Page 10 - Good News April 2016 paper

t was HARVEST time in Israel, declaration that day. "Gideon," are aquariums for fish, aquariums Gideon confused with someone
and a palpable sense of anxiety the Lord says, "you are a mighty for corals, aquariums for reptiles, else. God saw something in
Iwas in the air. At any moment man of fearless courage!" Where and aquariums for invertebrates. Gideon that no one else saw,
the wary farmers might lift their others saw a coward, God saw a What really fascinated me was the including Gideon himself. How
eyes to see a tidal wave of deliverer! aquarium for crabs. I discovered comforting it is to know that
Midianite soldiers pouring down that these particular aquariums God's ways are not our ways and
from the hills like a flash flood I'm so glad God doesn't see us the had no lids, and I was amused His thoughts are not our
from a broken dam. The Bible way we so often see ourselves. when I learned why. Apparently thoughts. Oh, my friend, when
describes the Midianites as a When we look in the mirror, we when you have an aquarium for you understand what God sees
nation of "grasshoppers" might see someone who is under- crabs, you don't need a cover when He looks at you, it will
(Judges 7:12). Whenever the educated or inexperienced. We because if one crab tries to climb change your life! Let me explain it
harvest was ripe, they would might see someone who belongs out, the others will reach up and this way.
descend upon Israel's fields and to the wrong social class, race, or pull him back down again. I
crops in vast numbers like a gender. We might see someone thought to myself, "I know a lot of In the early 1500s a twenty-five-
swarm of locusts, leaving nothing who is too young or too old. And crabby Christians." We don't like year-old artist and sculptor
in their wake but destruction and there are always a million excu- to see someone succeed where laboured tirelessly with hammer
desolation. The Israelites went on ses why God can't use us. But we have failed. Envy and jealousy and chisel over a colossal block
the defensive, hunkering down in God sees more in us than we see often make God's children of cold marble. Other artists had
caves, hiding in the mountains, in ourselves, and our obstacles, competitors and rivals. Often rejected the stone because it had
and building protective strong- failures, and shortcomings do not hurtful and judgmental words defects, so it sat untouched for
holds. The nervous harvesters intimidate Him. have wounded brothers and several decades before this
quickly reaped what they could sisters, dragged them down, and young sculptor saw something
and hid it away in anticipation of I am also glad that God doesn't kept them from realizing their beautiful in it. He worked night
an imminent invasion. see us the way other people do. potential. and day with obsessive dedi-
Many times when we begin to cation. When someone asked him
God had a plan to deliver Israel break out of the old patterns and Sadly this happens all the time in why he was working so hard on
from the hand of Midian, and He mindsets that have held us back, the church world. Just as God is that old stone, he replied,
had chosen just the man for the rejecting the status quo and elevating one pastor and blessing "Because there is an angel in that
job, but God's choice seemed looking for higher ground, our his ministry, the other pastors in rock that wants to come out."
highly unlikely. Gideon was not a greatest opponents are close town oppose him with slander Nearly three years after starting
superhero by any stretch of the friends, fellow church members, and gossip. They will do every- his work, the young artist, Michel-
imagination. He was a victim of and even our own relatives. In thing they can to pull him back angelo, unveiled his enduring
his society's ills, a man who had fact, it's interesting to note that down into the aquarium of masterpiece: a seventeen-foot-
been influenced by the climate of the Midianites, being descen- "church as usual". Such a pastor, tall sculpture that today is known
cowardice that had crippled and dants of Abraham, were actually church, or Christian should take the world over as David.
enslaved the Israelites. He was cousins of the Israelites. It was comfort. Someone once told me,
such a prisoner of fear that he these "family members," if you "Pity you get for free, but jealousy Anyone who is an artisan will
would hide in a winepress to will, who had so oppressed Israel must be earned." Jesus Himself acknowledge that before a
thresh his small harvest of wheat that they were cowering in fear was delivered by His own people masterpiece is ever crafted, it
(Judges 6:11). rather than living victoriously. to be crucified - because they exists in the mind of its creator.
The enemy knows how to use envied Him (Matt. 27:18). How Before a brush touches the
A winepress is no place to thresh those closest to us to bring often have we been discouraged canvas, before a chisel touches
wheat; it's like washing your discouragement. They say, "Who because of what someone else the stone, before the clay is
clothes in the dishwasher. But do you think you are? Do you thought or said about us? Fortu- placed on the potter's wheel,
Gideon had chosen this inappro- think you're better than us? We've nately the wonderful reality is that before the artist creates a
priate place because he was known you since you were a child. God doesn't see us the way other painting, sculpture, or piece of
afraid of the Midianites. He was We've seen all your failures, and people do. pottery, before the artist has
afraid of losing his harvest and we know your faults. You are just anything tangible to display, he
his life, so he hid both under- one of us. Get back in your place!" In the winepress we find a first and foremost has a dream. In
ground. It was in this dungeon of trembling, perspiring coward the artist's mind he already sees
fear that the Lord found Gideon, Some time ago I became interes- hiding for his life when the Angel what he will create before it exists
frustrated, trembling, and pers- ted in purchasing an aquarium. of the Lord appears to Gideon and in the physical world. Michel-
piring. "And the Angel of the Lord As I began to research this calls him a "mighty man of [fear- angelo saw something in that
appeared to him and said to him, project, I was amazed to discover less] courage." At first those block of stone long before anyone
The Lord is with you, you mighty all the different types of aqua- words almost sound like cruel else did. Other artists saw
man of [fearless] courage" riums that can be bought. There sarcasm, but there was no smirk impossible defects and imper-
(Judges 6:12 AMP). No one would are large ones and small ones, on the Angel's face. God was not fections, but Michelangelo saw a
Continued on p. 1
have anticipated the Lord's freshwater and saltwater. There mocking Gideon, nor did He have Continued on p. 111