There was never a less likely liberator. Gideon means ″hacker″ in Hebrew, so he was apparently a man of physical strength. But the man we meet certainly does not present us with a picture of strength. Normally, a person would thresh wheat on a floor in an exposed place so that the wind would carry away the lighter chaff. Gideon is furtively beating out a few sheaves of wheat in a sheltered winepress under a tree because he is afraid that the Midianites would confiscate his meagre supply (Judges 6:11). He is a defeated, discouraged man, filled with doubts and fears. He is no ″mighty warrior″ (v. 12)-but that is exactly what he is going to become, because the Lord is with him.

God often deals with people in this way. By His power, a childless, 99-year-old Abraham had a son (Genesis 21:2), and an impetuous, emotionally unstable Peter was transformed into a pillar of the early church (Galatians 2:9). Other people see our flaws and failings, but God sees our possibilities through His transforming presence. When God looks at us, He does not see us for what we are, but for what we can become through His work in our lives. He takes weak, insignificant people and transforms them by His presence. He knows our weaknesses, failures, discouragements, doubts, and inadequacies, and comes to us with the promise of His power that will transform our inadequacy into His strength.

When Gideon expresses his concerns (v. 13), the Lord responds: ″Go in the strength you have″ (v. 14). This God-given strength accompanies both God's command and His promise (vv. 12, 14, 16). God is calling Gideon to go forward on the basis of the strength that He always supplies for His commission. If we look to our own strength, we will always end up in defeat, or perhaps worse, in self-deceiving arrogance. God's answer is not positive thinking, but the promise of His presence, provision, and power. When the Lord commissions us, He promises to be with us always (Matthew 28:18-20).

Gideon is also filled with a deep sense of personal inadequacy and insignificance. ″How can I do that?″ he asks. ″The job's too big for me. I have no qualifications, and I do not have any support″ (v. 15, paraphrased). This is exactly where God begins with a person. Time and time again, we see the Lord cutting away a person's self-confidence to bring him to the place where he admits that he is totally inadequate to do or to be what God desires. Then He confronts the person with the truth of His total adequacy: ″I will be with you″ (v. 16).

Inadequate in ourselves, we are overwhelmingly adequate through our God.