Title: The power of the creative minority
Contents
God does not like numbers, but He wants and is looking for a creative few who are awake and who stand on the side of the truth. The text is about Gideon's 300 warriors, and God said that there were also 32,000 Israeli soldiers, less than a quarter of the Midianite army, and commanded that those who tremble in fear be sent back. It tells the story of having defeated the army of 15,000 Midianites.
God hated Israel whenever the number of people was counted. This is because they were afraid that the people would think that they were great by relying on that number, and that they could win a battle with this number and this level of military power without God's help.
God considers it important not to have too many or too few, but what kind of spirit and attitude of faith a person has. In 7:6, it is not important because 300 people grab water with their hands and lick it in their mouth, but it is a word to emphasize that God uses the small number of 300 people. Through a small number, a creative minority, and one person who is on the side of the truth, God can renew history and nation as much as possible.
God appointed Gideon as 300 captains to save Israel from the Midianites, but Gideon was not a great man originally. When God first called Gideon, he was not a warrior, but a coward who was threshing wheat by hiding in a winepress to escape the army of Midian. But God is calling Gideon ‘great warrior’.
This is the difference between us and God. No matter how sickly and timid we may be, we need not worry when God, who calls the cowardly Gideon a “great warrior,” leads us into a creative minority. When God is with you, you become a great warrior.
But Gideon did not believe when God said He would be with you. Rather, Gideon asked, “How could this have happened if God was with me?” He said to God, who called him a great warrior, that his family was the weakest, and he was the smallest among them. Nevertheless, God tells Gideon that you are small and weak, but I will be with you so that you can defeat 135,000 as one man.
Gideon continued to distrust God, and after confronting the Holy God, he fell into a new fear, and he did not believe that God had raised him as the savior of Israel, and demanded another sign of victory.
God did not give up on this Gideon and made him a great leader who could lead 300 warriors. God, who did not give up on Gideon until the end, is making us like this today. It's not because we're good and smart that we can be like Gideon's leadership of 300 warriors and be a creative minority. This is because God does not give up on us until the very end and makes us who we are.
God is showing Gideon that you are only a loaf of barley bread through the words of 7:13 and 14, but if God is with you, you will become a great warrior.
God is still looking for one person who is awake, not many or many. If I become a creative minority according to the Lord's word, become a flapping fish, and live with the spirit of a wild grass, God works through me. He does. Just as he defeated an army of 135,000 men through Gideon, he is still accomplishing those things through me.