Mighty Warriors

Most of you have seen the verse used at Tucker's funeral, "God is with you, mighty warrior!" from Judges, and I hope you get the chance to one day here Nathan tell the story behind the verse, of how he prayed that verse over Tucker from the start, praying his life would resemble that of a mighty warrior of Christ. It's an extremely moving story and something we now pray, too over our boys.

A few days ago I went to the place in Scripture where the verse is to read the story surrounding such a bold declaration.
The command is from an angel of the Lord, speaking to the great warrior, Gideon. If you don't know the story of Gideon, he was a faithful man of God who stood out among his fellow Israelites who had fallen away from the Lord (even after being delivered under the leadership of both Moses and Joshua.) From what I understood, the Israelites had assumed a defeatist attitude of such, began worshiping false gods, and were standing on the brink of getting demolished by the Midianites, whose army consisted of several hundred thousands of men.
The Israelites defeat appeared certain; their battle seemed hopeless; they had forgotten their God.

And that's where we find this dialogue:

The angel of God appeared to Gideon and said, "God is with you, mighty warrior!"
¹³ Gideon replied, "With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, 'Didn't God deliver us from Egypt?' The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian."
¹⁴ But God faced him directly: "Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven't I just sent you?"
¹⁵ Gideon said to him, "Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan's the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the runt of the litter."
¹⁶ God said to him, "I'll be with you. Believe me, you'll defeat Midian as one man."

Isn't it interesting that after the verse we've been using/seeing/reciting in light of Tucker these past weeks is directly followed by this incredibly faithful man of God, questioning (albeit, respectfully) God's ways and His plan??? And God demonstrates grace and patience with Gideon and He gently keeps commanding... "Go in strength...I'll be with you...Believe me...You'll defeat...".

And many of you might know how the story goes...Gideon trusts God, and builds his army to fight.

He gets about 32,000 volunteers to defeat the Midianites - which is a far cry from the opposers numbers - and God says he has TOO MANY MEN! God tells him that if they have victory with that many men, then they might take credit for their victory versus giving the glory to God.

So God has him reduce his army to only 300 men, so all will see the glory of God shine through and know God is powerful and works through his faithful men.

And of course they won...300 men to the hundreds of thousands - but they had GOD. "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Anyway, I found this story surrounding Judges 6:12 rich with comfort, conviction, and encouragement.

God's plans can seem so incredibly bizarre sometimes...making us question him...but He desires two things from us: to Trust and Obey (and the choir starts singing the old Baptist hymn - ha.).

Again, I'm no Theologian...these were thoughts based on my reading of the passage a few nights ago. But wow I love how God works - through the broken, through our questioning, through our lack of understand in dyer circumstances, through our trust and obedience. And I know this circumstance my sister and Nate (and all of us) are all in is no different. God's glory will shine. He ask that we continue being mighty warriors - something only made possible with Him working through us.

(and who all wants to name their next son Gideon now??!)