The Whole Story in Three Words
The Whole Story in Three Words
Judges 8:4 & 10
And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. … Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword.
“Abraham, it’s been decades since the LORD took you on that midnight walk to number the stars, and Sarah’s now in her nineties! Hows’ your faith holding up amidst the barrenness?” Exhausted, yet pursuing. “Joseph, you worked so diligently for Potiphar, yet now you’re stuck in a dungeon for a crime you didn’t commit! How are you feeling in the shadows of this obscurity?” Exhausted, yet pursuing. “Moses, you’ve been lugging these rebellious complainers around for decades, and none of the divine wonders you’ve performed have kept the twelve tribal chiefs from leading a revolt. As you lay prostrate in the dust yet again, searching for new words to express old wounds, how would you describe your state of mind at present?” Exhausted, yet pursuing. “Deborah, you’ve been sitting on that lawn chair calling out from the hilltop for years now, but the people are still under heavy oppression. How are you holding up under the vocation of being a voice crying in the wilderness?” Exhausted, yet pursuing.
Friend, marvel at the fact that Gideon’s 300 choice men are still alive and well at this juncture, every one of them, even after they’ve taken out 120,000 Midianites. Rejoice in the good hand of the LORD that has preserved them on the ridges and in the trenches. Praise God for doing abundantly beyond anything Gideon and these soldiers could’ve imagined when they set out on that first night. Oh, but learn from their spiritual stamina as well. See the sweat on their brow and the dried blood on their cloaks and the heaviness in their breathing and remember that honor doesn’t come easy: it comes through great labor. Saints are often exhausted, often bewildered, often battered and bruised, but they keep marching triumphantly onward in pursuit of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Don’t let your day today be marked by a period after that word ‘exhausted.’ It remains the unique quality of the imitator of Christ to face exhaustion with the qualifier, ‘but pursuing.’