"You will go in the strength that you have, and I will be with you!" Those are the two things that are absolutely critical to our understanding of Gideon's story. He is so unbelievably despondent; he is in such despair. He looks at his resources, and they are utterly depleted. He sees absolutely no hope, and he certainly does not see himself as playing any major part in rolling back the forces of evil. "What me?" "No way," but the Lord says to him, "I want you just as you are with what strength you've got which doesn't amount to much. What does amount to a lot is that I will be with you!"

Somebody has put it this way: "One person plus God equals a majority!" "Go in the strength that you have. I know it isn't much; in fact, you don't amount to much at all. You're of the tribe of Manasseh. You're in one of the lowest clans of that tribe, and that makes you even lower on the totem pole; you are way down in the families in that clan, of that not particularly noble tribe, and you're right at the tail end of family. I know what you are, Gideon, you don't amount to much! But you're just who I want, because I'm looking for people who don't amount too much so that they will begin to realize the key is not what they have to offer. The key is that I have to offer all that they need to be all that I'm calling them to be, and that's the key!"

The problem is this: when we bring all kinds of riches and resources to the table, we get the impression that our riches and our resources are going to win the victory. But the poorer we are, the more inadequate we are, the more resourceless we are, the more likelihood there is of us being willing to be dependent, end that is the key to Gideon's experience. Gideon then says, "Well, if I've found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really You talking to me" (Judges 6:17). And the Lord gives him a sign, and Gideon begins to recognize that this is the Angel of the Lord, a special messenger from the Lord who has come to speak to him.

The Lord says to him, in verse 23, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." So Gideon does what should have been done a long time ago. He builds an altar to the Lord, and he calls it, "The Lord is Peace!"

I want you to notice something very interesting about this. The Lord had just commissioned Gideon to be Major General of an army that doesn't exist, and they are going to go and clobber the Midianites. So Gideon builds an altar and calls it, "The Lord is Peace!" The Lord has just told him to initiate a battle, and he says, "The Lord is Peace!"

This gives us a clue, of course, to the fact in Jewish thought, peace is not what we think it is. When we think in terms of "peace," we usually think it is either the cessation of hostilities, or the eradication of stress. Are you with me? When we talk about "peace," we usually define it in negative terms. It is the cessation of hostilities, or the eradication of stress. That is why, you see, when we're looking for peace, as we are all the time, we're trying to find ways to stop the hostility and to get rid of all the stress. That's why so many people have so little peace in their lives.