What if Sir Robin Didn't Run Away?

There's a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Sir Robin is annoyed by the bard and minstrels who travel with him.

The bard is singing an overly descriptive song about the types of deaths Robin might die, and how, despite those prospects, Robin is still brave.  Robin is unnerved by the song and has the minstrels stop playing.  Later, after a somewhat obvious retreat, the bard adapts his song to lyrically tell how Robin "bravely ran away".

It is difficult to tell if the bard is genuinely impressed with Robin, or if there's some layered sarcasm the bard has woven into his song, either way it grates on Sir Robin who argues at the lyrics as they're being sung to him.

Later, at the "bridge of eternal peril" Sir Robin fails the test of the bridge and is thrown into the chasm below.

There's nothing quite as pitiful as someone who puts on fake bravery.  A cowardly man acting courageous has a see through nature that's hard to deny.  Lucky for us, we have the genius of Eric Idle to turn the situation to great hilarity.

The opposite of that, namely, a man who thinks he's a coward but is actually brave, is found is Judges 6.

The Biblical narrative is full of ironies.  Die in order to live.  The lost will be found.  The weak will be made strong, and here in Judges is perhaps another, God using a man who thinks he's a coward to do something brave.

If you've read any sort of commentary about his passage you've no doubt read that Gideon was hiding when the angel visits him.  So when the angel says "The LORD is with you mighty warrior", the irony is thick.

Gideon, like so many Old Testament heros who are called by an angel, begins self deprecating right away, citing that he's the lowest family member of the lowest clan of the lowest tribe.

Gideon of course has no idea that God loves using people exactly in positions like his.

After their meeting Gideon requires some more convincing, and God obliges each time, allowing Gideon to test him.

In the same way, God begins giving Gideon small tests, inching him along his destiny step by step.  First, telling Gideon to tear down the alter to Baal his father built, and second, instructing Gideon to shrink down his fighting force until it was practically Gideon and a few minstrels.

Through this process, it would be difficult to call Gideon "brave" he requires so much from God, sign after sign after sign.  In fact, one could see some of Sir Robin's trepidation in Gideon and his constant desire for assurance.  However, during the entire ordeal, God treats him not as he sees himself, but as God sees him.

God is less concerned with who you think you are and more concerned with who he knows you are.

Finally, in 6:34 it says the spirit of God overtook Gideon and he blew a trumpet to summon men to follow him.  From that point onward, Gideon and his men are always described as having trumpets with them.  In fact, the trumpets become the central piece to their attack on the Midianites.  Trumpets, rather than any sort of military weapon.

Why blow trumpets?

Because God has already told them to.

Read Numbers 10:9

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+10%3A9&version=NIV

Numbers is the book of law that had existed for generations by the time of Gideon.  Here in that law, are clear instructions for Israel and what she should do if she finds her self invaded and her people fighting in their own land.

Israel has been invaded every year for seven years and as far as we can tell, no one has even remembered this passage.  It's a testament to far away Israel has fallen.

God has been, for seven years, on the edge of his seat waiting to leap down and deliver Israel if she would just keep the part of the covenant she's promised.

By blowing on the trumpets, the men of Israel make a statement to the Midianites that they are once again following God's covenant.  We see a man with real anxiety, like Sir Robin, deciding to go forward anyway.

And God, by having Gideon use the trumpets, is showing him the law that's always been there waiting for him to discover it.

Most of the answers we desperately try to receive, have actually already been delivered, it's a just a matter of our finding them, and listening to them.

And perhaps Eric Idle would disagree, but having a few musicians around never hurts.