Encouragement
Hebrews 3:12-13, Judges 6
September 28, 2025
We’ve been looking at what it means to biblically encourage one another. Beginning today and for the next few weeks, we’re going to look at some biblical stories of encouragement. We’re going to look at the greatest encourager of all this week and next, as we look back into the Old Testament and look at a guy named Gideon.
It’s a story that’s found in the OT book of Judges. We’ll get there in a moment. Before we look at the story, I want to go back and remind us what I believe is closer to God’s definition of encouragement. Because God is the greatest encourager there is!
His definition is much more demanding, but much more rewarding. This is what God wants us to do for one another. To biblically encourage means we - - -
Participate with the Holy Spirit as we extend grace to the heart, soul and mind of others.
Walking beside another person as we impart life, love, courage, comfort, peace, strength, hope and faith as needed.
The point of encouragement is more than a quick attaboy and attagirl. It’s speaking life into someone. It’s walking alongside them and providing something they need. Maybe it’s an extra dose of courage or strength, maybe it’s comfort or peace.
Whatever it is . . . it’s walking alongside another person and pouring into them, as God pours His Spirit into us. It’s not totally natural, so it pushes us. But that’s a good thing, because the push to speak life into someone comes from the greatest gift we offer another, which is our love, which comes from God.
With that in mind, let’s look at the story of Gideon. To get there, we need to look at the back story. The Israelites are in the promised land. All the great patriarchs have died. They’re self governing, which is leading to lots of issues as the people have fallen away from God.
They’re in active sin and God has sent oppressing nations against them. They’re struggling to survive, but eventually they realize their sin, turn back to God and pray for deliverance and God comes through. The people become complacent again and fall away and go through the same cycle again and again and again.
It’s not unlike our world today. We turn to God in the tough times and kinda forget about God in the good times and when disaster hits, we turn back to God. That’s a generalization for humanity.
So, we pick up the story in Judges 6 - - - -
1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel
made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.
4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.
6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
So, there’s the back story. The people were being oppressed. The Midianites and others were devouring their crops and livestock. They had nothing. It was to the point where people were living in the mountains and caves to hide from them.
They wanted to be rescued, delivered from these people. So, they plead to God and God responds to them in verses 7-10, that He’s already delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But none of them knew what that was like.
God’s requirement was to honor and obey Him. Follow His laws, worship Him and experience His power and presence . . . and they would thrive. But they didn’t do that.
Yet, God relents in what’s happening and calls someone to deliver them. It’s a mighty warrior named Gideon. We read this in verses 11-12 - - - -
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite,
while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress 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, O mighty man of valor.”
WOW!! Do you see what God is calling Gideon? A mighty man of valor. That can be translated lots of ways in Hebrew. Literally, it means he’s a champion! He’s a mighty warrior filled with courage and strength. He’s a hero filled with strength and might.
What great words from God! How would you like God to say that to you? Maybe just to acknowledge who you are. But there’s a twist to this message from God to Gideon and that’s what makes this all the more powerful.
Have you watched movies or read books where someone in the community rises up to become a leader to defeat their enemies. We see that in Braveheart, where William Wallace just wants to be left alone, but becomes the leader.
We see it in Equalizer 3 when Denzel Washington is living in Italy, and becomes the hero to defeat the oppressor.
That’s Gideon. Verse 11 gives us a clue about Gideon - - - -
11 Now the angel of the Lord came . . . . . while Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
What was Gideon doing? Threshing wheat in a winepress. Wait! Didn’t they thresh wheat on a threshing floor?
And what’s a threshing floor? Threshing floors were normally located in open, elevated, and breezy locations. Oftentimes on hills so the wind could assist in the winnowing process.
But where was Gideon? He’s threshing in a winepress! That’s crazy. It’s super hard work for this guy who’s been called a super-hero by God. He should be on a hilltop daring those rotten Midianites. But he’s not! He’s hiding. He’s afraid.
You don’t thresh wheat in a winepress. This is a picture of an ancient winepress in Israel. You can see from the walls, the goal is not to have anything escape. You crush the grapes to make juice and ultimately wine, not thresh wheat.
This was a metaphor for fear and intimidation. This is what human nature does in response to being bullied by oppressors. This is how oppression works. It’s not so much what’s happening out there in the fields or the culture or wherever.
It’s the way we let the bullying into our hearts and slowly begin to accommodate the oppressor. You start threshing wheat in a winepress. You begin to take a different route home from school or sit in a different seat on the bus or make alliances with other bigger, meaner bullies, or whatever other self-preservation techniques you can use.
Until the angel of the Lord comes and sits down under the oak and begins to inject temerity into your timidity. (Bravery into fear). Our God is on a mission to encourage us, in part because the world is a difficult place. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:4 - -
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
That’s a reference to satan. And I would go further to say the mission of satan is to blind our minds. It’s what Jesus said in John 10:10 - - - satan seeks to steal and kill and destroy our heart and soul. That’s his plan. And if we can feel defeated and discouraged, it becomes so much easier to turn away from the Living God and hide in a winepress threshing wheat.
Remember what I said last week. We don’t choose to have hardened hearts . . . . we simply don’t choose to pursue healing! This is true for so many of us as we remain stuck, and when that happens, it becomes easy to spiral downward, for our hearts to become bitter and hardened.
But that’s not what God wants for us. God seeks to encourage us as well as have others walking alongside of us. God will encourage us in any way possible and by any means conceivable. Normally God uses people, but He will use angels, if necessary.
Do you see what’s happening with this mighty warrior? He’s hiding and painfully trying to extract wheat in a winepress. This entire scene is a non-sequitur. It’s something that doesn’t logically follow a previous statement.
God calls Gideon a champion, a hero, a mighty warrior!! Yet, Gideon’s hiding. How’s that for encouragement! God believes I can do it. But what’s Gideon thinking . . . . In the next verse he says to the angel - - - -
13 “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?
And where are all His wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’
But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Gideon hears the words from the angel, but they go in one ear and out the other. It’s as if Gideon is saying, ‘who are you talking to?’
And don’t we do that as well. Don’t we deflect words of praise and encouragement? We do it for a multiplicity of reasons that I won’t get into. But, especially men, we do a lot of deflecting; and we don’t believe the encouragement, but consider it idle praise.
Gideon needs that encouragement, but doesn’t believe it. What’s the angel going to say to him? “Hey! Where’s your brains? You’re really threshing wheat in a winepress! I’m going back to God to talk this over!”
Of course not! Gideon is shocked and we’ll get there, but he’s making a statement about his faith right now.
Gideon believed in God. We see it clearly in his words. He heard the prophet’s earlier proclamation of God’s mighty deeds in the past. But Gideon and all of the people have done what? They’ve hardened their hearts. They haven’t sought healing. They’ve chosen poorly.
Look at Gideon’s response, the final part of verse 13, that’s on the screen. “But the LORD has forsaken us!!”
Well, of course He has. You were told to be obedient. To follow God, to worship God. You haven’t done this, so now you’re on your own. Don’t we do the same? We expect God to bless us no matter what state of sin, we’re in. God is our genie, but that’s where we get it wrong and where Gideon was wrong.
The angel totally disregards what Gideon said, because deep down Gideon knew the answer as to why they were being oppressed. Instead - - - -
14 And the Lord turned to Gideon and said, “GO IN THIS MIGHT of yours and SAVE Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Again! Encouragement! Gideon is told to go in his might. Go in the strength of God which I have planted within you. I am sending you. And if I send you, I will not allow you to be defeated.
That’s tough to take in isn’t it? Really! Me? NO! Can’t be. You must be talking to someone else. You got the wrong address. Again, go back to verse 12 - - - -
12 The LORD is with you, O mighty man of Valor.
This is pure encouragement. The LORD does not see what the world sees, which is a version of what Gideon sees himself to be. God sees his creation! His child, the one who will save the people.
And there we have it! That’s the key! We see ourselves with all of our bruises and scars and hurts and mistakes and sins. We see ourselves as unlovable creatures. But we’re nothing like it. We see ourselves and we see one another through sinful eyes. We see each other not as people created in the image of God, but we see the bad, the evil and we don’t move onto the next step.
But, the angel has come to personally present God’s point of view on Gideon. Now, go back to the definition of biblical encouragement. We - - - -
Participate with the Holy Spirit as we extend grace to the heart, soul and mind of others. Walking beside another person as we impart life, love, courage, comfort, peace, strength, hope and faith as needed.
If we really want to be encouragers, we must, and I really don’t believe it’s an option, and we’re all in the process of learning this . . . . We must see as God sees us.
Instead of looking for the faults and casting blame, which we could do for everyone. There’s nobody, absolutely nobody here or online who is immune. We’ve all been and are guilty and we know it.
That’s part of the power and beauty of biblical encouragement. Inspite of all that, we begin to have this tenderness, grace, most of all love towards one another.
An encourager must learn not merely to speak about God with people but to speak for God into people. It means the miracle of encouragement must first happen in and for us. It will take courage to become an encourager.
It’s our key verse from Hebrews 3:13 - - - -
13 But encourage one another EVERY DAY, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
That’s our call from God! Encourage one another. I received an email from someone I follow, and he shared a text from his wife. It’s an example of encouragement. It was so simple, yet spoke volumes. The text said - - - -
Love you a whole lot. Proud of the man you are. Thankful to call you my husband and the father of my children.
That’s it! It meant the world to this man, and he shared it for the world to see. Friends, It’s so simple to do, but we get busy and forget to do things like this. Maybe we have to put it in our phones to schedule that time when we encourage someone. I know I have the best of intentions, think of something, and then POOF. It’s gone from my brain until later. Don’t wait! Don’t delay! We all need a word of encouragement . . . TODAY!!
We’re stopping here today, and then looking a bit more at Gideon next week as well.
We’re going to continue the story of Gideon and God’s role in his life as an encourager and even a motivator. We’ll see God’s patience and call in his life in even greater ways. And . . . what happens when we not just believe in God, but believe God.
