Text:Judges 6; Genesis 38
Today we begin a very special time of year. We begin Christmas Advent. This means we are celebrating the coming of someone who is worthy to be celebrated. We celebrate the coming of God Himself to this earth to redeem mankind. God Almighty took on flesh to become man who would be the complete offering for sin. God knew what needed to happen for His plan is from before time began. God knew He would being redemption in the most unexpected ways to all of mankind and He continues to make that happen today.
Two accounts I want to look at today begin with Gideon. Here we have this young man who is from the tribe of Manasseh and also from the poorest family in the tribe. Gideon felt like he was too little and worthless for the Lord Almighty to use. In God’s eyes, Gideon is the perfect one to bring redemption to His people. Through Gideon, God gets all the glory and it would be obvious to the people who was actually doing the work. Gideon teaches us that God desires to use the weak and the small to do great things. Gideon teaches us that obedience and honor are the ways to serve God and see Him accomplish great things through us.
The second account I want to dive into is that of Judah and Tamar, Gen. 38. This is an interesting and hard one to deal with. Judah is one of the sons of Jacob who is a rascal as far as scripture teaches. He goes to the land of the canaanites which they were commanded not to and takes a wife. He has threes boys and he finds a wife for the oldest. God takes the oldest because of wickedness so the second son is given to Tamar who God takes as well. The third son is too young to marry Tamar so Judah tells her to wait which leads to Tamar tricking her father-in-law into getting her pregnant to preserve their seed. There is a whole mess of evil and selfishness and yet this is the line that leads up to David and eventually the Messiah. God can use the most messed up and broken life to bring honor to Himself. God uses the small and weak to bring honor to himself because then He gets all the honor. This Christmas, God desires you to help bring unexpected redemption.