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SIGNS OF INSECURITY

Have you ever noticed how some Bible expressions have crept into the secular vocabulary of our world? Take the line, “I can see the handwriting on the wall.” I imagine there were people working at Enron who used that sad expression – and had never once heard of a Babylonian king named Belshazzar or read about the drunken feast where the prophet Daniel was called in to read the mysterious encryption: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres (or “Upharsin.”) And that ancient line means the same thing today that it meant on October 12, 539 B.C. when Medo-Persia defeated the golden empire: “The end is upon us.” Today we use it for such mundane things as noticing when the Dodgers no longer have any chance in the National League West, which sometimes happens as early as mid-June.

The biblical line for today is equally well-known: Putting out a fleece. Actually, this one may be a little more common among religious people, but you’ll very often hear a Christian say: “I just don’t know what the Lord wants me to do here, so I’m going to put out a fleece.”

It’s in our chosen chapter for this Bible series, Judges six, where we find the original wad of wool. Our friend Gideon has already been commissioned by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites; in fact, he’s passed Step #1 by weed-whacking the hanging gardens of Baal and feeding the pagan Asherah pole into a wood-chipper. Then in verse 34, Gideon blows a trumpet – actually, there’s another famous expression we could preach on or sing about here on the radio – and calls his fellow countrymen to arms. And he must be a trumpet player in the ranks of Louis Armstrong or Doc Severinson because the Bible tells us 32,000 men come and sign up for action. But first the fleece.

“Gideon said to God” – this is verse 36 – “‘If You will save Israel by my hand as You have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You said.’ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water.”

What do you think of that? Gideon must have been a great man of faith to have God deliver such a clear signal; don’t you think? Hold that thought for a moment, because that may not be the right conclusion at all; in fact, there’s a whole barnful of Internet Bible scholars who take the exact opposite view.

One of them is a Dr. Larry Spargimino, who shares with his readers at something called Southwest Radio Church Ministries. And he tells us a cute story about a farmer who saw two clouds in the sky one day. And what do you know? They spelled out – perfectly – the letters “P” and “C.” Now, he didn’t immediately go out and buy a new computer, but he couldn’t get those incredible cloud formations out of his mind. “PC. PC.” What was God telling him to do? Did God want him to be more “politically correct” in his dealings with the ducks and chickens? No, very clearly heaven was giving him a new directive: “Preach Christ.”

So he did! The guy sold his farm. He auctioned off the cows. He enrolled in a faraway Bible college and, speaking of fleeces and sheepskins, got a degree in theology to hang on his wall. First thing out of the box, he began to do like the clouds said: “Preach Christ.”

Within ten minutes it was clear to everyone in the church that the cows were better at preaching Christ than this guy was. He was terrible! It simply was not his gift. People were getting up out of the pews and going out to the parking lot shaking their heads. Those who had put offerings in the collection plate began to feel like THEY had been “fleeced,” to torture a metaphor here. But it was really bad.

And the ex-farmer-soon-to-be-ex-preacher was baffled and discouraged. “I don’t understand it,” he said to a friend (maybe his last one). “The Lord showed me the letters ‘PC,’ and I thought He was telling me to preach Christ. I’ve done what the Lord has told me to do, but things just aren’t working out.”

Well, his friend swallowed hard before delivering the bad news. “Uh, do you think it might be possible God was trying to tell you to ‘Plant Corn’? Or cucumbers or cauliflower? Because one thing’s for sure, Fred; the ‘P’ in your ‘PC’ doesn’t stand for ‘preach’!”

And this Pastor Spargimino takes his website readers to a very straightforward conclusion about our farmer friend and Gideon both.

“Putting out a fleece,” he writes, “was NOT an act of faith on Gideon’s part, but a demonstration of his unbelief. Gideon already knew the Lord’s will. He was not trying to find God’s will but was seeking confirmation of guidance that he had already received.”

And you know, friend, I think that’s a valid conclusion. Remember, Gideon had already seen an angel, a supernatural being. Clear back in verse 12, this messenger from heaven had said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” And if you or I were to interpose and say, “Well, there are angels and then there are angels. Our eyes CAN deceive us and so can Lucifer’s fallen minions” – that’s a fair objection. But remember that in verse 21, when Gideon brought a feast offering to the angel, of bread, meat, and broth, the holy being simply touched it and fire instantaneously consumed the offering. So Gideon had proof positive already that God was reaching out to him. In verse 23 the Lord speaks with him again. In verse 31 Gideon is delivered from certain death in a way that is plainly ordained by heaven. So when we come to the blowing of the trumpet and Gideon putting out a fleece, or asking for a sign, we begin to realize that this brave young man actually has a streak of spiritual insecurity in him. He asks for a sign when he’s already received one. Remember how he puts it, even: “God, if You do this, then I KNOW You will save Israel by my hand, AS YOU HAVE PROMISED.” God’s own word, God’s promise, isn’t enough; he wants a miracle on top of it.

In fact, it’s worse than that, if you Bible readers may recall. After the fleece does come in sopping wet the morning after, Gideon begins to think to himself: “Wait a minute. Fleeces are supposed to be wet; they soak up water on their own, without God’s help.” And now in verse 39, he actually puts God to the test for a THIRD demonstration of heaven’s presence. “Flip it around the other way,” he begs. “Tomorrow morning let the fleece be dry and the ground all around it wet. Then I’ll really know it’s You, God, and not just wool acting like wool.”

There’s a helpful paragraph we found in the Adventist Bible Commentary; see what you think:

“One can hardly censure Gideon for desiring reassurance, and yet he had the word of the heavenly messenger, and that attested by a miracle. A mature faith would not have asked for another sign.” Now this is an excellent point; notice: “The experience of the Roman centurion stands over against this experience of Gideon. This heathen soldier asked for no miracle on which to rest his faith. Concerning him, Jesus declared, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” That’s Luke 7:9. “If Gideon has possessed such an experience, he would not have asked for an additional sign after having received convincing evidence in the fire that sprang from the rock. However, God makes use of the best instruments available, and when those who are weak ask for a sign He often honors the request. However, as faith develops, God expects men to take Him at His word and depend less and less upon confirmatory signs. Many have spoiled their religious experience by persistently following chance methods of guidance.”

All through the Bible, both Testaments, asking for – or even demanding – signs is given poor marks. “Do not test the Lord your God,” we read in Deuteronomy 6, and remember that Jesus quotes that very line to Lucifer in the desert of temptation. In fact, in Matthew 16, He says that only “a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign.” John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, is temporary struck dumb, speechless, when he doubts the messenger of the Lord.

Most importantly, friend, it’s a tragic mistake to ask God for a sign in an area where His Word already plainly reveals His will to us. It’s all right to “put out a fleece” or carefully study the providential clues that might reveal what specifically God might have you do about some looming decision, but not where there’s already a plain “Thus saith the Lord” recorded in Scripture. This same Bible commentary notices:

“There are some who are continually deciding great issues, not on the basis of the teaching of the Bible or of what is logical and reasonable, but on the basis of signs that they themselves set up.”

I know this, friend. There’s no clearer sign for the Christian today than the plain, black-and-white words legibly printed in an inspired black book with a two-word title on it. And just case that farmer’s still listening, “HB” doesn’t stand for “harvest barley.”