Gideon and Andy

GIDEON

And so we continue with the familiar story –

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.  Judges 6:1,6

God sent them a prophet to remind them of who He was and what He had done for them and how it was all always about trust and obedience –

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”  Judges 6:7-10

So God approaches Gideon and this is how the conversation goes (with a few paraphrase!) –

Angel of the Lord: The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.(Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites – hardly the act of a mighty warrior!)

Gideon (most politely): Pardon me, my lord, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.

The Lord: Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?

Gideon (most politely and totally bemused): Pardon me, my lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.

The Lord: I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive. (remember the whole ‘turning weaknesses into his opportunities’ thing? This is it!)

Gideon (who will need some persuading): If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.

The Lord: I will wait until you return.

Gideon returns with a young goat and bread and broth in a pot.

The angel of the Lord: Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.

The angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. Then he disappeared.

Gideon (pretty terrified): Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!

The Lord: Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.

(So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace.)

That same night……what a day!…..

The Lord: Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. (this isn’t going to go down well…..this isn’t going to end well…..)

Gideon did it. He was scared so he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

In the morning…..

The people: Who did this?

An anonymous tip off: Gideon son of Joash did it.

The people to Joash: Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.

Joash: Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.

The Midianites gathered forces…… Gideon blew a trumpet and called the Israelites to arms….and then just to make completely sure this was not all going to end in disaster…..

Gideon to God: If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.

It happened. Then just to make doubly sure this was not all going to end in disaster…..

Gideon God: Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.

It happened.

No more excuses….time to stand up and fight……bring it on!

 

ANDY

Andy got to know me well when I was at an all-time low. I was struggling to readjust to life after a year in France. My mum had had some kind of breakdown and I had no idea how to handle that at all. I was depressed and my emotions were all over the place. I was desperate.

I had noticed him from afar before that. He was the year below me at university. He looked a lot like the above image at that time! He was one of those Christians that challenged everything I was brought up to believe about being a Christian. He was political. He was an activist. He was passionate about changing the world. He believed he could fight every injustice himself. My upbringing was all about saving souls, not making the actual physical world a better place. He was determined to make a difference, whatever personal sacrifices that entailed.

We were like chalk and cheese. Everyone warned us to stay away from the other. I was warned that he was a womaniser and would ruin my life. He was warned I was an emotional wreck and would ruin his life.

He didn’t ruin my life. He saved me. He was my deliverer. As for me ruining his life, you’ll have to ask him that! He’d had experience of dealing with nutjobs before. Nothing I said or did would scare him away. I was scaring myself with the strong negative thoughts and emotions swirling around in my head, but he stayed put by my side and reassured me that I was not insane. Even when he was watching football downstairs with his friends and I sat on his bed slashing the tips of my fingers with a razor blade because I felt so numb and needed to distract myself from the crazy chaos in my mind. Even when I tried to take an overdose to make the stuff in my head go away.

He was there. He was faithful. He loved me and accepted me and believed in me.

He came with me every day to the university health centre to pick up a sleeping tablet because they would only let me have one at a time. He came with me to counselling appointments at the hospital. He sat on the bench by the pond watching the reeds swaying in the wind and listening to me baring my soul. He gradually showed me what it was to live again. I became totally dependent on him. He was my rock, my refuge, my strength.

I don’t know where or who I would be now if I hadn’t met Andy. He changed my life. We have been changing each others’ lives ever since.

We each take the lead at different times and in different situations. We challenge each other. We inspire each other.

I’m glad we ignored the warnings back then and didn’t stay away from each other. I’m glad we’re as committed to making it work now as we have always been.