07/29/20 EXCUSES, EXCUSES — Judges 6:14-16 (CSB) The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!” 15 He said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s family.” 16 “But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”

In Exodus 2, God called Moses to go to Egypt and deliver Israel. Moses began to offer one flimsy excuse after another. Finally he told God, “Please, Lord, send someone else” (4:13). Later, in 1 Samuel 9:21, Saul responded to the prophet Samuel in similar fashion, “Am I not a Benjaminite from the smallest of Israel’s tribes and isn’t my clan the least important of all the clans of the Benjaminite tribe? So why have you said something like this to me?” And in our passage, Gideon tries to excuse himself from obeying God and following His plan.

Like Moses, Gideon, Saul and countless others, WE need to learn that GOD ALWAYS PROVIDES WHERE HE GUIDES! God’s Plans, Power and Presence are MORE than enough for any challenge we’ll ever face!