Monday, August 24, 2026

For the believer asking why oppression has been allowed to continue.

Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.” Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?” He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
Judges 6:13–16

Your question is not a tidy request for information. You are asking from inside repeated loss, where the present contradicts the stories handed down about Yahweh’s wonders. Oppression has narrowed your field of vision until “Where?” feels more truthful than praise. That question can carry fear, anger, and exhaustion without making you faithless. Gideon does not hide the contradiction: if Yahweh is with us, why has all this happened?

The scene stays close to that contradiction. Gideon stands beneath Midian’s pressure with old deliverance in his memory and no visible deliverance in his hands. His words move from “us” to “me”: Israel has been cast off; his family is poor; he is the least. The question about God’s absence becomes a verdict about his own capacity. Yet the answer does not erase the oppression or flatter his strength. Yahweh sends the least man and promises presence before victory.

Jesus says the Father does not measure you by the power oppression has left you. In Christ’s incarnation, God has entered the human low place; at the cross, he has borne abandonment without calling your honest cry a sin; risen, Jesus intercedes for people who still tremble. The question about God’s absence need not become a verdict about your worth. You may bring the whole question while receiving identity as one Jesus sends and accompanies—not because you feel strong, but because grace is stronger than your fear.

The question about God’s absence need not become a verdict about your worth.
Prayer

Lord Jesus, I release my demand to understand everything today. Keep me from turning oppression into a verdict about my worth, and teach me to trust your presence while I still ask why. Amen.