Stand Up Like a Mouse

Grit and grace — Gideon, part 2

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Things that recur in this story

Weakness, foolishness, bread/grain, night missions, fear, idolatry

a/ Separating the weak from the strong - and using the weak

Judges 7:1-8

“you have too many men”

Beaten by a loaf of bread 

Judges 7:9-15

“If you are afraid”

No swords, just jars

Judges 7:16-24a

“a sword for the Lord and for Gideon”

Epilogue: Disappointing leadership - it’s hard to end well

Judges 8:22-28

“Gideon’s Golden Guidance system”

4 good things that we can fall into worshiping (as beautiful guidance systems)

Theology

Experience

Nostalgia

Worldview / ideology

CS Lewis: The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

The final rest

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight.