BBD 09.15.15 Going Against the Grain (Classic)
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The Burning
Bush Devotional
Classic
from 2008
09.15.15
Going
Against the Grain
But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them
down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of
whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you;
and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall
not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to
Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you
shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to
drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth,
was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees
to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who
lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the
other people go, every man to his place.” - Judges 7:4-7 NKJV.
Against the grain is an interesting phrase and according
to phrases.org “brings to
mind the image of the grain in wood, which, if planed in the wrong direction,
will tear rather than lie smoothly.” It
means to go “against one's inclination or natural
tendency.” God calls upon His people at times to do the
unexpected and to go against the grain of the world‘s expectations.
Gideon went against the grain when he was obedient to
God’s instructions. Gideon had 32,000 men but even this army was not enough to
match the men arrayed against them. Judges 7:12 describes the opposing force as “numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by
the seashore in multitude.” But God
reduced, instead of increasing Gideon’s army. He reduced the thousands to only
300 men. Yet we know that God gave Gideon and his 300 men complete victory over
the Midianite army.
Joshua went against the grain when God instructed him to
attack Jericho in a strange way and he obeyed. They were to march around the
city once a day for six days but on the seventh day they were to march around
Jericho seven times. The seven priests were to blow the trumpets and the people
were to shout, and as we know the walls came tumbling down.
Jonah was also called upon by God to do the strange and unusual
- to go against the grain of the world‘s expectations. He was to go to Nineveh
and preach to the hated enemy. Jonah thought that he would rather die than do
that, and so he headed in the other direction. He was swallowed up by a great
fish and in the belly of the fish he had a change of heart. Jonah then went to
Nineveh with God’s message “Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be over thrown.” One
of the greatest revivals in history broke out and those evil people got right
with God.
Many other men and women of God have gone against the
grain of the world to be obedient to their Lord. People like Noah, David,
Esther, Peter, and Paul were all faithful in obeying God even though the world
thought they were foolish.
The point is that when God calls it could be something
the world will think is laughable. But make no mistake, if we are faithful to
be obedient to God’s call, the world most likely will not be laughing at the
results of our obedience. The Midianites were not laughing after the battle was
over. The people of Jericho were no longer laughing at those crazy Israelites
when the walls came down. And, the Ninevites called a fast and sat in sackcloth
and ashes when they heard the one sentence sermon of Jonah.
Is there something that God has been speaking to you
about, but you have put it off because you think that you will be ridiculed?
Maybe now is the time for you to move forward in faith by going against the
grain of the world by following the example of the great men and women of God
who have gone before you.
Copyright © 2008-2015. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
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