Deborah’s poem brings to mind a point about Hebrew poetry. Recall that they valued repetition of a concept, and the good poet would find different ways of restating the same idea. In waxing poetic about other nations, they would use different names by which to refer to them. They might use the name of the people, in this case, Edom; or they might call them by the name of their land, in this poem, Seir. They might also call them by a leader’s name, or the name of one of their gods. That might be confusing to us, but this practice conveyed a great deal to the people of the day. For example, think about the word “Appalachia”: it conveys more than just a region, but some general characteristics of the people to whom it refers. The references to leaders would also be an image full of meaning: think about the perception contemporary people all over the world have of a nation based on their leader. Or an understanding of their values and beliefs based on whom they worship. These synonymous references not only gave variety to a poet’s parallelism, but also conveyed more meaning than we can appreciate unless we know something about those lands or leaders or gods, which we mostly will not know. Hopefully we can follow whom the poet is speaking of and appreciate his or her impressive parallelism even though we may not be able to comprehend all that he or she is saying about the people.
Suffering under Midian’s persecution, the Israelites were forced to live in caves and suffer starvation. Compare those conditions to those in which they lived in the Wilderness! The Promised Land was not a good place when the people weren’t enjoying God’s blessing.
Gideon was looking for a miracle from God. He believed God could do miracles, and he was asking Him to do the same kind of miracles He did in bringing his forefathers out of Egypt. But when God answered by sending Gideon himself, he didn’t believe in a miracle that big. Knowing Gideon’s story, we are amazed at his unbelief. Do we do the same? Do we think that God’s miracles are all in the past, and disbelieve that He might want to use us to do things that we can’t imagine ourselves doing? Ephesians 3:20 says that He “can do abundantly above all we ask or think, according to His power that is at work within us.” We can do what He wants us to do if we allow Him to use us as His instruments, seeking His resources and allowing ourselves to be vessels of those resources by pouring ourselves out for others. Is unbelief holding you back from doing something that God wants you to do? Let Gideon’s story inspire you!
God’s patience with Gideon’s fleeces offers some great lessons about prayer. Some people think that laying out a “fleece” is irreverent, but it is a way to get an answer from a God who doesn’t communicate with us audibly. God wants His people to get the answers they need from Him. Using Gideon’s example, we can specify the “fleece” and the condition that make the most sense to us. If God doesn’t meet the conditions, we have our answer. It is a sensible way to pray. The alternative is a frustrating lack of response when we ask only generally for guidance. God doesn’t want us to be frustrated in our asking guidance from Him!
God gave Gideon’s tiny army a miraculous victory through ridiculous tactics. He instilled fear in the enemy that caused them to respond in the most unsoldierly fashion to the battle cry, so that the Israelites were able to destroy a huge army with few resources and relatively little effort. But the victory wouldn’t have been won if they hadn’t shown up for battle. Are you faced with an intimidating enemy while possessing few resources? Your eyes need to be on the God who can fight for you, as you present yourself for battle. Be obedient to His orders, and see what miraculous things He can do through you!