The Clay Jar

Unlikely, Part 5: Gideon and the light that shines through cracks

We've cleaned Gideon up too much. The Gideon of the children's books is a fearless commander. The Gideon of the Bible is first a coward. His story is about unlikely faith, the kind God can start a miracle with even when it's trembling.

The God Who Meets You in the Winepress

Every harvest, the Midianites swarmed Israel like locusts. And we find Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress. You thresh on a hilltop, where the wind carries the chaff away. A winepress is a pit. Gideon is doing hilltop work in a hole because he's hiding.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior." (Judges 6:12, NASB)

Valiant warrior, spoken to a man in a pit. That's not flattery or sarcasm. That's how God talks. He names you by your future, not your fear, and then he walks with you until the name fits.

The Excuses God Won't Accept

Gideon files his objections. My family is the least in Manasseh. I'm the youngest in my father's house. God doesn't answer with a pep talk.

But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man." (Judges 6:16, NASB)

God doesn't argue with your excuse. He adds himself to the equation. The question was never what's in your hand. It's who is at your side.

I know this one from the inside. When our church needed a permanent home, we kept being drawn back to a shut-down bar on Main Street in Sheridan. The owner wanted $120,000. For us, it might as well have been a million. I met with him over six months. Grants fell through. Doors closed.

Finally, after fasting and prayer, and on the advice of a trusted mentor, I did the thing that made no earthly sense. I asked the owner to give us the building. He told me that the day before, his own accountant had recommended exactly that. I signed a few papers and walked out with a building.

For six months I'd been filing my objections: too small, too new, too broke. God never disputed my math. He changed it.

Too Many to Win

Gideon still wobbles. He asks for the fleece, then asks again in reverse, and God patiently answers both times. He doesn't shame small faith. He grows it.

Then thirty-two thousand men rally, and God says the strangest thing in the book: "The people who are with you are too many for Me" (Judges 7:2). He cuts the army to three hundred so nobody can say, "My own power delivered me."

Sometimes God isn't growing your resources. Sometimes he's removing them, because he loves you too much to let you believe your own power saved you.

Break the Jar

Every man got a trumpet, a torch, and a clay jar with the torch hidden inside. At the signal, three hundred jars shattered, three hundred torches blazed, three hundred trumpets blasted, and the Midianite camp turned on itself in panic.

The light was there the whole time. It couldn't get out until the jar broke.

Paul says it plainly: "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7). You're the clay jar. Ordinary, fragile, unimpressive on the shelf. The treasure is Christ in you. The world doesn't see the light by admiring the pot. It sees the light when the pot breaks open: your comfort, your pride, your self-sufficiency.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, broke it, and said, "This is my body." God himself was willing to be the broken jar. He's not asking you to do anything he hasn't done.

Let the Light Out

A jar on the shelf keeps its shape and hides its light. This week, pick one comfort, image, or self-sufficiency to surrender, and watch what light gets out through the crack.

Not by might, not by power, but by his Spirit.

Pastor Josh

This post is adapted from Unlikely: The Heroes You Read Right Past. Join us Sundays at 10 a.m. at 501 S Main St in Sheridan. Plan your visit.