THE FALL
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Could not put Humpty together again."
"Humpty Dumpty was sitting with his legs crossed like a Turk on a high wall - such a narrow one that Alice quite wondered how he could keep his balance - and as his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction and he didn't take the least notice of her, she thought he must be a stuffed figure after all."
……….. Alice in Wonderland
Ever felt like Alice?
The great man of such a height that he can not see you or anyone else for that matter?
A stuffed figure with eyes fixed somewhere else.
If he just moves an inch he will fall from that great height.
And like an egg in Alice's story he will break into bits.
I am not a teacher. I am just a storyteller searching for the truth.
This is a story with more questions then answers.
Is this the day of questions?
Somewhere is the truth.
It is a living and a breathing thing
Shouting out to be heard.
"Time would fail me to tell of Gideon" Hebrews 11:32
Hot and sweating, looking over his shoulder, he worked away in the empty winepress.
Dark and smelly and sticky at the bottom.
The remnants of grapes remained on the floor, giving off a rancid odour of the fruit of the vine.
The 'grasshoppers' had swarmed over the land and had destroyed everything in sight.
The marauding, murderous Midianites had forced his people to starvation.
In the unlikely place of a winepress he was threshing wheat,
Close to starvation, his family needed bread.
He was a God fearing man .
A long time ago his people were as well, but they had fallen away.
They had turned to the worship of the gods of their neighbours
Near Gideon another Man sat down under the cool shade of an old oak tree
He was the angel of The Lord and he spoke to Gideon
"The Lord is with you. You are a man of valour."
But Gideon answered the angel with a question.
"If the Lord be with us, why then has this happened to us?
Where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of?
Now the Lord has turned away and delivered us into the hands of our enemy."
He called Gideon out of the winepress.
Mercy called out.
Gideon became that man of valour.
A weak vessel filled with the greatness of God.
Casting down idols.
All the people loved him.
"Be our King!" they pleaded.
"You will be our king and then also your sons and your grandsons."
"No!" said Gideon.
"The One and only God is your King."
But from the great height of the pedestal he moved one inch.
Not even just an inch.
Just a half an inch.
From that great height, just like Humpty Dumpty, he fell.
It just takes half an inch. Just a little turn, a little twisting of the truth.
"Did God not say?" that old enemy asked Eve in the garden.
So Gideon turned that half an inch.
"Give me instead all your gold earrings and the gold plunder you removed off the dead bodies of our enemy. The gold taken from the animals. The gold ornaments. Bring them to me."
The men willingly placed all the gold and from the gold they fashioned and EPHOD.
Now this is a great irony. How could gold taken from dead bodies and animals be an object of worship.
The EPHOD was a sacred garment worn by the great high priests once a year on the great Day of Atonement, the days when prayers were offered by that priest for forgiveness and protection for the sin of idolatry. The very sin they were committing.
So this idol was placed in Gideon's town and mounted up and all the people flocked to worship it.
The story of Gideon is found in the book of Judges chapter 8
The man who would not be king lived out the rest of his days in the lifestyle of a king
Did he know that he had led his people once again back to idolatry?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps like Alice said abut Humpty Dumpty:
"And his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction and he didn't take the least notice.
He must be a stuffed figure after all."
From heaven you came, helpless babe
Entered our world, your glory veiled
Not to be served, but to serve
And give your life that we might live
This is our God
The Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King. Graham Kendrick
"Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest you fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12