Heroes of the OT:
Gideon
Judges 7:7-15
March 22, 2009
This morning we are going to look at another hero of the OT: Gideon. Have any of you ever felt incompetent, or ill-suited, or like a “fish out of water,” or ill-prepared, or ill-equipped, or maybe you felt like you were just not good enough? We all have. Some of us may even feel that way all the time. It is normal to feel that way but the faith issue is how we confront these feelings especially in response to God.
On our cruise when we left our cruise of Tampa, the cold weather from Erie finally caught up with us. While the high temperature here that Sunday was around 15 degrees, it was 66 degrees, cloudy and windy in Tampa. Better than here but not exactly what we were hoping to experience.
This wind created some very choppy seas as we left. Swells were average 7 to 12 foot with lots of white caps. Our ship, the Veendam from the Holland America Line, was really a pretty small ship compared to some of the newer ships especially in other lines. Which was good for this weather, because these cruise ships with the wind blowing it are like giant sails. The bigger the ship, the more it gets tossed around. And it swayed and rocked. Back and forth. Whooosh! Whooosh!
My father who is a travel agent has been on tons of cruises with I think over 50 days on board. He said this was the worst that he had ever been on. Some of the crew remarked the same thing. When you walked, you went to the left and then to the right. Fortunately the hallways are pretty narrow accommodating about 2 people to pass by so that you had walls for support.
When you had to cross large open spaces, you sort of had to pick your mark and when the ship dipped, you ran to your mark. We called it the walk run method. One might have thought that someone had spiked the coffee… and the tea and the pop and… Everybody looked like they were falling down drunk. So people wouldn’t get the wrong idea, for the first day I told people that I was a consultant because I didn’t want somebody calling back here and telling you all that they had seen your pastor stumbling through the halls. Not really. I just told them we didn’t want the communion wine to be wasted.
Of course, a few people fared worse than others and they “tossed their cookies.” I felt bad for them but since I wasn’t feel real well myself, I didn’t want to get to close. Sometimes when you smell the regurgitation, it causes some of us to have a “gag reflex.”
But I did feel bad for them. One woman was so apologetic. She felt really bad. But then I think just about all the passengers felt ill-suited for that first night. We all felt foolish walk into walls and slamming into doors. I’m sure we all looked pretty stupid walking around like we did. But we didn’t let it stop us. I’m sure some people were probably to sick to leave their cabin but for the most part, people went about the ship to check everything out. And that is how this ties into our hero: Gideon.
Gideon was an unlikely hero.
Gideon’s story is in Judges 6, 7, & 8. We read about the climax of the story but let me tell you about him and how his example can help us. This hero by the way addresses primarily the spiritual area of our lives and how it overlaps and effects how we live our lives and all of these other areas.
The first thing that we see with Gideon was the Gideon had doubts.
• Gideon had doubts.
Gideon was unsure about himself and even with God. I think he was a lot like me and all of us. He understood that God could but wasn’t quite sure that God would.
Faith is believing that not only God can but that God will do what God says.
Israel had once again turned away from God and God let Midian reign over them. Midian treated them unjustly and oppressed them. Finally they cried out to God (remember the pattern that I spoke about) and God went to Gideon who had been threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide it from the Midians because they had been taking all the food of the Israelites.
Judges 6:12-15
When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ’Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
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?"
"But Lord ," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
Gideon knew of God’s power but doubted whether or not God would help them. After all, God didn’t seem to be protecting them now. And when the angel (Gideon did not yet know this was an angel. He thought this was a guy) told Gideon that God was sending Gideon, Gideon doubted this. Gideon responded by saying that he was from the smallest clan of the smallest tribe. He was a “nobody.” But he was a “nobody” who had been rebelling against the Midianites by hiding food.
So Gideon said that he still wasn’t sure that this was God and asked for a sign. He would worship God and make an offering and seek a sign from God.
Does this resonate with anyone? Have you ever heard wondered whether or not something was from God?
When I was ten, my mother and I somehow had gotten involved in a bible memory course. It was all through the mail and we didn’t go to a church anywhere even occasionally but we would memorize ten verses a week. During the time, the materials gave some scriptures and talked about saying a “sinner’s prayer.” Now I didn’t have anyone really to ask questions and everything was very private. So sensing the need to “become a Christian,” I prayed the prayer but I wasn’t sure that I done it right. I didn’t feel any different. So I asked for a sign. I asked since it was supposed to rain all night and into the morning that when I got up at 5 am to deliver my papers that God keep it from raining as I delivered my papers. No selfishness on my part (Right!).
But when I got up and went out on the front porch to get the bundle of papers, it had literally just stopped raining. The water was still dripping off the leaves of the tree and I had to step out under the cloudy sky to make sure that it wasn’t still raining. And over the next almost hour, it didn’t rain. When I was riding my bike down my block to go home having finished, it started to rain.
But later that night, I began to doubt it. Would God really make it stop raining for me? After all, the stopping of the rain effected hundreds of thousands of people. And I also knew that often (not always but often enough) that rain stops for some reason right before dawn. Did you know that? I don’t know why and it isn’t always true but I rarely had to deliver papers right before dawn in the rain.
I doubted the sign. Gideon would have often doubt the signs that God gave him to reassure him. Once Gideon asked God for a sign similar to mine. He said God if you this is true make this fleece wet with dew in the morning and the ground around it dry. And God did it. But Gideon still wasn’t sure. He knew (maybe like m) that this was small possibility and asked God to give him a second sign. This time make the ground wet with dew but make the fleece dry. And God did that too.
I’m pretty sure that Gideon still wondered. I’m sure Gideon still had doubts. But he also knew that being faithful required him to be obedient.
• Gideon acted on faith.
Despite his doubts he acted on what God had told him to do. God gave Gideon all kinds of signs. I already mentioned the fleece. Earlier, God burned up a broth soaked offering by having the angel touch it with his staff. A scene that is reminiscent of Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal when they had Worship Context. It was a “sacrifice off.” A cook-off. Out of which we get our word, “Off-er-ing.” Not really that’s just a bad pun. The prophets of Baal couldn’t get their god to ignite their offering while Elijah soaked his with water making it next to impossible to burn but God’s holy fire consumed it.
God did sort of the same thing with Gideon to show Gideon that God would do what God said.
And God gave Gideon the sign that we heard about earlier. He snuck into the enemy camp where he overheard two soldiers discussing a dream that they believed was a sign that Gideon was going to destroy them.
Now so you understand this, Gideon had raised up 35,000 men to fight against the Midian army that numbered 132,000. But God said that was too many men for Gideon and whittled the number down to 300. 300 against 132,000. If they lined up offering no resistance, 300 men couldn’t kill 132,000 men with a sword. They couldn’t lift their swords for that long. But God and Gideon invoked a panic causing the Midian army to begin killing each other. Gideon and his 300 destroyed the Midian army killing everyone all because Gideon stepped out in faith despite any lingering doubts about himself and about what God might or might not do.
But there is one more thing.
• Gideon laid it on the line.
He wasn’t willing to play it safe. 300 against the Midian army. Suicide. Not only that but if he failed, who would suffer? Israel. In fact, many peoples have been wiped out because their rebellion failed and the oppressing army sought to “teach a lesson.”
Earlier Gideon tore down the altar to Baal in his home town and offering a sacrifice to the Lord. Except he was afraid of reprisal from the rest of the town and even his own family so he did it at night. The town was angry but his father stood up for him and challenged the town to let Baal fight his own battles. If Baal was real, then let Baal take out Gideon. He also told them that if the town tried to punish Gideon then they would be fighting against the Lord and the Lord would kill them all. So they let it be giving Gideon the nickname, “Jerub-Baal,” which means “let Baal contend with him.”
Do you have doubts? About yourself? About your abilities? I can’t do that. Fill in the blank. “I can’t do that because I’m…” Too young. Too old. Too busy. Too poor. Too tired. Too sick. Too young in the faith. Not trained. Too afraid.
Maybe you have something hanging over you that you know isn’t pleasing to God. I tend to think that Gideon needed to clean his own house first. He needed to set his own clan in order by getting rid of the false gods and false idols. Get rid of it. Let it go. I know this. I have experienced it. I heard countless people testify to this. Whatever it is that you God wants you to get rid or stop doing, the blessings of doing so outweigh holding onto it with no comparison.
One man that I remember from several years ago talked about his drinking. He like to go to the bar after work and throw back a few brews at the end of the week. Sometimes he would get a little intoxicated but he wasn’t an alcoholic. At one point he felt the Lord telling him to give it up. He didn’t really want to. He wasn’t hurting anybody. He even rationalized that he could perhaps tell people about God but eventually he let God’s Spirit break down his resolve and he finally with a sense of brokenness and defeat and reluctance “gave in” as he put it.
When I talked to him, it had been over ten years. He said that he immediately began to feel better physically. He had more energy. He didn’t seem to get sick as much. He didn’t get congested in his chest. Food tasted better. Smells were more vibrant. Even though he didn’t smoke, the smoke in the bar was getting to him more than he thought. He even lost some weight because he wasn’t drinking those extra calories.
But most of all, he said that God began to open up so many opportunities and blessings for him. He rarely thinks about it now and doesn’t even know why he was so reluctant to give up in the first place.
Maybe you feel something is too hard. I’m sure Gideon thought it was too hard for 300 men to defeat an army of 132,000. Maybe you really don’t want to let it go. I’m sure many people didn’t want to let go of their worship Baal.
The great thing about living on this side of the cross is that God has already given us the greatest sign ever: the cross. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are more than conquerors. If God is for us, then who can be against us? Lay it on the line. You don’t need to be rid of doubts as much as you just need to step out in faithful action in spite of your doubts.
Jesus died for us. He died so that we can have a fresh start. Every last drop poured out in love for you and I. But then the greatest sign ever: Jesus didn’t stay dead. He was resurrected. He is victorious over every power in heaven, on earth, and under the earth including sin and the greatest foe: death.
Gideon points us toward the cross. He points us toward Christ. What is God calling you to do to step out faith to follow Him? Don’t let your doubts or anything else keep you from acting on faith.
