Gideon – An Unlikely Hero, An Unlikely Victory
#heroes
OKAY - I want to begin with several passages of Scripture to both set up and to lay a foundation for our conversation this morning….
All Scripture is God breathed and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16,17
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
– Romans 15:4
These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
– 1 Corinthians 10:11
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
This is what the ancients were commended for.
– Hebrews 11:1,2
Prayer
OKAY – this morning we are continuing in our Summer of 2016 series, ‘Heroes, Amazing Stories Of Faith.’
SO FAR – in this series we have talked about…
Noah – a dad who saved His family
Moses – a guy who like us, was called to be a deliverer
Daniel – a guy who remained faithful to God for 70+ years despite living in an ungodly culture. A man whose faith impact and influenced 2 pagan empires (Babylon, Persia) and literally shut the mouths of lions…
Ruth – a hero who though did not build an ark (Noah), part any seas (Moses), or shut the mouths of lions (Daniel), her faithfulness and her story have echoed just as loud throughout the centuries.
MGCC
REMEMBER TO HOLD TIGHTLY TO RUTH'S TAKEAWAYS…
• Your tragedy can lead to triumph
• Your character matters and is refined in the fire
• Your sacrifice may be your salvation
• Your happy endings are never just for you
• Your story is to be one of redemption (yes our world is dark and messed up, but if we make our salt salty again and pray for one, we will change the world one life at a time)!
And never forget that… 'there is always a road back from where you are, to the place God intends for you to be.'
NOW – the biblical Hero we are going to talk about today is a guy named Gideon and I am calling the conversation this morning… Gideon – An Unlikely Hero, An Unlikely Victory…
AND LISTEN – once you hear this guy’s story that title will really make a lot of sense.
OKAY – let’s do this. THERE – are 3 main points in your outline…
The Backstory
UNDERSTAND GIDEON – like Ruth, the Hero we looked at last week (Ruth) lived during the period of time in the Old Testament that is referred to as the period of Judges…
AND - like we said last week the period of Judges began after God’s people had entered, conquered and settled in the promise land, and after Joshua their great leader had died. It lasted 330 years and was a period dominated by violence, sexual immorality, greed, pride, fear, sin and idolatry…
AND IT WAS A TIME - where God’s people were stuck in a very vicious cycle..
NO – there were not many clips of people and events that made the highlight reel during those 300 years…
I MEAN – just listen to the final words God breathed in this book.
In those days Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in his own eyes… - Judges 21:25
NOW – as Judges chapter 6 opens up, God people are coming to the end of a 7 years of suffering oppression at the hands of the Midianites.
AND LISTEN - the Midianites were so cruel that many of the Israelites were forced to fell their homes and now were living in caves just to escape persecution.
And each year at harvest the Midianites, along with their allies would sweep in from the desert, cross the Jordan River and take all the grain they could carry with them and then burn the rest…
We read in Judges 6 beginning at verse 4…
They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. 5 These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.
6 So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. – Judges 6:4-6
YOU KNOW – I wonder how long it took for them to cry out to the LORD?
When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. – Judges 6:7
God sent them a what?
AND YOU KNOW – I think they were hoping that God would send for something else, an army, a plague, a lightening bolt from the sky… instead they got a preacher and a sermon.
BUT LISTEN – God (as He always does) first gave them what they needed, not what they wanted. YOU SEE - He sent them a prophet because it was more important that Israel understand what led to their current problem and predicament than to have immediate deliverance from their oppressors.
YOU SEE - at times understanding a problem and how we got there, is actually more important than eliminating the problem right away.
QUESTION – has God ever done that to you?
OKAY SO – this unnamed prophet delivers a message from God… AND HE BEGINS - by making sure that they know who the message was from…
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
AND KNOW - God reminds His people of all that He had done for them in the past… of how gracious and merciful he has been.
I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.
I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you.
I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.
AND…
I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God.’
God is reminding them that He has a special relationship with them.
I chose you.
I made a covenant with you.
I am your God, you are My people.
And you knew what I expected from you…
You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’
You knew that our relationship was to be exclusive.
THAT – I was to be your only God.
THAT – you were to bow to no one or nothing except me.
But you have not listened to me.”
Sermon over.
The unnamed prophet leaves.
NOW – the text does indicate what kind of effect the message had on the people, but it’s purpose was blatantly obvious,
TO BRING THEM - to repentance and to prepare them for deliverance.
UNDERSTAND – more often then not, repentance precedes deliverance.
NOW – for…
Gideon’s Story
AND – we are going to break his story down into 2 Acts.
Acts One - An Unlikely Hero
QUESTION – if you were asked to list some of the common characteristics of a person who would be ‘likely’ to be a hero what kind of things would you list…
A ‘likely’ hero would be someone who was…
Strong, courageous, confident, skilled, determined, selfless, and prepared… (to name a few)
AND - if we are talking about being a hero for God we would probably add faithful to our list.
AND – you know, I am not sure how many of us would list the following as characteristics of likely hero for God
Fearful, bitter, insecure, timid, inexperienced, and from a family that worship other gods…
BUT UNDERSTAND – as we will see as we look at Gideon’s story everyone of ‘unlikely hero words’ could all be used to describe Gideon when we first meet him…
OKAY – some time after the prophet God left we read the following…
11 Then the angel of the Lord
NOW UNDERSTAND – any time in the Old Testament that you see the expression ‘angel of the Lord,’ it is called a ‘theophany’ (a compound word made up of two Greek words that mean to show God).
YOU SEE – several times in the Old Testament God would appear directly to an individual taking on a human like form.‘
A form that though visible was not actually human flesh.
Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
OKAY…
SO GOD – is appearing to a guy named Gideon…
Who is where? In the bottom of a winepress
Doing what? Threshing wheat.
Separating the grain from the plant
AGAIN - the text says that Gideon was in the wine press threshing wheat. AND - the Hebrew verb used here expresses the idea of hiding.
NOW – a winepress was carved out of stone, and normally had 2 cistern areas were carved out, with one slightly below the other (and underground).
The upper area is where a man would tread out the grapes and as the liquid rose to a certain height it would drain down into the lower vat where the wine would be stored.
Many of these were large enough for a man to hide in, and Gideon was probably down in the lower vat hiding threshing the wheat. - he did this so the enemies would not find him and take his food.
NOW – I have never threshed wheat before, but from what I read it is usually works best when you have some wind helping you out.
YOU SEE – trying to thresh wheat without the benefit of the wind, talks much more effort and does not work out very well.
AND – you know, I see an analogy here for the church.
Too many times the church today tries to do the very same thing… hiding in our own version of the winepress attempting to do God’s work without the wind of the Spirit.
NOW - I imagine that Gideon’s heart was pounding as he hide, threshing away, hoping no one would hear him.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” - Judges 6:12
QUESTION – what do you think Gideon’s first thoughts were after he heard those words?
I MEAN – after he fell to the ground screaming…
UNDERSTAND - God saw something in Gideon that he did not see in himself.
AND I THINK – the same could be said of many of us in this room this morning.
The truth is if when you look at yourself, you do not see masterpiece – you are not seeing yourself as God sees you.
“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
And here is where the bitter comes out…
And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” - Judges 6:13
NOW – there was some truth to that…
NOTICE – that God doesn’t even bother to answer Gideon’s questions or complaints… INSTEAD – he simply turned to him and said…
“Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” – Judges 6:14
YEAH - Gideon you are much more than you think you are.
B/S – here’s is something I know about some us in this room… Some of us tend to devalue our strengths and overvalue our weaknesses… to such an extent that it keeps us from actually doing the good things that God planned in advance for us to do.
AND – it’s here that Gideon begins doing the ‘Moses Burning Bush shuffle.’
But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” – Judges 6:15
AND GOD – just ignores his questions and excuses and says…
“I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
YOU KNOW – I always love God’s answer to the ‘how can I?’ of His people when they are asked to do what seems impossible in their own eyes… Just as God said to Moses hundreds of years earlier… God says to Gideon, “I will be with you…
And if I am with you… you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man…
UNDERSTAND – God with us is always overwhelming majority!
IN FACT - we just read these words in Mark 10 this week…
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” – Mark 10:27
R/L – “all things are possible with God’
17 Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. 18 Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”
He (that would be God, the Creator of Universe) )answered, “I will stay here until you return.”
SO – Gideon runs off cooks a goat, made some bread… and brings it back to where God has been patiently waiting…
THREN - God says put the meat and bread on this rock and pour the broth over it…
Gideon does that, and then God touches the meat with the tip of the staff that was in his hand and fire flames up from the rock and consuming everything on the rock and then He just disappeared.
AND – Gideon begins to freaks out, big time…
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
Pretty much the same response Isaiah had when God appeared to Him… in Isaiah 6…
23 The Lord replied to Gideon, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord is peace”).
NOW - later that night God speaks to Gideon again…
YOU SEE – there was some stuff that Gideon needed to take care of in his own home , before God would be able to use him to be His hero and deliver His people.
That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old.
(how many years had they been oppressed by the Midianites?)
Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.
WOW - are you kidding me.
In his own house there was an altar to pagan gods.
I wonder how long it had been there?
I wonder how often Gideon at worshipped at that altar.
QUESTION
ARE THERE - any altars in your home/life to other gods?
And God is like okay, after you rip that sucker down, here is what I want you to do…
Build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.” - Joshua 6:25-26
I love it, Gideon I want you to take one of the false gods that you and your family have been worshipping and use it as kindling for your sacrifice to me.
SO Gideon – that very night takes care of business.
NOW – he is still kind of timid and afraid (but his fear did not stop him), HE - took 10 servants with him and did it under the cover of darkness so that neither his family or the people in the town would see him. (yeah, I’m thinking others in the town worshipped at these altar as well).
WELL – the next morning when the people of the town see their altar to Baal demolished and the Asherah pole cut down and newly built altar in it’s place, they are furious.
AND WHEN - they find out that it was Gideon who did this, they form a mob and go to Joash house demanding that he send out his son so they could kill him, for doing this.
And here we see Gideon’s dad stepping up,
Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!” 32 From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar. – Judges 6:31,32
NOW – long after that the Midianites crossed over the Jordan River and came sweeping into Israel along with their allies (a force of about 135,000 warriors) for their annual raid and pillage of the land. HOWEVER – little did they know that things were going to be very different this year…
Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms… - Judges 6:34
And 32,000 warriors from various trips answered the call…
BUT UNDERSTAND – Mr Xwinepress Dude, is still kind of new at this warrior and hero thing… so he asks God…
(the same God he asked to wait under a tree while he cooked a goat and made bread earlier)…
LORD, If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me… - Judges 6:36,37
AND – sure enough Gideon wakes up the next morning and the fleece is wet and the ground is dry… AND THEN – Gideon is like, (in his head thinking) wait a minute that almost makes sense… a fleece of wool absorbs water. So the ground could be dry and the fleece still be wet.
SO – He says to our All powerful, ever patient (and aren’t you glad)God
“Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
– Judges 6:39,40
And – this concludes Acts 1 of Gideon’s Story.
Acts Two – An Unlikely Victory
QUESTION – what are some of the things that make a victory on a battlefield more likely? I can think of 2 things.
Superior weapons and a vast numbers of well trained soldiers.
I MEAN - that is what made Desert Storm The Golf War so successful… They had a large amount of superior and high Tech weapons (smart bombs, laser guided missiles) and a massive army… The coalition consisted of 670,000 troops from 28 countries. About 425,000 of the troops were from the United States.
The ground war lasted only about 100 hours.
WELL – as we will see in Chapter 7 of Judges Gideon won a great victory without an extremely small army and with some pretty unusual and unlikely weapons.
OKAY – as chapter 7 of Judges opens up Gideon’s army of 32,000 is about to face off against the Midianites and a coalition army of 135,000.
Gideon’s army is camped at the spring of Harod and the Midianite coalition was camped north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.
SO – God’s people are outnumbered 4-1.
Not the best odds.
SO - I am sure that Gideon was slightly concerned.
BUT UNDERSTAND – his concern level was to go up about 724 notches.
The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you.
Come again Lord, I think I must have misheard you…
How can you have too many men for a battle?
If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.
– Judges 7:2
UNDERSTAND – our God is a very generous God, but there is one thing that He will not share with us, His Glory.
Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’” - Judges 7:3
UNDERSTAND – this is actually part of the law that God gave to Moses to write down for His people… We read in Deuteronomy 20…
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.
2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies.
Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
5 The officers shall say to the army….“Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.” – Dt 20:1-5,8
SO GIDEON – makes the offer and 22,000 of the army went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.
YEAH - the crowd was gone and now you have the courageous.
QUESTION…
HOW – do you think Gideon felt as he saw 2/3 of his army leave?
Discouraged? Afraid? Disheartened? Disillusioned?
Do you think he took any of it personally?
AND – how do you think the other 9,999 warriors felt?
Okay – the odds just went from 4 to 1 against
TO – 13.5 to 1 against…
There are still too many men. (Lord, seriously, you’ve got to be kidding)
Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
– Judges 7:5
AND – the way God thinned them out was to have Gideon take his troops down to a stream to get a drink of water… and then divide them into 2 groups…
Group #1 – the guys who knelt down to drink bury their face in the water. This group had 9700 in it.
Group #2 – the guys who cupped the water in their hands and lapped it up like a dog. 300 guys drank this way.
The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” 8 So Gideon collected the provisions and rams’ horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him. – Judges 7:7,8
QUESTION – what thoughts do you think were going through Gideon’s head as he laid in his tent that night, with the Midian army of 135,000 men below him in the valley?
R U kidding me Lord? I don’t get it?...
FROM - 32,000 to 10,000 to 300…
FROM - odds of 4 -1…. TO odds of 450-1…
BOTTOM LINE – I think he is a little anxious and unsure.
IN FACT – I know he is because God showed up and spoke to him the night before the battle…
The Lord said, “Get up! Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them! 10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. 11 Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged. Then you will be eager to attack.”
- Judges 7:10,11
AND – I love how Gideon responds.
I MEAN – he does go all Rambo or Jason Bourne of God and pretend, “No, I’m good God… no fear here. I am so ready to go do there in the morning and kick me some Midianite butt …”
INSTEAD – he takes God up on His offer
If you afraid and God offers to give you some encouragement – go after it.
SO - GIDEON and his servant sneak over and overhear 2 enemy soldiers talking…
“I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”
AND NOW – let me quickly summarize quickly how it all went down from here…
• Gideon divides his 300 men into 3 companies of 100 each to surround the enemy camp below them.
• He arms them with trumpets, empty jars and torches.
• He tells them, ‘watch me and follow my lead, and do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you all blow yours.
• SO – at Gideon’s signal the 300 men blew their trumpets, smashed their jars, held their torches in their hands and shouted their battle cry… “For the LORD and for Gideon.”
• This threw their enemy into a panic, they thought they were being attacked from all sides.
• And during this panic the LORD caused them to turn their swords on each other…
• Eventually what was left of them fled as fat as they could, with Gideon’s 300 though exhausted still in pursuit.
• Gideon’s 300 through pursued them across the Jordan River
• And during this pursuit Gideon send word for more warriors to join them and they did.
• And when the dust settled, over 120,000 enemy soldiers were killed, the rest captured and the 2 kings of Midian were captured and killed.
• After this great victory the people said to Gideon
“Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” - Judges 8:22,23
Our Story
Okay let me asked a few questions…
1. Does God need heroes to rise up among His people today?
2. Does God still long for victories to be won that will bring Him Glory?
3. Does in this room want to be a hero for God and win victories for His glory and His Kingdom?
NOW- I don’t know about you, but I answered yes to all three of those questions…
SO – this week I kind of imagined that Gideon and I were having lunch together, AND - during that lunch I told him,
THAT like him… I too at times feel like an unlikely hero
AND THAT - at times victory has looked rather unlikely considering the things and circumstances that are surrounding me…
BUT THAT NEVERTHELESS – I long to be a hero that wins victories for God’s glory.
AND THEN – I pictured Gideon grabbing a napkin and a pen…
LOOKING ME – in the eye and saying,
‘Okay, here are 5 things that I learned..
Listen To The Voice and Call Of God
UNDERSTAND - that’s where victory began and how victory was sustained in the life of Gideon.
Start with the junk in your own life first
Are there any altars that need to be torn down?
Any Asherah poles that need to be cut down in your life?
Trust fully in God’s Plan
I will be with you…
UNDERSTAND – it is not about what you have but about who God is.
Remember it’s not the size of your enemy or obstacles that matter, but the presence of you God.
Numbers are irrelevant to victory when God is own your side and you follow His plan and directions.
Stop hiding in winepresses
Sure we may want to.
But there is a war to fight and people to rescue.
UNDERSTAND – it always comes down to this….
(Noah, Moses, Daniel, Ruth)
