Gideon: The proof of prayer
Judges 6:1-18
A Farmer felt called to preach by God and asked God for a sign. Sitting under a tree one day he sees the letters P and C in the clouds. The farmer decides it means “Preach Christ.” So he sells the farm and equipment and goes to preach. Needless to say he was horrible. One day after a sermon a member in the church came to him and said, “Are you sure God wasn’t trying to tell you to Plant Corn?”
All throughout the Bible, God has called out certain people for certain missions. He called Moses to free the nation of Israel from slavery. He called Noah to build an Ark, save the animals and repopulate the earth. He called David to take down Goliath, Joshua to lead the next generation of Israel into the promise land as well as to take down the walls of Jericho. He called the disciples to follow Him and become fishers of men as well as help start the New Testament church.
Now in the Bible there are 4 primary words found in scripture in the original Greek & Hebrew that are translated call:
1. Qara- meaning “to call, call out or recite; to address something or someone by name.” For example, this word was used in Gen. 1:5 when God called the light day. Also the same word used when God called forth the generations in Isa. 41:4. This word was also used when it came to God calling people to a specific task. This is seen in Isa. 65:12 when Israel was called by God to be His people. Also meant to summons God for help and we first see this expression in Genesis 4:26 when is says people began to call upon the name of the Lord. An interesting note for this word is when you read in the Bible about Lepers. We are told that the Lepers had to call out when they came toward people; “Here comes a leper.” This is the word used for “called out” in the Hebrew/Greek.
2. Hebrew word for call was miqra, which is where we get our term call to worship.
3. Greek word Kaleo means to call or clamer; to invite. This term is used in Romans 8:30 and it deals with those who were called to the blessings of redemption. This word is also used when a person is called to salvation or fellowship with God. (1 Thess. 2:12; 1 Cor 1:9)
4. Greek word Klesis which means a calling that is irrevocable, that is binding, or final. An example would be that if God asked you to do something then that is what you are to do. What He has asked of you is binding or final. This is the idea or word that is used in tonight’s passage, which is Judges 6:1-17, when God called a man to deliver the nation of Israel.
Now when it comes to the book of Judges, we as a group need to be aware of the characteristics of this dark period in Israel’s history. What do the Israelites teach us as a unit? In these chapters, the Book of Judges gives a chronological survey of events during the centuries of darkness which followed for Israel. God’s Word had been abandoned and He Himself forsaken. The lessons that earlier generations had learned at Jericho and Ai had been forgotten, the people of Israel now had to be taught again and again and again. This time, instead of involving a single family (Achan’s), the pattern of sin and subsequent judgment swept over the nation as a whole.
And there was a pattern. Seven repeated cycles of events are reported. The first scriptural account reports that Israel fell into sin. As a result of sin, God brought judgment through the nearby nations, and God’s people were forced into servitude. When the pressure became unbearable, Israel turned from her sin and cried out to God for deliverance. God heard Israel’s prayers and a charismatic leader emerged to lead Israel first to victory over the enemy, and then morally and spiritually as a judge. During this leader’s life the people typically knew quiet and freedom from oppression. But all too soon, they slipped back into the sinful ways of the pagans around them. With that fall into sin, the cycle began all over again.
This is the case in tonight’s passage. In a time of great despair, the nation of Israel had turned their back on and away from the ways and the will of God again. Because of their disobedience God had delivered the children of Israel into the hands of their enemies, the Midianites. And once again Israel was greatly impoverished; their land was destroyed and many lives were lost. So they do what they had done in the past which was cry out to God for deliverance. “Save us from those who torment us.” So God again hears their cry and so God seeks out for them someone to deliver His message to the people; a Judge or a Prophet. We will see tonight that this person that God sought out was one whose heart was willing to be used by God. Not one with great abilities, but someone with availability, someone who had made themselves available for God to use.
That is exactly the kind of man we will be looking at tonight. A man named Gideon. Gideon was a man of faith. In fact he made it into what we like to call the Hall of Faith found in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11:32 says; “What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon…” What we will see tonight is that Gideon was called at a time of national distress; a time when the people did not honor God and Gideon was hesitant and didn’t think he was the right man so he asked God for proof. He wanted God to show him that he was the man for the job. Gideon wanted to be sure. So tonight we are going to look at Gideon: The Proof of Prayer.
Read Judges 6:1-18. Let’s look at what kind of person God calls…
I. He Calls the Courageous.
In Judges 6:12 the Lord calls Gideon “a man of valor “; this word valor means a courageous man. For God to say this about Gideon it appears that Gideon had proved himself, on former occasions, to be a man of courage and if he was going to be the one that the Lord was going to use to deliver the Nation of Israel this would naturally excite the confidence of his countrymen that God was calling Gideon “a man of valor.”
However, to Gideon these seemed like strange words. He felt anything but courage. Gideon even says in verse 15 “…how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” So many times in our prayer times we find ourselves being like Gideon in the sense that when God ask us to do something we set there and question why God would call little oh me to do that and we say things to God like “I’m a nobody!” “God, are you sure you got the right person?” “God I can’t do that!”
But guess what? Gideon had nothing to worry about because God gave him a clue of where that courage, that he didn’t think he had, was going to come from. God starts out in verse 12 by saying “The Lord is with you…” Gideon must remember as we must also remember, that when we are in our prayer time and God calls us to do His work, we do not go into that job that He has called us to do on our own power we go into that job on His power & His might. The only time you and I need to worry is when we go into the job without asking God for help! That’s because you are doing it on your own strength and not God’s.
Someone once said; “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.” No matter what God calls you or me to do He will equip us with the right tools for the job. We just have to ask? In this passage we notice that God saw Gideon not only as he was but also as he should be and God sees us the same way. He sees what we are now and what we can and would be in the center of His will. God’s will for us is the same as it was for Gideon. What is that will? THAT WE FIND God’s will and do it. Some one once said God’s part is to reveal His will; our part is to do it or obey. But in order for God to reveal His will to us and for us to find so we can obey it we must spend time in prayer with God the Father. It is through prayer that God reveals His will for our lives.
God not only calls the courageous…
II. He Calls the Confused.
In our prayer times, some of the things that God will ask of us won’t always make sense. For example, Moses and the Plagues, Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, Mary and Joseph. We see in tonight’s passage that Gideon is a little confused. What God is saying and asking him doesn’t make sense to him. So we see that Gideon begins to question God. How many of us do the same thing in our prayer time? God ask us to do something and just doesn’t make sense to us so we begin to question God. We see Gideon questions God in three ways and what we will see is that with every statement or question God gave an answer:
First he asked God why this was happening. (Read v. 13-14) Gideon wondered aloud first about God’s presence. He was at that time hiding on his own land while he threshed grain from his own wheat, for fear a party of the enemy might come by and take it from him. Why was Israel in such a state if the God of miracles really was with them? Good question. However, the Lord gave a very powerful answer to Gideon’s objections, by giving Gideon an order to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, and assuring him of the success that awaited Him.
Now you say that’s not a good answer but you have to take the look that the Lord gave Gideon into consideration. In the King James it says “…and the Lord had looked upon him.” There was something special about that look and I want to take a little time to mention the look that the Lord gave Gideon. There was something extraordinary in the look he gave to Gideon that put Gideon at ease. The look was one of those speaking looks, kind of like the one Jesus gave Peter in Luke 22:61 when Peter had denied Christ for the third time. The look of Jesus that night spoke volumes to Peter. This look that the Lord gave Gideon spoke volumes to him. This look that the Lord gave Gideon was an encouraging look that revived Gideon’s spirits and silenced his fears. The Lord looked upon Gideon and smiled at the objections he made, which gave Gideon no direct answer to his question, but girded and clothed him with such power as would shortly enable him to answer them himself, and make him ashamed that he had ever made that statement to God. This was a look that would have given Gideon new life and would have inspired him to do what God had asked of him.
The second question that Gideon has was how can little oh me save Israel. (Read v. 15-16) We are beginning to see that the excuses really begin to flow now. Again we do the same thing when God ask us to do something that we might not understand or want to do, we make excuses. Gideon is doing everything he can for God to leave him alone and go find someone else to do the job. He claims that he is too weak, not just too weak, but rather the weakest in his tribe. Then he says that he is the least in his family. In other words, Gideon was saying that he was unfit for this service and unworthy of the honor to be the Israelites leader.
But the Lord would hear nothing of it and informs Gideon again in v. 16 that “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.” Let me quickly note that God often chooses to do great things through those that are little, especially those that are little in their own eyes. God delights to advance the humble.
“I’ll be with you.” That’s what God told Gideon, and God promised to give him the strength he needed to overcome the opposition. In spite of this clear promise for strength, Gideon made excuses. Seeing only his limitations and weaknesses, he failed to see how God could work through him.
Like Gideon, we are called to serve God in specific ways. Although God promises us the tools and strength we need, we often make excuses. But reminding God of our limitations only implies that he does no know all about us or that he has made a mistake in evaluating our character. Don’t spend your prayer time making excuses. Instead spend it listening to God and doing what God tells you to do.
Then Gideon finishes his doubts by saying to the Lord show me a sign. (Read v. 17-18.) To make sure that the man talking to him was truly speaking in the name of God and that God was really calling him to lead the Israelites, he requested the man to show him a sign to affirm that this really was a message from God.
In verse 18 Gideon requested that the Lord stay there until he brought his offering and the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.” But the Lord did more than just wait for Gideon to come back. Listen to what happen once Gideon came back with his offering. (Read v.19-23) After all of this Gideon obeyed God and did exactly what God told him to do but even after he obeyed God we read later that he asked God for a sign again to really make sure. Read verses 36-40.
Was Gideon questioning God, looking for excuses, or was he simply asking God for more encouragement? The answer is all three. In either case, though his motive was right in that he wanted to make sure, his method was less than ideal and Gideon knew it wasn’t right. Gideon seems to have known that his requests might displease God, and yet he demanded two miracles, even after witnessing the miraculous fire from the rock in 6:21. It is true that in order to make good decisions, we need facts. Gideon had all the facts, but still he hesitated. He delayed obeying God because he wanted even more proof.
Demanding extra signs was an indication of unbelief. Fear often makes us wait for more confirmation when we should be taking action. Visible signs are unnecessary if they only confirm what we already know is true, which was the case for Gideon. Gideon already knew the truth so there was no need for all the questioning.
Today the greatest means of God’s guidance is his Word, the Bible. Unlike Gideon, we have God’s complete, revealed Word. If you want to have more of God’s guidance, don’t ask for signs; Seek His guidance by spending time in prayer and in God’s Word.
III. He Uses the Convinced.
After God very graciously did everything that Gideon had asked, even though God didn’t have too, Gideon was finally convinced that it was God who was calling him to lead the Israelites and he set out to do war with the Midianites, which is in Judges 7:1-25. The neat thing about this battle was God was going to make sure that Gideon knew that He was with him and that He was in control. God did this by reducing Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 soldiers. With an army this small, there could be no doubt that victory was from God and no one else. The men could not take the credit.
When it comes to our own prayer life we’re a lot like Gideon. When God ask us to do something that just doesn’t make sense to us or it scares us we begin to do one of two things: 1. we make excuses. 2. We ask for proof or a sign. We say things like “I’m not worthy.” “I’m a nobody.” “I don’t know what to say.” “I don’t know how to.” “They would never listen to me let alone follow me.” But God is saying, “Listen, I’m not asking you to do it by yourself I’m asking you to allow me to do it through you.” He is saying that “You’re somebody to me and I will give you the words to say and they will listen to you and follow you because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.”
On the other hand, we may be confident enough to do what God ask us to but we want to make sure that it’s God asking us to do it and not us just wanting to do it so we ask God for proof or a sign. But be careful when asking for signs or proof. The reality is that when God calls us we want to make sure He is calling us, but sometimes we miss the sign because we didn’t really want to see it to begin with or God gives us the proof we want, but like Gideon we continue to ask for more proof and in the end you and I miss an opportunity to be used by God because God got tired of waiting on us so He moves on to someone that is willing to be used by Him. Don’t miss the blessing of being used by God in a mighty way!!!
The deal church is that when God calls you to do His will and you finally become convinced that God is calling you and asking you to do his will “JUST DO IT!” Don’t make excuses and don’t keep asking for proof just be obedient. While Gideon, I believe, went over board asking for proof or signs we have to give him some credit because in the end he became obedient and did what God asked of him. So in closing, my questions to us this evening is: What about you tonight? What is God calling you to? Will you be obedient?
