The Only Green Light We Need is the Promise of God’s Empowering Presence

The Hinge

We’re back in Judges 6, reading from verse 14. The Lord has turned to Gideon and said: Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? Gideon responds: O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. And the Lord answers: Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.

This is the hinge of the passage. There is a challenge — save Israel by destroying Midian. There is a question — how, given my resources and position? And there is an answer: God’s presence. His empowering presence. His assuring presence.

Maybe you know what God wants you to do, but you are still waiting for permission from someone else. Waiting for money. Waiting for the right circumstances. The only green light we need is knowing it is God’s will — and knowing he will be with us, not in a vague general sense, but by his Spirit, equipping us for the specific thing he has called us to do.

Neither God Alone Nor Man Alone

Gideon could have said: this is logically impossible, I cannot do it. And he would have been right. He could have swung to the other extreme: God is going to do it, so I need do nothing. But neither is correct. It is God’s Spirit in man that does it. Not God alone. Not man alone. God’s Spirit within you, his presence in you, his empowering presence at work through your obedience.

You can press pause on your life for months, years, even a lifetime, saying: I can’t do this. And you will never accomplish anything. Gideon would not have liberated anyone had he taken that policy. It was God in him, as he stepped forward in faith, that made the difference.

The Test

The hinge leads to the next question. Gideon says in verse 17: If now I have found favour in your sight, show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. The Pharisees demanded signs from Jesus — but Jesus had already demonstrated miracle after miracle, fulfilled prophecy after prophecy. There was no basis for doubt. Gideon’s situation was entirely different. He had a good inkling this was the Lord, but this was a cultic area filled with the possibility of deception. His caution was not unbelief. It was wisdom.

God does not roar at him. There is no impatience, no rebuke. He says: I will wait until you come back. This is not the God of those who were raised under constant pressure and harsh correction. This is the God who motivates through understanding, not through shaming. And if you have imagined God as someone who is constantly roaring at you, frustrated with your slowness — look at how he actually dealt with Gideon. Patience. Dialogue. Gentleness toward his own.

The Offering and What It Means

The offering — mincha in Hebrew — can mean a gift to God or a gift to a man of high standing. We mentioned that Jacob used this same word for the massive bribe he offered to Esau. Gideon wasn’t yet certain who he was dealing with, but he was acting in good faith, giving generously.

Moving forward in God’s will requires investment. Moving from where you are to where God is calling you — whether from unmarried to married, from employed to self-employed, from obscurity to influence — it requires offering up what is precious to you. The flour Gideon had beaten out by hand, in a time of scarcity, was precious. He gave it extravagantly. We cannot have half measures when it comes to our calling. You cannot afford to be squeamish. The question is not whether it will cost you — it will. The question is whether you are all in.

He also did it himself. He didn’t call a servant. This speaks of competence and of service. He was a man who worked with his hands at every level of the household’s operation.

Fellowship With God on God’s Terms

When the angel directed him — lay them on this rock and pour out the broth — Gideon obeyed. He knew from the law of God what was required. He was not presuming that he could offer God whatever he liked. Real fellowship with God comes within the framework of obeying his word — not through private feelings or invented rituals, but through doing things his way, generously, from the heart.

And when we deviate from God’s commandments, we feel it. The connection goes cold. How do we come near again? Not by working harder or accumulating more religious activity. We come near by dealing with what stands between us and God — by returning to the sacrifice of Christ, trusting that his blood and body cleanses from all sin, dying to the old thing and taking up the new.

Gideon had to abandon life on the farm to fulfil his life’s calling. Life on the farm was not sin — but the picture holds. There is always something to abandon in order to embrace the thing God is calling you to. The power is on the other side of that abandonment.

The Fire, the Peace, the Altar

The angel touched the offering with his staff and fire rose from the rock, consuming everything. God accepted the offering. Then he departed. And Gideon, realising he had seen the angel of the Lord face to face, cried out in fear. The Lord said: Peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not die.

Peace. That is the word. And Gideon built an altar and called it: The Lord is Peace. He had been commissioned to go to war, and his first act was to build an altar called the Lord is Peace. You can only go to battle — you can only do the difficult, costly, risky thing — from the foundation of peace with God. The Lord has accepted the sacrifice. The Lord has accepted me. It is well with my soul. That is the only place from which true and lasting courage is possible.

God bless you. We’ll see you next time.