Gideon the Climate Warrior Starts with 40
Climate Bible Study: January 2021
I sat down to write this up, our first Climate Intercessors newsletter of the year, and glanced at our initial subscribers list. You number 40 in total. I thought of Gideon of Judges, chapters 6 and 7. The Lord who had sent Gideon up against the challenge of the Midianites said to him, “You have too many warriors with you.”What? God pared down Gideon’s army in two steps: first, he gave freedom to go home to all those who admitted being timid and afraid. Twenty-two thousand left, but 10,000 remained. “There are still too many,” the Lord said. The second paring down required the men to drink from a stream. Those who drank from their cupped hands were kept; those who got down on their knees and drank with their mouths were sent home. “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites,” God told him.
My thoughts however quickly turned to that sermon I had heard somewhere in my distant past, that earnest preacher who didn’t want to too quickly abandon the power paradigm in which he, like you and I, have been habituated. “See what God did there?!” he excitedly explained to us. These 300 men had proved that they were already not among the timid and afraid. Then they proved that they were trained in being vigilant and alert. Soldiers who drop to their knees and dip their heads into the river take their eye off the enemy, the preacher explained. The 300 men who remained were brave and alert; they were finally the lean-mean-fighting-machine with which Gideon could achieve his goals against the Midianites.
Perhaps, I thought, but that explanation seems to miss the point. The words of God were “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.” I had a similar reaction when author Malcolm Gladwell argued in his book David and Goliath that David actually had the natural, not miraculous, advantage in combat by refusing Saul’s armor and employing the long-range weaponry of a sling. Perhaps, but Gladwell seems to miss the point too. When our Creator God intervenes on behalf of this warming planet, he will certainly use the natural skills of the scientific method and political statesmanship. He will multiply numbers upon numbers, whether that be new signatories to the Paris Agreement or climate strikers to accompany Greta Thunberg. And yet, simultaneously and mystically, sometimes revealed and sometimes hidden, the God who sends, also accompanies, and we will not save ourselves by our own strength. Even David cried out to Goliath, “Today the Lord will conquer you, . . . and everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” (I Sam 17:46,47).
As for Climate Intercessors being only 40 in number, I first remember that this tally only refers to a newsletter subscription list. How many thousands and hundreds of thousands of God’s children are already praying to God on behalf of climate action, faithful and fervent intercessors who will never stumble upon our Mailchimp link? Even then, I suspect that while we are 40 in January, we’ll probably be 300 by February, and who knows: 10,000 or 32,000 by the time COP26 rolls around. We will still be in danger of missing the point, which I believe is to spend more contemplative time in Judges Chapter 6 than in Judges Chapter 7:
Chapter 6 begins: “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So, the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years” and when Gideon demands an explanation, God says, “I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me” (v. 10). Even if we become 32,000 lean-mean-intercessory-machines in 2021, we still, each of us, have worshipped the gods for whom the climate crisis is a natural consequence. When we pray, we pray from a place of humility. The Lord only mobilized Gideon’s army after, v. 6, “Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.”
When God calls you a “Mighty Hero,” as he did the generally pathetic Gideon, be curious why he would use such language, particularly when you aren’t particularly feeling it. Assume that God is not being cruelly sarcastic, but instead keep listening on lest you miss when he reveals the source of your heroic might. “Mighty Hero,” the angel of the Lord hails Gideon, “the Lord is with you.” Or “I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. . . I am sending you [again, or in like manner].” The issue with Gideon, like the issue with David, or the issue with us, is not bravery, alertness, skills or numbers, it is faith. And even then, according to Judges 6, God was quite patient with Gideon’s small and slow-forming faith.
In the end, honestly, my issue while writing this newsletter, is not numbers at all; I’m just feeling so low and weary regarding things that have nothing to do directly with climate change. Last week, my birth country experienced a small but violent insurrection that breached the halls of the Capitol. Yesterday, our president was impeached for an unprecedented second time. Last night, at midnight, my adopted country, or at least the province of Ontario declared a COVID state of emergency; we are now under strict stay-at-home orders. Last week, my wife and I delivered our youngest child to university; we are now “empty nesters” and my grief is palpable. How are YOU doing? One of the leaders on our Climate Intercessors team is heavily engaged with pastors in Hong Kong, some whom have been recently arrested in anti-democracy crackdowns.
One of the problems with climate action is that we have not approached climate change holistically. It got labelled an “environmental” issue, or a “scientific issue,” or a “political or diplomatic” issue. Climate change is all of those things, of course, but so much more. “Yes, it is a moral issue,” those of our ilk are quick to add. Yes, but it so much more than that too: it is a spiritual issue, a life issue, a Jesus issue. It seems to me that we must approach our climate intercessory prayers holistically as well. It matters what is happening all around you in January 2021, whether it seems tied to climate change or not. It matters how you are feeling. It mattered to God how Gideon was feeling:
“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” (Judges 6:14,15).
“Go with the strength you have,” God told Gideon, “and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” I hope you will join us on January 26th and in subsequent months with “the strength you have,” whatever that might be.
You are very dear to God,
Lowell Bliss
On behalf of the Climate Intercessors leadership team