The Recovery of the Lord's Name In His People # 6

The Honor and Glory of the Lord's Name (continued)

The next things we find about Gideon was his industry or his industriousness. Gideon was threshing out corn in the winepress to hide it from the Mideonites. Very little seemed possible most people had fled to caves and holes; very little seemed possible. Looking out on the situation the question might have been asked, "Oh, what can be done? We can't do anything!" And because of the situation destroying them and saying, "Well, it is no use looking out on the situation." The question might have been asked, "Oh what can be done?" We can't do anything and because of the situation just going back and saying it is of no use. No use trying to touch this.

The enemy has got so strongly entrenched, so widely spread over, there is so little for the Lord and so little to be done. Paralyzed and impotent because of the apparent impossibility of doing anything. But Gideon was not so. Not much could be done but Gideon set himself to do even the least that could be done. He did not give up, he did not abandon it all. He gave himself to doing what could be done. As he looked out on the situation so difficult, so hard, he said, "Well, at least, at least I can beat out some corn here up in this corner. At least I can do something a little over against this situation." The Lord took note of that. You see it was right there over against the winepress where Gideon was doing that that the Lord came and looked on. I wonder if it was because of that that the Lord said, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor". I am certain the Lord is with no slothful person. Diligence is a very great thing with the Lord. "Not slothful in business," says the apostle. Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord though that may be in a very limited and cramped capacity. It is the spirit that the Lord looks upon and it was the spirit of Gideon which was doing all that could be done, however little that might be. The Lord takes note of that my dear friends. See, a gesture is enough with the Lord; whether you make for the armchair directly you enter the room, that's enough, the Lord does not look in that. You see what I mean, I do not mean that literally. It is a gesture. Whether you are inclined to be a shirker, to evade, to get out of, to skirt around some responsibility or whether you are alive or alert for anything. The Lord takes note of gestures. "The Lord looked upon him." The margin says, "The Lord turned toward him." Further, Gideon's concern for others of course it is a part of what we have just said, concerned for others. He looked and he says, "My, these people are starving, the enemy is taking away their bread, their food. The enemy is doing all he can to see that these people are undernourished, underfed and so weakened that they will never be able to lift a hand for their own salvation, deliverance." And Gideon had a real concern about the starved state of other people, their needy condition, others, others.

You know how much Paul has to say about that, "look not every man on his own things, but on the things of others". The outward look.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 6)