Often, when Life is Lifing, there is a tendency to assume that whatever we face is new to God.
Not so.
The very last time Life Lifed, we had that feeling also. The nature of it may be new to us, but nope, it’s not new under the sun. It’s not new to God, who’s already at the end of our season. When we realize that God is with us and serious about being ‘with’ us, then the biblical patterns speak to us, offering new ways to see those ‘old experiences’. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Judges 6:11-12 CEB
[11] Then the LORD’s messenger came and sat under the oak at Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
[12] The LORD’s messenger appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior!”
Emmanuel: God with Us
Gideon’s story is a fairly good lesson in God’s presence amidst life’s trials. For wheat to be fully processed after harvesting, it needs to be aerated (hence the analogy in Psalm 1 about ‘chaff’ being dispersed by the wind). A winepress is not made with aeration in mind. Grapes undergoing crushing are weighted down to maximise the collection of juice.
Gideon was in that cool, enclosed wine press trying to make the best of his situation. It’s possible that he felt as weighted as the grapes, which may have been out of season.
Self-Check
Have we been threshing wheat in a winepress, weighted down by what feels impossible? How’s it working for us?
Application
The natural tendency is to see Gideon’s case as hopeless. After all, who does that? But in reframing that action as ‘staying in the crooked to cut a straight path’, we may find that Gideon wasn’t stupid. He sought solutions. Plus, he was operating with lots of faith and moxy. It took loads of faith (as well as patience and ingenuity) to see potential in that winepress. And it required even more moxy to have been even partially successful.
Yet, I would argue that he was ‘out of season’, because it was time for a new thing in his life. As strange as it sounds, Gideon was in the right place at the right time. He was exactly where God needed him to be for the next step of the journey. Yes, he was. God didn’t meet with Gideon on his way to the winepress, nor did God meet Gideon at home or at the temple. No. God self-revealed to Gideon in the Secret Place, that place of faith. A place where Gideon believed in the impossible.
Siblings, God is with us.
When we find ourselves threshing wheat in the winepress, we might find that we’re exactly where God wants us to be. Psalm 91 assures us that when we dwell in the Secret Place (of the Most High), we access divine coverage. A winepress isn’t a temple, but our faith – our willingness to believe in the impossible, and in the God Who constantly makes the impossible possible – transforms that winepress into a sacred space.
The next time therefore that Life gets to that place where a winepress seems to have great potential for threshing wheat; when we find ourselves under the weight of the crushing; I pray we realize that God is there with us, and it may be the venue for a divine appointment. It may be the beginning of our new season.
Point to Ponder
God specialises in the impossible. It is by faith (in the impossible) that we please God. Can we make our way to the Secret Place and seek God so we can determine whether our season is shifting?
—
May all we seek be found in Christ
