Gideon feels overwhelmed with the charge to help free Israel from the Midianites. Although he acknowledges the Lord’s miracles in delivering the ancient Israelites from the Egyptians, he feels forsaken and uncertain that the Lord will provide miracles to help the Israelites defeat the Midianites.
Judges 6:13
13 And Gideon said unto him, 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, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
President James E. Faust said:
“The Lord has a great work for each of us to do. You may wonder how this can be. You may feel that there is nothing special or superior about you or your ability. Perhaps you feel, or have been told, that you are stupid. Many of us have felt that and some of us have been told that. Gideon felt this when the Lord asked him to save Israel from the Midianites. Gideon said, ‘My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house’ (Judges 6:15). He had only three hundred men, but with the help of the Lord, Gideon defeated the armies of the Midianites (see Judges 7). The Lord can do remarkable miracles with a person of ordinary ability who is humble, faithful, and diligent in serving the Lord and seeks to improve himself. This is because God is the ultimate source of power.”
(“Acting for Ourselves and Not Being Acted Upon,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 47.)
