I want to talk today about heroes. Have you ever wondered if maybe you might be someone’s hero? My guess is probably not. I don’t think I have.
Well, that’s exactly what Gideon thought. He never considered himself a hero. In Judges 6, we find:
“The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!’ ‘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.’ The LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!’”
But Gideon wasn’t convinced. He didn’t see how he—the least of his family, from the weakest clan of his tribe—could possibly have any impact at all. When he protested and mentioned this, the LORD replied to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
I urge you to go to Judges 6 and 7 and read the entire story for yourself. But for now, I’ll summarize it for you:
Gideon asked for a sign that this was of God. In fact, he asked twice—and twice God gave him the miraculous confirmation that he asked for. So Gideon collected an army—only for God to tell him that the army was too big. The army was eventually whittled down from 32,000 soldiers to 300, and God used that tiny handful of men to deliver the nation from their oppressors.
Sometimes in our lives today, we can feel so isolated and alone, as if we alone are facing the enemy, and we wonder how we can ever overcome the evil that confronts us every day.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in Gideon’s shoes? Imagine hiding in the bottom of a winepress while you thresh your latest wheat crop, just so the enemy doesn’t come and steal it. And all of a sudden, an angel appears and says, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!” Wouldn’t that kind of freak you out? It would me!
And yet…do you know what another word for “hero” is? Conqueror.
With that thought in mind, listen to what Paul wrote to the Romans: “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The New Living Translation interprets Romans 8:37 as “…despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
So, if you are a follower of Christ, this “overwhelming victory” is yours! That’s your promise. There are no rulers among men or in the unseen realm who can keep God from accomplishing his will through you.
We are conquerors!
So when the powers who think they rule this world try to scare you with threats of war or sickness or any uncertainty at all, remember who’s in charge.
I think the time has come for everyone to pray. A lot. If you’ve never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, that’s a great place to start. It’s time for all of us to give our all to God, to step up to the battle lines and be the warriors—yes, the heroes—He’s called us to be.
Ephesians 6 tells us how we hold our ground through truth and righteousness—by doing what we know God would want. Your faith becomes the strong shield that will allow you to defend yourself; faith in God puts out all the fiery arrows of the devil. And the Word of God is our sword—our offensive weapon that allows us to take out the enemy. Read your Bible, know what it says. Internalize it until it’s second nature. And then, when the attacks come—and they will—you’ll be prepared. And that, my friends, is how we go to war.
