If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. – Judges 7:10-11

Today's Scripture Reading (April 27, 2025): Judges 7

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is credited with saying, "Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear." Fear is an essential component of courage. I know that is hard to believe, but there is no need for courage if there is no fear. I don't need courage to sit down and read a book because it is an activity that doesn't instill fear in me. What is a bit of a surprise is that one act that does take courage is hospital visitation. I don't like hospitals, maybe because I spent so much time in them as a child. I thought I was weird until I had a conversation with an older pastor, and he admitted that the first few times he tried to do hospital visitation, he drove to the hospital, parked in the hospital parking lot, and then sat in his car. During his first few hospital visits, he never went into the building. He meant to, but instead, he sat in the parking lot until the fear became so overwhelming that he gave up and went home. I was encouraged by his honesty, and while I had never gone to a hospital and then turned around and went home, there have been times when that was exactly what I wanted to do. Where there is no fear, there is no courage because courage isn't required. But where fear reigns, courage is the only tool we have to overcome it.

God instructs Gideon that if he is afraid, then he needs to go down to the enemy camp and listen to the conversations taking place there. Gideon was frightened, and God wouldn't leave him to figure it out for himself. God wanted Gideon to know that not only was he with him, but his enemy knew that God was with him. Gideon needed to see that he was instilling fear in the army against which he would be fighting. Sometimes, that helps. However,  it didn't mean that Gideon wouldn't need courage. God provided Gideon the hope he needed to see the plan through to its destination.

Sometimes, I wish we could see the fear living in those around us. Seeing that fear might allow us to understand each other better. But it also might give us the courage to do something for each other. Because courage is always more powerful in the presence of others, God told Gideon not to go down to the camp alone but to take his servant with him. In this moment, God knew what Gideon needed. And today, he knows what it is that we need, too.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Judges 8