Gideon - Judges 6-8
Quiz - where does Gideon fall in history?
(Put an insert in the bulletin with the following people/events out of order. With a whiteboard have the congregation help with putting them in order.)
First we’ll put these in chronological order:
Adam
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Moses and the Exodus
Joshua
The time of the Judges
The Kings of Israel
The divided kingdom - Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah taken into captivity
John the Baptist
The ministry of Jesus
The Holy Spirit is given
The Last Days and End Times
The Return of Jesus
Where does Gideon fall in this sequence?
Who read Judges 6, 7 and 8 in preparation for this Sunday?
Judges 6:1-12
(1) The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites. (2) Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
(3) Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. (4) They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.
(5) They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. (6) Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
(7) When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, (8) He sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
(9) “I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
(10) “I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
(11) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
(12) When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
Judges 6:1-12
(1) The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord …
The Charge of Obedience from Moses in Deuteronomy 4:1-40 - this is an example of how the Israelites knew what God expected of them and that is just one example!
They knew it! They had the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments in the Ark of the Covenant. How could they sink to that level?
Exodus 20:12
(20) “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
Why is this commandment sandwiched between the four commandments of how we are to relate to God and the five commandments about how we are to treat each other?
Children who honor their father and their mother listen to and obey what they are taught. The parents in their youth had been instructed by their parents with regard to the law of God and were expected to teach it to their children.
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
Somewhere along the line this chain had been broken because now adults were bowing down to idols and their children were learning from them.
Do you see any parallels between what happened in Israel in the time of Gideon and what is happening right now in America?
You could blame the schools, you could blame mass media, you could blame society, you could even blame the church but the spirit of the fifth commandment is still in effect; our parents can and should be teaching their children in word and in deed. Walking the walk and talking the talk.
Imagine if parents asked their children on a regular basis what they were being taught in school and read over their assignment and text books. Such parents would take the children to the Bible and show them the difference between the truth in God’s Holy Word and what they may be encountering in school.
Imagine if parents would prayerfully ask God to help them select and oversee what their children see on TV or what they read or their access to social media and taught them to love obedience to God and the peace of His presence in their lives.
Imagine if parents would live out the two great commandments with joy in front of their children. The world would be turned upside down.
But, vacating the fifth commandment leads to the exact same thing in America as it did in ancient Israel; [They] did evil in the sight of the Lord.
So, what happened to Israel??? What is the result of doing evil in the sight of the Lord?
Judges 6:1-12
(1) The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
There are consequences to our actions! This is a truth that runs throughout the Word of God! Disobedience to God has consequences. Obedience to God has consequences. In the case of disobedience the consequences are the absence of the presence of God in our lives, the scars from sin, broken relationships, turmoil.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says that, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” But, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
Judges 6:2-6
(2) Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
(3) Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. (4) They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.
(5) They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. (6) Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
So, there they are, the Israelites, hiding out. They’ve run away!
The invaders are taking whatever they can get their hands on for themselves.
The Israelites are basically starving to death, so, as a last resort, they cry out to the Lord!
Here’s the thing … the Israelites HAD been praying. They had been praying to Baal and to Asherah … but … no response! No deliverance.
Why did they wait so long to call on Yahweh?
Sometimes people come to God and never turn away from Him.
Sometimes people who come to God take their eyes off from God and start trusting in things other than God. This is idolatry, the same as the Israelites.
Sometimes God takes us to a place of desperation so that we will change our destructive sinful ways and turn to Him for salvation.
Sometimes people harden their hearts and never come to God.
But … God is faithful to send people into our lives!
Judges 6:7-10
(7) When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, (8) He sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
(9) “I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
(10) “I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
God has been faithful and sent a prophet. Did they listen to him? There's no indication that they did so, but, the Lord in His compassion even went a step further as we read in:
Judges 6:11-12
(11) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
(12) When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
Now, that’s where we’re going to leave it this Sunday, but, one thing that stands out from the study today is this.
God is watching us and when we cry out to Him He is faithful and will send an agent to bring the good news of salvation to us.
That agent may be a person, it may be the recollection of a sermon heard long ago, it may be the lyrics of a song heard on a Christian music station, it may be a Bible in a hotel room placed there by the Gideons or it may be the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit.
About 2,000 years ago there had been 400 years of silence from Heaven in the land of Israel.
Israel had tried to rise up against the oppressors with no lasting success
They were an occupied nation, allowed to exist only by the will of the Roman empire. No prophets. No glorious nation of Israel. But God had a different plan.
A little known priest and his barren wife gave birth to a baby who would grow into a man who was indeed a prophet. His proclamations foretold the coming the Messiah, the anointed One of God.
In the time of Gideon God sent a prophet. After John the Baptist God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ! Born to a virgin.
Jesus came to show us the Father.
Jesus came to make a way of salvation.
Jesus came to die a horrible death in our place for our sin.
Jesus came so that we could have a relationship with Him that would last for all of eternity.
Jesus came to rescue us and reconcile us to God.
Before we come to know Jesus as our Savior we are in the same condition as Israel was in at the time of Gideon. We are in rebellion, consciously or unconsciously worshiping other things than God!
God sent a prophet to Israel and an angel to Gideon in order to turn Israel back to the path of righteousness.
God has sent Jesus in order to do the same thing for you. But it’s not just something He did in the past. God is still active in the rescue of souls by the movement of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people and Jesus Himself is advocating for us at the throne of God!
What about you? (Invitation)
Communion (Celebration)
