Too Many Jackets

Thirty-nine jackets.

How in the WORLD have six children accumulated thirty-nine jackets???

I was annoyed by the jackets constantly spilling out of the preordained box. Every time I passed the boys’ room I could see the faded, red toy box vomiting out its contents. A flurry of knitted toboggans, and gloves lay scattered with the coats on the carpet, proof of my children’s successful (five-minute) trek into the great outdoors.

“You kids have too many clothes,” I muttered under my breath. I rolled my eyes and then began mentally tallying up the jackets I knew we had. I counted to about fifteen.

Then I remembered the hanging jackets. The jackets stuffed into drawers. The ones in the boy’s closet. The ones in the girls closet. I wandered around the house, fingering them, as I added them to my list.

My shameful total? Thirty-nine.

I’m pretty good about clearing out clutter. I’m also fabulous about allowing clutter back in. I grew up going to the Salvation Army and the good will for gently used clothes. Growing up in a family of eleven children, hand-me-downs were like a whole new wardrobe. We would dive into rustling bags full of other people’s cast-offs, hoping for something in our size, then we’d excitedly parade around in our new finery.

I still love yard sales and great bargains…..perhaps too much. Still, thirty-nine jackets is an obscene amount for only six children. Definitely too many!

One of my favorite stories in the Bible tells a tale of when God said “You have too many”.

Judges chapters 6-7 regale the story of Gideon, a young man who in his own words was part of the weakest clan, Manasseh, and “the least in my father’s house”(Judges 7:15). An angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, and told him to save Israel from the Midianites, a tribe who had been oppressing Israel for seven years.

Now the reason the Midianites were oppressing the Israelites was because God’s people had turned away from the Lord. They had chosen to worship idols instead of the One who had rescued them and brought them into the promised land. (Judges 6:8-10) The Lord constantly warned them that this rebellious idolatry was rife with painful consequences, but they still chose to disobey. Finally, tears of pain began to trickle down their faces, and the tribe of Israel began calling on the Lord for His deliverance.

The problem was, the Midianites were a supremely powerful and vast army compared to the Israelites.

Judges 7:5-6 says, “For they( the Midianites) would come up with their livestock and their tents;they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.”

Then the Lord heard their cries and sent an angel to a man named Gideon. (Judges 6:11-12)

Gideon’s first task was to tear down the altar of Ba’al, build a new altar to the Lord God Almighty, and make a sacrifice to the Lord there. Simple, right? Not necessarily.

Actually, Gideon chose the darkness to complete his mission. He was terrified of the men of the town, and so he accomplished his purpose in the middle of the night.

When the townspeople woke up, there was the altar of Ba’al torn down, and the altar of God on display, with smoke from the holy sacrifice still mingling with the morning mist. They wanted to kill Gideon, but his father intervened, and said, “If Ba’al is a god, let him enact revenge. You don’t have to do it for him.” (Judges 6:30-32) The wooden idol of course, was powerless to offer vengeance.

Then the mighty Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he sent messengers to gather the Israelites to himself. The grand total of his self-made army? 32,000. It doesn’t seem like nearly enough against those innumerable Midianites right?

God’s perspective, as always, is so much different than ours.

In Judges 7:2 the Lord spoke to Gideon and said, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” God wanted the glory for the incredible rescue He was planning.

He told Gideon to send home everyone that was afraid or fearful, and guess what? Twenty-two thousand of the Israelites took their suitcases, their swords, and their shaking knees and headed home.

Can you imagine what Gideon felt when he saw the comparatively-tiny army of ten thousand still looking up at their leader? Think of his shock when the Lord speaks again, and cautions Gideon that, “The people are still too many.”(Judges 7:4)

Yet another winnowing, and their numbers shrank to three-hundred. THREE-HUNDRED against the thousands upon thousands of battle-ready Midianites. This is when God throws down the invisible gauntlet and proclaims, “By the 300 men….I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.”(Judges 7:7)

So the Lord, the God of the Universe, showed off His incredible power with 300 men.

Do you know what Gideon’s little army was holding? Trumpets, torches, and empty jars.

A little noise and light was supposed to be their great defense against the powerful forces of the Midianites?

Yes.

Because God the Savior was bringing deliverance in a spectacular way.

Did he have to use Gideon? No. God actually destroyed several other armies and rescued the Israelites single-handedly in 2 Kings 7, and 2 Chronicles 20. (Those are GREAT stories! You should definitely go read them too!)

But God was inviting Gideon into His plans, and asking him to trust the Lord and His strength. He was looking for an obedient heart that would follow Him, and rely upon Mighty God instead of a sword and a shield.

Did you know that God is also calling you? Have you realized that He has been inviting you into the miraculous for a long time? Is there a surge of excitement in your heart over joining Jesus where He is working?

Or have you been saying like Moses, “How will anyone in Egypt listen to a shepherd that has been in the desert for forty years? What if they deny that God actually sent me and refuse to listen?”

And God replied back, “Moses, what do you have in your hand?”

“A staff,” Moses answered, and God said, “then that’s what I’ll use to help them believe”. (Exodus 4:1-17)

Because when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter what you’re holding when God decides to move. Your empty jar, musical instrument, or stick is not the focus of the equation. What you’ve got doesn’t matter. In fact, God seems to work exclusively through weak vessels. He chooses a young virgin, a shepherd-turned-giant-killer, and a man in a lion’s den to display the strength of His glorious right arm.

So let’s pour our meager offerings out on the altar of God.

Let’s pray with passion that our weak and empty jars can be the perfect showcase to His strength. Let’s rush into the doors that the Lord opens, trusting that the same God who rolled back the red sea with a stick, can do it again, and again, and again.

I want to see God work in BIG WAYS. I want to see Jesus heal blinded eyes, fight battles we could never win alone, and pour out His Holy Spirit on this nation like we’ve never seen before.

I’m praying for revival, so I’ll willingly open my hands when my Father says, “You don’t need the best voice, the most moving sermons, or the best pen. Child, you have Me, and that’s enough. I’m all you need.”

He is enough.

He’s the God of miracles. And He’s about to move.

Take a moment:

Choose one of the stories below, read, then answer the questions about it.

Judges 6-7

2 Chronicles 20:1-30

2 Kings 6:24-7:1-20

1. What was the problem facing the Israelites in this story?

2. What was the miraculous occurrence that happened in the story that showed off God’s power?

3. In any of these stories, did the Israelites have to do anything in particular to bring about victory?

4. What have you learned from this story about God and how He worked?

5. Is there any place in your life where you feel the call of God to join him in a crazy place? A place that requires big faith, and big trust in the Savior?

6. Pray to the Father and offer Him what you have, then join Him in obedience and joy. You won’t be disappointed.