Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: May 13, 2026
Update	: May 13, 2026
Parts	: 03

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part one, as I have pointed out before, God delights in using little things, and weak things, and small things, in order that He might receive all of the glory. This eternal truth runs from one end of the Bible to the other. God often chose men, and some women, who were the least likely to be successful in the eyes of the world. If you doubt that this is so, then please consider the following group of Bible verses:

"The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."


"And Samuel said, When thou [King Saul] wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?"


"But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."


"And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me."


"Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts."


"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;"


"We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised."


"For his [Paul's] letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."


"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."


Before we return to the story of Gideon, please notice that in the previous set of Bible verses, in 1 Samuel 15 the Lord firmly rejected King Saul due to his own stubbornness and his extreme pride, and then in 1 Samuel 16, God informs the Prophet Samuel -- to Samuel's own surprise -- that it is a young shepherd boy by the name of David who He would raise up to be the next king of Israel, and NOT any of the future king's brothers. Why was Samuel somewhat surprised by the Lord's choice? The verse I shared with you previously tells us the whole tale. Samuel was looking after the flesh. He was placing his confidence in the appearance of the flesh, and who in his OWN eyes would make a great king. Yet look again at what God said to the Prophet Samuel:

"But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."


So that is why God can and does use little, unknown people, even you and me, if we choose to yield to His Will for our lives. And now we return to dear Gideon and the Midianites. In part one I asked you why Gideon conducted the test with the fleece two different times. The obvious answer is that Gideon doubted the first time when he conducted the test. And so, just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things, and to make absolutely certain that this was truly God's Will, he conducted the very same test again, but only in reverse. And, yes, sure enough, by way of the results of the second test, the Lord basically said to Gideon, "Yes, it is you, dude. It is you whom I have specifically chosen for this task. I will use you to defeat the Midianites."

Now, my friends, at first glance, our inclination may be to conclude that Gideon was doubting the Lord. In fact, honestly speaking, that was the very first conclusion at which I also arrived as well. However, my friends, under closer scrutiny and examination, in my opinion, that argument and particular line of reasoning just does NOT hold up, once we take into consideration what has already occurred. The man was visited by an Angel of the Lord. That in itself was more than enough to freak out Gideon. Then, on top of that, the Angel engaged in a little pyrotechnics when he burned up the sacrifice from the surface of the rock. One would think that by this time, Gideon would be more than convinced that God would be more than able to accomplish what He had stated. This reminds me of two verses I shared with you in part one. Allow me to share them with you again for emphasis:

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"


"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"


So what does that leave us with, my friends? In my view, it leaves us with the fact that dear Gideon may not have been doubting God at all. Rather, he was doubting HIMSELF! Now if you doubt that this is so, then consider again what Gideon had said previously to the Lord upon learning that he had been chosen to lead the Israelites in battle against the powerful Midianite army:

"And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house."


There it is, my friends! Gideon lacked confidence in himself, and he must have felt unworthy of, and inadequate for, such a mighty calling of God. As I noted earlier, in that regard, he was a lot like many of us little unknown people who have also been called into ministry, despite our seeming inadequacies. But regardless of how we each choose to understand Gideon's motivations for conducting the fleece test two times, the fact remains that the Lord had already given Gideon so many amazing signs, that Gideon SHOULD have believed God after he had conducted the first test, and he should NOT have required God to prove it a second time. The first results should have been sufficient. The first time God spoke to him should have been enough for Gideon to believe without any further doubts about it.

Thus, we see the very same lesson being emphasized which we already discussed in part one. If God speaks once, it should be enough for us. It's only our lack of faith either in God's ability to perform that which He has promised, or our lack of faith in ourselves which will cause us to doubt. If we were truly full of faith as God demands that we be, then one word from the Lord in a perfect world should be enough to motivate us to trust and obey Him by faith alone. In fact, as some of you will know, in the Epistle to the Hebrews we find this Scriptural indictment against us when we're lacking in faith:

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."


Before moving on to the next part of our discussion, allow me to share a poem and song with you regarding this man Gideon which I composed back in November of 2017. Not surprisingly, it is simply called "Gideon". If you would like to hear the actual song version of this poem, then please proceed to the URL below. The song button is located below the poem on this same page. It is a very easy-going acoustic tune in obvious ballad form:

https://www.billkochman.com/Poetry/gideon.html

GIDEON

by Bill Kochman

11-29-2017

There was once a man from Ophrah,
Gideon was the young lad's name,
An Angel appeared under an oak,
Then that boy began to complain.

If the Lord GOD really be with us,
As in all the glorious days past,
Then why do Midianites afflict us?
Such was the question he did ask.

You shall indeed smite your enemy,
Thus was the answer he did receive,
But I am the least in my own house,
How am I even supposed to believe?

So the Lord gave the youth a sign,
After a meal for the Angel he made,
A fire then came up out of the rock,
And consumed the food where it laid.

The same night the LORD spoke to him,
Throw down your dad's altar to Baal,
Build another unto the LORD instead,
And cut down your dad's grove as well.

Gideon did as he had been commanded,
But the people didn't like this thing,
They wanted to kill that brave boy,
Joash, your son to us you must bring.

But Dad firmly defended his own son,
Let Baal plead for himself he said,
So the townsfolk then all backed down,
And dear Gideon didn't lose his head.

But doubts yet lingered in his heart,
So he twice tested with the fleece,
Both times God answered affirmative,
Which gave Gideon's heart some peace.

Now once he had gathered his armies,
The LORD said there are too many men,
They will take credit for the victory,
We must cut back their numbers again.

The fearful were ordered to go home,
Yet 10,000 soldiers still remained,
But after conducting the water test,
Only 300 fighters had Gideon retained.

Despite the tiny size of Israel's army,
We know the Midianites were done in,
God is not limited by small numbers,
The Lord of Hosts will always win.

As you will recall from part one, despite all of the signs which the Lord had given to Gideon, He wasn't quite done yet with encouraging Gideon's faith. Thus God had Gideon approach the camp of the Midianite enemies in order that he might overhear what the soldiers were discussing. It was at that point that Gideon learned of the dream which one of the soldiers had experienced, which forewarned of the Midianites' soon-approaching defeat. This leads us to our next group of Bible verses, which are found in the Book of Job. Consider the following:

"For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man."


There are several very interesting things regarding those four verses. First of all, we are told that God speaks not just once, but sometimes twice. Hmmm . . . that seems a bit odd, doesn't it, considering everything which we've already studied? Not only that, but when are we are told that this happens? At night, while we are sleeping. So this leads to two important questions. First, why does God have to speak twice, which is actually contrary to His nature? And why does He have to do it at night via a dream or a vision?

Well, those same verses offer us three clear reasons which answer both of these questions. Consider the following:

1. man perceiveth it not

2. that he may withdraw man from his purpose

3. and hide pride from man

Just as occurred in the previous story regarding Gideon, to our own shame, a lot of times, we Christians just don't get it. God tells us a certain thing, reveals something to us, or asks us to do a certain thing, and as slow as we can be at times, or because we lack the faith, we either lack the faith to believe it, and certainly don't have the faith to do whatever God is requesting from us. We either fail to perceive it at all, or else we willingly choose to rebel against it. This is particularly so during our waking hours when we are alert, when our protective wall of defense is fully activated, and when we can thus best resist the Lord.

So, being as wise as He is, the Lord says "Okay. You think you are so smart! I will just get you when you are the most vulnerable, while you are sleeping. I will penetrate your thoughts with dreams and visions which reveal what I want you to actually do, and NOT what you want to do. That is how I personally understand the phrase "that he may withdraw man from his purpose." According to the Hebrew word that's used in verse seventeen above -- ma'aseh -- that word "purpose" is referring to our deeds, work, labor, business, pursuit or undertaking. In other words, it is the things which WE want to do, and not necessarily what GOD wants us to do.

‭Not only does God withdraw us from our purpose, but those verses also inform us that God hides our pride from us. Why does He do that? I think the answer is rather obvious, and that is because it is our own pride which also causes us to resist Him and to rebel against Him, and not complete His Will for our lives, just as Satan's pride also caused him to rebel against God, and try to exalt himself ABOVE God before he was cast out of Heaven. Thus we read in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and in other Books, the following:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."


"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."


"And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."


"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;"


"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."


"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."


While it is not specifically stated in the text in the Book of Job, I am going to suggest another possible reason -- you are free to accept it or reject it -- regarding why the Lord may prefer to speak to us at night when we tend to be a lot more vulnerable, as well as in an unconscious state. As I mention in articles such as the series "Sex, a Bowl of Soup and the Nature of Angels", the simple fact of the matter is that our human flesh is not exactly suitable for engaging in supernatural occurrences. In other words, dear friends, our weak, mortal flesh tends to freak out! Flesh encountering Spirit is just too powerful. In fact, as I have mentioned before, the Bible informs us that God even had to prepare a special body for Jesus, so that the Spirit of the Father could dwell in the flesh of the Son in all its fulness, as we see by the following Bible verse:

"Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"


Now, I could be wrong, but I tend to believe that there was something unique regarding that human body in which the Lord dwelt for thirty plus years; a body from which continuously flowed healing "virtue", as is described for us in the pages of the Gospels. So as I was saying, supernatural encounters can be difficult for our human flesh to endure. For example, in the aforementioned series I discuss the Prophet Daniel's experience with his Angelic Visitors. As you will see below, Daniel did not fair too well, and he got physically sick:

"And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. . . . Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. . . . And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it."


"Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me."


One final example I will share with you concerns the Apostle John. When he encountered Jesus in the Book of Revelation, he informs us that he too fell down as one dead, as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:"


So as I mentioned to you a bit earlier, while it is simply a personal theory on my part, this weakness of human flesh may possibly be yet another reason why God may actually choose to communicate with some people during their sleeping hours. Their flesh simply cannot handle the experience during their waking hours. Again, believe as you wish according to your personal degree of faith.

But for whatever the reason, we see again through the verses in the Book of Job, that under normal circumstances, God does NOT like to speak to us regarding instructions more than one time. However, sometimes, in His mercy, He will speak to us a second time, if we are still having a difficult time getting the message, or if we are too slow to believe and obey Him, and to act upon that which He has instructed us to do, due to our own pride, stubbornness or whatever may be the cause. To reiterate the main point, when God speaks, once is enough, or at least it should be enough, without any need whatsoever for repetition.

Continuing our discussion, the next example we will consider is Jacob -- the brother of Esau -- who is sometimes referred to as Jacob the Deceiver. As I explain in other BBB articles, and as many of you will already know, this is the man who with the help of his own mother Rebekah, deceived Rebekah's husband -- Isaac -- and stole the birthright from Esau, who was the twin elder brother, and thus the rightful heir. You will find this story in Genesis 27. Sometime later, as we also know, Jacob was such a man that he would even wrestle with an Angel, and he would not let the Angel go until the Angel had finally blessed him. So Jacob was indeed quite a character. You will find this latter story in Genesis 32.

But for the purposes of this current series, I want to focus on what happened in Genesis chapter twenty-eight, because it is there where we really see the full revelation of Jacob's pride and audacity. I mean, this fellow was something else! He had already stolen his twin brother's birthright through an outright act of deception, and at some point in the near future, he would also wrestle with the aforementioned Angelic Visitor as well. What more could Jacob possibly do? How about negotiate with God and try to set his OWN terms with God? As I said, Jacob was quite the audacious fellow.

To give you some background info, in this chapter, following the deception which had won him his twin brother's birthright -- as well as his brother's anger -- Rebekah encouraged Jacob to go to Padanaram -- where Rebekah had relatives in the form of Laban and his extended family -- until the situation had cooled down at home. After giving Jacob his elder brother's birthright and blessing, Isaac also encouraged -- or perhaps "ordered" is a better word -- Jacob to travel to Padanaram in order to seek out a wife from amongst Laban's family. Laban was in fact Rebekah's nephew according to the Scriptures.

Thus, Jacob set out from Beersheba on his way to Haran, which was located in the land of Padanaram. Haran was in fact named after the younger brother of Abraham, and NOT after another individual named Haran -- the son of Caleb -- who lived much later in history. But to continue, it was during that journey that Jacob had a supernatural experience, which in our modern times is often referred to as "Jacob's Ladder". Jacob would later rename the place Bethel -- which means House of God in the Hebrew language, just as Bethlehem means House of Bread -- even though its original name was Luz. While Luz refers to an almond tree in Hebrew, what I find interesting is that in Spanish it actually means light, and Jacob surely saw the light of God that night.

It was during that dreamy vision of the ladder upon which Angels ascended and descended, that God Himself stood above the ladder and revealed to Jacob exactly what His plans were for Jacob. Please consider the following Bible verses which describe this amazing event:

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."


So as you can plainly see, God clearly revealed to Jacob what His intentions were concerning Jacob. There was no ambiguity about it whatsoever. The Lord was going to give Jacob and his descendants the land of Canaan, which as we all know, is what came to pass in the soon-coming years after much fighting and killing. Yet despite God ALREADY telling Jacob precisely what He intended to do with him and his descendants, what does the man do? Did Jacob exercise faith and belief and view it as an already done deal?

Please go to part three for the conclusion of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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