By Michael Kelley

The story of Gideon is a familiar one. The Lord called him to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites, but Gideon was afraid. Indeed, he was so afraid of the Midianites that when the angel came to deliver God’s Word to him he was hiding in a winepress.

So how did Gideon try and deal with his fear? We see his attempt  in Judges 6:37-40:

Then Gideon said to God, “If you will deliver Israel by me, as you said, I will put a wool fleece here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that you will deliver Israel by me, as you said.” And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water.

Gideon then said to God, “Don’t be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground.” That night God did as Gideon requested: only the fleece was dry, and dew was all over the ground.

This passage is so common that terminology from it has crept into our own vernacular. We use an expression like, “Put out the fleece” for some kind of process of seeking to know God's will by asking Him to provide a tangible, observable sign answering a question we have. That’s what Gideon did. 

You might have done the same thing. Maybe there was a time when you felt like the Lord wanted you to do something scary, and so you went out to the woods, and said that if a red bird landed on the third fencepost from the right then you would know God wanted you to do whatever it was you thought He wanted you to do.

But what is really happening here? Is this a tried and true method to discern God’s will? The answer is no.

At its core, what’s happening here is manipulation. To manipulate means to engineer or control situations or people or circumstances to meet your own ends. 

It’s interesting to note that through this whole section, Gideon does not use the divine personal, covenantal name of God, which is Yahweh. Instead, Gideon uses the generic designation Elohim. He is not distinguishing between Yahweh and any old other god. His requests for signs are, in fact, more indicative of divination in the Near East than worship of the God of Israel.

Ironically, no character in the book of Judges receives more divine assurance than Gideon and none displays more doubt. In His quest for certainty, He was calling the trustworthiness of God into question. He wanted to put God on his own terms. 

Now you might be thinking, I don’t do that. I know I can’t manipulate God. And perhaps you’re right - but perhaps also we try to manipulate God in much more subtle ways than laying out a fleece to either get wet or stay dry. We are at heart trying to manipulate God when we approach Him in a formulaic manner - that is, when we think If I do X, then God is bound to do Y. Here are a few examples:

• If I provide the right kind of school for my kids then God will make sure they stay true to the faith.

• If I keep myself pure, then God will send me a spouse.

• If I work hard and do the right thing, God will make me rich.

There are a thousand of these little formulas we have wound up in our minds, but the core of all of them is that same core at the heart of Gideon’s attempt at manipulation…

I want God on my own terms. And if we can have God on our own terms, according to our formula, then we can deal with the fear we have in our lives.

So if manipulation is man’s way of dealing with fear, what is God’s way? 

God’s way of dealing with fear is about His Word. It’s about remembering it, renewing our commitment to it, and reminding ourselves of it.

If we look back at Judges 6, it’s clear that despite his demand for signs, Gideon should have had all the assurance he needed. Notice that there are a couple of words that appear not only once, but twice, and those words are these: “as you said.” They appear in verse 36 and verse 38 - they bookend Gideon’s quest for certainty. Gideon had the Word of the Lord. This is what he needed to remember. And so do we.

God has already given all we need to deal with the fear in our lives. It’s in what He has already told us. Turn to God’s Word in your fear, friends - don’t trust in your own ability to engineer your circumstances.

Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.