And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Judges 6:13–14, ESV
“Why?” is one of the most common questions in times of tragedy and struggle. I have asked it when I have been betrayed by people I trusted or in times of struggle. Here we have a judge of Israel, chosen by God, asking these questions. In fact, God wants us to ask, but He also desires for us to listen. How often do we hear things hurled at God, but with little pause given to await a response? When we struggle, our Lord wants us to pray and listen. How do we listen? In times of silent reflection. In times of being in His Word. In times of worship. God responds in many ways, but we often either don’t listen or accept the answer that He has given. Often, we know the reason, but feel that it needs to be changed in our way. God had promised to protect His chosen people, it wasn’t a matter of His lack of awareness or His care. The issue was that the people had forgotten to come to Him. They had neglected to be in His Word and live in the ways He had established for them to live. It wasn’t God who had left the people of Israel, and, most often, those struggles we face in the world are for the same reason. If we listen closely as we cry out from the deepest depths of who we are, we may find words similar to those given to Gideon, “Do not I send you?”
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.