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December 13th is from Judges chapters 6 thru 8. Its a story about Gideon, another normal guy who God choose to do something really special. Judges 6:11-16 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man. The old testament records several appearances of teh Angel of the Lord. The angel mentioned here in the original translations is implied to be the same as God leading to many thinking it is the Christ.. In any case God sent a messenger, either angelic or his Son, to deliver a message to Gideon. Gideon, a farmer, is threshing his wheat in a winepress so that he can hide it from the Midianites. When God tells him that he will lead the Hebrew people against their enemies, Gideon ridicules the idea. He tells God that God abandoned the people and does not seem prepared to keep his promises. So often people blame God and overlook personal accountability when they think God has left them to get on with life. God is not put off; he gives the task to Gideon and promises that he will be with him. Gideon does not think much of God's choice, as his tribe is among the smallest. God, of course, realizes this. God wants to emphasize that when victory comes, it comes from God. From Gideon we learn that no matter what our abilities God can expand and use them in spite of our limitations and failures’. Mary will have had many fears after the angel’s visit, and she would also know her limitations, but she left them all with God and trusted Him.
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