Gideon's Encouragement Series

Encouragement

Hebrews 3:12-13, Judges 6

September 28, 2025

We’ve been looking at what it means to biblically encourage one another. Beginning today and for the next few weeks, we’re going to look at some biblical stories of encouragement. We’re going to look at the greatest encourager of all this week and next, as we look back into the Old Testament and look at a guy named Gideon.

It’s a story that’s found in the OT book of Judges. We’ll get there in a moment. Before we look at the story, I want to go back and remind us what I believe is closer to God’s definition of encouragement. Because God is the greatest encourager there is!

His definition is much more demanding, but much more rewarding. This is what God wants us to do for one another. To biblically encourage means we - - -

Participate with the Holy Spirit as we extend grace to the heart, soul and mind of others.

Walking beside another person as we impart life, love, courage, comfort, peace, strength, hope and faith as needed.

The point of encouragement is more than a quick attaboy and attagirl. It’s speaking life into someone. It’s walking alongside them and providing something they need. Maybe it’s an extra dose of courage or strength, maybe it’s comfort or peace.

Whatever it is . . . it’s walking alongside another person and pouring into them, as God pours His Spirit into us. It’s not totally natural, so it pushes us. But that’s a good thing, because the push to speak life into someone comes from the greatest gift we offer another, which is our love, which comes from God.

With that in mind, let’s look at the story of Gideon. To get there, we need to look at the back story. The Israelites are in the promised land. All the great patriarchs have died. They’re self governing, which is leading to lots of issues as the people have fallen away from God.

They’re in active sin and God has sent oppressing nations against them. They’re struggling to survive, but eventually they realize their sin, turn back to God and pray for deliverance and God comes through. The people become complacent again and fall away and go through the same cycle again and again and again.

It’s not unlike our world today. We turn to God in the tough times and kinda forget about God in the good times and when disaster hits, we turn back to God. That’s a generalization for humanity.

So, we pick up the story in Judges 6 - - - -

1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel

made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.

4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.

6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

So, there’s the back story. The people were being oppressed. The Midianites and others were devouring their crops and livestock. They had nothing. It was to the point where people were living in the mountains and caves to hide from them.

They wanted to be rescued, delivered from these people. So, they plead to God and God responds to them in verses 7-10, that He’s already delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But none of them knew what that was like.

God’s requirement was to honor and obey Him. Follow His laws, worship Him and experience His power and presence . . . and they would thrive. But they didn’t do that.

Yet, God relents in what’s happening and calls someone to deliver them. It’s a mighty warrior named Gideon. We read this in verses 11-12 - - - -

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite,

while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

WOW!! Do you see what God is calling Gideon? A mighty man of valor. That can be translated lots of ways in Hebrew. Literally, it means he’s a champion! He’s a mighty warrior filled with courage and strength. He’s a hero filled with strength and might.