I once met a woman on a flight in Australia who told me this story. She had a companion who was traveling with her on a major airline. It was back in the days when full meals were served on domestic flights, and real silverware was provided to eat the meals. At the conclusion of the meal, one of the women said to the other: “Do you suppose they would mind if I took this silverware?” The second woman commented that she was sure that the airline would indeed care. But the other woman took the silverware, wrapped it in a napkin, and carefully put it into her purse. In a little while, the plane entered a thunderstorm area, and there was considerable bumping and moving about, the plane going up and down – many of you know the feeling. A few minutes into the storm the woman with the silverware reached into her purse, put the silverware on the tray table, and remarked, “Now I am right with God.” However, after a little while the plane left the storm area and broke into the clear with smooth flying once again. And at this point, the woman quietly put the silverware back into her purse again.
The story can be understood as a metaphor of how we sometimes try to bargain with God. On the one hand, we believe that he is all-powerful, that he controls even the elements, that even the winds and the waves obey him. And we believe that he or his angels watch us, at least some of the time. But on the other hand, we believe that we can bargain with him, that we can influence his decisions in some ways and at some times. Otherwise, we would simply pray, “OK for today, Lord your will be done,” and “Give us today the food that we need,” a prayer incidentally that many Christians in the world must pray fervently every day.
It would be interesting, yet futile, to speculate how long the woman with the silverware would have stolen and retracted the silverware if the airplane had continued to pass in and out of storms over the next hour or so. That too could be a metaphor of our life. We continue to promise God certain things, somewhat conditional upon his meeting our requests.
Gideon’s fleece is a familiar story. Gideon was puzzled as to why the Lord had abandoned the Israelites when He had been so powerful to bring them out of Egypt. The Lord had promised to be with Gideon and strike down all the Midianites. Gideon wasn’t so sure. He wanted the angel of the Lord to wait while he prepared an offering. Later the offering was consumed and Gideon realized that it had been the angel of the Lord. Still later in the story Gideon bargains with God. He wants to be sure that the Lord will be with him so that the Israelites will be saved from their enemies. He makes a proposal, “Look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. In the morning, if there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” (Judges 6:36ff.) And that is what happened. But Gideon wanted to be sure, so he asked the Lord to reverse the process: the next morning dry fleece and dew on the ground. And that is what happened.
Now it is interesting that it doesn’t seem to offend the Lord that Gideon wants to bargain with Him. In fact, we read in Judges 7 that the Lord does some bargaining with Gideon. “You have too many warriors,” the Lord says. “The Israelites will not realize that it is the Lord that delivered them and will think they have done it by their own power.” Then an interesting number reduction process takes place. The Lord says to have the men drink by the stream and to separate those that drink like dogs from those who use their hands as a cup to drink. And it is the 300 that lap like a dog and who are chosen to fight for the Israelites.
Gideon bargains with the Lord, who in turn bargains with Gideon. But the bargaining was for a purpose: to reveal the power of God, not the power of Gideon. The lesson seems quite clear: God is not offended when we want to see his power displayed. However, God is the one in charge and does not operate by means of formulae.
I have not heard of Gideon’s experiment being repeated successful by anyone seeking to know God’s will about a particular matter, although I would imagine that people have tried it. Gideon’s fleece has become a well-worn metaphor for throwing out something difficult as a test for God. If he answers, then we “know” that it is God’s will.
We may think we are bargaining with God, but are we?
Karl Franklin
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