Gideon
Intro: Discuss studying men of the Bible.
Throughout Israel’s history, they have times of following the Lord, and times when they fall away. When they fall away, God allows Israel to be taken into oppression from neighboring groups. We are going to start here in Gideons time which Israel has been oppressed by the Midianites for the last seven years. Before that they had peace in the land for 40 years.
Right here is a question: How did they go from following the Lord for 40 years and then drift away? Any parallels to our own society? Our own personal life?
We will read the whole story to get a overall vision of what is going on, then we will break it down in some key areas.
Read Judges 6–8
Judges 6:1-6
- The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
- Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
- Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.
- They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.
- They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.
- Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
Why does god allow the nation to suffer like this? Is this a punishment or is it mercy and grace? Would it be worse if God just left them alone?
-God allows this, so we turn back to him. If he left us alone, we would continue on our path away from him. Notice, they are living in caves and mountain clefs. They’re scared, they’re hiding. They do produce their crops, but only to have the Midianites come and take it at the end. So they’re working for nothing. They allow this to happen for seven years until they finally cry out to the Lord for help. Imagine, being in their group of people, their city council meetings, their Townhall’s, whatever trying to find solutions to their problem. For seven years, they wrestle with this trying different things but nothing works. Finally they resort to prayer.
Do we try and solve our problems before or after prayer?
Judges 6:7-10
- When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
- he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
- I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
- I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
God sends a prophet and gives them a little history lesson. What’s the point of this? Are the Midianites the problem?
-There is no one mightier than God. They’re crying out for help blaming the Midianites, but it’s actually their un-repentent sin of taking a god before the real God.This is all set up for the story of Gideon. When I prepared this, I tied not to go verse by verse, but it’s very hard. I want to take certain key points from the story of Gideon.
Judges 6:11-13
- The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
- When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
- “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Something that stuck out to me. He is thrashing his wheat in a wine press. This means he’s doing it in secret. Typically wheat is thrashed on a hilltop. Do you know why?
-It is on a hilltop so the wind can blow away the chaff. Matthew 3:12 – NIV
- His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Luke 3:17 – NIV
- His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” -This is how God separates the sinner from the saint. Is there any symbolism here of Gideon, hiding and working and possibly not separating sin from his life?
Why does the angel call Gideon a “mighty warrior?”
-We will come back to that at the end…The angel says, “the Lord is with you mighty warrior.” Gideon, then questions, the angel, and says if God is with me, why is all this happening. Why did god forsaken me?
What is the show us about Gideon?
-Gideon does know the history of Egypt. And he thinks that God has forsaken him, but it’s actually the Israelites that have forsaken God. How is it that he knows the history, but not the key to the whole point of the history? Is there any parallels to us here?Genesis 3:12 – NIV
- The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, where Adam gives excuses to God. First, he blames Eve, then he blames God himself. This is what we do when we’re caught in sin. We blame others, and ultimately whether we know it or not we blame God himself for putting us in the situation where we had to sin.
It is not one of my favorite verses because it’s beautiful or because it gives me peace. It’s one of my favorite verses, because it’s eye-opening to our own sin. It can change your whole life when you realize this, seeing that you have and how badly you have been to God.
Judges 6:14-16 – NIV
- The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15. “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16. The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
“Go in the strength you have:
It is hard to see that Gideon had any strength to go in. Yet the Angel of the LORD didn’t mock Gideon when he told him, “Go in the strength you have.” Gideon indeed had strength, but not as we might normally think.
· Gideon had the strength of the humble, threshing wheat on the winepress floor.
· Gideon had the strength of the caring because he cared about the low place of Israel.
· Gideon had the strength of knowledge, because he knew God did great things in the past.
· Gideon had the strength of the spiritually hungry because he wanted to see God do great works again.
· Gideon had the strength of the teachable because he listened to what the Angel of the LORD said.
And…
2 Corinthians 12:9 – NIV
- But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
· Gideon had the strength of the weak, and God’s strength is perfected in weakness
- “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
Is Gideon wrong?
….how can “I” …
Exodus 3:12 – NIV
- And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Matthew 28:20 – NIV
- and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
It is important to know that God has sent us but it is even greater to know that He is with us.
Judges 6:17-21 – NIV
- Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.” 19. Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20. The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.
Is it wrong or ok to ask God for a sign?
-sometimes yes, sometimes it is not needed. In this case, the Bible does not address this exactly, so we can look for ways to confirm.
-In some cases, the answer is already in the Bible. Does God love you? You don’t need a sign, because it is already answered.Romans 5:8 – NIV
- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Judges 6:22-24 – NIV
- When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord ! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” 23. But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” 24. So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
a. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD: This demonstrates that before this, Gideon believed that this person was simply a man. The appearance of the Angel of the LORD was completely human in its character.
b. Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die: Once Gideon realized the identity of the Angel of the LORD, he was terrified. The Angel of the LORD brought this comforting word to the terrified Gideon.
i. “Why was Gideon afraid? Not because he was a coward-you will scarcely meet with a braver man in all Scripture than this son of Joash-but because even brave men are alarmed at the supernatural. He saw something which he had never seen before, an appearance celestial, mysterious, above what is usually seen of mortal men; therefore, as he feared God, Gideon was afraid.” (Spurgeon)
c. So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD: Gideon did this as an act of worship and consecration unto the LORD, whom he had just encountered face-to-face. He was no longer terrified of God, as demonstrated by the title given to the altar: The-LORD-Is-Peace.
Spangler, Ann; Wolgemuth, Robert. Men of the Bible (pp. 122-123). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.