine healer).

  7. Hail versus Qetesh (storm god).

  8. Locusts versus Isis (goddess of fertility).

  9. Darkness versus Ra (sun god).

  10. Death versus Ptah (god of life).

  Moses went through all these confrontations. Pharaoh changed his mind time after time. “You can go.… No, you can’t go.” What he was really saying was, “I’m not really sure this is the hand of God. Maybe it’s just a coincidental circumstance, a quirk of nature, or some other such thing.”

  The last two plagues, however, struck at the very heart of Egyptian religion: the sun and the sons. In a desert kingdom, everything revolved around the sun. So the plague of darkness frightened the Egyptians more than any of the previous plagues. Also, in every ancient society, no one was more important than the firstborn son, especially the son of Pharaoh. He was the god incarnate, destined for the throne. To the Egyptians, his death meant the death of their god.

  After the plague of darkness, Moses warned Pharaoh, “If you don’t let us go, the firstborn of every child in Egypt will die, including Pharaoh’s own son.”

  On that night, the death angel passed over Egypt. The firstborn of every Egyptian family died, including Pharaoh’s own son. He was so brokenhearted he finally said to Moses, “Go, and never come back!”

  The Price of Leadership

  Moses had confronted the greatest and most powerful ruler in the ancient world. He had not only conquered Pharaoh, but he had also conquered himself and his past. There would be no more wallowing in his guilt and failure, nor wishing that he was the Pharaoh.

  These events were just the beginning of Moses’ long road of leadership. He had to lead his people—the former slaves—to the Promised Land. However, they weren’t used to freedom. There would be some bumps in the road ahead.

  One thing, however, was clear as they marched out of Egypt: The promise was alive! It had lain dormant for many years, but it had not died. The Promisor was still alive! Psalm 105:42, 43 says: “For he remembered his holy promise.… He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy.”

  The Israelites left town with relative ease. They even took Joseph’s mummy with them. When they turned south toward the Red Sea, however, they found themselves in another bind. They were stopped by the Red Sea when Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them. Six hundred chariots appeared on the horizon. The Israelites turned on Moses.

  “What kind of leader are you? You brought us out here to the edge of the Red Sea. And we’re all going to get killed! We should have stayed back in Egypt.”

  Moses began to pay the price of leadership. It was difficult enough dealing with the Egyptians. Now he had to deal with his own people as well. But this was certainly no time to turn back. Real leaders don’t quit when the road gets rough. They move ahead and march off the map!

  “Stand firm,” Moses told the Israelites, “and you will see the deliverance (KJV, “salvation”) the Lord will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13). He raised his rod, and God sent a great east wind (a desert sandstorm) to part the waters of the Red Sea. The Israelites crossed on dry land. Then the waters closed up on Pharaoh’s army and destroyed it. Pharaoh was defeated and this time for good. All of his army drowned. All of the children of Israel were safe and sound on the other side.

  However, this was not the end of the story, because Moses then led the people into the Sinai wilderness. There he had to contend with his own people. It’s sort of like the pastor who said to me one time, “I really enjoy everything about the ministry except the people. They’re just so hard to get along with!” Yet, that’s when real leadership begins.

  The Israelites got to the wilderness, looked around, and said, “There’s nothing to drink here.” So God provided water for them from a rock.

  “There’s nothing to eat here.” So God brought manna from heaven.

  They complained again. “We don’t like manna. We want meat.”

  So God brought quail. Then the people said they were sick of quail. Finally, open rebellion began. God simply opened up the earth, and it swallowed up some of them. The rest of the Israelites finally got the point. They were supposed to follow God’s leader to God’s destination.

  Despite all the difficulties, it was there in that wilderness that God’s greatest blessings came. There the Israelites received the Law and the Ten Commandments. They built the Tabernacle—they established a place to worship God—in the wilderness. The glory of God came down from heaven and rested on the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in that Tabernacle.

  It took forty long years in the wilderness to learn the lessons God was teaching them. Eventually, Moses brought them to a place of victory.

  You may be going through a tough time in your life right now. You may feel like you are in a wilderness. Perhaps the struggle has been long and difficult and you don’t know when you’re ever going to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Friend, God is there every step of the way. In the times of difficulty as well as the times of blessing, He has not forgotten you.

  Learning from the Wilderness

  When I turned forty, I went through a wilderness time in my life. I had been incredibly successful throughout my twenties and thirties. Like many young people, I thought it would last forever. But one day it all changed. I found myself struggling to find God’s direction for the future.

  The months that followed were difficult and painful. I sought God’s direction, but it did not come. I wanted Him to work it out for me. But He wanted to work on me. Time passed. I kept insisting, but God kept waiting. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, He was working so that I would be ready when His call came.

  After nearly two years of waiting, God opened a wonderful door of opportunity for our family. It meant a lot of changes—a move, a new town, new people, a new church, and new responsibilities. It was a new beginning, and I loved it! Suddenly, my pain was gone. The desert began to blossom. Yet, God was there all the time guiding our steps.

  You may be at one of those wilderness points in your life. Don’t give up! And whatever you do, don’t blame God. He is there with you every step of the way, even when He is silent. Remember what He was doing while the Israelites were in bondage? He saw their plight. He heard their cries. He remembered His promises. And He came to rescue them. And He will rescue you, too—when He is finished preparing you.

  When failure comes your way, remember:

  1. To fail is to be fully human. God is aware of your limitations. True success is not avoiding failure, but learning what to do with it.

  2. To fail is not to be a failure. Babe Ruth is remembered for his home runs. But he also set the record for the most strike outs.

  3. No one is a failure until he stops trying. Thomas Edison made over five thousand attempts before he finally invented a lightbulb that worked.

  4. Failure is never final if you get up one more time than you fall down. The fear of failure is far greater than the failure itself. If you’ve failed, admit it and start over. Focus on your future, not your past.

  Perhaps things haven’t gone well, and you are in obscurity. This is not the end. It is only the process. It will lead to greater things. You may have lost a position of leadership, been demoted to another job, taken a pay cut—or all of the above!

  Or, perhaps everything is going great right now. You may be riding the wave of success. May I remind you: When you’re up have a heart for those who are down. Reach down and lift them up. When they’re up and you’re down, they can reach down and lift you up as well. Believe it or not, most of us can survive failure. The greatest temptation of all is dealing with success.

  Moses is an incredible example for us. He was born in poverty, raised in prosperity, sent into obscurity, and returned in victory. What made the difference? He met God in the wilderness. After the burning bush, he knew that he was no longer alone. God was with him. God made all the difference. And He has promised to do the same for you.

  Ask Yourself

  1. Do you feel like God has forsaken you? Or that He can’t use you?

  2. What is He trying to teach you right now?

  3. Is our situation ever really hopeless?

  4. Are you in the desert of life right now? Look around. Where is God?

  5. What is the greatest lesson God is teaching you right now?

  6. Are you learning it?

  7. What improvements do you still need to make?

  Making It Real

  If you are going to be successful as a leader, what are you going to have to overcome?

   

  Closing Thought

  My great concern is not whether you have failed,

  but whether you are content with your failure.

  —ABRAHAM LINCOLN

   

  Ed Hindson, Courageous Faith: Life Lessons from Old Testament Heroes (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2011), 61–75.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Chapter 6: No More Excuses:

  Overcoming Your Fears

  We are all familiar with Murphy’s Law: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!” When you get to the book of the Judges, you realize that everything that could go wrong went wrong. Every problem you could imagine happened to the Israelites. And in every case it was their own fault!

  Once they had conquered the land and taken possession of God’s inheritance, they decided to take it easy. And the hope of the promise began to fade.

  The book of Judges records six cycles of failure, repentance, and restoration. Six times the people are at ease. Six times they fall into sin. Six times God allows an enemy nation to come in and oppress them. Six times they come under judgment. Six times they cry out to God for a deliverer. Six times they repent. Six times God raised up a judge (the deliverer). Six times the enemy is expelled. And six times a time of rest and prosperity followed. It worked like this:

   

  These cycles are true in our own lives. When we are doing what God wants us to do, everything goes well. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems and difficulties. It simply means the hand of God’s blessing is real. When we get used to the blessing and start ignoring God, the enemy comes in, and everything goes wrong.

  This is exactly what happened in the days of Gideon. Judges 6:1 says: “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” The Midianites were desert bandits who came from the Arabian desert to raid the farms of Israel. They would attack the people of the valleys, steal the food and cattle, destroy the villages, and chase the Israelites into the hills. For seven years these bandits came back. Every time the Israelites were ready to reap the harvest, the Midianites came and stole the crops. The results were devastating.

  Imagine Ali Baba and 40,000 thieves! Thousands of Arab bandits coming out of the desert on their camels; attacking the children of Israel; stealing their food, their women, and their animals; destroying their cities and then running back to the desert again. This went on for seven years! Finally the children of Israel were broken before God. They repented of their sin and cried out to God for deliverance.

  But this time God stepped back and said, “Wait a minute. We’ve been through this before! When are you going to learn your lesson? So you can get the point this time, I’m going to pick the most unlikely candidate I can find! A guy by the name of Gideon, aka Super Chicken! A guy who’s afraid of his own shadow!

  An Unlikely Hero

  The word if and the word fear appear constantly throughout the story of Gideon: If you really want me to do this; if this is what I’m supposed to do. If-if-if, Gideon never operates on faith and certainty. He’s always raising the word if because he is afraid. Later, God turned him into something he was not. When we think of Gideon today, we think of a great hero, a great leader. There is even a great Christian organization named after him—the Gideons.

  But Gideon started out in bad shape. When the Lord first found him, he was hiding in a winepress. Judges 6:11 says, “The angel of the Lord came … where … Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.” A winepress was a deep hole lined with stones. You threw the grapes down into the hole. Then someone would jump in and stomp the grapes.

  Gideon was down inside the winepress, but he was not trying to make grape juice. He was in the winepress trying to thresh wheat! Normally, this was done on a threshing floor in an open field. Gideon was fearful that if he did it out in the open, the bandits would come and steal the wheat from him. So he got down inside the winepress and tried to throw the grain up through the opening. He must have looked ridiculous. He didn’t even have enough room to operate. Imagine being cramped in a deep hole, trying to throw grain back up through the opening in the top and having the wheat fall back in your face, all the while frightened that the Midianites were coming. He had to have been covered from head to toe with the husks of grain!

  About this time, the angel of the Lord came along dressed like a shepherd and sat down under a tree next to the winepress. I’m sure he must have chuckled to himself. The winepress looked like an open mouth of a well, when all of a sudden, up comes a pile of grain and down it goes again: up and down, up and down, over and over again. Finally, the angel of the Lord decided he had better say something to this guy down there. So he said to him: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:12).

  Gideon probably thought, “Mighty warrior? Are you out of your mind? I’m scared to death! I’m down here in the winepress hiding for my life!”

  “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us [the first of Gideon’s many ifs], why has all this happened to us?… The Lord has abandoned us” (Judges 6:13). He was really saying, “Where is the power of God and His great miracles that our forefathers told us about? We haven’t seen God do anything! Everything is going wrong!”

  Instead of correcting him, criticizing him, or chastising him, the angel said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand” (Judges 6:14).

  Go in my strength? Gideon thought. I don’t have any strength! I’m Super Chicken, hiding down here in a winepress. And you’re out of your mind! I’m from the tribe of Manasseh, and we’re the least of all the tribes! And I’m from the house of Joash, and we’re the least of all the families in Manasseh. And I’m the least in my father’s house. No way! You’ve got the wrong guy!

  God has a way of choosing unlikely candidates to do His work. He deliberately picked Gideon because he was such a coward. The old rabbis viewed Gideon not as a great warrior, but more like a bumbling oaf. Some years ago in the Hallmark series on television, this story was recreated with Peter Ustinov playing the part of Gideon. He portrayed a clumsy farmer who kept stumbling over his own shadow. Why had God chosen a coward to defeat Israel’s enemies? He did it to teach them to trust His promises and not their own power.

  Overcoming Our Excuses

  Most of us know the story of Gideon. He offered every possible excuse. But God would not let him get out of this obligation. Finally, Gideon said, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign” (Judges 6:17). It was if number two.

  Gideon left to prepare a sacrifice. When he had finished and brought it out, the angel of the Lord asked him to put it on a rock. The Bible says the angel of the Lord took the staff in his hand and touched the rock. Instantly, fire came up out of the rock and consumed the entire offering. Gideon panicked and screamed, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die! I’ve seen God face-to-face. I’m going to die!”

  The time for Gideon’s excuses had come to an end. It was time for action! The angel commanded Gideon to tear down his father’s altar of Baal—a Canaanite storm god. Gideon’s father, Joash, an Israelite, had no business having it.

  The angel wouldn’t take no for an answer. So Gideon tore down Baal’s altar. He got ten of his servants to help him, and he did it at night because “he was afraid of his family and the men of the town” (Judges 6:27). That simple phrase in the biblical text tells us how far the Israelites had strayed from God. They had totally forgotten the miraculous power of God. They were more afraid of public opinion than they were of God!

  By morning, the whole town was angry. They came to Joash’s house, knocked on the door, and demanded, “Bring out Gideon! He tore down Baal’s altar, and we’re going to kill him!”

  Joash couldn’t believe it! Gideon? he thought. He actually did something for once? Who cares if it was against me? It’s the greatest thing he’s ever done! Joash then told the men that if Baal were really a god, then Baal could plead his own case. “Let Baal defend himself,” he said.

  Then Joash gave Gideon a new name: Jerub-Baal. In Hebrew it means “let Baal plead his own case.”

  All too often, most of us sit back saying, “Somebody should do something. Somebody should stand against secularism and paganism in our society. Somebody should tear down Baal’s altar and raise the standard of God.” And God’s reply usually is, “Why don’t you do it? When are you going to take a stand in your home, or at your place of work, or in your neighborhood and your community?”

  God is still in the business of eliminating our excuses. An excuse is nothing more than a lie packaged to look like an explanation. As soon as Gideon took a stand, fearful as he was, people were willing to follow him. What makes a person a leader? He has to be willing to lead. If you start leading, people will start following. But if you’re not leading, no one is going to follow you. Thus we have confusion, compromise, and defeat.

  As soon as Gideon took a stand for what was right, people lined up to follow him. God took the most unlikely person imaginable, touched his life, and empowered him to go on to win one of the most incredible victories in human history.

  No Turning Back

  Before Gideon realized what he was doing, the Spirit of God “came upon” him, and he rallied an army against the Midianites. People came from all the surrounding towns and all the northern tribes: Manasseh, Naphtali, Asher, and Zebulun. They all showed up, saying, “We’re here to follow you!”

  Gideon thought, “I’m not used to being a leader. Now what am I going to do?” So he went back into his fear mode. He said, “I’ll tell you what, God, if (here we go again) You really want me to do this, I need another indication to prove that this is Your will. Let’s try a fleece.” We often use the term putting out the fleece. But in reality, the fleece was not an act of faith. It was an act of fear!

  The fleece was part of Gideon’s hesitation. He wasn’t ready to fully trust God yet. He was saying, “God, if You really want me to do it, here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll take this piece of wool and put it out on the threshing floor at night. When I get up in the morning, if the fleece is wet with dew and the ground around it is dry, I’ll know for sure You want me to lead the children of Israel.”

  He got up the next morning and, sure enough, the fleece was wet and the ground was dry. It was so wet that he wrung out enough to fill a bowl of water! Did he believe God and proceed? No! He asked, “How about two out of three? And this time the fleece is dry and the ground is wet.”

  He got up the next morning and again the fleece was dry and the ground was wet. God was not going to let him off the hook. There was no turning back now.

  The people came by the thousands to follow him.

  They encamped at the spring of Harod, which in the Hebrew language means “the place of trembling.” Cowardly Gideon with his army of farmers encamped at the “spring of trembling.” You can just imagine who was doing the trembling!

  This place still exists today. It’s off the beaten path—just like it was then—but you can still find it. There is a natural spring at Harod, which overlooks part of the valley below. It was here that Gideon came with an army of 32,000 men. The problem is, there were 130,000 Midianites and Amalekites down in the valley. The Israelites were completely outnumbered! In fact, Scripture describes the invading horde as “grasshoppers”—like a plague of locusts swarming across the valley.

  Gideon stood there thinking, We’re outnumbered! We don’t stand a chance! We’re doomed! What am I going to do?

  God spoke to Gideon and said, “We’ve got a problem.”

  Gideon agreed, You’re right! I don’t have enough men!

  God said, “No, you’ve got too many men!”

  Too many men? What do you mean, too many men? Gideon thought.

  You’ve Got to Be Kidding!

  God replied, “If I let 32,000 defeat 130,000 they’re going to say, ‘We did it ourselves!’ I’ve been dealing with these people long enough to know how they operate. I want you to ask your men, ‘How many are afraid?’ Then tell the ones who admit it to go home.”

  Gideon probably thought, Me! I’m afraid. And I want to go home! But he went ahead and asked, “How many of you are afraid?” And 22,000 people raised their hands. He had to tell them to leave. That left him with about 10,000 men—hardly enough to do the job.

  I’ve never been in a battle, but I’ve been in a war zone in Africa. We would go to a town, preach, and leave. And the next day, the town would be attacked with missiles. We talked to soldiers every day who were being shot at in a terrible civil war. The soldiers claimed there were three kinds of people in a battle. First, they said anybody with any sense was afraid, and that covered most people. That’s why two-thirds of Gideon’s army left. Second, there was a bunch of guys who just wanted to fight. They didn’t care if they got killed. They would stay and fight. Most of the other third of Gideon’s force was probably like them.

  The soldiers also told us about a third category of men in battle. “They’re the ones who are too afraid to admit they’re afraid,” they explained. So when Gideon said, “If you’re afraid, raise your hand,” they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t even get their hands up. They were catatonic. They froze on the battlefield, too afraid to admit they were afraid.

  God said, “There are still too many men.”

  Too many men? Gideon thought.

  “Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there.… Separate those who lap the water with their tongues … from those who kneel down to drink” (Judges 7:4, 5).

  Everybody who stuck his head down in the water and sucked up a drink was put in one category. Then all the lappers were put in another category. They were the ones who scooped up the water in their hands and lapped it with their tongues.

  I’ve read almost every commentary ever written on the book of Judges. There is every kind of explanation for this system of separation. Some say that the three hundred guys who lapped up the water were the wisest and best prepared. They were the ones watching for the enemy. The rest weren’t paying attention. They just stuck their heads down in the water and drank. Let me remind you, the Israelites were up on the top of the mountain. The enemy was way down in the valley. Nowhere near them! There was nothing to be afraid of at that point.

  The same old rabbis who viewed Gideon as a reluctant leader also viewed the three hundred lappers as being afraid to take a drink. Those who lapped their water thought, There’s a Midianite behind every rock. They’re going to get us. But there wasn’t anybody there! I believe God picked out the three hundred biggest cowards He could find in Gideon’s army and put him in charge of them!

  When You’re Too Afraid to Go On

  By now, poor Gideon was bewildered. How am I going to lead these guys to victory? he wondered. I’ve only got three hundred men!

  That’s when God intervened. “Get up, go down against the camp,” He said.

  You want me to go down to the camp of the Midianites? Gideon thought.

  “If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying,” God suggested (Judges 7:10, 11).

  Next, the Scripture says he took his servant Purah with him. Purah’s name means “foliage.” That’s something to hide behind. Remember those old cowboy movies where they crept in behind the tumbleweed? That’s the idea in this passage. Gideon is pushing the servant down the side of the mountain, saying, “I’m right behind you.”

  Something unusual happened when he got to the edge of the enemy camp. It was dark, and 130,000 men were asleep on the valley floor. Gideon came to the edge of the camp where two men were standing guard, talking to each other. This is the conversation Gideon and his servant overheard:

  “Man, I’m scared about this whole thing,” the first guard said.

  “Why are you so scared?” asked the other.

  “I had the weirdest dream last night,” the first guard said. “I dreamed a barley cake rolled down the side of this mountain and destroyed our whole army.

  “What do you think it meant?” said the other.

  “I think it’s Gideon! He’s going to attack and kill us all!” the first man replied.

  If there is anything that will encourage the heart of a coward, it is to find out that the enemy is more afraid of you than you are of him. With renewed confidence, Gideon charged back up the hillside, gathered his troops, and prepared to attack.

  I Know the Feeling

  When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, my mother decided I needed to be in the Cub Scouts. So she signed me up and sent me off. In Detroit, the Cub Scouts didn’t collect butterflies or rocks. They just fought all the time! Every time I would go to a den meeting, fights broke out. One day the den mother decided that since we wouldn’t stop fighting, we would have organized fighting—a boxing elimination with a champion.

  There was only one problem with this arrangement. One of the kids in our Cub Scout troop was an absolute monster! He was a Tasmanian devil. His name was Tim. Big Tim, and he had a buzz haircut and a big, square jaw. Besides all that, he was ten years old!

  When I was eight years old, Tim looked like he weighed 200 pounds. Like I said, he was a monster! This is going to be a waste of time, all of us kids thought. Tim will beat all of us up! The den mother divided us into two groups. Fortunately for me, I was not in Tim’s group. Those poor little skinny guys would walk sheepishly into the ring with Tim. He would growl at them, stalk them into the corner, then POW! It was all over in one swing!

  I was with a bunch of nerds who didn’t know what they were doing. I didn’t know what I was doing either. We pushed each other around for a few minutes. Nobody even got hurt. But they kept announcing, “The winner—Hindson!” I won a couple of rounds by pure accident.

  I was feeling good until it occurred to me that if I won another round, I would win my division. And if I won my division, I would have to fight … TIM! I was in real trouble! So I figured I would take a dive as soon as the bell rang. But the other kid beat me to it! The championship battle came around, and it was Little Edward against Big Tim. Scared as I was, a strange thought came to my mind. I had made an observation. Up to this point, nobody had ever hit Tim. They only backed up and backed up, and WHAM!—Tim blasted them. I began to think through my options. I could quit Cub Scouts and go home. Or I could do something really crazy and stupid: I could wind up and hit him.

  I was standing there scared to death. But I was not about to back up, because I knew he would get me. Which option would it be? The bell rang. I ran across the ring and hit Tim right in the mouth. It shocked him! He wasn’t expecting it! It couldn’t possibly have hurt him, but it scared him. He started to cry! Then I went crazy—bam-bam-bam. Why? I found out the other guy was more afraid of me than I was of him. That’s all it took!

  That’s what happened to Gideon. He couldn’t believe it. The enemy was afraid of him! He took courage in their fear. The Bible says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). All too often we let our fears overwhelm us, and we give up. But God says, “Don’t give up. Get up! Take courage. Stand up. And trust Me!”

  When God Has a Better Idea

  Gideon came back to the Israelites raring to go. Then God said, “I have a very unusual plan as to how we’re going to defeat the enemy. It’s probably not what you had in mind. We’re not going to go down and beat them up. We’re going to scare them away!”

  How easily we forget where we were when God found us. The fearful, hesitant coward is raring to go, and God had to hold him back. He had to remind Gideon that He was still the One in charge.

  The Lord gave Gideon an incredible battle plan. He told him to take the three hundred men and divide them into three groups. He gave instructions to Gideon to give a pitcher with a torch inside it to every man, along with a trumpet for them to carry. Then He told him to put a hundred men on each side of the valley and a hundred in the middle. Gideon was to give the signal and the men would break the pitchers, wave the torches, and blow on the trumpets. Then they were to shout, “The sword of the Lord and Gideon!”

  God used Gideon and his three hundred lappers to scare the enemy away! When armies fought in ancient times, they rarely ever fought at night because they couldn’t see anybody. Almost all of the battles in the ancient world were fought during the day. However, when they did fight at night, only a few soldiers carried a torch to light up the battlefield. Anybody who carried a torch could not carry a shield, which meant every torchbearer was undefended. So they used one torch for about every hundred men. That was usually enough light to see by.

  They couldn’t put a trumpet in every man’s hand, either. If he had a trumpet in one hand, he would be missing a shield or a sword. Have you ever seen those Revolutionary War paintings? They had a little fife and drum corps. A few guys are playing on a piccolo and banging on a drum. Typically, there are about a dozen of them for every thousand soldiers.

  Put the Enemy to Flight

  A similar situation occurred in British history when the Scots were losing the Battle of Bannockburn. Word came from the battlefront that the Scots were retreating. In response, the old men and young boys waiting behind the Scottish front line picked up the flags and bagpipes and ran toward the battlefront. When they did, they made so much noise and kicked up so much dust that the other side—the enemy—retreated instead.

  In the middle of the night Gideon’s enemies heard the smashing of the pottery pitchers. It simulated the clash of arms and echoed down in the valley below. The noise terrified the Midianites and the Amalekites. They looked up and saw the torches and heard the trumpets surrounding their camp. They assumed there were thousands of soldiers out there. They panicked, thinking the Israelites had hired allies to come against them. In the confusion of the noise and darkness, two different groups of people with two different dialects ran out of their tents. The Midianites and Amalekites slaughtered each other without even realizing it. Before the night was over, 120,000 Midianites and Amalekites were dead. All Gideon and his three hundred men had done was to stand there and make some noise for God!

  It doesn’t take thousands of people to make a difference in the world in which we live. If a few people will get out and make some noise for God, and wave the light of the truth in the darkness, God will multiply and magnify their efforts. There is no telling what you and I could do for the cause of Christ if we really tried.

  As Gideon and his men saw their enemy in confusion, they were so excited that the three hundred men ran down the hillside and chased the ten thousand Midianites and Amalekites that were left. Then the other Israelites came from the surrounding hills and joined the fight as the morning dawned. Before the fight was over, the Israelites had wiped out nearly everybody. The few that survived ran into the desert and never came back.

  The Promisor kept the promise alive! For the first time in a long time, the enemy respected the people of the promise and left them alone. They had taken a stand, scared the enemy away, and God had brought a tremendous victory through the leadership of an unlikely person with an unlikely army. “Super Chicken” and the “lappers” had prevailed.

  God has always been in the business of doing the impossible. Sometimes it was the only way to keep the promise alive. Usually it was the only way to remind people that the Promisor was greater than the promise. The Bible reminds us: “God has not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV). It’s a lesson we all need to remember: God is more interested in our finding Him in life’s struggles than protecting us from life’s struggles.

  Ask Yourself

  1. What do God’s choices tell us about His grace?

  2. What are some of the weaknesses God sees in your life?

  3. What things do you fear most in life?

  4. How can you learn to trust God with these fears?

  5. What kind of obstacles are you facing right now that really scare you?

  6. How do you know God can get you through them?

  7. What personal sacrifices will you have to make to get the job done?

  Making It Real

  What does God want me to trust Him with that I am afraid to give Him?

   

  Closing Thought

  You never conquer a mountain. You conquer

  yourself—your hopes—your fears.

  —JIM WHITTAKER, FIRST AMERICAN TO CLIMB MT. EVEREST

   

  Ed Hindson, Courageous Faith: Life Lessons from Old Testament Heroes (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2011), 91–105.

  ecoming a Leader

• Chapter 6 – No More Excuses
• Chapter 8 – Facing Your Weaknesses
• Chapter 9 – Reaching Out to Others
• Chapter 10 – Realizing Your Goals
• Chapter 12 – Standing Up for What You Believe

This means that in this assignment you are developing four summaries of 120 words each (one for each of the four chapters you selected). You should aim to create four summaries where each summary is between 100-120 words. Each of your summaries should not exceed the 120-word or $12 limit. Be sure to include at least one quote from the chapter in each summary. For an example of this type of thread, please see the provided example.