THE MEEKNESS DREAM!--"Of a Meek & Quiet Spirit" By Father David Italy, 25/6/75 DO 1250
1. IT SEEMED LIKE WE WERE LINED UP AT A STARTING LINE WAITING FOR A RACE or the start of a rally. There were at least four or five cars & maybe more. Each of us was holding some kind of a signboard in front of us to show through the windshield to identify each car while we were waiting. I was getting very very very impatient because the people who were supposed to be in my car were not there & we couldn't start the race without them! So I finally got fed up with waiting & I decided to go find them.
2. SO I DROVE CLEAR OUT IN THE COUNTRY UP THIS COUNTRY ROAD TO THE HOUSE where the Family was supposed to be, but they weren't there. And they I drove back to this Colony dining hall like in a campground & I went in there searching for them & couldn't find them there. I was looking everywhere & I was just absolutely getting frantic because I couldn't find them! Apparently we were supposed to start this race & I couldn't get my team together. So while in this dining hall going around looking for them desperately I had just about come to the end of my rope!
3. THEN I GOT THIS SCRIPTURE ABOUT A MEEK & A QUIET SPIRIT! Now I haven't even looked this up yet so I don't know what I'm going to find, but the words that came to me there in that dining hall when I'd looked everywhere & I really cried out desperately to the Lord to help me were: "A meek & a quiet spirit God will not despise!" My whole attitude was, "Well, I guess I'll just have to trust the Lord!"--& it sort of helped relax me.
4. AND THEN I WANTED TO FIND THE SCRIPTURE. There was this very sweet, meek & quiet brother who seemed to be waiting on tables & walking around tending tables. He was a brother that I don't recall knowing or having met before, but a very sweet quiet humble brother. I've never met him, it was as though he were Justus Pound!--Very self-effacing, just waiting on tables quietly, humbly, meekly, almost as though he were an example of the Scripture. So I went to him & took hold of him by the shoulder as though I was rather desperate to find that verse, & I said,
5. "BROTHER, WHERE IS THAT VERSE ABOUT THE MEEK & QUIET SPIRIT THAT GOD WILL NOT DESPISE?" And he looked thoughtful for a moment & he said, "I think you'll find it in Gideon 2 or 3." And I said, "Oh, thanks so much, I sure appreciate that!"--And he smiled & nodded & went on about his business. So I kept repeating to myself, "Gideon 2 or 3, I must look that up to see what the rest of it says!"--Because so often when the Lord gives you a Scripture or an answer it is a key to the whole passage which helps you understand the whole situation better. (See Ps.51:17.)
6. IT'S JUST A KEY THAT UNLOCKS THE DOOR TO A LARGER REVELATION from the Scripture which applies to the situation in question & is usually very helpful, describing the whole picture in great detail. Like the time I got the Scripture about my relationship to Fred, & the Lord said I was to behave toward him as David with King Saul. Those few key words "as David with Saul" were the key to the situation which opened up the whole book of I Samuel & outlined a whole detailed pattern of behaviour in various similar situations which I was encountering & was yet to encounter in the following 12 years of our association together.
7. SO I DON'T KNOW JUST WHAT KIND OF MYSTERIES GOD IS GOING TO UNLOCK NOW as we open the Bible to the story of Gideon, because I have a feeling it will no doubt be just as miraculous an answer as many other Scriptural answers I have received when faced with other desperate situations when the Lord has given me a Scripture that turned out to be the key to the whole problem! Oddly enough in the dream in never even seemed strange to me that there was no such book as Gideon in the Book of Judges! But I thought to myself.
8. "I MUST LOOK UP THAT SCRIPTURE & SEE WHAT THE REST OF IT SAYS JUST AS QUICKLY AS I CAN--GIDEON 2 OR 3!" It seemed perfectly sensible & logical in the dream that the Scripture was in Gideon, & whatever that means I don't yet know as I'm deliberately not looking it up yet until I've told you the dream! No doubt the answer is found in Gideon 2 or 3, whatever the answer is! It was just as specific & clear as anything I have ever heard in a dream, in the few specific dreams in which definite words or names were mentioned & proved of paramount importance. So I left the dining room thinking, "I must remember that & look that up as soon as I can!"
9. AND LO & BEHOLD, WHEN I GOT OUT TO THE CAR IN THE PARKING LOT, THERE WAS THE FAMILY ALL WAITING FOR ME, much to my surprise & relief! So a good deal of my worry evidently had been in vain! But apparently I was very impatient to get started in the race, because I drove off up that same country road where I had been looking for them before toward the house in which they seemed to be living. It was a long tree-lined lane with beautiful tall trees on both sides of the road stretching for a considerable distance.
10. SUDDENLY WHEN I GOT ALMOST TO THE HOUSE I REMEMBERED THAT WASN'T THE WAY I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO, so I began to back up furiously down the road, hastily & impatiently! I was so disgusted with myself for having taken the wrong road, the old habitual road toward home, as you so often will do when driving. Some of you veteran drivers have had the experience that when you were going someplace you just automatically took the route you were accustomed to taking, only to remember at the last minute that that wasn't the way you were supposed to go today!
11. BUT YOU HAD JUST AUTOMATICALLY TAKEN THE OLD FAMILIAR TURN or old familiar route you were accustomed to taking as a rule. While busily talking with a friend in the same car or your mind occupied with other thoughts, you had forgotten that that was not the way you were supposed to go today, & that was not where you were going at this present time--but you were just habitually following the customary route that you usually took out of habit.
12. SO I WAS SO MAD AT MYSELF FOR HAVING FORGOTTEN THIS, thinking of the cars all lined up at the starting line waiting for me & my team, that I didn't even take time to turn around on this narrow country road. I just decided to back up as fast as I could, hoping & praying I wouldn't hit one of those trees, as it seemed I couldn't see too well behind me.
13. SO I WAS FLYING BACKWARD IN REVERSE, DESPERATELY PRAYING I WOULDN'T HIT A TREE, hastily & impatiently trying to get where I was supposed to go & apparently forgetting all about the Scriptural answer I had just received admonishing me to be of a meek & quiet spirit, & that such a spirit God would not despise but would answer its cry!--A Scripture, which, by the way, is not even in the story of Gideon, although I haven't looked it up yet, but more likely to be found in some place like Psalms or Proverbs or quoted in the epistles. That I have yet to find out.
14. SO I WAS BACKING UP FURIOUSLY DOWN THIS LONG NARROW LANE LINED WITH TREES, almost as though I were backing blind or with my eyes shut, hoping & praying I wouldn't run into a tree! I was already in such a hurry that I'd taken the wrong road, & still now in such a hurry that I didn't want to take time to turn around & was just backing blind, something no good drive would ever do or should ever do in his right mind, a very dangerous thing to do!--When suddenly I woke up!
15. SO NOW I'M GOING TO TURN TO GIDEON 2 OR 3, BY WHICH I PRESUME GOD MEANS THE STORY OF GIDEON, perhaps the second or third chapter of the story which is probably going to be some kind of illustration that haste makes waste, or an illustration of patience & dependence on God instead of impatiently depending on the flesh, from what I recall of the story of Gideon & his exploits.
16. I'D ALSO LIKE TO FIND WHERE THAT VERSE ACTUALLY IS ABOUT THE MEEK & THE QUIET SPIRIT. So if you'll hand me my Bible & my concordance, let's see where they are & what they have to say. Well, there aren't too many Scriptures on the meek in my little Crudens Concordance, but the word is first defined as: "Being gentle, kind, not easily provoked, ready to yield rather than cause trouble; but not used in the Bible in the bad sense of tamely submissive & servile." The first Scripture is Numbers 12:3:
17. "NOW THE MAN MOSES WAS VERY MEEK ABOVE ALL THE MEN WHICH WERE UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH!" Wow! That's not exactly the way we usually remember Moses! We first think of him getting very angry and remember the Egyptian slave driver, so righteously indignant for his cruelty to his brother that he killed him! Of course that was before he spent 40 years in the wilderness learning meekness tending sheep for his father-in-law Jethro before God was able to use him to deliver his people from their oppressors.
18. AND THEN WE ALWAYS REMEMBER THE PICTURE WHERE HE GOT SO ANGRY AT THEM FOR THEIR LICENTIOUS IDOLATRY & building & worshipping a golden calf while he was away receiving the Laws of God on Mount Sinai, that he threw down the very tables of stone upon which God Himself by His Own finger had inscribed the Ten Commandments. He broke them all in one gesture, another angry gesture of righteous indignation! But of course that was before he spent another 40 years in the wilderness leading these dumb, faithless, murmuring human sheep around learning patience!
19. THEN WE OFTEN THINK OF ANOTHER TIME WHEN HE ANGRILY STRUCK THE ROCK AT MERIBAH, which as I recall means "struggle" because the children of Israel strove there with Lord in their murmurings for water. (Numbers 20.) Moses was told by the Lord to merely "speak ye unto the rock before their eyes & it shall give forth his water, & thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation & their beasts drink." But instead Moses shouted angrily at the people, "Hear now ye rebels! Must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand & with his rod he smote the rock twice & the water came out abundantly, & the congregation drank & their beasts also."
20. BUT EVIDENTLY THE LORD WAS ANGRY WITH MOSES for having behaved in this very wrathful & impatient fashion before the people in this display of a fit of anger & impatience with them in which he also acted almost as though he were angry at the rock as well, which was a type of Christ, so that he smote it angrily twice with his rod instead of just speaking to it. Well, it got the results that he wanted & needed & got the water out of the rock to supply the people & their beasts with their needs, but God didn't like the way he did it!
21. HE DID THE RIGHT THING BUT IN THE WRONG WAY & God was so angry with him for this display of temper that He punished Moses by telling him, "Because ye believed Me not"--angry impatience is a sign of lack of perfect faith & rest in the Lord--"to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel"--to show a better example of God's Own patience with the people--"therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them!" (Num.20:12.)
22. THEREFORE MOSES WAS ONLY ALLOWED TO SEE ISRAEL FROM AFAR, from the top of a mountain, before he died. For as God says in Numbers 27:14, "Ye rebelled against My commandment in the desert of Sin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes, that is the water of Meribah," or "struggle."
23. MOSES HAD SET A DANDY BAD EXAMPLE OF IMPATIENT WRATH & STRIFE by repeatedly smiting the rock, a type of Christ, to angrily & almost begrudgingly bring forth the water, a type of the Word, for the people, for which he suffered the sentence of death before reaching the Promised Land.--A seemingly very severe sentence for what might seem to us a very small sin, but what to God was a very bad example before the whole congregation of wrathful impatience & lack of restful faith.
24. BOY, GOD'S SURE PREACHING TO ME THIS MORNING!--For I've been about to tear somebody limb from limb for some of their stupid mistakes & rebellious disobedience's which could have some disastrous results, & I have been preparing to really pitch into them & really sock it to them to show them the error of their ways & to shout with Moses, "Hear now ye rebels! Must we fetch you water out of this rock?
25. "DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO BE BEATING YOU OVER THE HEAD THE ROD OF HIS WORD TO GET YOU TO OBEY? Do we always have to be rescuing you from the results of your disobedience's with a new Letter, new water from the rock?" He got so angry at them that he even begrudged them the water which the Lord Himself was willing to abundantly supply if he would only speak to the Rock, Christ Jesus. But instead he smote it & gave the message with violence in wrath instead of setting an example of God's Own infinite loving patience with his people & faith in God.
26. THE LORD IS SURE PREACHING AT ME BECAUSE I'VE CERTAINLY GOTTEN ANGRY WITH YOU SOMETIMES for your stupid & disobedient mistakes & have beaten you with the rod of my tongue for your errors. And although I have brought you forth the water of the Word, which was true & what you needed, I did it in anger & impatience instead of gentle loving meekness & quietness.
27. MOSES WAS NORMALLY THE MEEKEST OF ALL MEN, but God had to show that even Moses, in the few times that he really got mad, only got all shook up in vain & made some serious mistakes himself by getting so angry.--Once he killed someone, another time he broke all Ten Commandments with one fell stroke, & last at the rock of the waters of Meribah: Two more strikes & he was out!--Or maybe it was really four, but on three separate occasions.
28. NOT THAT THE ROD OF CHASTISEMENT IS WRONG, BUT IT IS THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT IS WIELDED THAT COUNTS! For God Himself chastises us with His Own rod, but He does it in love & in a patience & always comforts us afterwards & tries to encourage us to keep on despite our mistakes. He never leaves nor forsakes us & never seems to give up on us unless we just go too far like Moses did, & then He had to stop him before he ever got to the Promised Land to enjoy the happy ending.
29. AS WITH OUR OWN CHILDREN WE MUST BE FAITHFUL & VERY PATIENT IN THEIR CHILD TRAINING, OR CHASTISEMENT, as the word chastening means, & thereby train them up in the way that they should go, all in very much love & with very much patience & faithfulness. So we should be with our children in the Lord who are really babes in Christ & who need a lot of love, a lot of understanding, a great deal of patience & before whom we should manifest our own faith by being patient & loving & gentle & meek & lowly in Spirit as Jesus was.
30. WE MUST ALWAYS HAVE A MEEK & QUIET SPIRIT ABOUT US WHICH ENGENDERS TRUST & FAITH & CONFIDENCE & PEACE, rest & assurance in them as well, for our spirits are contagious. If we show the right spirit & the right attitude, both our natural & our spiritual children will partake of our own spirit. If it is peaceful & trusting & patient & restful, full of faith, this is the way they will also react. But if we get upset & flustered & impatient & nervous & ranting & raving & angry & sharp-tempered & sharp-tongued, this is apt to be the same way that they will react & also answer back to us, sad to say.
31. SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU & I HAVE THE RIGHT SPIRIT & conduct ourselves as God would have us before our children, whether they be natural or spiritual children, whether we be parents only, or spiritual leaders as well. And we are all spiritual leaders really, particularly if we have children. If you are not leading anybody else but leading about a sister with a child or children, you have become a spiritual leader, whether you like it or not & whether you know it or not, & you must learn how to govern your own family or you will never learn how to govern the Family of God, as the Apostle says. (1Tim.3:5.)
32. YOU CERTAINLY CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO RULE OVER THE KINGDOM OF GOD IF YOU HAVE NOT LEARNED HOW TO RULE YOUR OWN FAMILY in love, in patience, in faith, in meekness, in gentleness & quietness, praise God? Well, I'm ashamed to say I myself am not always known to be so, although Maria has just rebuked me & says that she thinks I am the meekest man she knows! But most people don't usually remember you for your good virtues & all the times when you kept quiet & you were meek & humble & tried to be patient & have faith, but they usually remember you for your blow-ups & the times you exploded & the times that you really let 'em have it!
33. THE VIOLENT STORMS & THE TERRIBLE TANTRUMS ARE THE THINGS WHICH PEOPLE TOO OFTEN REMEMBER, the bad things. That's what makes news in the newspapers, & people seldom remember you for your lives of virtue. They usually only remember you for your mistakes & shortcomings, & world leaders are seldom remembered for all the good things they did. About all people ever remember is the bad things they did & the things which brought about their downfall or incurred the displeasure of their people.
34. AND SO IT IS WITH MOSES HERE, we notice that the things we seem to remember most about him are the times when he really blew it & he really got mad & he really socked it to 'em & he really told them off, when he even killed somebody or when he beat on the rock or when he broke the Ten Commandments & bawled out the children of God! These are the things we remember most, sad to say.
35. THESE ARE THE VIOLENT PICTURES WHICH ARE THE MOST DRAMATIC & which attract the most attention & cause everybody to stop, look & listen to the rantings & ravings of an almost madman, or a man that's very mad! But it seems that when we can't get your attention any other way, that's about the only way it seems we're able to attract your attention & get you to listen!--To stop & to look at what you're doing & try to get you back on the right track & to obey.
36. EVEN AS GOD HIMSELF--WHEN FINALLY HE HAS WARNED & WARNED & WARNED & patiently pled & persuaded & talked & talked & talked, & reasoned & tried everything He can to get you to do His will--even God Himself does finally explode & really let you have it with the rod of judgment & chastisement & punishment to try to teach you the lesson with violence which you seem to be able to learn no other way!
37. BUT OF COURSE GOD'S JUDGMENTS & JUSTICE ARE ALWAYS TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS & absolutely justified & are given with the utmost perfection & always even tempered with mercy at that! He didn't kill Moses on the spot but let him live quite a few years longer--lived out his days to 120--& let him die peacefully on the mountain. He even let him see the Promised Land from afar.--But He had to make an example of him, He had to teach him a lesson.
38. HE THAT HAD SINNED BEFORE ALL, HE HAD TO REBUKE BEFORE ALL (1Tim.5:20), & show them how serious it was, by not allowing Moses to actually enter the Promised Land or to enjoy the happy ending & the pleasures of the milk & honey of the very country into which he was leading his people. There has to be some kind of chastisement, some kind of retribution, some kind of justice & judgment, or the law without teeth, the law without enforcement, is no law at all!
39. SO WE DO HAVE TO SCOLD & LECTURE & BAWL YOU OUT SOMETIMES FOR YOUR MISTAKES. We do have to chastise you sometimes for your stupid errors & disobedience's, but it's the way we do it that counts. Even if it's in anger, if it is righteous indignation & righteous anger & is only finally stirred because of the righteousness of your own feelings, then you will also chastise or give spankings in love as a loving father in the right way:
40. --NOT TOO HARD, NOT TOO HARSH, NOT TOO HEAVY, not to the point of total discouragement & despair so that your child gives up & quits trying, or that your spiritual babe just quits & backslides & goes home because he just can't live up to your standards. But you must strike a happy medium. You must let your moderation be known to all men. (Phil.4:5.) You must be temperate in all things (1Cor.9:25), & hit a middle of the road somehow in your scoldings & chastisements & the applications of the rod.
41. AND THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO LEARN: WHERE IS THIS TEMPERATENESS? Where is this moderation? Where is this happy medium in between?--What is righteous & fair & just judgement? When is chastisement needed? Or are we going to go to one extreme or the other? Are we going to go to the one extreme of being too harsh & too hard & plying the rod with too much anger & not enough love?--Or are we going to go to the other extreme of not loving them enough to ply the rod at all & being altogether too patient & too longsuffering & waiting too long until it's too late to correct them & too late to undo the damage that is being done?
42. SO YOU MUST ASK GOD TO GIVE YOU WISDOM IN THE REALM OF MEEKNESS & QUIETNESS & a patient faithful spirit. Because as Cruden says here, it does not mean tamely submissive & servile groveling, this is not the kind of meekness God is talking about. Moses, the meekest of all men, sometimes was honestly, righteously & justifiably angry with God's people & bawled them out good & proper for their sins, & they needed it! That's about the only time they seemed to stop & look at themselves & listen to what he had to say.
43. BUT WE MUST BE SURE THAT IT'S IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT with the meekness & the quietness of a tender & gentle & loving & contrite heart in all humility.--To be sure that we're in the right spirit as we correct those around us for their mistakes & their errors & their sins, even as God does us & as we would want others to do unto us for ours: Loving & forgiving one another for Christ's sake, even as He hath forgiven us for our sins. As Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us for our iniquities as we forgive others for theirs. (Eph.4:32; Mt.6:12,14,15.)
44. ANYWAY, IN SPITE OF ALL THIS & IN SPITE OF MANY MISTAKES, like King David of old who made a lot of mistakes & committed some horrible sins, God nevertheless in the long run said of him that he was a man after God's Own heart because of his love & faithfulness to the Lord in spite of his errors. (Acts 13:22.)
45. EVEN SO MOSES ALSO, IN SPITE OF HIS MANY MISTAKES & EXPLOSIONS--& sometimes unjustifiably violent & harsh explosions--God still called him in Numbers 12:3 "the meekest of all men!" Well, I guess you'd say, considering all the provocation's & aggravations he had with those unbelieving stubborn rebellious Children of God in the wilderness, he certainly was very meek most of the time & took it pretty well considering all the cantankerous obstreperousness he had to put up with in those stubborn idolatrous people!
46. SO GIVE ME A LITTLE CREDIT, IF YOU CAN, WHEN ONCE IN A WHILE I BLOW UP & EXPLODE AT YOU when it just gets too much & you've gone too far & you just won't listen & won't do what I say!--When you won't break up the Blobs & split up the Homes & get out into other parts of the World & win new disciples & you won't go into all the World & preach the Gospel!
47. IF AFTER HAMMERING & HAMMERING & HAMMERING AWAY I FINALLY EXPLODE & lower the boom & tell you that if you don't, I'm going to stop talking to you altogether or withhold my Letters from you--the only whip & rod I have of chastisement--& you're not even going to be part of us anymore if you don't get out & obey, well, I think that's pretty fair, don't you? Praise God? So, hallelujah!
48. BUT GOD HELP ME TO BE MEEK & QUIET THAT GOD CAN BLESS US IN OUR DEALINGS WITH YOU & you will be able to receive it as being fair, justifiable & that you really deserve it & you know it. For God has so many promises in His Word to the meek that I certainly want to be partaker of them & get what He has to offer to the meek! Would you like to hear a few of them? Well, here they come!
49. PSALMS 22:26 SAYS, "THE MEEK SHALL EAT & BE SATISFIED!"--You want enough to eat, enough to satisfy you both spiritually & physically? Well, just be meek, praise God? Psalms 25:9 says, "The meek He will guide in judgement," praise God? He'll give you wisdom in how to judge others, how to judge situations, how to make decisions, amen? If you'll just be meek, God will guide you. And of course in Psalms 37:11, as we've always told you, God has said,
50. "THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!" So if you want to inherit a lot of earth & have a little land & a place to lay your weary head, to sit under your own vine & fig tree some day & enjoy the fruits of the land in peace & plenty & happiness forevermore, be sure you're meek, amen? And in Psalms 76:9 it says that,
51. "WHEN GOD AROSE TO JUDGMENT TO SAVE ALL THE MEEK OF THE EARTH"--as He says in the 8th verse--"the Earth feared & was still!" So if you want to be saved by the Lord in the day of His judgement, be sure you're one of the meek, amen? Selah! And in Psalms 147:6 He says, "The Lord lifteth up the meek but He casteth the wicked down to the ground!" So if you want God to lift you up & not cast you down, be sure you're meek & not wicked! And in Psalms 149:4 He says,
52. "FOR THE LORD TAKETH PLEASURE IN HIS PEOPLE, HE WILL BEAUTIFUL THE MEEK WITH SALVATION!" So if you want to be saved & have God take pleasure in you, you better stay meek! And also it says if you want to be beautiful, well girls, there's one for you, just stay meek! "He will beautify the meek with salvation," hallelujah? God bless you! And in Isaiah 11:4 He says,
53. "BUT WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL HE JUDGE THE POOR & REPROVE WITH EQUITY"--FAIRNESS--"for the meek of the Earth, & He shall smite the Earth with the rod of His mouth & with the breath of His lips shall he slay the wicked!" So if you want to be judged righteously just be poor & meek & God will reprove with fairness & will destroy the wicked before you! And in Isaiah 29:19 He says,
54. "THE MEEK ALSO SHALL INCREASE THEIR JOY IN THE LORD, & the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel!" Hallelujah? You want to be happy? You want to be more joyful? You want to really rejoice? Well then just be meek & poor & God will increase your joy & you'll rejoice in Him, praise God? And in Isaiah 61:1 he says,
55. "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD IS UPON ME BECAUSE THE LORD HATH ANOINTED ME TO PREACH GOOD TIDINGS UNTO THE MEEK!" Well, what's your commission? What was Jesus' commission, God's commission to us? He says it is to preach good tidings unto the meek. Who are we supposed to go into all the World & preach the Gospel to? Well, it says "every creature," but be sure that you get the good tidings especially to the meek, because they're the only ones who really deserve it!
56. SO THE MEEK ARE OUR TARGET AS WELL FOR OUR WITNESSING & LITNESSING! Search out the meek, search out the lowly, humble, meek & quiet spirits, like the little lambs, for your good news, amen? That's what God has anointed you for, so look for the meek when you're litnessing & witnessing. You can't do much with those old hard rebellious stubborn old-bottle Systemites like the children of Israel were! And in Zephaniah 2:3 He says,
57. "SEEK YE THE LORD ALL YE MEEK OF THE EARTH, which have wrought His judgement; see righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger!" Well, well, well! You want God to hide you when the bombs begin to fall? You want God to hide you when the big war begins to wipe out the superpowers. You want God to protect you in the day of His wrath? Then all you have to do is be meek in your judgement, righteous judgement, seek righteousness, seek meekness & it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger, hallelujah? Praise God! And of course Jesus repeats this promise in Matthew 5:5,
58. "BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!" Hallelujah! and Jesus even says of Himself, as humble as He was & the perfect Son of God, "For I am meek & lowly in heart"--humble--"& ye shall find rest unto your souls." If you "Come unto Me, all ye that labour & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you & learn of Me." (Mt.11:28-30.) Because how do you get rest if you're heavy-laden & overburdened & feeling distraught & distressed under His yoke?
59. WELL, HE SAYS IF YOU'RE MEEK & LOWLY IN HEART, YOU'LL FIND REST TO YOUR SOUL, for His yoke is easy & His burden is light! He says, "For My yoke is easy & My burden is light!" He says, therefore, if you're meek & lowly in heart you'll find rest unto your souls. So if you're tired & working hard & heavy-laden & need rest, take His yoke on you.--Not the yoke of this world, not your own yoke, not the yoke of some slave-driving shepherd, but the yoke of Jesus' Own Love & His burden of love for others. You'll find that it's easy & it's light if you're meek & lowly enough to take it on you, & then you'll find rest unto your soul, praise God?
60. MY, THERE ARE LOTS OF GOOD PROMISES FOR THE MEEK, AMEN? You nice little seemingly weak & meek Mr. Milquetoast & Miss Milquetoast & others who don't seem to think that you can do anything or are anybody or ever get anywhere, & you're almost too shy to even open your mouth or lift your voice or say a word or do anything, if you'll just keep sweet & be meek & lowly & humble & quiet, God will use you. He'll come through & open your mouth!
61. I REMEMBER I WAS ABOUT THE SHYEST LITTLE BOY YOU COULD EVER FIND! I was so timid I ran away from my own birthday party! I was so bashful I hid behind my mother's skirts every time anybody came to the door! But look what God did to me after He filled me with His Spirit! Look how He anointed me to open my mouth & really blast the wicked & call to the sheep, praise God?
62. SO I WAS A PRETTY MEEK SHY LITTLE FELLOW TILL GOD'S SPIRIT CAME ON ME, & now He really uses me for His Own glory if I just stay meek & quiet & let Him do it, praise God? But if I get into my own wrothful wrathful writhing spirit, why then things go haywire & everything goes wrong. So God help us to be sweet & patient & quiet & meek & humble & lowly in heart like He is, amen? Praise God! And in Matthew 21:5 it says,
63. "BEHOLD, THY KING COMETH UNTO THEE, MEEK, & SITTING UPON AN ASS, & a colt the foal of an ass." Our dear sweet Jesus came riding into Jerusalem not in a fancy carriage, not in a powerful chariot & not on the back of a proud horse, but on the back of a simple, meek, humble, ridiculous little donkey!--A braying burro which is constantly throughout the Bible & in literature in history in our linguistic comparisons to the personalities of men considered an ass, a ridiculous little animal that brays the funniest kind of sound, hee-haw, hee-haw!--Like he's laughing at men's own antics & what fools they are, because he's really not as big a fool as man is!
64. AND SO HERE COMES THIS LITTLE TINY DONKEY--it was not even apparently full grown, it was just a young one, the colt of a donkey--& here comes Jesus sitting on this ass in the most humble way that He could possibly enter the City of Jerusalem & yet still be riding! He couldn't have hardly ridden on a smaller more ridiculous meek & quiet little beast. Jesus Himself came in riding on an ass!
65. IT REMINDS ME OF THE STORY OF THE OLD LADY who was saying "Praise the Lord" & "Hallelujah" & "Amen" too loud in formal church, & every now & then she'd correct the preacher. Finally two ushers carried her out & she said, "Well, praise God! hallelujah! I'm even being treated better than Jesus was! He only rode on the back of one ass, & I'm getting carried out by two!" Praise God! Maria's really laughing! Hallelujah! So if King Jesus can come riding on a donkey, one ass, why you like me shouldn't be ashamed if maybe you have to be carried out by two or three asses when you try to tell the people the truth!
66. AND OF COURSE PETER FINALLY TELLS US IN 1PETER 3:4 THAT WE ARE TO HAVE "THE ORNAMENT OF A MEEK & A QUIET SPIRIT, which is in the sight of God of great price." The Apostle is talking here about women & how they ought to dress & bedeck themselves. He says the most beautiful ornament, the most beautiful jewelry that you can possibly wear, the loveliest makeup, the most gorgeous clothing is the ornament of a meek & quiet spirit!
67. HOW MANY OF YOU GIRLS ARE ADORNED WITH THE ORNAMENT OF A MEEK & A QUIET SPIRIT which in the sight of God is of great price?--More valuable than gold or silver or diamonds or rubies or precious jewels or rings or earrings or necklaces or fancy clothes or fancy hairdos! Have you got that beautiful priceless ornament of a meek & a quiet spirit, girls? And boys? God bless you, I hope you have, praise the Lord! That's the most beautiful adornment of all, amen?--A meek & a quiet spirit.
68. WELL, I HAVEN'T YET BEEN ABLE TO FIND THAT VERSE. I thought it must be a verse from the Bible, the words that God gave me in the dream, but apparently it just parallels this particular verse. God spoke to me in the dream & admonished me by telling me "a meek & a quiet spirit God will not despise." That was the answer I got & I thought it was an exact Scripture, but it's a parallel of the Word.
69. THAT WAS THE ANSWER I GOT WHEN I DESPERATELY CRIED OUT TO GOD FOR HELP when I was in a stew & in a hurry & hasty & rushing around madly like a chicken with its head off trying madly like a chicken with its head off trying to round up my people & get into the race & find my way & get things rolling the way they ought to be. I was angry & mad & I would have bawled them out if I found them!
70. THE LORD SAID TO ME THE ANSWER WAS NOT IN HURRYING, not in the strength of the arm of flesh, not in haste that maketh waste. But the answer was "a meek & a quiet spirit that the Lord would not despise." In other words, He would bless it. He despises that other spirit, the haughty, proud, hurried spirit, the haughty, proud, hurried spirit of the World where haste always makes waste, & the hurrier you go, the behinder you get!
71. GOD LOVES A MEEK & A QUIET SPIRIT, He won't despise that! He'll bless that, & He'll bless you for it & He'll make things work so that you won't even have to hurry. God will get there first & have prepared the way so that you'll find everything's all ready. You'll get there faster in the long run by squeezing & not jerking, just ploddin' & pluggin' quietly & meekly along like the turtle who got there before the bounding jumping jigging hare!
72. DEAR LITTLE MARIA IS SO MEEK & QUIET SHE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO SAY IT ON TAPE! She says, "I don't know how to say it!" But she's reminding me there have been so many times that we've rushed around, been in such a big hurry & flurry to get somewhere to meet an appointment, & we try to get someplace at a certain time. We think we have to be there & for some reason or other God lets us be delayed or delays us in order to do something else that He thinks is more necessary. And when we finally get there we find out the people we were supposed to meet or the thing we were supposed to do aren't there or doesn't need to be done, & He knew about it all the time!
73. HE'S JUST TRYING TO TEACH US A LESSON IN PATIENCE & MEEKNESS & LOWLINESS & HUMILITY, just to rest & have faith & trust in Him & he'll work it all out. Of course I don't mean by that you're not supposed to keep your appointments, don't get me wrong! A lot of times when you don't get someplace on time it's your own fault because you didn't start early enough. But if you did the best you could, you shouldn't worry about it if you're unavoidably detained & you just can't make it. Just trust the Lord!
74. BE MEEK & QUIET & PLUG ALONG THE BEST YOU CAN & trust God to take care of it & He will, praise God? If you just have that meet & quiet spirit that the Lord will not despise, He'll really bless it. Amen? So the Apostle says in 1Corinthians 4:21,
75. "WHAT WILL YE? SHALL I COME UNTO YOU WITH A ROD, OR IN LOVE, & IN THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS?"--Which would you rather have me do, huh? Well, if you don't want me coming with the rod, you better behave so I'll be able to come in the spirit of love & meekness!
76. THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER VERSES, WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THEM ALL, but in 2Cor.10:1 he speaks of "the meekness of Christ." Galatians 5:23, "The fruit of the Spirit is ... meekness." And in Galatians 6:1 He says to "restore a brother in the spirit of meekness." In Ephesians 4:1-3 He says to "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness & meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love," praise God? "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And in Col.3:12 He says to "Put on therefore meekness & long-suffering."
77. IN I TIMOTHY 6:11 HE TELLS US TO FOLLOW AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS, GODLINESS, FAITH, LOVE, PATIENCE & MEEKNESS! You always put the best point last, so he saved the best for last, & that was meekness! Have you got meekness on top of all your righteousness & godliness? Well, you can act pretty righteous & Godly & still be a self-righteous hypocrite! You may have a lot of faith & brag about your great accomplishments.
78. YOU MIGHT EVEN SEEM TO LOVE PEOPLE & have some patience, but let me tell you, if you make it to that last hurdle, meekness, you've really won the race! If you can make it over that one you're really getting somewhere, praise God? And in 2Tim.2:25 He tells us,
79. "IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THOSE THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES." You know a lot of people run around fighting with themselves. They have so much trouble fighting their own cantankerous, stubborn, rebellious spirit they haven't got much time to fight the Devil or to help others fight the Devil or to help others fight the war of God, the Holy War we're in with the Enemy.
80. WE'RE SUPPOSED TO TRY TO HELP THOSE POOR PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THEMSELVES & who make such stupid mistakes themselves that they are actually defeating themselves by what they're doing. We're supposed to try to teach & instruct them in meekness, correct them just like you do a little child when he tries & he tries & he tries again. Each time you show him again until finally he makes it, praise God? But you've got to do it in meekness, humility & in love & in patience, amen?
81. SO IN TITUS 3:2 HE SAYS "TO SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men." God help us to be meek before everybody, amen? In James 1:21 He tells us to "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls!"
82. ARE YOU ABLE TO TAKE MY LETTERS MEEKLY & BE GLAD?--Or do they make you mad or sad? He says "to receive with meekness the engrafted Word," praise God! And in James 3:13, "Who is a wise man & endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." Wow! What a heavy verse! Are you wise? You wanna be wise & endued with a lot of knowledge? Well, let your conversation show your works with the meekness of wisdom.
83. WISDOM IS MEEK, THINK OF THAT! It's not smart-alecky, it's not show-off. It's not a braggart trying to strut around & show everybody how much you know & how smart you are & how long you've been in the Family, how many famous people you know & what an old bottle you are!--But to show by your conversation, your works, with a meekness of wisdom. You're gonna show your wisdom by meekness & meekness by wisdom, they're just almost one & the same thing. Humility, love & wisdom are all meek, right? Praise God!
84. WELL, I ALMOST LOST PATIENCE JUST TRYING TO FIND THE BOOK OF JAMES, & got a little aggravated, which I shouldn't have done. I don't know why they didn't put these here in the order they're usually mentioned in the Gospels--Peter, James & John. I'm always having a hard time finding James & John. I'm always having a hard time finding James because in the New Testament they put his Epistle first--James, Peter & John! I'm always getting mixed up & it always aggravates me!
85. I SHOULDN'T GET AGGRAVATED OVER A SILLY THING LIKE THAT! I should just be patient & meek & keep looking for it till I find it, amen? Praise God. What tiny little things can get us upset! My Lord help us to be meek & have meekness & quietness of spirit, amen? Now, if I can just find 1Peter 3:15 ... well, here it is, we'll read it to you. He tells us, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts & be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness & fear."
86. NOW WHEN PEOPLE KEEP ARGUING WITH YOU & ASKING YOU ABOUT YOUR FAITH & your experience & your belief, do you get all upset & aggravated & start screaming & start a heated arguments giving heated answers back & forth?--Or do you just calmly & quietly & peacefully & meekly & humbly tell them the simple reason for the hope that is in you when they ask you, & do it with meekness & fear of the Lord, amen?
87. WELL, PRAISE GOD, THAT'S ABOUT THE LAST SCRIPTURE I WANT TO GIVE YOU ON THAT SUBJECT BEFORE WE TURN NOW TO GIDEON 2 & 3! You didn't know there was such a book in the Bible, did you? Well, I didn't either until dear meek Justus Pound told me in my dream to look for this "meekness & quietness that God won't despise" in Gideon 2 & 3! And guess what I found out when I opened the Bible to where we find the Story of Gideon in the Book of Judges?--There are exactly 3 chapters on Gideon!
88. YOU'LL FIND THE STORY OF GIDEON IN JUDGES 6, 7 & 8, believe it or not! Now why don't you open your Bibles & read this story beginning with Judges 6:11. It was a sad time in Israel's history, they were already in the Land of Promise by this time, & they were trying to survive there under the onslaughts of their enemies. And at this time, because of their sins & their worshipping of other gods & so on, God sent the Midianites & the Amalekites against them to judge them & to punish them for their wickedness.
89. GOD'S WORD TELLS US THEY CRIED OUT UNTO THE LORD, SO GOD SENT A PROPHET UNTO HIS PEOPLE & told them that the reason they were having all this trouble was guess what? He said, "Ye have not obeyed My voice!" He told them, "Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell"--the Canaanites, the wicked descendants of Ham, but to obey Him, in other words. And the reason they were having all this trouble was because they hadn't obeyed Him.
90. SO APPARENTLY NOW BECAUSE THEY WERE GETTING DESPERATE & CRYING OUT TO THE LORD FOR HELP, God in His mercy sent a helper.--And guess who he was? He was just the simple son of a simple farmer who was out threshing wheat by the winepress. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him & told him, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour!" And Gideon said to the angel, "Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of," & so on.
91. DOESN'T THIS SOUND JUST LIKE MOST OF US WHEN WE'RE HAVING A LOT OF TROUBLE? "How come, Lord? How come You're not taking better care of us? How come You're letting all these things happen to us?"--When usually it's been our own damned stubbornness & our own wilfulness & our own disobedience & our own idolatry that's brought it down upon us! And here we're always trying to blame it on God instead!
92. BUT GOD IN HIS MERCY TELLS HIM TO, "GO IN THIS THY MIGHT, & THOU SHALT SAVE ISRAEL from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" So what does he do? Does he pick up & go straightway & do it & obey the Lord as God told him to do & believe God that He's going to do it? Does he? Is that what you do? No, he did just like most of us do, he stopped to argue with the Lord about it. "Now Lord, You couldn't expect me to do that! I'm not that kind of fellow! Now Lord, what am I going to do? Who am I & how am I going to do it, Lord?"
93. HE GIVES GOD A BIG ARGUMENT & FINALLY INSISTS THAT GOD GIVE HIM SOME KIND OF SIGNS. He requests sign after sign before he's finally convinced that God is really with him. And the final sign, you remember, is about Gideon's fleece, from which we get our expression about "throw out a fleece" & see is God honours it. The fact of the matter was, God had already told him what to do & he just wouldn't believe it! That's why he had to have so many signs & God had to be so convincing that He finally had to give him a fleece & show him by the fleece that He really meant what he said & He was really going to help him & He was really going to win the battles!
94. SO I WOULDN'T SAY THAT FLEECES ARE ALWAYS THE VERY BEST SIGN OF YOUR OWN FAITH & BELIEF in the Word of God or a sign of your obedience. It was just the last straw practically that broke the back of Gideon's stubborn wilfulness & disobedience & unbelief that God had to give him those fleeces & show him by these signs. Because as He says, "A wicked & adulterous generation seeketh after a sign!" (Mt.12:39.)--And he was living in a wicked & adulterous generation, that's for sure!
95. HE INSISTED ON SEVERAL SIGNS, & GOD IN HIS MERCY FINALLY GAVE THEM, but they certainly weren't a sign of his own faith or his own instant obedience! It just showed really how hard it was for him to believe & how slow he was to obey. Doesn't that sound like us though? Well, look at the mercy of God! Now we come to Gideon 2 & 3.
96. IN GIDEON 1, JUDGES CHAPTER 6, HE CERTAINLY DIDN'T SHOW TOO MUCH MEEKNESS & QUIETNESS, did he? He didn't just accept what God said & believe it & be meek & quiet & not argue about it & just obey, but he put up a big argument & had to have God prove to him that what He was telling him was the truth, which wasn't very meek & quiet, was it?
97. SO REALLY IN THE NEXT CHAPTER CAME THE BIGGEST TEST OF DEAR GIDEON'S MEEKNESS & quietness & his faith in God, when he had an army of 32,000 & God said that was too many! "What do you mean, God, can we have too many in our army? You mean we can have actually too many in our Colony? It's too many & we ought to have fewer people? You mean we could get more done with less people who have more faith & are more obedient? Why God, that doesn't stand to reason! That's not logical that we could get more done with a Colony of 6 to 12 instead of a nice big juicy Blob of two or three hundred!"
98. WELL LET ME TELL YOU, HE CUT THEM DOWN, & IN THE FIRST TEST ABOUT 22,000 OF THEM FLUNKED IT & only 10,000 remained! I wonder how many of the folks in your big Blob flunked the test when God finally pushed them out & told them to go into all the world & preach the Gospel & live by faith & hit the road, brother! I wonder how many of them said, "Oh, I don't want to get out of this nice soft Blob! I don't want to go out to some little stinkin' pioneer field & sleep along the highway in a sleeping bag! I'm nice & comfortable in the nest here. I don't want to leave the nest, I want to grow up & be nice big problem child!"
99. WELL, IT LOOKS LIKE ABOUT TWENTYTWO THOUSAND OF THEM FLUNKED THE TEST, & I wonder how many of ours are going to make it, 'cause he only had 10,000 left out of the 32,000! And wow, let me tell you, the next test the results were even worse! Out of 10,000 men he only wound up with guess what? 300! Just think, it was bad enough for two out of three to flunk the test the first time, but this last & final test the first time, but this last & final test only three out of a hundred made it!--300 out of 10,000!
100. WELL, WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO THE BATTLEFRONT & FACING THE ENEMY & launching out into a pioneer field in an unfriendly country by faith with very little to go on & very few people with you, let me tell you, that's an acid test, & there may only be three out of a hundred of you that are willing to make it! I wonder if we'd actually figure up how many of our people have been willing to leave those Blobs & launch out by faith as pioneers into new fields & start new Colonies, hit the road & pioneer new countries, I wonder just exactly what proportion we would find of us who are really willing to leave home & forsake all & follow Jesus!
101. COULD IT BE THAT MAYBE ONLY ABOUT THREE OUT OF A HUNDRED OF US ARE REALLY GETTING OUT & DOING THE JOB OF PIONEERING? Well, that's all that dear old Gideon had left! In fact, compared to what he started with, that was only three out of 300, or one out of a hundred! In fact a little less than one out of the hundreds or the thousands that he first started with. Less than one out of a hundred finally passed the final acid test & really made it & were ready.
102. HAD THEY ALREADY WON THE BATTLE? No! They were just beginning now! They just passed all the tests & trials & tribulations that were getting them read for the battle & all of the physicals & the psychological tests, & most of all the spiritual tests, to prepare them for the battle. And talk about the battle!
103. OF 32,000 HE STARTED WITH HE ONLY WOUND UP WITH 300 LEFT!--Which means how many flunked the test? That's right, 31,700 of them never made the grade & only 300 of them came through, hallelujah! Well, that was sure a test of dear young Gideon's meekness & quietness, wasn't it?
104. HE SURE HAD TO TRUST THE LORD THEN, because the armies of the Midianites were thousands & thousands & thousands! In fact it says "they lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, & their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude," there were so many of the enemy! And Gideon could have said, "Well Lord, what am I ever going to do with only 300 men? This is ridiculous! We might as well go home & forget it!" But did he say that? No, praise God?
105. ONE OF HIS MEN WAS ONE OF THE KIND OF GUYS, THOSE QUEER DUCKS THAT HEAR FROM GOD & HAD A DREAM! He told one of the other soldiers about it & they were all thrilled because they decided that meant that God was going to help them win the battle no matter what! And when Gideon heard about the dream he thanked God that God had spoken & was going to give him the victory, even when he had only 300 men against so many!
106. ARE YOU THE KIND THAT BELIEVES GOD NO MATTER HOW MANY OF THE ENEMY ARE AGAINST YOU & how few you have with you? Are you the kind that believes that you & God are a majority?--That one & God can be a majority over the millions of the enemy? Well, by this time dear old Gideon--or young Gideon I should say--his faith seemed to be increasing & he begins to believe the Lord a little quicker & act a little quicker too!
107. SO WHEN GOD TELLS HIM TO DO THE NEXT CRAZY THING, about the craziest thing you ever heard about how to win a battle, he didn't even question it! He went right ahead & did it! He sent his 300 men into battle with nothing but a trumpet & pitcher & a lamp in each hand. That was quite an sure a lot of crockery, 300 pitchers! And that took a lot of candles when he had a lamp inside of each pitcher!
108. BUT HE WAS UP TO SOMETHING DIFFERENT, a different approach, a new method, a new way, something crazy that God put on his heart!--A new sales pitch that he'd never tried before but he believed was going to work! And let me tell you, his attack really worked! They snuck up on those tens of thousands of Midianites in the middle of the night & all of a sudden there were 300 trumpets blowing & blasting like mad! And 300 pitchers came crashing down in such an awful clatter as you never heard so many dishes broken at once, such a horrible crash of crockery!
109. DID YOU NOTICE THAT IT DOESN'T EVEN SAY THAT GIDEON'S MEN HAD ANY SWORDS! Can you imagine going out to fight a battle with nothing but a trumpet & a pitcher & a lamp?--That's crazy, man! Who's ever going to go to war without his weapon? But God's ideas of weapons may be a little different from man's ideas, don't forget!--Because Gideon's method worked!
110. WHEN YOUR COLONY SHEPHERD GETS SOMETHING FROM THE LORD & he gets a real revelation, a dream, or a method, an idea from God in prayer that God is going to be with him & help you all to invade that country or start that Colony or hit the road, & make it by some crazy new way or method that you never heard of before, if he really got it from God, no matter whether you've never heard or tried it before, it is going to work, praise God?--if you really believe it!
111. AND DID IT WORK? Well, they made one hell of a lot of racket with all those trumpets blowing & all those pitchers breaking & all of a sudden all those bright lights flashing in the middle of the night! The poor Midianites thought the whole world had attacked them & they got so excited in the dark they were killing each other with their swords & they ran like mad & deserted the camp & the whole host cried & fled! How's that for a victory, praise God?
112. SO GIDEON & HIS LITTLE 300 TOOK OFF AFTER THEM & even managed to capture some of the princes & the leaders of the army of the Midianites.--They must have been the slowest ones dragging their in the rear or they wouldn't have caught up with them.--Some slow leaders who apparently were behind their flock instead of ahead of them! Well, that was Gideon 2!
113. DID WE LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT MEEKNESS & QUIETNESS IN GIDEON 2?--Well, when he got to where he just meekly believed God & went quietly about his business of obeying God, God didn't despise his despicable little 300 & his ridiculous little efforts, but He really blessed him with a mighty walloping victory over a tremendous enemy in about the most ridiculous battle you ever heard of in your whole life! So praise God, there's one good result of the meekness & quietness of Gideon, amen?
114. SO IN GIDEON 3 OUR DEARLY BELOVED LITTLE HERO & HIS 300 MEN TOOK OFF AFTER THIS GIGANTIC HOST which had started off being 135,000 Midianites!--Just think, 300 men with nothing but trumpets, pitchers & lights scared the livin' daylights out of 135,000 men & actually slaughtered 120,000 of them! Can you imagine how many men that is per Gideon's man? If 300 men slaughtered 120,000 of the 135,000, that means on the average, each of Gideon's men slew 400 of the enemy single-handed! Those are just absolutely impossible unbelievable phenomenal odds that could never happen you say. Oh yeah? Well, Gideon was there & so was God & so was his little band of 300, & they did it because God did it!
115. DO YOU FEEL READY TO GO & FIGHT THE BATTLES OF THE LORD NO MATTER HOW FEW YOUR NUMBERS?--And that hasn't got a thing to do with it, how few you are. You people that think you've got to have huge monstrous Colonies & all kinds of PR & governmental permissions & certificates & licenses & have all kinds of equipment & weapons & everything before you can even get started & begin to commence to get ready to give battle, you guys are never going to get anywhere!
116. BUT IT'S THE LITTLE HANDFUL OF TRUE BELIEVERS WHO ARE DUMB & MEEK ENOUGH TO BELIEVE GOD'S WORD & just obedient enough, quiet enough to give Him no argument but to just go ahead & fight the battle if God says so, who are going to win. If God says they're going to win, they'll believe it, even if it's only 300 men against 135,000! Just like Jonathan said to his armour bearer in 1Samuel 14:6 when he & his armour bearer decided to attack a whole camp of the Philistines. He said, "There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few!" God doesn't count the numbers as to how many it's going to take to do it.
117. IT'S GOD THAT WINS THE BATTLE! It's obedience that wins the battle. It's humble faith that wins the battle. It's meekness & quietness, meekness of humility, believing in God & the quietness of faithful obedience to the Lord which wins the battle--regardless of how few you have & how weak you seem to be & how little you've got! It's God that honours your faith & your meekness & your quietness & your obedience to win the battle.--And that's what happened!
118. SO THEY WERE MADLY CHASING THE 15,000 THAT WERE LEFT & TRIED TO GET SOME HELP ALONG THE WAY. Some of their supposed friends were supposed to help them, some of the other Colonies were supposed to give them a hand in their running after the Enemy. The Enemy was on the run & fleeing like mad & still the other Colonies wouldn't help them! So Gideon said, "You watch out, you're gonna be sorry, because when I come back here I'm going to sock it to you guys for not helping when the battle's over!" And sure enough he did!
119. WHEN HE GOT THROUGH WINNING THE FINAL VICTORY & CAPTURING THE KINGS OF THE MIDIANITES HE CAME BACK & he really taught those Colonies that hadn't helped him a lesson that they never forgot, & I imagine they were mighty sorry they hadn't helped him when he was on his way to victory! They didn't even offer to help until the victory was won & he was on his way home! Wasn't that nice of them to offer to help him after the battle was over? Sounds like some people you & I know, doesn't it!
120. SO OF COURSE AFTER THE VICTORY ALL ISRAEL WAS VERY HAPPY TO BEG GIDEON TO RULE OVER THEM, whereas they hadn't been too happy about it before! But now that he had made quite a killing & quite a haul, why now they were all ready to join him!--Just like some of you guys who have gotten out there with your little Gideon's Band & sweated & toiled & sweat blood & tears to win a mighty victory in a new land & establish a new Colony in a whole new field, & now things are booming & going great & you're winning great victories & in favour with the government & getting lots of disciples & everything!
121. ALL OF A SUDDEN ALL THE GUYS THAT DIDN'T WANT TO GO OVER THERE & HELP YOU PIONEER IN THE FIRST PLACE, they all want to climb on the bandwagon now in Japan & ride along with you, or down in South America they want to get on with the band & climb on & enjoy your already success! Well, that's not the way battles are won! When the job is done & it's already a success they don't need you anymore, you might as well stay where you came from because they've already won the victory & won the battle & got the job done! The hardest part is over & they're enjoying the victory, why should you come along & they have to share it with you?
122. IT REMINDS ME OF THE TIME WE STARTED A MEETING IN A LITTLE DINKY CHURCH IN A LITTLE PODUNK CENTER IN OKLAHOMA. Everybody was against us & there was only a handful there the first night. We were struggling along & we asked one of the leading civic men of the town to please help us, & he said, "No, no, no, I'm sorry, but I can't have anything to do with anything I'm not sure is going to be a success. It might reflect on my political career!"
123. SO WE STRUGGLED ON WITHOUT HIM & FINALLY THE MEETING WAS A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS! The building was packed out & people were hanging out the windows & hanging in the windows & trying t get through the door, & people were standing outside even by the hundreds listening to the message of God through the open windows on those summer nights in old mosquito-bitten Oklahoma!
124. AND GUESS WHO WAS STANDING OUT ON THE FRINGE OF THE CROWD waving madly to let us know that he was there & was now with us?--None other than our good old local politician who wanted to make sure he only climbed on the bandwagon after it was an absolute success. And so what do you suppose we did? We just waved back, "Thank you, brother, we don't need you now!"
125. WELL, THAT'S JUST HE WAY IT IS WITH SOME OF THESE PEOPLE WHO WON'T HELP YOU WHEN YOU REALLY NEED IT!--Won't help you when you're really down & you really need a little help to get started financially & a Colony house that's not being used by the other guys anyway & you ask to borrow it & they won't even let you have it!--Or you ask for the vehicle or some other equipment they're not even using & they won't let you have that! "Can you please give us a little money out of your funds to give us a start?" "No, we might need it later."
126. SO YOU HAVE TO PITCH IN & GO AHEAD BY NAKED FAITH & YOUR LITTLE TINY GIDEON'S BAND & win the battle just by faith of God & the meekness of your faith & the quietness of your obedience! And you win a mighty victory & invade a new land, establish a new field & Colonies & you're going strong & getting popular & everything is booming.--All of a sudden they all want to flock into your field & enjoy the nice fruits of your success! Well then, "We don't need you, brother!" Just wave at them as they go by & say, "Thanks anyhow, we're doing fine without you! Go on to some other new field where they really need help!"
127. WELL, THIS IS THE WAY IT WAS WITH GIDEON AFTER THE BIG SUCCESS & everything was booming & blooming! Then they begged him to rule over them & become their leader & king, & then they all wanted to join him after the victory & after the battle was won. They wanted to enjoy all the benefits of this nicely well-established field & new country.
128. BUT HE SAID, "NOTHING DOING BUDDIES! You say you want me & my son & my son's sons to rule over you? Huh! I don't believe it! Nobody in the world could rule you guys but God, you're so damned stubborn & rebellious & disobedient! You don't know anything about meekness of believing & the quietness of obeying! Only God could rule over you!" And so he went his way. (Jesus hasn't changed, huh!)
129. WELL THEN, WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS SUCCESS EVEN OUR DEAR HERO GIDEON MADE HIS MISTAKES. You can read it there in Gideon 3, or chapter 8 of Judges, about the sad mistake that he made. But we don't want to dwell on his mistakes after all of his nice victories, & God doesn't dwell on it anyhow. In spite of that it says that the Lord gave Israel quietness for 40 years in the days of Gideon & he blessed Gideon with threescore & ten sons of his body begotten, 70 sons! For it says "he had many wives," aha! I suppose some of you would say that was a mistake too! Well, God doesn't say that was mistake, but he probably had his problems!
130. ANYBODY WHO CAN KEEP THAT MANY WOMEN HAPPY & CONTROL THAT MANY CHILDREN from all their fussing & a-feuding & a-fighting & a---squabbling, must really be a genius! Well, of course any man who could lick a host of course any man who could lick a host of 135,000 with only 300 men ought to be able to handle a family of several wives 70 sons! He doesn't tell us how many girls they had, so my Lord help us, no telling how big that family was! It might have equalled the size of his original band of 300 by the time he got done with all those wives & all those children! So this guy Gideon was quite a fellow!
131. ANY GUY WHO COULD LICK 135,000 MIDIANITES WITH ONLY 300 MEN OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO LICK 70 SONS & A FEW WIVES & no telling how many daughters, virtually single-handed. So by the time you've won that kind of victories, beloved, then maybe God will be able to trust you with a family that size & that many women & that many sons if you learn how to control them, if you've won such mighty victories for the Lord.--And even live to nice ripe old age like Gideon did before he finally died & was buried in the sepulchre of his father Joash.
132. BUT WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, AS SOON AS HE WAS DEAD, it tells us in the 33rd verse of that 8th Chapter, Gideon 3, that the children of Israel turned again! They backslid again & went awhoring again after their false god Baal! They forsook the Lord again & followed after their false gods & even forgot their saviour Gideon & their promise to follow him & all his sons.--They turned on them & slew them & went awhoring after other gods as they had before!
133. SO BELOVED, REMEMBER, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT KIND OF VICTORIES YOU WIN & what great things you do, only God is going to give you the credit for it. Even your own people can turn on you when it's all over & forget all about you & how grateful they should be & how thankful they should be that you saved them & that you won the great victory & the great battles & you pioneered a new field & conquered a country & you did a great thing.
134. AS SOON AS YOU'RE GONE OR YOUR HEAD'S TURNED OR YOU'RE OUT OF THE WAY--BOOM!--They're after your hide or the hide of your followers & they'll turn on you & turn against you because they never were with you in the first place, right? Those who won't help you pioneer or help you when you really need help are certainly not going to help you when it's all over & you're gone & forgotten. So may God have mercy on us! It's a rather sad tale, but at least it shows the meekness & the quietness of Gideon in the days when he obeyed the Lord with meekness of faith & quietness of obedience & won the mighty battle of the Lord! Praise God?
135. SO I CAN SEE HOW GOD WAS CERTAINLY TRYING THIS MORNING TO TEACH ME A LESSON THROUGH THAT DREAM, because I was afrettin' & aworryin' & astewin' & afumin' & afussin' about getting my team together to get on the starting line to start the race & yet I couldn't find them or round them up! And when I cried out to the Lord for an answer, when I really got desperate He said that "a meek & a quiet spirit the Lord would not despise."
136. IN OTHER WORDS, DON'T WORRY, DON'T GET ALL EXCITED & ALL UPTIGHT, but just be clam & meek & humble & quiet & believing & obedient & everything will turn out all right! And I asked the dear brother, the quiet brother, the meek brother, the quiet brother, the meek brother who was waiting on tables if he could tell me where that verse was found, & he said, "You'll find it in Gideon 2 & 3!" Well, I sure found a mighty example in Gideon 2 & 3 of what the meekness of faith & the quietness of believing obedience will do in helping you win some mighty victories! But in the dream did I remember it?--No!
137. AS SOON AS I WAS OUT OF THE DINING ROOM & FOUND MY TEAM I GOT IN SUCH A HURRY AGAIN, the hurrier I got the behinder I got! I immediately rushed off up the wrong road, haste making waste, so that when I discovered my error then I was in such a big hurry that I didn't even take time to turn around! I just backed up lickety-split blind between the trees down that long lane risking everything to try to get there no matter what the cost!
138. I TRIED TO MAKE IT BY MY OWN STRENGTH & MY OWN WILD FOOLISHNESS, my own hurry & my own haste & my own desperation instead of just resting in the Lord, trusting God, meekly believing Him, humbly, quietly obeying Him in which meekness & quietness God would have blessed me instead of despising the haste & the pride & the furor with which I was trying to do it in my own strength! May God forgive us! May God help us to learn a lesson from this sad dream & this sad story from Gideon 2 & 3--the 7th & 8th chapters of Judges of the three chapters about Gideon. Praised God?
139. WELL, GOD BLESS YOU, I HOPE THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN TO YOU THAT WAY, & I hope instead you'll listen to what the Lord has to say in meekness & humility. Then you'll quietly, humbly go about your business of obeying Him & believing Him that He's going to help you win the victory no matter how bad the odds & how great the opposition & how difficult the trials & how seemingly insurmountable the obstacles & impossible the situations, if you will just have a meek & a quiet spirit, meekly believing, quietly obeying the Lord. Praise God!
140. GOD BLESS YOU & MAY GOD HELP YOU TO HAVE A MEEK & A QUIET SPIRIT WHICH THE LORD WILL NOT DESPISE, as He did for even somebody who was as full of faults & made as many mistakes & at first was as unwilling & unbelieving & disobedient as Gideon! This story ought to be a great encouragement to you who have made mistakes & who have blundered along & done things wrong & suffered for your errors, that there's hopes for even you!
141. IF THERE WAS HOPES FOR A GUY LIKE GIDEON, that God could take such a cantankerous, rebellious & unbelieving guy, this young Jew who was so hard to convince & Persuade that God had to show him in several different ways before he'd believe it & obey it--if God could be that merciful & that good to a man in spite of all that, that when he finally got to believing & obeying Him, God finally mightily blessed him, certainly God can bless you!
142. HE CAN STILL FORGIVE YOU FOR YOUR PAST ERRORS & MISTAKES & He'll still mightily use you in mighty battles & victories & great things to come, amen?--If you'll just be meek & quiet so God won't despise your own efforts, praise God? Well amen, even if you make a few mistakes later, maybe it'll still go down on the record as it did here, & they'll praise you for the great things you did do in spite of your previous & past & future errors. Even if you wind up with a whole bunch of wives & scores of children, you might even survive that to a ripe old age like Gideon did! That must have been one of the biggest battles he ever fought, one with his own family, I'll bet!
143. --AND EVEN IF THEY FORGET ALL ABOUT YOU AFTERWARD & SLAUGHTER YOUR CHILDREN & your family as some have done recently to mine when I criticised the Royal Family for their unbelief & disobedience! I set them down a few pegs & chastised them & chastened them & scolded them & humbled them & humiliated & embarrassed them & publicly denounced them! So a whole bunch of our people turned on them & started mistreating them & practically spitting in their faces!--
144. NEGLECTING THEIR CHILDREN, REFUSING TO SUPPORT THEM, being extremely disrespectful & contemptuous of them & seemingly thinking that I now must hate them too & pay no further attention to the poor little original Royal Family of Mom & the only three kids of my own flesh of those that began that are still left!
145. WELL, YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, BELOVED! God may judge you like He turned around & judged those that slew Gideon's children! He slew them with a mighty slaughter because they didn't show gratitude & appreciation to the children of the King! It doesn't say what kind of children he had, it doesn't say whether they were good or bad, obedient or not, but they should have been more thankful & more grateful, more appreciative & more respectful & at least be thankful for what they have done in the past & their past works even though they're made some mistakes in the recent present. They should have been more thoughtful & more loving & more kind & more quick to forgive if they want to be forgiven, instead of turning on them & despising them & disrespecting them & refusing to care any longer for their children or to support them!
146. LET ME TELL YOU, I GOT SOMETHING FROM THE LORD THE OTHER DAY ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE THAT, about the king who turned his kingdom over to his followers & his servants, & it's another whole class that you're going to get. And then when he sent his own intimate servants & children down to collect his due they no longer respected them, & in disrespecting them they disrespected him & dishonoured him!--And it says some they beat & some they stoned & some they beat & some they stoned & some they slew until final they even slew his own son! (See Mt.21.)
147. THE STORY OF COURSE IS THAT OF GOD & JESUS & THE DISRESPECTFUL UNBELIEVING JEWS OF JESUS' DAY.--But those days are not past, Beloved, because men are just the same throughout all ages & today as well. So you must respect the children of your king & love them for their former works' sake at least.--Continue to help & support them all you can, even in their chagrin & humiliation for having made mistakes in which I have judged them--perhaps in which I have judged them--perhaps even more harshly & severely than I have you--because they're my own flesh-&-blood children.
148. I WANT TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THEM BEFORE YOU, but you must love them enough to forgive them & continue to help them & work with them & cooperate with them now that they're chastised & chastened & corrected & humbled & humiliated. They are now obeying God in some of the most difficult fields in the World, pioneering in some of the most impossible places you could possibly think of, & working so hard that you just can't imagine what they're going through & the sacrifices they are making. So you need to love them now & appreciate them: Amen?--Tx! GBY! ILY all!--IJNA, BE MEEK!
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15).
"For I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family