Putting Out a Fleece

Gideon was basically a nobody.  He was self proclaimed least in his tribe, which was the weakest of all Israel.  Yet one day he received a word from the Lord that he was a mighty warrior and he would be used to bring down the Midianites that had tormented Israel for years.  He didn’t receive this as a proclamation from a prophet in front of the entire people if Israel, or even in front of the leaders.  Instead he received this word from an angel sitting under a tree.  He was all by himself.  No one was there to encourage or support him.  He had to choose to believe what God was saying for himself.  As I’m sure many of us do when we receive a word from the Lord, he doubted.  


So what did he do?  He put out a fleece... a literal wool fleece, and asked God to confirm His word by causing dew to fall on the fleece but not on the ground.  He got up early the next morning, wrung out the fleece and found God had answered his request.  However, he still wasn’t quite convinced, so he begged God not to be angry with him and again laid out the fleece.  The second time he asked that the fleece remain dry and the ground all around it be covered in dew.  The next morning he found that God had again confirmed His word.  He was called a mighty warrior and Israel would be delivered from the hands of the Midianites (and the other Ites that had joined forces with them) by his hand.

I have definitely been known to put out a fleece or two in my life.  Sometimes I even start to and then stop myself.  I think I get afraid of what might happen.  Recently though I put out a few fleeces and was honestly surprised when God confirmed what I felt He was speaking to me.  

It was a Friday a month or so ago, David Fang was out of town so I was covering CBN broadcast directing duties that night.  It was also a busy day at the office.  I had the bulletin to finish and some other stuff.  It also happened to be a rainy day.  I had to walk to the print shop and as I did we were having a spout of liquid sunshine.  That’s what we call it when the sun is shining brightly, but it’s raining.  This is usually the perfect situation for a rainbow since a rainbow is caused by the light refracting off of the water molecules.  As I walked up the ramp to the print shop, umbrella in hand, I muttered a half-hearted fleece to the Lord.  “Lord, if you are working things out in ‘this’ situation and you want me to just continue to hold on and trust you, let me see a rainbow.”  

It’s important to point out that in the months prior there had been multiple rainbows sighted over our church campus.  I, unfortunately, had not seen a single one.  I was honestly rather irritated by that because I love rainbows.  I mean they are a sign and reminder of God’s promises, and I really needed to know He remembered what He had promised me.  So I was probably a bit doubtful that I would actually see a rainbow on this particular day.

Anyway, back to the story.... I was so busy that I basically forgot the fleece by the time I left the print shop a few minutes later.  I went over to the church and got everything set up for the broadcast.  It was an hour or so later and I really needed to let the dog out.  He wasn’t going to make it until after the broadcast and I determined I had about ten minutes to run over to the house and get back before I needed to start the pre-broadcast streaming.  Ten minutes was plenty of time so I grabbed my keys and took off towards the parking lot.  As I walked out the side foyer doors I glanced across the highway towards my office and my house and what did I see?  A rainbow.  Faint and fading, but it was there.  I was so shocked I blurted out.  Oh my gosh there’s a rainbow.  One of our students/members of the worship team was coming in to the building and she said, “That’s mine!”  I said, “No, no, that’s mine!”  

I ran across the street to let Beaux out, didn’t even turn the car off, and pondered briefly that God had confirmed and answered my fleece.  I didn’t really have time to dwell on it though because I had a broadcast to direct.

When I got home that night I had a chance to think about what had transpired.  I apparently am a lot like Gideon because I wasn’t ready to put all of my faith in one personal word that I received from the Lord and one confirming fleece.  So as I lay in bed that night I said, “Okay God, if this is really what you are saying let me dream about ‘such in such’ tonight and remember it.”  Now some people may argue that thinking about something before going to bed causes you to dream about it.  But from my own experience I can tell you that’s not always how it happens.  Plenty of times I’ve wanted to dream about something and went to bed thinking about it and didn’t dream about it.  And on the reverse have gone to bed not thinking about a certain situation and ended up dreaming about it.  

With that I went to sleep thinking about something else.  In the middle of the night I had a dream, a good dream, and at the end of it I woke up.  Wide awake!  I said out loud, “I just dreamed about ‘such in such’!”  I was in shock.  God had confirmed it again.  It was all I could do to go back to sleep.  Though I was determined to do so because I wanted to sleep in!

Just like Gideon, it’s not as if everything changed and I was full of faith the next morning.  There were, and are, still obstacles to overcome.  And God’s timing to walk in.

As if Gideon wasn’t having a rough enough time, God pushed it a little farther.  You know... He knows what we can handle!  He started paring down Gideon’s army.  First he instructed Gideon to send any of the fearful men home.  Then there were still too many so God told Gideon to have the men drink water from either a spring or a river (whatever it was).  He told Gideon to separate those who lapped up the water like dogs from those who knelt down to drink.  300 lapped up the water like dogs and those were the ones God told Gideon to keep to fight with him.

If I were Gideon my conversation with God probably would have gone something like this:
Me: 300 men?  Seriously God?  I mean... have you seen the Ites we have to face?
God: (cricket noises)
Me: The fleece, oh yeah... the fleece.  Well.... here we go!

Gideon and his 300 men were victorious against all of the enemy armies.  They plundered and even took back spoils to those that had been instructed to remain behind.  God said it, confirmed it even though He didn’t have to, and Gideon saw that God’s word was true.

It feels like the days and weeks since my fleece experience have been “the best of times and the worst of times.”  There have been some seriously challenging moments and some seriously rewarding/encouraging moments.  What even got me thinking of all of this again this morning was my impatience, and my questioning of what is happening/going to happen.  God reminded me of how I felt when I saw the rainbow and woke up from the dream.  He reminded me that He’s working it all out for my good.  It’s hard when you’ve experienced a lot of disappointment in life to stay hopeful when you can’t always see how things are going to work out.  But I know He’s working... so I hold on to the fact that He was merciful enough to confirm the word/desire He placed in my heart.

So tell me, what kind of fleeces have you put out?  How did it happen?  Has that promise come to pass?