Doing God’s Work in Tight Places

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, That the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice. And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. - Judges 6:1-12

We often give Gideon a hard time because he was hiding from the enemy, but from what I can see, he was the only one still working. Sure, he was hiding, but he was also trying to make sure the people of Israel had some food left after the current raid. Yes, he was in the wrong place, but he was making the best of a terrible situation.

As I picture Gideon attempting to thresh wheat in a winepress, I marvel at the difficulty of the task. Threshing fields were wide open spaces designed for threshing wheat. They allowed the breezes to come through and drive away the chaff from the good grain. They gave the workers room to move and maneuver. Winepresses were the exact opposite. They were pits or holes in the ground with barely enough room to turn around. They were designed for stomping grapes, not for threshing wheat. The area was small and restricted, and while it was ideal for hiding from the enemy, it was a terrible place for threshing grain. Yet, Gideon did what he had to do, and God called him a mighty man of valor.

Sometimes, we are called to do God’s work in tight places. Circumstances require us to labor in situations that are not as we would have them to be. We have two choices – we can quit, or we can keep working in those tight places, having faith that one day our faithfulness will pay off and be rewarded with the ideal situations for which we are hoping.

We all know the story of Gideon and the great victory God brought through him. God saw a man who was willing to be faithful in tight places and used him in a mighty way. Just imagine what God can do through us if we, too, will labor in situations that are less than ideal.