WHAT GOD CAN DO IN OUTWARDLY SMALL AND WEAK CIRCUMSTANCES

J. Spinks

Judges 6: 11–16; 7: 1–8, 19–22

I wish to say a little as to what God can do in outwardly small and weak circumstances. We would have to confess that the public position is extremely weak, nevertheless God is active and He is able to bring in help to any situation. Gideon here is threshing wheat in a winepress to secure it from the Midianites, indicating circumstances of pressure and limitation. Now there is a great deal of pressure, a great deal of limitation, and the tendency is to give up, but Gideon is really an overcomer. The Midianites represent natural influences and worldly associations which impoverish the saints. They come on to view just as the people were about to enter the land and were used by Balaam to bring the people under the corrupting influences of the world. It is not exactly overt opposition, but rather the introduction of worldly principles and associations which would rob God of His portion from His people. That is what the enemy has always in mind, not only to impoverish the people, but to rob God of what is precious to Him. That comes into the book of Malachi, “Will a man rob God?”, Malachi 3: 8. The answer from the people is, “Wherein do we rob thee?”, showing how completely insensitive they were to the divine requirements, and that is largely the situation at the present time. There is much activity that is not according to God. Of course, God is sovereign and He loves to bless, but one of the things we see when we look into the scriptures is that God makes His own proposals and He makes His own demands, and these things must be adhered to.

So here we find this young man acting in confined circumstances to maintain the food supply.

Let us see that we are on the line of what is according to God.

what maintains the rights of Christ. The Midianites were on the line of bringing in unholy alliances and things which would have limited the people in their response to God. These things are prevalent at the present time; things which have a fair appearance but are not according to God. “And Gideon said to him, Ah my Lord, if Jehovah be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” That is like the present time. Those of us who are older can look back on times when the gatherings were much larger. Young people may say, Well, what has happened? Why has all this befallen us? To a large degree it is because of our unfaithfulness, we would have to admit that. We have to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; things have been greatly reduced largely through our unfaithfulness. As we accept that, and accept the smallness and limitations, we can count on God’s help. God is not limited to numbers. He can work through one or two or three hundred and He does. Let us see, dear brethren, that we are with God in matters. John speaks of being “fellow-workers with the truth” (3 John 8), meaning that we are in the testimony rightly, as governed by the truth. Gideon goes on to say, “Did not Jehovah bring us up from Egypt? And now Jehovah hath cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian”. Then Jehovah looked upon him and said, “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of Midian”. Think of God’s ability to come into a situation and work through a weak human vessel like Gideon, as He has done through the course of the testimony.

He then says, “behold, my thousand is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house”. Maybe our language is like that; what can we do? Mr. Darby said that the place of dependence is the place of power. Everyone who is committed to the testimony of our Lord is usable in God’s hand. My own desire is that I may be maintained in relation to the testimony in a vital way. The youngest believer can find his niche among the saints and be found here serviceable to the Master. The Lord would find a place for you to serve

according to your own capacity, thinking so as to be wise. That means that you do not have high thoughts above what you should think, but you do not have too low thoughts either, because what we find here is that God is committing Himself to this young man. I wonder if we all have the sense that not only have we committed ourselves to the Lord, but the Lord has committed Himself to us; that is a wonderful thing. We see that in the history of Jacob; God said to him, “I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of”, Genesis 28: 15. Like Jacob, most of us have had up and down histories, and that is a very humbling thing; but then there is the underlying sense that the Lord has committed Himself to us, and that is a very precious thing. God would say, I am with you as you are with Me. “And Jehovah said to him, I will certainly be with thee; and thou shalt smite Midian as one man”.

We see how fully God commits Himself to Gideon, as He would to anyone who seeks to be here for Him. Dear young brother or sister, if you commit yourself to the Lord Jesus and the testimony, you will find that He will commit Himself to you. He will help you in all the difficulties you have to face in every sphere of your responsible life. God said to Joshua, “I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee”, Joshua 1: 5.

I did not read the whole section because it is rather long, but it shows how Gideon wanted confirmation and he asks for a sign. The signs are very instructive but I just wish to show how God loves to bring in confirmation and assurance. It says in Hebrews 6, “Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath, that by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement” (Hebrews 6: 17, 18). Here we see Him coming into a weak situation to confirm and encourage a young man who is governed by right desires; He does not rebuke him for lack of faith. In verse 33 we see Midian and Amalek and the children of the east gathered

together to fight against the children of Israel, a very great army. The Spirit of Jehovah comes upon Gideon; he blows the trumpet and rallies the people. God then gives another sign to confirm Gideon, the dew on the fleece, and then we see the people encamped by the spring Harod. “And Jehovah said to Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give Midian into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me”. Here God is testing His people, and we are all under test.

The first test was an obvious one and twenty-two thousand of the people turned back. Sadly, many have done that. Many have not been prepared for the rigours of the way and have turned back. Not that we ever give them up, for God can secure them, but the fact is that there are very few who have committed themselves to the testimony of our Lord. The next test was one that the people were not aware of, a much more difficult matter. “And Jehovah said to Gideon, Still the people are many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there, and it shall be, that of whom I shall say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I shall say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go”. What a test that is! I think it raises the question of being serviceable.

What is the criterion then for serviceability? What is God looking for, what is the Lord looking for? They are brought down to the water and there the test comes. “Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself”. I think they would be ‘good soldiers of Jesus Christ’; persons who put the needs of the testimony before their own natural tastes and desires, and God is able to take them on. It says, “And the number of them that lapped, with their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; and all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water”. You say, What is wrong with that. God provided the water? God provides many things in His providential ways but they are not our life and we are not to live in them. Scripture says, “she that lives in habits of self-indulgence is dead while living”, 1 Timothy 5: 6.

I think that is the test of the present time. We are living in affluent times and many have the means to indulge their natural tastes and desires even in a legitimate way. I would make an appeal to all of us, Touch the world and its things lightly; its sports and entertainments, keep away from them. If we take the line of self-indulgence or ministering to the flesh we cannot be serviceable to the Master. Do not let us say, There is no harm in this, there is no harm in that; that is not the criterion. If it turns us away from the testimony and limits our serviceability then surely there is harm in it. You will find that the further you go, the more you will be drawn in; that is the character of the world. Even things that seem to be quite harmless and legitimate can lead you into deeper things. They take up your time, take up your energy, and your freshness of affection for Christ will diminish. I am speaking from experience and many of us would say the same. The more you go in for the things of this world, the more dim the things of God become. You find that you are reading less and praying less, and your time is being spent in pursuits that are not profitable. So it goes on to say, “And Jehovah said to Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and give Midian into thy hand; and let all the people go every man to his place. And they took the victuals of the people in their hand, and their trumpets; and all the men of Israel he sent away, every man to his tent”. It is a question of where our interests lie.

You remember when Moses took the Tent of meeting and pitched it outside the camp; every one who sought Jehovah went out to the Tent of meeting, but there were those who worshipped at the entrance of their tents (Exodus 33: 7, 8). Now that is not to be despised, but it was not a movement Godward, it was not a movement to Christ. I think every call of the Lord would demand a spiritual response. I think as we are here tonight we would all ask ourselves the question, Is there a movement Godward? Are there fresh committals? Is there increased desire to set our own things aside in order that we may give priority to the things of our Lord Jesus Christ? The apostle Paul had great opportunities to advance—indeed he had advanced beyond his contemporaries, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. What an opportunity he had to make his mark on the religious world, having power and influence! He could say, “but what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss”, Philippians 3: 7. Would that we all had that outlook. Some time ago a local brother had to attend hospital and on leaving he noticed that one of the nurses had missed the bus into town. He offered her a lift and on the journey asked if she was a believer on the Lord Jesus. Her answer was, “for me to live is Christ”. Is that not wonderful? A nurse going about her way, probably not taken account of by anyone, but think of the delight of heaven at such a committal. I have often thought of that, and I have often wondered if I could truly say that. May we all take up the challenge, “for me to live is Christ”, Philippians 1: 21.

In the next scripture we read they come to the outside of the camp and “they blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers that were in their hands”. Before the light can shine the pitchers have to be broken. The scripture in 2 Corinthians 4 is of course a direct reference to this, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4: 7). Here of course it is light but I think the light becomes treasure. I think that is the way the divine system works; God first enlightens us, and then as we work things out with the help of the Spirit the truth takes substantial form in our souls, it becomes a treasure, something that we would value. Well, how much do we value divine things? Is Christ the supreme object to our hearts? Are the meetings the most important occasions to attend, the gatherings of God’s people? Do we take time to read the Scriptures and the ministry? Do we take time to pray? If we do that the Lord’s things will become very real to us, the light becomes treasure.

There are those of whom it can be said, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!”, Matthew 6: 23. What a thing that is, the light becoming darkness. How can that be? That refers to persons who take on the truth in a nominal way but when the test comes there is nothing there. That is really an apostate condition, something we cannot attribute to any true believer, but that is the state of some souls; they have professed Christianity and have discarded it as a worthless thing. One such “has trodden under foot the Son of God ... and has insulted the Spirit of grace”, Hebrews 10: 29. Think of persons ostensibly taking on Christianity and tasting it and discarding it as being worthless. How God feels that, the spirit of apostasy that is increasing on every hand. Let us be those who are prepared to let the light of God shine in our hearts. He has shone in our hearts “for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6.

What a thing it is that God would shine in our hearts! One aspect of light is that it exposes, it makes all things manifest, but as we are ready to be adjusted, and to take on the word of God as it comes to us, the light becomes brighter and the treasure becomes greater. So it says here, “And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried out, and fled. And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and Jehovah set every man’s sword against his fellow”; it was a complete victory.

The message I have is a very simple one; let us be like Gideon’s three hundred, may we be able to overcome in regard to our natural propensities and natural desires and put the testimony of our Lord Jesus first. I would make an appeal to every one of us, especially the dear young ones, to put the Lord’s things first. You will find it is very much worthwhile.

Sometimes things come in that we do not understand, but as we seek to work things out with God, He will help us to see things clearly. There is a great need to allow divine light to make all things manifest and, as we do so, we will find that the Lord will be with us to help us, and He will lead us further into this great scheme of things that will eventuate in eternal glory.

May the Lord bless the word, for His name’s sake.

Address at Denton, Texas
26 May 2001