Gideon's Army in 1620
Squanto did come to the rescue, but it wasn’t until Spring. The Pilgrims had a bitter, heart-breaking winter to endure. Though land was sighted November 11th, it wasn’t until December 23 that a work party went ashore to begin building permanent structures. The Mayflower, having been moved from it’s original anchoring to Plymouth Harbor, over 20 miles away, had become a veritable floating hospital. Each day there were new deaths, including William Bradford’s wife, and another passenger’s stillborn baby. In their weakened condition, the first framed structure went up on Christmas day. There was no rest for the Pilgrims that day.
By
the time Spring arrived, 52 of the original 102 passengers were dead. Yet despite the death toll, there were unexplainable
survivors. Four families of the Pilgrims
had been untouched. Two families of the
Strangers had more than a fifth of all the young people between them. A once segregated group was becoming much less
separated.
As
I think about the vast majority of the congregation of Separatists left in Holland, another significant
group left at Plymouth, England, and the 50 whose lives were lost the first
winter, I cannot help but think of Gideon’s army in the book of Judges. Tasked with the assignment of conquering an
unconquerable enemy, Gideon is instructed by God to whittle down his army, “lest
Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” Baffled but obedient, Gideon's 32,000 man army is cut to 10,000, and
then to only 300 men while the enemy’s army is described “as the sand by the sea side
for multitude.” Why? Because God wanted to make known in no
uncertain terms that the odds have nothing to do with the outcome of His children when He is at
the helm.
Likewise,
the Pilgrim “army” that set out from Holland was whittled down in Leiden, at
Plymouth, England, and again during the winter of 1620-1621 in New
Plymouth. Why? Could it be that God wanted to make known in
no uncertain terms that despite the odds, the success of this little colony was
the outcome He had planned at the helm? And not just for His 1620 children, but all those who would be blessed to live in, and benefit from, the principles that would become the foundation of The United States of America?
In
my heart, the answer rings clear.
Sources:
Philbrick, Nathaniel. The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World. Puffin Books, New York. 2008.
Image: https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/gideon-midianites/
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