God-Vision Goggles
Military personal sometimes use night-vision goggles to see in the dark. Wouldn’t it be neat if we could use “God-vision” goggles to see what God sees?
In Judges 6, the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.”
God knew Gideon could lead his people against the Midianites and defeat them (with his help). He later instructed Gideon to whittle down his army to only 300 men against 135,000 bad guys. That’s 45 to 1, not favorable odds in any military manual!
Gideon knew this, and he answered the way most of us would have answered: “Pardon me, my lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
We know the rest of the story. God used these few men to surprise the enemy and cause them to panic and fight against each other, resulting in 120,000 killed and the rest routed. Would you have volunteered to be a part of that band of 300?
Do you remember when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by Aramean soldiers at night? In 2 Kings 6 we read that when the servant woke up the next morning he saw the horses and chariots and yelled, “Oh no, my lord. What will we do?”
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” and Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
This is one time in the Bible when someone did miraculously get to use a pair of God-vision goggles.
Can you think of other Bible accounts when God-vision goggles would have come in handy? How about when the children of Israel were caught between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army and saw no way of escape? Or the time ten spies convinced the Israelites that giants in the Land of Canaan would squash them like grasshoppers?
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When you face a problem you see no way out of, put on your God-vision goggles of faith and try to see what God sees.