Today, I don’t want to take you through the text verse-by-verse. I’m not going to bore you with maps or the meanings of names (except one)—even though there would be some familiarity there. I’m concerned that we might have lost sight of the purpose of this short, specialized sermon series. I felt led to prepare on these texts because of where our church is in terms of finding its identity and figuring out who its leadership is. So, I just want to share a few, hopefully quick, ideas with you and we’ll allow the Holy Spirit to take it from there.
Let me start by reminding you what I believe is important about the previous messages from this book. In the first two chapters, we saw the terrible pattern that continues throughout the book. The people forgot about God and started prioritizing the things that those in the culture around about them thought were important instead of the things God had told them. We saw that whenever Israel did this, God put them in the proverbial “fix” to fix them. Then, when the Israelites were desperate and cried out to God, God raised up a leader. We considered the fact that God raises up leaders when God’s people need them and we asked all of you to commit yourselves to becoming that kind of leader.
In the third chapter, I opened up with a grotesque story-version of Ehud’s assassination of King Eglon of Moab. I spoke about how there are always big challenges in our lives, as well as attitudes, habits, and actions that end up oppressing us. I shared how our modern oppressors aren’t as much people as these sinful actions, attitudes, and habits. But I truly believe the important lesson for us in that chapter was tied to Ehud’s “passing over” or breaking the idols before the victory was won. I probably wasn’t specific enough about the idols in our modern lives, especially those idols faced by Asian-Americans, but I’m going to try to make that up in a minute or so. The point is, we can’t win the victories God has for us as long as we’re protecting the idols “behind our lines.”
In the fourth chapter, we saw two important females within God’s plan. Deborah was both a religious and political leader. She had something that every leader needs—VISION. Jael may have used seduction and trickery to lure God’s enemy into her tent, but even though she herself was not an Israelite, she killed God’s enemy and handed the corpse over to General Barak. I’ll address this more specifically in a moment, but it really does require us to rethink the way we as men, and some Asian-American men in particular, have treated women who are called to leadership.
This week, I read a book about leadership in Asian-American churches. As that Asian-American leader described the way that the western world relates to Asian-Americans, I realized that he was largely right. Among other points, he suggests that Asian-Americans are trained to be reserved, humble, and hardworking and loyal. Now, those are good attributes. The only trouble is that when Asian-Americans keep quiet, look away, and, at least seem to, submit to westerners, the westerners get the idea that the Asian-Americans lack confidence, are disinterested, and may be exploitable. The same thing is true when the average Asian-American thinks it’s disrespectful to raise his/her hand and say, “I’ll do it.” There is a decidedly non-volunteer culture among Asian-Americans and that can be extremely dangerous within the church community. Did you notice in our study of Judges 1 and 2 that God raised up leaders whenever they were needed? Well, my question to you is, “How do you know that you’re not that leader that needs to step up?” We can’t let some pseudo-Confucian humility keep you from discovering God’s will for your life.
I was really affirmed in the impact of this sermon series when I read about the “idols” that still exist in Asian-American culture. Oh, I’m not talking about those lucky Buddhas with your pastor’s physique and those pawing kittens in the Chinese stores. I’m talking about three particular “idols” that Asian-Americans sometimes put above God’s will for their lives: 1) the assumed inferiority of women (if we pretend they aren’t equal to us, it’s easier to use them and ignore them that to interact authentically with them) that is quite counter to the way Jesus related to women; 2) the glorification of Ivy League schools or “good schools” (in the sense of schools whose names have become “designer labels”) over discovering God’s will for one’s life—sometimes God has lessons to teach you in that community college or state school before you’re ready to be an effective leader in that designer school (and maybe that’s part of why 97% of Asian-Americans leave their churches after high school); and 3) the tendency to put one’s family’s expectations and will above God’s will. Even though we need to respect our parents and recognize that God can and does often speak through them, our apbah is not Jesus. And we need to make sure we’re following God even when we sometimes have to make decisions without our parents’ blessing.
And last week, when preaching about Deborah and Jael, some of you may not have understood my point. My point was that Deborah had the vision, Barak had the military ability, and that God chose the unlikely heroine, Jael, who wasn’t even part of the in-group. I suggested that it was a warning to you and me not to underestimate what God is doing with women. Here’s a statement I read in that book on leadership this week that affirmed my suggestion that we pay more attention to women who have a word/vision from God and that we need more women in our fellowship who are not afraid to serve in not only hospitality, but leadership. Please listen: “As Asian-American men we need to speak up on behalf of women in general and for specific women who are qualified to do certain tasks or fill specific roles. We need to be proactive and affirm, train and mentor the enormously gifted sisters in our midst. Woe to us and the body of Christ if men stay silent, thus assenting tha we are better suited to follow Jesus and help his kingdom grow than are women.”
Paul Tokunaga, Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian-American Leaders, p. 38
Today, I am even more convinced that this sermon series is meant specifically for us. We’ve lost some people that are pretty important to us. Some have gone back to Korea for various reasons and some have decided to move to larger churches. Now, we’re wondering how we’re supposed to bring glory to God with even less people than the number with which we started. I think this message is going to partially answer that question, but let’s get it in context.
Look at Judges 6:1. There, we have the same old story. The people forget God and start living differently than God intended. So, God puts them in the “fix” to fix them. Glance at verses 2-5 and you’ll find that this one is even worse. Instead of demanding tribute like the Moabites and the Canaanites in previous chapters, the Midianites are practicing a “scorched earth” policy. Not only do they burn the crops, but they steal all of the livestock, too. Things are so bad that some of God’s people are hiding in caves (v. 2). So, in verses 6-10, God sends them an unnamed prophet to tell them what to do in order to get fixed and get out of this fix. They need to get their loyalty and focus, their priority and purpose back on God. But by the time we meet Gideon in verse 11, they don’t appear to have listened to the prophet. Just because God sent a leader doesn’t always mean that God’s people listen. Note that just because the right message is preached, it doesn’t mean something will happen. It is only when individuals make the message their personal word from God and decide to put it into action that amazing things start to happen.
In this case, the amazing stuff begins to happen when the “angel of the LORD” appears to Gideon. Now, remember, the “angel of the LORD” in the Hebrew Bible usually means that God is appearing to the individual in a guise that won’t kill the human being. How can I say that? Look at verse 14: “And the LORD looked at him and said, ‘Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’” The LORD does the looking and the LORD uses the first person singular pronoun to illustrate his point. God’s sending empowers our doing. If we’re sent, God will be with us.
But it seems like whenever God is ready to raise up a leader, a deliverer, that person has a host of objections. First, Gideon wants to know if God’s heart is really in this blessing that has been pronounced on him. If God is really with Israel, why aren’t things like they were in the good old days? (v. 13) Many of you are asking the same question with different words. If God is really here at our church, why don’t I get as much out of it as I did under another pastor? If God is really here at our church, why aren’t the crowds bigger? If God is really here at our church, why aren’t we as much of a family as we were in the past? Gideon wanted to know where all the miracles had gone; we want to know where all of the visible signs of God’s working have gone.
And then, Gideon goes through the verbal ritual that so many of us do. In verse 15, he denigrates his tribe, his immediate family, and himself. This is so like all of us who alibi that we don’t have the right connections, we didn’t go to the right school, and we haven’t gotten the right breaks. Three strikes and we’re out. This is even more critical for those of you from Asian family backgrounds. You have a tendency to underestimate your culture, to underestimate your immediate family, and to underestimate yourself. I don’t understand that. You’re exceptional people. Don’t you get it? Those Caucasians you envy, envy you. We wish we were as good-looking, talented, smart, and diligent as you. But some of you are carrying your immigrant family baggage to an extreme and need to dump those excuses.
Gideon also follows our pattern of never being quite sure. Here, he asks God to help him be sure by waiting there until Gideon can return with a sacrifice. When Gideon does, we see the “angel” zap up the sacrifice with fire from nowhere and disappear into the smoke. It’s mysterious, maybe a little bizarre, but it’s also an important sign to Gideon. He lives in a culture where Baal is the lightning king, the one who controls thunder and lightning, fire and rain, dew and life-giving moisture.
As God lights up the altar and consumes the sacrifice, Gideon is being assured that he is going to serve the REAL God. Because he has a personal experience with God, he is willing to take on the false god and goddess, Baal and Asherah.
He gathers together a reliable party (of 10 men) and they tear down the statue of the fertility god and chop down the sacred pole dedicated to Baal’s mistress. It is my contention that the more we experience of God, the more likely we are to take on God’s opposition, the more we depend upon our experience with God, the more confident we will be in spiritual warfare.
So, what is the immediate result of his triumph over this false god and goddess? It’s the same result we always get when we are obeying God, OPPOSITION. We often feel like that opposition doesn’t serve any purpose, but God knows what is best. Let me offer a very crude illustration. When I was young, we used to go camping up at the Lodgepole Campground in Sequoia National Park. I think it was the campground at the highest altitude and we liked it because it wasn’t always as crowded as the lower campgrounds. Now, I always thought the campground was named after some Native American tent pole. It was much later that I discovered it was named after a type of pine tree.
Now, the lodgepole pine is specifically created by God for opposition. Its pine cones are not easy to break to let animals and birds gather the seeds as with some of the other pine cones. Do you know when its seeds come out? They come out under extreme heat. My cousin, Don, and I used to love to sneak pine cones into the fire so they would pop and make people jump. But notice the real significance here. Lodgepole pines are designed by God, the intelligent designer, to reseed the forest after a fire. The seeds are dormant until they are needed after a crisis. The OPPOSITION of the extreme heat brings about the release of the life-giving seeds so that the reforesting can begin.
Now, look what happens in our text. The mob wants to find someone to blame for desecrating Baal’s altar. When they discover it is Gideon, they want to lynch him right away. His father asks a wise question. The father wants to know why the mob has to do Baal’s dirty work for him. He wants to know why the false god can’t take care of himself. As a result, the people begin to see Gideon as the guy who could stand up to Baal. They give him a new name based on the word for “contending” (often used for suing someone in the Hebrew Bible), a name that says, “Let Baal contend” or “Let Baal accuse.” How would you like a nickname that meant, “Ticked Off the Devil!” That’s essentially what Jerubbaal means, “Let Baal take him on himself!” By facing the opposition, Gideon brings glory to God, exposes the false god, and builds credibility for reforesting Israel with the defeat of Midian. The heat of the opposition helped prepare Gideon for what was to happen. After facing personal opposition, he had the credibility to challenge Israel to win a difficult battle against the nation’s tormentors.
Yet, Gideon still isn’t such a great hero. His faith is still a work in progress because he keeps second-guessing himself all along the way. He’s seen God consume a sacrifice with fire and he’s seen Baal exposed as a fraud, but he still needs assurance. Now, it probably isn’t a bad thing that Gideon double-checks with God. In fact, the sign is quite appropriate. Since Gideon has just exposed Baal, the false god of the life-giving dew and rain, he wants to see God as the real One who controls the weather. He asks for God to work a microclimate miracle for him. He wants to see dew on an outstretched fleece and not on the ground. Could God control the weather that much? Yes! In our text, we see the LORD do precisely that.
But it isn’t enough for Gideon. He knows that some people will assign coincidence to signs and he wants to be sure. He doesn’t want God to think he’s being a pest, but he wants to make sure this isn’t a trick of nature. He wants to see God’s hand at work, so he asks God to reverse matters. THIS time, the fleece remains dry and the ground around it is wet. Another microclimate miracle courtesy of God’s great power.
Now, he’s all ready to go. But let this be a lesson to you. When you seek a sign from God, make sure that it is a sign that’s relevant for the challenge ahead of you. Gideon was opposing the belief in Baal and asked for evidence that God was in charge. The request was relevant in that Baal was usually given credit for the dew and the rain instead of God. The request didn’t really benefit Gideon. It wasn’t like me asking God to prove power over curses by removing the curse from Wrigley Field. As a Cubs fan, you know where that kind of request is going—into the self-serving pile. People who say they’ll believe in God if they get a million dollars in the bank or get that new plane, boat, car, or house they want, aren’t asking for a sign, they’re asking for the money, plane, boat, car, or house. Make sure your signs are appropriate to your need to know, not shopping expeditions or admission to the midways of miracles.
To me, what happens in Judges 7 is most encouraging and most relevant to you and me, today. God tells Gideon that he has too many resources to work with. He has too many people. God says that if they win the victory with the large army Gideon has raised (at least 3x as large as that raised by Barak in Chapter 4), the people will think they won the victory themselves and God wouldn’t get the glory.
Quickly, let’s do the math. In verse 3, Gideon tells any who is afraid to feel free to go home. The text tells us that 22,000 thought this was a good idea and went home. Let me just apply that to another congregation. Anytime you have a large congregation, you could almost wager that the same proportion of attendees are spectators, fringe participants, and maybe, not even believers. When it’s time for action, you probably can’t count on at least two-thirds of any organization, including a church.
But subtracting 22K leaves us with 10K, that number of human sufficiency times divine plenty that Barak had. That’s a good number. There’s something holy and special about it. Why couldn’t Gideon move forward with them? After all, Barak had done so and Judges 5 clearly tells us that victory came from the LORD. But what had happened between Barak and Gideon? The people had forgotten and God wanted to give them something to remember. So, God told Gideon to lead the people to water and watch how they drank. The majority of the people were so focused on the water that they got down on their hands and knees and put their faces down into the water. They were totally into the water.
But, there were about 300 fighting men who used their hands to bring the water to their lips. Their faces weren’t in the water. They were drinking the water without losing their situational awareness. It’s a little harder to sneak up on men lapping from their hands than those face down in the water drinking deeply. God helped Gideon separate out the men who had combat awareness, the ones who didn’t forget that they were in a war. God helped Gideon find the most dedicated (who stayed on when they had a choice to leave) and the most qualified (who didn’t forget they were in a war). And God does the same for churches today.
So many times in my ministry, I’ve seen people leave my church and I’ve wondered how I was going to get along without them. I would see people leave and I would think that my ministry and my effectiveness was over. Then, I would discover (much to my chagrin) that they had often “checked out” long before they moved and (much to my amazement) that God had already chosen someone to take their places. More importantly, those who took their places were more committed and ready to grow. As I’ve quoted my college Old Testament professor before, “There have to be some first class funerals before you get to the Promised Land.”
Gideon must have wondered what God was thinking as another 9,700 soldiers left the camp. Yet, God had the plan established. In fact, God was so certain of Gideon’s success that he sent Gideon to spy on the enemy camp. And guess what Gideon heard? He heard that a Midianite soldier had dreamed that the entire camp was going to be crushed—only in the dream, it was a loaf of bread that brought the tent down. Now, I know dream imagery isn’t always exact, but that’s a bizarre image—a loaf of bread bringing down a tent. Even if Gideon had been able to shift time and use a medieval catapult, I don’t think bread would bring down a tent. Even if he’d have had a Bradley tank or the guns of the USS New Jersey, I don’t think bread is the right ammo for the job.
But the dream was right in one regard. A force that the Midianites would normally ignore as being as soft and insignificant as a loaf of bread was going to defeat them. And why? It was because the plan came from God (v. 15). It was because it was a good plan where the enemy believed it was surrounded on three sides and had a zone to retreat (or, in this case, rout).
But I also believe it is because the plan was executed with praise and enthusiasm (v. 18). As the 300, not to be confused with the 300 from Sparta who died holding off the Persians, broke clay pottery covering lamps and began to blow the trumpets, they shouted their loyalty to God and to their leader. If you ever want to confuse the enemy, you can do it with praise. Praising God means we’re depending upon God and it loosens the enemy’s grip on our circumstances, it reminds the enemy that God is in control, not Satan.
Finally, the victory was secured by the enemy’s confusion (vv. 21-22). What would you think if you heard horns blown on three sides of the camp? You’d think that the troops were maneuvering in the dark by means of blowing the horns. What would you think if you saw hundreds of lamps lit out in the darkness? You’d think the lights indicated groups of fighting men coming to take you on the flank. But Who won the battle? God did! And God didn’t need thousands to win it.
So, Who is going to win the victories in our church? God is. And the message to your pastor (who was tremendously disturbed before this sermon series began and is tremendously relieved now) is that God doesn’t need the numbers we think God does. God is going to do what God is going to do. And, since the great majority of you have already stood beside me and said that you’re committed, guess what? We have our 300, we just need the plan. Let’s pray!
