Intro: Jesus told his disciples…John 16:33b In this world you will have trouble…
Paul remined his Thessalonian readership…
1Thssalonians 3:3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.
POINT? WE ARE DESTINED FOR TROULBE AND TRAILS,– AND OFTEN OUR FIRST initial human, natural, reaction and response is FEAR!
To which Jesus would say…
Matthew 8:26a He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"
Point being - Faith should overcome fear!
I read quite a few quotes on this…
Fear is actually faith in reverse. It's faith in the wrong thing...anything other than God. Face your fear if you want to replace your fear.
Fear ends where faith begins...
Fear is the contradiction of faith. Faith says, whatever it is, it will be okay because of God. -
Let your faith overcome your fear, and God will turn your worry into worship.
Worry is spiritual shortsightedness. Its cure is intelligent faith.
Fear and faith have something in common: they both believe in a future that hasn't yet happened.
Perhaps a man who modeled this struggle with faith and fear, and came out victorious is the person named Gideon! That is why I’ve entitled the message…
The Fearful Faith of Gideon? – Part 1
The statement sounds oxymoronic, yet the record of his life, and ultimate victory of his fear, shows us that a measure of faith and fear existed in the same man, yet they should cohabitate for long for one will eventually evicts the other, and it is up to the individual as to which one resides and which one is removed!
Proposition: Today’s life study will show us how God takes the faith of the fearful (Gideon) and help his faith to grow in order to conquer his fears!
Let’s consider first of all…
I. Gideon’s Circumstances?
By that I mean, not just the personal but the national circumstances he found himself in!
A) Circumstances?
1. After the time of Barak, Deborah, and Jael?
Judges 5: 31 “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had peace forty years.
a) But after that as I mentioned last Sunday the cycle recorded in Judges kicks in!
B) Cycle?
1. Departure:
Judges 6:1a The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
2. Discipline
Judges 6:1b and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
3. Devastation
Judges 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.
a) To put that into perspective one devotional writer put it this way:
Let’s say you have a garden, and you work hard all spring and summer to make that garden produce abundantly. But every year, just about the time you’re ready to gather in the harvest, your neighbors swoop down and take your produce away from you by force. This goes on year after year, and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you can imagine that scenario, then you’ll have some idea of the suffering the Jews experienced every harvest when the Midianites made their annual raids. For seven years, God allowed the Midianites and their allies to ravage “the land of milk and honey,” leaving the people in the deepest poverty.
4. Despair!
Judges 6:6a Midian so impoverished the Israelites -NIV
Judges 6:6a So Israel was brought very low because of Midian
a) Literally means they were “made small” agriculturally, economically, and socially.
b) The idea is that they were led to live a beggarly life, of one who is destitute, poor and helpless.
c) Result? - Despair
Judges 6:6b that they cried out to the Lord for help.
d) The cry does not seem to be one of repentance, but rather a cry for relief!
e) And because I think that the cry was of that nature, the deliverance sent by God was two-fold:
5. Deliverance?
Judges 6:7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
a) God’s response?
Judges 6:8a he sent them a prophet,
i. Breaks the pattern thus far in Judges:
ii. Unusual!
iii. God sends an unnamed prophet!
iv. Who rehearses their history!
Judges 6:8b who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
Judges 6:8c 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. 10a I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’
b) God’s reason?
Judges 6:10b But you have not listened to me.”
1. God’s intention was to provoke repentance!
ii. He shows them the reason for their circumstances!
iii. There is a great difference between a cry for help from trouble, and a cry of repentance for sin. Israel called on God but they had not dealt with their sin.
c) God’s reach?
i. Not only does he reach out to the people with a prophet
ii. He also reaches out to a person that he is going to use to promote the nations deliverance!
II. Gideon’s Call.
Judges 6:11a 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…
A) God’s Messenger?
1. The angel of the Lord?
a) Angel – ???????? - mal'ak – messenger?
b) Christ Himself!
i) Christophany - A preincarnate appearance of Christ!
Judges 6:11a 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…
B) Gideon’s Mentality? (What was his mental, emotional, spiritual state at that time?)t
Judges 6:11a threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
1. Desperation!
J. Sidlow Baxter - This is an act of desperation & fear, lest the Midianites discover and seize even the small amount that could be threshed that way. The usual practice for threshing would be in an open & elevated location where the wind would blow away the chaff. This indicated a situation of serious distress; also it indicated a small amount of grain. This is clear because he is doing it rather than having cattle tread it. It is on bare ground or in the winepress rather than on a threshing floor made of wood, and is done remotely under a tree out of view.
J. Sidlow Baxter - In sum, Gideon’s act of threshing wheat in a winepress reflected both his fear of discovery by the Midianites and the smallness of his harvest. Normally wheat was threshed (the grain separated from the wheat stalks) in an open area on a threshing floor (cf. 1 Chr 21:20-23) by oxen pulling threshing sledges over the stalks.
So Gideons mentality was one of despair
2. Despair
But now watch this – this is the most amazing thing to me…
C) God’s Message?
Judges 6:12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
1. Warrior?
2. Hiding in a winepress threshing wheat?
D) God’s Meaning?
Daniel Whedon- The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor — These inspiring words were designed to be a source of comfort and strength to Gideon. He is called a mighty hero, not because he has already distinguished himself by great deeds of valor, but in reference to what he is yet to do, all which was known to this Angel.
1. Point?
a) God sees something in Gideon, that Gideon does not see himself!
b) God sees a potential in Gideon, that Gideon doesn’t realize he possess!
c) God does not see his redeemed as they are, but rather what they can be, as He works in their lives in order to produce and perfect it!
d) God is in the business of taking "nobodies" and transforming them into “somebodies” by His presence in their lives.
e) He takes our inadequacy and transforms it by His adequacy.
f) God has a way of seeing beyond our fears and our flesh patterns, and is committed to perfecting and conforming us into the image of His Son!
E) Further Meaning?
1. “The Lord is with thee”, literally means, “His power is on you.”
2. “The Lord is with thee”, literally means, “God has nothing else or more to offer you.”
a) What? Why?
3. BECAUSE I HAVE COME TO BE WITH YOU! WHAT MORE CAN I OFFER YOU – THAN ME?
Joseph Benson - The Lord is with thee — That is, to guide and strengthen thee, to animate and support thee. He is with thee, giving thee a commission to go out against the enemies of Israel, communicating to thee all necessary qualifications for the execution of this commission, and assuring thee of success therein.
a) By the way we have the very same thing!!
Matthew 28: 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
4. Therefore, that being the case -You are a mighty warrior!
a) Warrior (gibbor) is an adjective meaning someone who is brave, strong, and mighty!
i. A term used for God Himself
ii. Mighty God - El Gibbor (Isaiah 10:21; Jer. 32:18.)
Exodus 15:3 “The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name.”
iii. As well as other men in the bible:
Judges 11:1a Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior,
iv. Wow, what an incredible thing to say to a man!
v. But look at…
III. Gideon’s Comeback?
Judges 6:13a “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
A) Complaint!
B) Common complaint of the fearful and the faithless!
Judges 6:13b if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
1. If?
2. Why?
Judges 6:13b Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
3. Where?
4. But?
J. Sidlow Baxter - When first we see Gideon he cuts a pathetic figure of unbelief . He is a furtive, nervous young man secretly threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the marauding Midianites. What pathetic exclamations of unbelief escape his lips when the Lord suddenly appears... He gasps "Oh! ... if ... why? ... where?”... which is a rather dismal reception!
IV. Gideon’s Commission
And here you see where it is the Lord Jesus who is talking to him because the narrative transitions from addressing him as the angel or messenger of the Lord to simply the term…
Judges 6:14a The Lord turned to him…
A) Commission?
1. Charge, or directive He gives him?
Judges 6:14b and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
NASB- 14 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?”
B) Cause of his strength?
FB Meyer -The strength-giving power of a look from the eyes of Christ!
V. Gideon’s Confusion?
Judges 6:15a “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel?
A) Means by which I can save Israel?
1. Is found in…
B) Meaning of the statement…
Judges 6:14b and said, “Go in the strength you have
Judges 6:14b "Go in this your strength
1. I told in verse 12 that the Lord was with you; and on that basis I’m saying, Go in this strength, go in this, this is your might, that the Lord who called and commissioned you is with you!
a) Now, a sense of our own inadequacy for God's Work is not a bad thing, in fact it is a good thing!
Exodus 3:11a But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
Exodus 4:10 Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
Jeremiah 1:6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.”
Luke 1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
C) Means to do God’s work?
Luke 1: 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
2 Corinthians 12: 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Albert Barnes - That is, the strength which I impart to my people is more commonly and more completely manifested when my people feel that they are weak. It is not imparted to those who feel that they are strong, and who do not realize their need of Divine aid. It is not so completely manifested to those who are vigorous and strong, as to the feeble. It is when we are conscious that we are feeble, and when we feel our need of aid, that the Redeemer manifests his power to uphold, and imparts his purest consolations.
Anyway…
VI. Gideon’s Contention?
A) Contention?
Judges 6:15b My clan is the weakest in Manasseh,
1. Clan!
Judges 6:15c and I am the least in my family.”
2. Capabilities!
a) Youngest?
i. Gideon seems to have a overriding sense of his own inadequacy
ii. Perhaps our problem today, is that most of us are too strong for God to use.
iii. Most of us may be to confident or see ourselves as being capable for God to use.
iv. But have you noticed that kind of people God uses?
1 Corinthians 1: 26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. – NIV
B) My contention?
1. God follows this policy so that no flesh will glory in His presence.
VII. Gideon Confidence?
A) Reiteration!
Judges 6:16a The Lord answered, “I will be with you,
John Gill- The Targum (Aramaic translation of the Old Testament says) “My Word shall be thy help,'which was sufficient to answer all objections taken from his meanness, unworthiness, and weakness
1. I promised to be with you – you can bank on that!
B) Result?
1. Of this promise?
Judges 6:16b and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Judges 6:16b "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."- NASB
1. You will strike them down if you were taking on only one man, not a mighty army!
a) That is how easy the battle will be!
b) How can that be?
i. Because I who will be with you, of myself, am a whole army!!
Joel 2:11 The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it?
