If the Lord Is With Us, Why . . . ?

Time and again, the enemy forces from Midian had attacked the children of Israel, forcing them to hide in caves and dens in the mountains. Whatever the Israelites sowed in their fields, the Midianites and other marauding tribes came and destroyed or carried away, leaving an impoverished people.

Gideon, an Israelite, was threshing a little bit of wheat one day, hidden in the winepress because who would think to look there? The Angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying "“Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” Gideon must have been quite surprised—first of all, by seeing an angel, and secondly, by being addressed as a hero, and a mighty one at that.

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” (Judges 6:13)

Gideon is not the only one to have wondered about God's readiness to stick with us: the Israelites in the wilderness, Job's wife, the psalmist David. Even Jesus' agonized cry from the Cross was, "God, where are You?" And it is easy for us too to look at what is around us—the difficulty we are encountering or the loss we've suffered—and question, "If the Lord is with me, why has all this happened?" We can even recount what He has done for us in the past and still conclude, "I guess He has abandoned me." It just isn't true!

God did deliver the people from oppression, using Gideon—to his own surprise—as a strategic warrior and a true hero. God did lead the people from the wilderness into the Promised Land. He did heal Job from terrible disease and free Job's wife from her inner turmoil. God did make David a king and a man after His own heart. And He did raise Jesus to sit with Him in heavenly places.
God has not changed. He is with us too, "For God has said, 'I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.' ” (Hebrews 13:5) Some lines from a very old hymn remind us:

I’ve seen the lightning flashing, I’ve heard the thunder roll.
I’ve felt sin’s breakers dashing, which almost conquered my soul.
I’ve heard the voice of my Savior, bidding me still to fight on.
He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone!

The world’s fierce winds are blowing temptation sharp and keen.
I have a peace in knowing my Savior stands between.
He stands to shield me from danger when all my friends are gone.
He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone!

When in affliction’s valley I tread the road of care,
My Savior helps me carry the cross so heavy to bear;
Though all around me is darkness, earthly joys all flown;
My Savior whispers His promise, never to leave me alone!

Refrain
No, never alone, no never alone,
He promised never to leave me,
He’ll claim me for His own;
No, never alone, no never alone.
He promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone.

-- Ludie D. Pickett (1897)

MaryMartha

You may also like:
The Lord Is My Shepherd (here)
Has God Forgotten? (here)

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Hymn lyrics from http://my.homewithgod.com/heavenlymidis2/alone.html
Art from http://www.sxc.hu/