Scripture
13“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”14Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” 15“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” 16The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Judges 6:13-16
Observation
Gideon was getting schooled at home by God. God was calling him out of fear and into faith and Gideon was arguing with his teacher. This doesn’t add up. How can the least in the family of the weakest clan of the smallest tribe of the outnumbered Israelites do anything about their slavery situation? God math doesn’t often add up. Gideon asked “why” and God said, “Go”. Gideon asked how, and God said, “Go with me”. This is one of those seemingly unsolvable word problems. God was giving Gideon some instructions to pass the math tests and Gideon was testing his teacher with wet fur problems. The key to understanding math problems is to have the same assumption as the teacher. Then every conclusion after that will match the teacher's answers. God’s math told Gideon that when he went to battle with God it would be as if he were “fighting against one man.” God gave Gideon this promise when he was only one man. This assumption meant it didn’t matter how many more men he added to himself he would never be outnumbered as long as God was fighting his battles. Based on this God math, the subtraction that takes place in Judges 7, when logic dictated multiplication, actually begins to make sense. The Midianites outnumbered Gideon and his army 4 to 1 (32,000 vs. 120,000). God didn’t want Gideon to be tempted to take credit for the victory to come so he gave Gideon a word problem. God’s word problem was a real problem. How much do you have left when you take 32,000 and subtract 22,000 fearful soldiers and then subtract again 9,400 careless soldiers? To God, it was a winning number. 300 was all Gideon needed because God had already said back at home that 1 willing soul was all He needed. God got rid of those who were fearful and kept those who were careful. The lesson God is schooling all of us on right now is the same he was teaching Gideon, “With God on your side you are never outnumbered.”
Application
Ok, two weeks into this “shelter in place” reality and it’s clear that Home Schoolers rule the world. Maybe they always did and I just wasn’t aware. Cyndi and I have friends and family who homeschool their kids and we’ve always been impressed at the patience, skill, intelligence, and organization it takes to do so successfully. Now, thanks to the new realities of “distance learning” necessary to maintain “social distancing” we feel very very distant from what it takes to be a successful home school home. When one of our five boys asks me for help with math and I tell them to “carry the one” they look at me like I’m talking a different language. I tell them this is how I learned it and they tell me that’s not how it’s done anymore. I stand there in bewilderment as they show me a series of dots and lines that somehow equal something. “Who changed math”, I say incredulously. “You can’t change math. Math is math.” Even though I say these things with firm authority and I have common sense to back me up, it does absolutely nothing to help my boys with common core math. I will say this, common core math adds up the way God’s math does. It doesn’t make sense logically, but it ends up being right. Right now I’m looking at math that just doesn’t add up. The numbers of those infected by Covid-19 go up while the numbers on the stock market go down. To flatten the curve, the number of days on lockdown go up and the number of things we had planned for 2020 go down in a blaze of fire. This is a word problem I can’t solve and a situation I can’t save. I can almost hear the Lord say, “Good. Let Me be the Savior and you be the son.” Like Gideon I ask “why” and You say, “Go with the strength you have.” I ask “how” and You say, “I will be with you and it will be as if you were fighting against one man.” I ask “who” and You say “a small group is all we need to turn this thing around.” Overnight the church has been reduced to small groups in homes. How could subtraction lead to multiplication of souls? Even as I’m writing this I’m reminded of God’s math in Acts 2 telling us how the 1st Century Church met in homes, “And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47) They didn’t even have internet and somehow God was still able to turn the world upside down with the Good News of Jesus Christ. What If He wants to do that again? Getting homeschooled by the Savior is reminding that the home has been a big part of His plan of redemption from the birth of the Church. I guess I’d better be paying attention to my teacher so I don’t miss the crucial lesson of these crazy times.
Prayer
Thank You for Your patience with me Lord. Like so many of your children I am on a major learning curve during this Covid-19 crisis. I’m so thankful for You leading us through this. I can’t wait to see what this all turns into and what comes out of this. I want to run with You in this! When it doesn’t add up to me I’m choosing to look to You.
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