Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does Dependency Make You Weak? | Judges | Judges 7

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. If you haven't subscribed to our new podcast, Truth Over Tribe, I'd encourage you to take some time and go do that right now. We've got interviews about culture, politics, and the things you really care about with people like John Mark Comer, John Tyson, Oz Guinness, and many, many others. It's going to be a great podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:33 I've been excited about the interviews and the topics that we've taken on. So stop right now. Go subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player. A few years ago, I heard a perspective about teenagers and self-reliance that kind of changed the way I think about maturity and even the signs of maturity. The article was arguing that kids are actually more ready to leave home when they're more dependent on their parents or other adults. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but it's not talking about,

Starting point is 00:01:01 doing the laundry or making dinner. It's talking about something bigger than that. See, the perspective is good. What the author is really saying is that mature people realize they aren't self-reliant. As people mature in any given area, they actually discover how much they don't know and how much they have left to learn. So for teenagers, a sign of maturity would look like asking adults for perspective because they realize theirs is limited. It would look like a desire to talk through decisions with others instead of making them in isolation. and it would sound like asking for help, advice, and assistance instead of trying to have the appearance of self-sufficiency. When you look at it that way, it would apply to people of all ages.

Starting point is 00:01:43 The more mature you become, the more you realize how little you can do on your own, or should do on your own. Maturity doesn't make us more independent. It should make us more humble, or it should show that we're more humble. While that message may be counterintuitive to our culture, it isn't counter to the teaching of the Bible. God works throughout the Bible to create and restore humility in those who are proud. He humbles kings, warriors, giants, soldiers, and armies. He humbles tentmakers, tax collectors, fishermen, and preachers. And he does it to grow their awareness and their need for him so they can know him. When we are proud, we think of ourselves often and highly. When we have godly humility, we think of God often and highly. During the time of judges, the Israelites have been

Starting point is 00:02:33 cycling back and forth from being proud and rebellious and forgetting about God to being weak and desperate and crying out to God for help. And in His mercy, God never leaves them and he never breaks his covenant with them, even when they're at their worst, and even when he knows they're going to do it again. And that alone should cause us to love God even more than we already do. Beyond that, though God and His mercy is continually working on their hearts. He's not in the business of raising independent, self-sufficient people, but more God-reliant people. When God raises Gideon up to lead and judge the Israelites, he gives Gideon a lot of reasons to be confident. He gives Gideon leadership and authority and specific encouragement, along with a huge

Starting point is 00:03:20 army that's ready to fight. But when Gideon reaches the camp ready to go into the battle, the Lord Lord says something to him that's pretty interesting. And Judges 7 too, the Lord says, you have too many men. I cannot deliver a million into their hands, or Israel would boast against me and say my own strength saved me. God knows his people. He knows what they will do, how they'll respond, and so he tells Gideon to send out the army by allowing anyone who's afraid to turn back. and right away the army drops from 22,000 to 10,000. But then in verse 4, the Lord says to Gideon, there are still too many men. So take them down to the water,

Starting point is 00:04:03 and I will thin them out for you there. So at the water, Gideon separates those who kneel and drink from those who cup their hands and lap the water, and God tells him to keep the ones who lap and dismiss the others. And it wasn't 5,000 or even 1,000 who remained. God pared down an army of 22,000 to 300 and sent them into battle with trumpets, torches, and clay jars. Around here, we call this living in the bottom of the J curve.

Starting point is 00:04:35 So imagine or picture a J in your head. The bottom of the J is that place where you're most tempted to second guess yourself or any decision you've ever made. My kids started a new school last year and after the newness and the excitement wore off, they looked backwards and saw friends and opportunities they were missing out on a lot more clearly than anything they could see in their future. We talked about what it feels like to be in the bottom of the J and how God can use those places to grow our perspective and our desire and our need for him. Maybe Gideon was feeling it, but certainly it looked like they were in the bottom of the J

Starting point is 00:05:14 when those 300 showed up with torches and trumpets and clay jars to fight the swarming Medeanite army. The Lord was using the weak things of this earth to defeat the strong, and through that he was breaking the cycle of self-reliance and independence that blocked the Israelites from obeying him, depending on him, and worshiping him. And when we hear that story and try to apply it to our own lives, it can sound risky. Giving away and sharing power, or giving away and sharing resources we've accumulated, it just doesn't come naturally. And walking into new friendships and work situations with oftentimes,

Starting point is 00:05:50 it can sound more visky than a puffed-up resume or stories about our glory days. Sometimes we have a choice, and sometimes God does it for us like he did for Gideon. Either way, God can be trusted with our weaknesses. We may feel completely overwhelmed, but God is not. See, unlike us, the Lord is all knowing. He knew what would happen in the Israelite hearts if they won the battle with 22,000 troops instead of 300,000. He also knew what would happen in the hearts of the Midianites, and in ours as we hear this story. Our all-knowing God understands the depths of our hearts and is constantly on mission to create in them a purity of longing and trust in him.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Unlike us, the Lord is all powerful. When he took Gideon into the Midian camp for encouragement, Gideon walked past camels and troops that should have caused him to run away and never come back. But instead, God allowed Gideon to overhear a conversation that reminded him of God's power. If God had promised to deliver them, there was no army of any number that could stand in the way. Unlike us, the Lord is sovereign. The Israelites blew trumpets and the Lord caused the Midian army to turn against each other. From a human perspective, this doesn't even make sense. But God doesn't apply to our perspective.

Starting point is 00:07:16 He calls us to adjust ours to him. In his sovereignty, he will always do what glorifies his name. Where can you trust God's power over your strength? Or where can you use a weakness to see God's power more fully? I think we all need to have at least one place in our lives where we're living in the bottom of the J. The little leg of the J on the left, well, that's the place where the new ideas are born and the new things are started. This is where you feel excited and where you have the adrenaline rush of something new. Maybe you try out a new class or change your major in college.

Starting point is 00:07:49 Maybe you're ready to go out on your own and start a new company. Maybe you're stepping out into a new friend group or starting a new school. Then trace that little leg down to the bottom of the jay, the very bottom part of the curve. This is where the newness wears off and your lack of knowledge and expertise become a reality. This is where you start questioning your work and your worth. But this is also where you have the opportunity to become less self-reliant as you seek the Lord for a perspective and for perseverance. I think the more honest we are, the faster we find ourselves out of the bottom of that curve. If you're in a new situation, maybe college or a job or a new small group, put the real you out there instead of the crafted one.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Walk into new relationships with more curiosity and less pride. Ask more questions and share fewer Glory Day stories. God can use the places we feel weak to make us more fully like him. and to make himself more fully known. The Apostle Paul took a drastic turn away from self-reliance when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and changed his perspective. So when Paul preached later, he shared the experiences where he felt the most weak and vulnerable, like shipwreck and flogging and imprisonment, to demonstrate the power of God.

Starting point is 00:09:12 In 2 Corinthians 1.9, he tells the church, indeed, we felt we'd received the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. On the surface, we could assume Paul refers to a physical deliverance from danger here, but it's more than that. He's talking about God's power to change our dead hearts into living ones, to make us new creations in Christ. God use the situations that make us feel weak to deliver our hearts into renewed spiritual life with him. So the litmus test. Are you going to be growing in spiritual maturity? Are you growing more dependent on the advice and counsel of others? Do you

Starting point is 00:09:55 have a growing desire to learn from the Bible and from mentors who can share biblical wisdom and discernment? Are you asking questions, looking for help, and sharing your authentic self-with- others? There's a far more valuable lesson to learn than self-reliance. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. that helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does Dependency Make You Weak? | Judges | Judges 7

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.