Judges 6: 36-40
“And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou has said,
Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only,, and it be dry upon all the earth beside it, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
And it was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water,
And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once ; let me prove, I pray thee, but this once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
And God did so that night; for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.”
When we hear one of the elder saints in our midst speak of “setting a fleece” this story comes to mind. God had spoken to Gideon and told him that He was going to use him to deliver the Israelites out of the hand of the Midianites. Gideon was afraid and doubted the Word of the Lord. So he devised a plan to prove that God had indeed spoken to him. As we see in this text, God did precisely, over and above, what Gideon has asked Him to do, but he still was not convinced. He asked for yet another sign. God again did what Gideon requested.
This passage of scripture reveals God’s heart. He is full of compassion, patience and mercy towards His children. The God of all creation, who scooped the waters up in His hand and divided the seas from the land, who hung the planets in place and numbered the stars, patiently responds to our query. How infinite is His love towards us. He is a loving Father, one who leads and guides and directs and prompts and speaks to us and then lovingly, kindly, patiently will respond to our challenge to prove Himself.
I feel like I may have recently “set a fleece” before the Lord. I didn’t see it as such at the time, but my prayer partner and I prayed that He would send us a buyer and the first person who looked at our property would offer a contract. Further, we asked that the contract would be for the exact amount of our asking price. We were simply being specific in our request. The Bible says we have not because we ask not so we asked specifically for what we wanted to happen.
We proceeded to place a small For Sale by Owner sign on the front of our condo. Almost immediately a realtor called and asked if she could show it to her client the next morning. She did and the following morning she called telling us the client wanted to buy it and that he would pay the full asking price. In less than forty eight hours the Lord had granted our requests.
I remembered our prayer. Yes Lord, I hear you. I knew God had responded to the plea of my heart. Was I actually putting a fleece before the Lord when I asked this of Him? Then comes the time for the inspection and appraisal. The inspection passed with flying colors and the appraisal did not come in low or high but came in at the exact amount of the asking price. Not a penny more or less.
As I pondered these events, my mind meditated on the vast goodness of God. I reflected on the innumerable times He has answered my prayers, and the times He was on the scene immediately when I but whispered His name. I thought of all the valleys He walked through with me, holding my hand and my heart, keeping me intact when I was frail and fraught with doubt and fear. This same God, who has done mighty feats on my behalf, took the time to listen to us, and then swept in and did exactly what we had asked and did it immediately. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and He cares for us with a love that we cannot even fathom .
Many years ago a friend and co-worker brought me a word she felt like the Lord had given her for me while she was at a women’s conference. In essence, it said that I didn’t ask God for big enough things and that He wanted to give me more than I had been asking for. This is the heart of God towards all His children. As we walk with Him, and talk with Him, we discover His character and we become more and more like Him. The Word refers to this as going from Glory to Glory. We are never to become stagnant in our walk with the Lord. If we do, we forget the depth of His love and how it is His good pleasure to give good things to His children. We lose sight of our relationship with Him and the enemy has easy access to our minds to try and convince us we don’t deserve the goodness of God.
The desire of my heart is to search fiercely for this Agape Love in the Persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and incorporate it into who I am in thought, word and deed. I want to walk at a higher level than ever before and have a relationship with Him that is constant and ever growing in its scope and effectiveness. Let us step up to the measure the Lord wants us to have. This comes from being in His presence, reading and meditating on His Word, and recognizing and comprehending His nature.
I stand amazed, once again, at the goodness of God. Praise His Holy Name!
afirebynight 