Gideon - The Mighty Man of Valor
“Spiritual Adultery”
Part 2 of a Series
TEXT: Judges 6:11-40 New King James Version, “Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
Intro: Last week we began a series of sermons based on the life and times of Gideon. As a way of refreshing what we covered last week, let’s do a quick review.
RECAP OF LAST WEEK
Look at who the Israelites had to deal with while they had drifted away from God. There were a few reasons they fell away from God and we can view these things as warnings for us today:
1. They forgot who they were; God’s chosen and special people.
2. They forgot where they came from; Egypt, Wilderness, etc…
3. They forgot their present day purpose.
There were particular enemies that God had turned them over to.
Midianites = Inhabitants of strife and contention.
Over the years I have observed several things about those who have backslidden, fallen away from God or grown cold in their faith. One of those things is the Midianite Curse. That means when someone is not in a right state with God they will often become connected with strife or contention in one way or another. That means they will either become toxic and extremely unpleasant or they will become the victim of it.
Amalekites = A people that lick up or exhaust.
There is a level of poverty that is identified as the Amalekite Curse. This is the draining away of everything good and positive in a person’s life. You work and labor and exhaust yourself trying to get ahead but it is just like Dust in the Wind.
Then there was the Terebinth Tree. Think about it, why mention the particular type of tree species? And what is a terebinth anyway?
It is actually a really huge oak tree that is deeply rooted and really tall and spread out. In researching this tree and its significance, I found it was often mentioned in the Bible when something is referred to as long lasting, strong, or significant. Other times it served as a survey marker, marking a boundary or property line.
Here is what one young lady blogged about the tree…….. she said, “A year ago, my mom shared with me that God impressed upon her heart that I have found my ‘terebinth tree’ – a place where I belong, a place where God is, a place where I have met with God, a place where I would not have found if I had remained in Malaysia, and it’s my hiding place in Him.”
The name Ophrah translates to mean “A Fawn” which to me denotes the birth of something new and beautiful.”
Any time an angel and especially the Angel of the Lord appears in the Bible, it means that something is about to change, to shift, to go in a new direction. And from that time on, nothing is ever the same. And, that’s usually a really good thing.
The terebinth tree in Ophrah actually belonged to Gideon’s father. His name was Joash the Abiezrite.
Joash means “Jehovah is strong, Jehovah has built, Jehovah supports; the substance of the Lord.”
Abiezrite means “My father will help; Father of Helps.” But is this really who he was? Was he really a helpful father full of Jehovah’s strength and substance?
To further understand the backslidden state of the nation, you can see what Gideon’s father’s identity was supposed to be. But, Joash had turn away from God and was a Baal worshiper. He had totally turned his back on God, betrayed his faith and worshiped demons instead. And, much of Israel had also followed in Joash’s footsteps.
It is into this mess of famine, rebellion to God, the wrath of God, the consequences of being in a backslidden condition that Gideon enters the story.
Gideon’s name means a “Feller or Axe man, One who cuts down, a great warrior.”
So of all people, why Gideon? After all, he is threshing wheat in a wine press in an attempt to hide it from the Midianites so they won’t confiscate it.
Why choose Gideon when he said that he is the least person in the smallest tribe and belongs to the weakest clan in the tribe? And, he wasn’t the most confident and faith filled person as we’ll find; even after an Angel of the Lord visited him and called him a Mighty Man of Valor.
Most Bible scholars agree that what we have here with the Angel of the Lord is what is called a Christophany. That is, an Old Testament appearance of Christ himself. We see several of these Christophanies throughout the Word:
Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord
The three Hebrew boys in the furnace
Joshua and the Captain of the Lord’s Armies
Abraham and Sarah when they entertained the three angels
And…., here with Gideon we see another Christophany
And now we are up to date and continue this journey through Gideon’s life. We pick up the story in Judges 6:13; …. Gideon is continuing his conversation with the Angel of the Lord which we have discovered was Christ Himself in an Old Testament appearance.
Christ opening remarks to him was to say that the Lord was with him and that he was a mighty man of valor.
Judges 6:13 “Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
This seems like a reasonable question but you have to understand that Gideon just wasn’t getting it. I mean, Christ opening remarks to him was to say that the Lord was with him and that he was a mighty man of valor.
Gideon’s response seems a little whinny, a little sarcastic, and certainly not the conversation of a might man of valor. I mean Gideon believed that God had completely abandoned them and that it was entirely God’s fault. And sometimes it’s easy to forget why we find ourselves in some of our messes as well; we are sometimes the same way.
We fall off the wagon somehow, become defiant and disobedient to God, turn to completely ungodly or humanistic resources for help or satisfaction and then wonder why God isn’t blessing us?
God is still on the throne, has not taken a break, is located in the same place he has always been. We are the ones who have strayed, gotten off center and need to repent and be re-calibrated.
So okay, we see Gideon’s response to the Lord’s statement that God is with him and he is a mighty man of valor. Gideon accused the Lord of some stuff and did not even pay attention to the statement. He just came back with his own bitterness.
So check this out!
The Angel of the Lord did not acknowledge his statement but just said, …..
Judges 6:14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
I mean wow! What a power statement. Basically, the Lord was saying, you can sit here all day and moan and groan, and complain about the state of affairs; and nothing will ever change. Or, you can believe what I say about you; that I am with you, that you are a mighty man of valor, that you can go in this might and save yourself and your people from the Midianites, these Inhabitants of strife and contention.
Then he says this; he says “Have I not sent you?” I mean, that is a very direct question: Have I not sent you? ...... To which Gideon replies …….. Judges 6:15 So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." 16 And the Lord said to him," Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."
Gideon is doing his best to dance around the questions and try to talk God out of using him. But obviously God isn’t budging or second guessing himself one little bit. God had found his man and now he had to patiently but firmly work with him.
I love how God is patient with us through the process of the calling, the preparation and the commissioning. Often God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. But when God is getting down to business with us, it’s not time to fool around, but to get serious about what the Lord is telling us.
Two things contributed to his cowardice: Bitterness and Timidity.
Gideon was set up to live a life of frustration. He was bitter with God for not coming through for him in the past. In addition to the bitterness, Gideon felt that he had nothing to offer to help improve things. He didn’t have the skills and power to turn things around; or so he thought.
He told the LORD’S angel in Judges 6:15: Gideon said to him, “But Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” You’ve got the wrong guy. You need a hardened warrior to do this.
Illustration: Do you remember the four-minute mile in track & field? They’d been trying to do it since the days of the ancient Greeks. Someone found the old records of how the Greeks tried to accomplish this. They had wild animals chase the runners, hoping that would make them run faster. They tried tiger’s milk: not the stuff you get down at the supermarket, I’m talking about the real thing.
Nothing worked, so they decided it was physically impossible for a human being to run a mile in four minutes. Our bone structure was all-wrong, the wind resistance was too great, our lung power was inadequate. There were a million reasons.
Then one day one human being proved that the doctors, the trainers, and the athletes themselves were all wrong. And, miracle of miracles, Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. And the year after that, three hundred other runners also broke the four-minute mile!
Judges 6:17-21 Then he said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You."And He said, "I will wait until you come back." 19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. 20 The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. 21 Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
Now, I have to tell you, I read this part and I just don’t get it. He has been physically having this intense conversation with the Angel of the Lord who has just revealed himself in a very real and tangible way. I mean Boom…… there he is. And Gideon is still questioning everything. But the light seems to be coming on, just a little at least. And so he goes away and makes this big meal as an offering to the Lord.
Now, there is significance in the fact that the guy felt he needed to present an offering to the Lord. Because, you should never come into the presence of the Lord without an offering; and that was completely understood by these Old Testament figures.
And then the Lord takes the offering and stretches out his staff and …. Poof! Fire consumes the offering. And if you understand the protocol here, you will understand that this meant that the Lord accepted the offering. And it was at this moment in time that Gideon finally realizes and accepts the fact that he has been face to face with God.
Judges 6:22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face."
23 Then the Lord said to him, "Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die." 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Do you know why the Lord told him not to fear? Because he was afraid…. And he didn’t have to be fearful because greater is He……
Gideon built an altar and didn’t leave his place of prayer until he had peace. And yes, we need to be people who build altars and don’t walk away from them until the peace has come.
25 Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;
26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down."
Now look, with all respect, sometimes our forefathers didn’t do things right, and our generation is paying for it. And, it has caused us to be oppressed by generational curses. In order to turn it around, we must get rid of the Baals in our lives. Then we must put Christ back into His rightful place in our lives.
27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.
Now look at this, Gideon has been called the Mighty Man of Valor but he doesn’t really look like a hero yet does he? Not exactly a William Wallace or some superman! But the reality is that he went ahead and did it.
He stepped across the Chicken Line.
And then he gets even a little bolder. You see, it takes a lot of courage to do what you know is right when you have never made a stand before.
But God is looking for people who will stand up for the Kingdom of God and not dilute or compromise the mission, the assignment. Yes it was a risk, but nothing ever gets done without some level of risk.
Look at what happened when the people woke up the next morning and saw what Gideon had done….
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
Judges 6:28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built.
29 So they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And when they had inquired and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing." 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it."
31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! And so finally, Gideon’s father finally comes to his senses and stands beside his son. He does a 180 and makes his stand against the idols he was worshipping and “man’s up!”
If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!" 32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal (=He will contend with Baal; let Baal defend his own case).
The point I most want to make here is that you cannot compromise your walk with spiritual adultery and expect to have the best of both worlds like the Jews were trying to do.
You might say spiritual adultery is strong language, and it is. But the truth is that we are called The Bride of Christ and as such, must do everything we can to be faithful and true to the Lord and not be playing around on the side with other gods and other stuff.
Some forms of spiritual adultery can be very subtle. It is so easy to compromise your Christian standards and commit spiritual adultery.
Elijah said “How long will you halt between two opinions? If Baal be god then serve him but if Jehovah be God, then serve him.”
Joshua said, “Choose ye this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
That day, when he took down the altars of Baal, they called Gideon something else than “The Axe Man,” they called him Jerubbaal = He will contend with Baal; let Baal defend his own case.
In other words, he tore down Baal’s altar in the name of the Lord and Baal couldn’t do anything about it. So, if he cannot defend himself, let him be; turn away from him. It’s another way of saying that Jehovah is much more powerful and is the true God so let’s get back to worshipping him and no other deity.
So, what do you do when you have lost your way?
Repent
Rebuild
Renew
Repent and Rebuild and Renew your focus on Jesus
Repent and Rebuild and Renew your commitment
Repent and Rebuild and Renew your foundation of faith in Christ.
Conclusion: Finding his purpose and the courage to begin walking it out was not easy for Gideon. It is easy to become sidetracked. But as we can see, he is beginning to step up.
God is developing his man, step by step.
We can learn a lot from Gideon about ourselves. As we begin to step up, we are seeing that we can make a difference.
Gideon is beginning to learn how to walk and function in the calling and favor of God; just like we are.
