DS 005

Salvation Commitment

Judges 6:25-32

We often talk about salvation in terms of escaping hell or getting a ticket to heaven as an eternal destination. The Biblical picture of salvation is much more complex than our simplified concepts. Salvation is about wholeness, it is about being all we can be, it is about being in proper relationship with God and one another. From that perspective, it also requires much more than we tend to consider. It involves the radical change of our lives from the inside out. It requires commitment to a new way of living. Are we prepared to take up the challenge of salvation?

Gideon is an interesting Old Testament character. He was called by God to rescue his people from the oppression they were experiencing at the hand of the Midianites. The underlying issue, however, was that Israel was being repeatedly unfaithful to Yahweh. In Gideon's case, his own father had an altar to Baal. Gideon was involved in the worship of this foreign idol when Yahweh's prophet came to speak with him. God called Gideon to step beyond his own family's idolatry and become faithful to Yahweh.

Yahweh had much more in store for Gideon than Gideon had been working for. He had been busy attempting to protect a portion of grain from the fields for the benefit of his family. He was hiding a store of rations to ensure their survival, but Yahweh's call upon him entailed the redemption of the entire nation. The first step in that process, however, required something of Gideon that made Gideon rather uncertain. Yahweh required a measure of trust.

Trust is the active form for the word we commonly speak of as faith. Trust demands that the actions of our lives measure up to the claims of our lips. Trust requires that we embody our claims of confidence in God's provision. Trust requires that we commit to actions with inherently uncertain outcomes apart from God's intervention, faithfulness, and unseen provision.

Yahweh's prophet came to Gideon and he began to understand that Yahweh had a special claim upon his life. This claim required that Gideon step up to a different plane of action. It meant that he needed to do more, expect more, and accomplish much more than his limited purposes were leading him to attempt. Rather than settle for his basic survival, Yahweh was calling him to be the agent of God's redemption for the entire nation of Israel.

Gideon was not up to the challenge. He was no hero. He understood himself to be an insignificant player in the national and local arenas. He decried that his family was unimportant in the local area, that his clan was insignificant, and that he was unknown nationally. He did not see any basis whereby he might rise to any level of importance.

The facts of the narrative tell a slightly different story, in that his family was significant enough for him to marshal ten servants to do his bidding at nighttime. At the same time, that was still not enough for him to feel confident entering the national spotlight. He did not have the right pedigrees, titles, and standing to garner the immediate attention we would expect a rising leader to need. That is, he did not have those resources in regard to his economic, social, and political standing. God was not calling Gideon to trust in such things, however. God was calling Gideon to trust beyond them.

Before Gideon was the call to enter a new paradigm of living. Instead of depending on those external, social, economic, and political crutches, Yahweh was calling Gideon to depend upon Yahweh as his sole and sufficient resources to accomplish much greater things. It was a challenge of dependence. It was a challenge of trust. This was a charge to commit to something much greater than any of Gideon's personal dreams and ambitions.

In place of personal ambition, desires, and goals, Yahweh called Gideon to commit to something much greater than himself. Yahweh wanted Gideon to commit to a new pattern and strategy of living. Yahweh called him to commit to be more than what he had settled on being.

It was in this call to a greater commitment that salvation took shape in Gideon's life. It was in this call that Gideon became much more than one more name, one more son, in one more family being overlooked in the nation of Israel. It was in this call to wholeness that Gideon came to understand that Yahweh's purposes were greater than his own. It was also in this call that Gideon understood that the mission before him would require so much more of him than he had been in the habit on investing.

Rather than threshing wheat under a tree at the foot of a hill, Gideon was being called to stand on the top of a hill to announce the presence and action of Yahweh before him. This meant that Gideon would have to shift from acting in the shadows to acting under the spotlight of the main stage. It would require taking a stand for something greater than his own personal desires and needs. He would have to allow God to transform his life into a new reality.

His first action along this new path was taken in the darkness of night. He attempted to hide his actions in destroying his father's altar to Baal. He took ten servants, his father's bull, and tore down Baal's altar. He broke up the wood and stones to fashion there a new altar to Yahweh. He then sacrificed his father's bull on that same altar as a statement that he was leaving his old life behind to begin a new faith journey committed to Yahweh.

Darkness may hide some of our actions, but only to a limited degree. At first light, the whole town already knew who was responsible. They called for Gideon to be brought out to his death for destroying the altar to Baal. Gideon's father offered a different scenario. He challenged the people to allow Baal to fight his own battles. After all, it was a nation honoring Baal who was attacking Israel. Gideon's father changed Gideon's name to Jerubaal, essentially meaning, “Let Baal deal with him.”

This was an interesting turn of events for the people. The altar belonged to Gideon's father. It was the town's people who were concerned over its destruction. Ostensibly, this was due to the understanding that the action of an individual in opposition to a deity or that deity's altar would bring destruction upon the community. Gideon's action, however, was being placed upon Gideon's head alone, effectively as a challenge for Baal to prove himself worthy of the townspeople's worship.

Gideon had taken the initiative to make a stand for Yahweh by tearing down Baal's altar. His father renamed him, officially making Gideon the target for Baal's revenge. Now the rest of the story would show the result of Gideon's challenge to Baal and trust in Yahweh. The results would play out in public for all to see whether Baal or Yahweh were worthy of their worship, their service, their commitment.

Up until the destruction of the altar, Gideon's determination to follow Yahweh's lead was still in the air. With the altar's destruction, however, he had taken an irreversible step. Either Yahweh would prove faithful and worthy, or Baal would defend Baal's honor and kill Gideon. This was a major step of faith, even if carried out under the cover of darkness. In the light of day, the issues before Gideon and the people were laid bare. The populace would await the action of the supposed god of thunder and lightning to protect his honor.

With this nighttime action, Gideon positioned himself in commitment to following Yahweh's directions. That did not mean that all issues in his life were resolved. It did not mean that he understood exactly what God wanted with his life. It did not mean he was completely sure of himself. It simply meant that he was committed to following through on Yahweh's will and direction. It meant that he was placing his life completely in God's hands, whatever that might mean.

Gideon would still have questions to answer. Gideon would still vacillate in regard to his certainty in following Yahweh. With this act of commitment, however, Gideon embarked on a new direction with a wholly new purpose. From this commitment forward, his life would be dedicated to being the agent of Yahweh to redeem his people. Our own lives need that same kind of commitment. We are also called to place our lives completely in God's hands. Are we ready to live for higher purposes than selfish aims? That is the commitment of salvation to wholeness.

—Pr. Christopher B. Harbin

© Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin.