Gideon’s Fearful Faith? -Part 2 Series

VIII. Gideon’s Confirmation’s!

Judges 6: 17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.

A) Reason?

1. Gideon desired a sign; because revelation was so rare and wickedness so prevalent that he they desired full assurance. God graciously gave it.

B) Request?

Judges 6:18a Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

1. Offering - ??????? - min·khä

a) gift, tribute, offering, present, oblation, sacrifice, meat offering, and offering to God!

C) Response?

1. Gracious!

Judges 6:18b And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

John Gill – This was a wonderful instance of divine condescension!

2. God had to wait some time for the preparation of this offering.

D) Represent?

1. The heart of Gideon!

a) Food was scarce at that time, right?

E) Reveal?

1. The sincerity of Gideon!

Judges 6: 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.

Judges 6:20a The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.”

2. The sacrifice of Gideon!

a) Pour out the broth, burn up the meat and bread, in a time of scarcity?

i. Libation – ??????- necek

ii. A drink offering, something poured out,

Judges 6:20b And Gideon did so.

Judges 6:21 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.

F) Realization?

Judges 6:22 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!”

1. The sudden appearance of the fire and disappearance of the visitor convinced Gideon that indeed he had seen God and spoke to Him, and this frightened him!

2. The Jews believed it was fatal for sinful man to look upon God, Gideon was sure he would die.

IX. Gideon’s Consolation?

Judges 6:23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

A) Pronouncement of peace!

B) Point?

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges - Jehovah cherishes no resentment, nothing but good-will.

John 20: 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

1. You to Thomas!

2. God had to give Gideon a message of peace to prepare him for fighting the battle.

3. Unless we’re at peace with God, we can’t face the enemy with confidence and fight the Lord’s battles.

C) Promote?

Judges 6:24 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.

Warren Wiersbe - For a man with a worried heart, “The-Lord-Is-Peace” was just what he needed!

X. Gideon’s Consecration.

A) Consecration

1. Act of dedicating to the service and worship of God.

Judges 6: 5 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”

B) Cause?

1. God is saying, “I will not deliver Israel as long as they are in a state of Idolatry.”

a) Baal must go before Midian could go!

2. God is testing Gideon’s dedication to Him by asking him to tear down his father’s altar to Baal, and to build his own to Him!

J. Sidlow Baxter – It was here that Gideon became consecrated. He yielded his own will to the will of God…The command that he should "throw down the altar of Baal" reminds us at once that Gideon lived in a time of widespread religious apostasy. To wreck Baal's altar was to run counter to the popular will, and to invite death, but Gideon did it. And how remarkable was the result!

XI. Gideon’s Coyness

Judges 6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.