QT 31 Oct 12, There is nothing evil in complaining to God, but most times the answer is much closer to home

Judges 6:11-16 (NIV) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."

14 The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

16 The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

NOTES: The phrase, "the Lord is with you," is repeated elsewhere in Judges, and also curiously left out of key passages (example 1:19a and not 1:19b; and 1:22 and not 1:27-36). The reason is given in 2:2-3, that while Israel was winning in the hill country, it did not break down the altars (probably on the high places) and it made treaties with the people (in violation of God's command), such that when Israel attack the plains, the Lord was no longer with them. Gideon's response is well-reasoned, although somewhat short-sighted. He realizes that God is not with them and that God has abandoned them (from an appearance point of view). He has heard the stories of God's wonders but sees no evidence of them in his time. What he fails to understand is that the people abandoned God, not God abandoning the people. They did not want to obey him or seek him, and so God gave them what they wanted: life without God's intrusion. When life turned sour, they blamed God for leaving, but it was really their leaving God at the root of their problems. And now they are suffering again, at the hands of the Midianites. Once again, God is sending a redeemer because the people cry out to him in their distress (6:6). In some ways, Midian makes a mistake by asking where all the wonders are, because he is about to be pushed to an extreme to show the wonder of God. I suppose the real lesson in all of this is, that when life is hard, to start the questioning with ourselves rather than trying to blame God. The Psalmist's attitude is best: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps 139: 23, 24)."