Gideon's Second Fleece Series

MESSAGE - Gideon's Second Fleece

Ron Ferguson

This is a message about the testing of faith, which is taking God at His word. This sermon is longer than average. It is centred on the Judge of Israel, Gideon.

Judges 6 v 7 “Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the LORD on account of Midian, Judg 6:8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out from the house of slavery Judg 6:9 and I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, Judg 6:10 and I said to you, “I am the LORD your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live but you have not obeyed Me.”’”

The book of Judges is a see-saw or a submarine. A see-saw goes up and then comes down. To go up again needs effort to push with your feet off the ground. The book is like a submarine because most of the time is spent down under the water. Sometimes it surfaces. In Israel's history it behaved like a see-saw and experienced the submarine effect. There were 13 judges in all with Samuel being the last judge.

The spiritual state of the nation was up and down, and it took effort to get back up again; and like the submarine, it was mainly down. It took effort to get the nation back again, the effort of turning from sin to the living God. Joshua led the people into Canaan and they followed, mainly obedient to the Lord, but when Joshua died, the people very quickly turned to idolatry because they were unsuccessful in removing the heathen, and sordid people from the land. Consequently, they adopted the wicked practices of the pagan people in full idolatrous worship.

God judged Israel by allowing enemies to raid the land, and cause much havoc and sorrow and bondage. Then the people came to their senses and cried to the Lord for deliverance. God harkened to them and sent a deliverer to the nation, or better still, He raised up a deliverer from among the people. The deliver was known as a judge. The judge won victory and the land was at peace, but as soon as the judge died, the land reverted again to idolatry. It was a never ending cycle they played out for 400 years. Did Israel ever learn its lesson? No, it never did. The key phrase for those 400 years was, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes,” and therefore, not what was right in God’s eyes.

In the verses we just read, the land was being oppressed by Midian and the people cried out to God. The only time they sought the Lord was in difficult times, like people today when it is tough. Then they forget God when it is smoother sailing and the storm has gone. God heard them in our chapter, and verse 8 is God’s response – He sent a prophet to challenge them, and he began his message to them with a reminder of their history when God delivered them. To understand the state of affairs at that very time, let us read these verses - Judges 6 v 1 “Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years, Judg 6:2 and the power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.”

Things were so bad that the Israelites were living in caves and between rocks to escape from the Midianites. They continually failed to learn. Sometimes we may sin and sin quite badly even as Christians, but praise God, most learn from that and don’t readily reoffend, but Israel seemed incapable of not reoffending. However God had the matter in hand, and was going to raise up yet another judge, and this is the record of that -

Judges 6 v 11 “Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. Judg 6:12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” Judg 6:13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us and where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ but now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”