THE WAY IT SHOULD BE: Following God’s voice leads to feelings of peace.
- Judges 6:23-24.
- In both v. 23 and v. 24, we see peace emphasized. When we follow God, this is what we expect: that our hearts would be filled with peace.
- We may be expect a warm fuzzy glow from our conversation with God.
- Unfortunately, even though that is often how we feel for a while, it is not always our long-term emotion.
- Often in following God at first all you feel is peace, but soon all you see are pieces.
HERE COME THE HURDLES: Our initial peace often gives way to obstacles – in Gideon’s case, (1) a test of commitment and (2) words of opposition.
- Judges 6:25-32.
1. Test of commitment.
a. vv. 25-26 – The test.
- God puts a test before Gideon. He is to tear down the Asherah pole and burn it, putting an altar to the true God in its place. This is a very public test.
- God had made it clear to Israel in the past that these poles were wrong (Exodus 34:12-13; Deuteronomy 7:5; Judges 7:2).
- Here at HHS, if they came in Monday to find that I’d cut down their totem pole and then used it as kindling for a fire, they’d be mightily hacked off. . . and there is not even any religious implications to that action.
- Or, at most churches, if you went in and started cutting up the communion table or the pulpit. You’d have a lot of angry people on your hands.
- When we start out with God, we’re often excited about what He’s doing in our hearts and with us in church, but some folks find it difficult to talk publicly (at the job site or among friends) about what’s going on in their lives.
- It’s tough when God asks us to stand for something. Faith that is all “me and God” doesn’t require much of us.
- Test examples:
a. A daughter’s decision to get saved receives a negative reaction at home.
b. A high school student’s enthusiasm at growing in their faith meets the harsh realities of the first week back to school.
c. A man’s rededication to God quickly faces his long-term pornography habit.
d. A woman’s comfortable life is threatened by people around her with a lot of baggage who are in need of a mature Christian friend.
- Seeing God use you in a powerful way sometimes requires you to first take an uncomfortable stand for Him.
- “Priceless” faith is worthless.
b. vv. 27-30- The fearful response.
- I love what the Bible tells us of Gideon’s response.
- He obeys, but does all he can to “minimize the damage.” He does it at night because he’s scared of the response he’s going to get.
- It might be in our case that God leads us to talk to someone about a sin in their lives and we use more qualifying statements than have ever been seen before (“Well, now this is just my opinion, but I was thinking, and this is just me, but I’ve been concerned about what you’ve been doing, and feel free to just lay this aside if you want, but. . .”).
- We like to negotiate and compromise while we’re “obeying God.” What He puts in front of us to do may indeed be a great challenge and so we struggle with how to do with the least amount of negative impact. We try to minimize the “collateral damage.”
- Test examples:
a. A daughter’s decision to get saved receives a negative reaction at home. She wonders if she should quit going to church and just go to FCA at school.
b. A high school student’s enthusiasm at growing in their faith meets the harsh realities of the first week back to school. He wonders if maybe faith should just be personal.
c. A man’s rededication to God quickly faces his long-term pornography habit. He tries to negotiate what kind of images would be ok for him to still look at.
d. A woman’s comfortable life is threatened by people around her with a lot of baggage who are in need of a mature Christian friend. She tries to limit contact to just phone calls.
- There are people out there who follow God’s will boldly and seem to relish the negative response that comes with it, but most of us walk forward with fear and trepidation. People like Peter.
- The big idea: it’s encouraging to know that God is able to use Gideon even though his obedience is not particularly bold.
- It’s also worth noting that this required him to go against family beliefs. His father (in v. 30) is confronted with his son’s actions and doesn’t say he’s right or that the Lord is God. The best he can come up with is “Let Baal defend himself.”
- Sometimes our stepping out can create tensions within our families and that’s especially difficult.
- Jesus promised that it would happen (Matthew 10:34-39).
- Not doing something because it would upset our home life is an inadequate excuse.
2. Words of opposition.
a. vv. 29-30 – Words of anger and opposition.
- Gideon gets threatened because of what he’s done. I’m going to concentrate on the words they say and not the stated threat of violence because in America the chances of us being physically assaulted or imprisoned for our faith is slim.
- When we stand up for God there may be anger and opposition in response. If we dare to say that we think something is wrong, we may have people mad at us. If we stand firm for what we think is right, we may have people furious at our “inflexibility.”
b. vv. 31-32 – Derogatory name.
- They give Gideon the name “Jerub-Baal,” which means “Let Baal contend.” This is not a compliment. It’s more like an expression of hope that Baal will destroy Gideon. It’s an expression of a death wish for Gideon.
- We may face people calling us names when we stand up for God. “You Jesus freak.” “Who died and made you God?” “Stuck-up hypocrite.”
- We have to face those names with a willingness to forgive and love the person anyway.
- Marian: mocking me because I said that I believed in not sleeping together before marriage.
WHAT DOES IT LEAD TO? There are a couple results from this: (1) his reputation is established for a future moment of crisis and (2) his heart is established for the power of the Spirit.
- Judges 6:33-35.
1. Reputation established for future moment of crisis.
- v. 33.
- There are people who will scoff at your faith or at least at your unwillingness to compromise. But as you stand firm in your convictions, some part of them (whether public or private) will be impressed. And in a moment of crisis in their life, they will seek you out (“Could you pray for my family?”) or suddenly be open to talking to you about why life is the way it is (“Why would God allow this?”).
- People love being in control of their lives when the seas are pretty smooth. But when crisis and problems arise, they quickly come to the conclusion that their resources (mental, financial, moral, familial) aren’t sufficient to handle what’s in front of them. And they look around for someone who’s living for something more.
- People are more open to change in a crisis.
2. Heart established for the power of the Spirit.
- v. 34-35.
- By His own choice, God cannot do the same things in each person’s heart. His ability to work is impacted by our level of surrender to Him. Those who have given all to Him can be used mightily. Those who are lukewarm believers can be use slightly.
- God will often bring tests into our lives to help us to grow. When we face a test where we have to sacrifice something (our popularity, our financial security, a prized possession, our safety, our comfort), we give a little more of our heart to God (or, in some cases, a lot more).
- Having done so, God slowly establishes our heart in order to be able to greater things through us. That’s why often our greatest usefulness to God is later in our walk of faith. He has been working on us a long time and we are sufficiently surrendered to be able to be trusted with especially challenging and fruitful tasks.
- Before you step out in power, you’ve got to stand up for God.
- It’s interesting that v. 34 says that after the invasion, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
- Obviously we’re in a bit of different situation today since we are blessed to have the Spirit within us from the moment of salvation. It is worthwhile to note that it often in that moment of crisis that the Lord will give us a special power or wisdom in the Spirit to face the obstacle in front of us.
- Churches emphasizing programs over pure hearts.
- It’s also worth noting the order of the events. Gideon is first asked to take a step toward cleaning up the house of Israel before being asked to confront foreign enemies.
- God may work in our lives first to clean up our own home, heart, lives, or church before putting us in a situation where we work to defeat our enemies.
- Certainly in America today, we are in far greater need of people to take a stand to cleanse the house of God than we are warriors who can defeat out enemies.
