"Gideon: God’s Reluctant Hero"
Judges 6:1-40
Mililani Community Church
Pastor Rick Bartosik
June 6, 1999
Today is a very famous day in history, called D-Day. On June 6th 1944, during WW II, thousands of allied troops landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France to begin the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. Recently this invasion was graphically reenacted in the movie "Saving Private Ryan." That movie is considered to be one of the most graphic depictions of the reality of combat that has ever been filmed.
Gideon was the man God chose for another D-Day in the history of Israel when God delivered the people of Israel from their enemies the Midianites.
Last week we began our study of the book of Judges, and we found that the Israelites were not living life as God intended it to be lived. Instead of being faithful and obedient to the Lord, they forsook the Lord, they went after other gods, and they intermarried with the Canaanite women. God wanted them to live a life that would so reflect his glory that all the nations would ask, "what is it about the Israelites? God seems to bless everything they do." But because of compromise and disobedience, Israel ended up in bondage and captivity over and over again.
By the time we get to the story of Gideon in Judges chapter 6, Israel has already experienced 43 years of suffering under the harsh rule of the neighboring nations. Yet they still have not learned their lesson. This chapter begins the fourth cycle of sin, judgement, supplication and deliverance in the book of Judges (See Judges 2:10-19).
We are going to see that Gideon was a very unlikely hero. He was reluctant at first to respond to the call of God. He did not always possess strong faith, and like all of us, he had great weaknesses. And he made all kinds of excuses as to why he couldn’t do what God was calling him to do. But God still used him in a powerful way, just as He uses each of us in this day–if we are willing to believe Him and do what He commands.
In spite of all his fears, Gideon was willing to step out and obey the Lord. He will use you too if you are willing to obey!
Outline:
The Background to the Call of Gideon (6:1-10)
The Call of Gideon (6:11-24)
The Preparation Of Gideon For His Work (6: 25-40)
Let’s look first of all at the circumstances in Israel at the time that God called Gideon…
THE BACKGROUND TO THE CALL OF GIDEON (6:1-10)
READ vv. 1-6. We see in these verses that…
The Lord Had Chastened Israel (1-6).
The Bible says in Proverbs 3:11-12: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."
Charles Spurgeon said, "the Lord does not permit His children to sin successfully." God is not a permissive parent" who allows His children to do as they please, because His ultimate purpose is that they might be "conformed to the image of His son" (Romans 8:19).
Discipline in our lives is evidence of God’s hatred for sin and His love for His people. God is a holy God and he wants nothing less than His very best for His children, and the best he can give us is a holy character like that of Jesus Christ. obedience to the lord builds character, but sin destroys character; and God cannot sit idly by and watch His children destroy themselves.
Here God used the Midianites as his rod to discipline his children. They invaded the land every years for seven years at harvest time and stole everything that had been grown during the year. All that Israel could do was run to the hills and hide from their enemies while they took all the crops and animals. They came up like swarms of locusts every year to devastate the land. When the Israelites returned to their homes they had to face another year without adequate food. Finally things got so bad (verse 6) that they cried out to the LORD for help.
The first response of the Lord to the cry for help was to send a prophet.
The Lord Sent Them A Prophet (7-10)
That was probably the last thing they wanted. They wanted deliverance from the Midianites but God sent them a preacher. His word to them was simple…READ vv. 7-10. "…But you have not listened to me." Through this unnamed prophet God reminded them of the wonderful way He had delivered them from Egypt. He also reminded them of His generosity in giving them the land and helping them overcome their enemies. If they were suffering now, it wasn’t God’s fault. He had given them everything they needed.
Application: The purpose of God’s chastening is to make us willing to listen to his Word. God speaks to His children either through the loving voice of Scripture or the heavy hand of chastening; and if we ignore the first, we must endure the second. One way or another, the Lord is going to get our attention and deal with us.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." God was shouting to His people, as He sometimes has to shout at us when we refuse to listen to His Word.
Now we see in vv. 11-13 how the Lord came down to help His people. The people were crying out to the Lord for help (6:7), as people usually do when they are in trouble. The Israelites gave no evidence of real repentance, but their affliction moved God’s loving heart.
In verses 11-24 we find….
THE CALL OF GIDEON (6:11-24)
READ v. 11.
When you consider the kind of man Gideon was at this time, you wonder why God selected him. In v. 11 Gideon is not exactly a picture of strength and courage. He is hiding down in a winepress threshing wheat. Normally they used an open flat place where the winds and open are would blow away the chaff, but Gideon was hiding in a winepress beneath a tree, threshing wheat with a stick, desperately trying to save a little bit of food that he had hidden from the Midianites. This is not a picture of a courageous hero, it is a picture of a defeated, discouraged man, filled with doubts a fears.
Gideon wasn’t exactly a man of strong faith or courage when God first called him. God had to patiently work with him and put up with all his fears and excuses to prepare him for leadership.
Notice in verses 12-18 that the Lord speaks three time to Gideon, and each time Gideon responds in a very reluctant way. God’s words are found in verses 12, 14, 16…
READ vv. 12-18.
The Lord First Speaks To Gideon (12)
Read. "…The LORD is with you mighty warrior!" Gideon looks up and looks around. "Where is this mighty warrior? Where is this mighty man of valor?" He is anything but that! But the Lord is speaking prophetically. When he gets through with Gideon, he will be a mighty warrior.
Gideon responds, "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?…." If God is so great, and if He loves us so much, then why are we having all this trouble? God doesn’t seem to be with us. He has abandoned us, and put us into the hand of Midian. And over the centuries struggling people have responded the same way Gideon did. One of the most precious Bible truths is found in Romans 8:31: "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Gideon’s response to the angel of the Lord asks a question which has been asked for centuries by struggling people who have read Romans 8:31: If the LORD is with me and for me, why did I lose my job? If the LORD is with me, why did this great problem take place in my family? If the LORD is with me, why am I plagued with ill health? WHERE IS THE LORD? He’s not with ME! "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." BUT the circumstances seem to say He is not with me. I have a hunch that at one time or another we have all responded in a similar way.
The Lord Speaks A Second Time (14).
Read V. 14. Literally this says, "THE LORD LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID…" Napoleon’s soldiers used to say, "When Napoleon takes our hands and looks at us we feel like conquerors!" When the Lord turned and looked at Gideon there must have come over him a strange sense of the presence of God and an indication of what God was going to do through him.
But notice the poor self image Gideon had! He responds by making excuses. The Lord’s statements in verses 12 and 14 should have given him all the assurance he needed, but he wouldn’t believe God’s Word. But Lord, I come from a small family, a small tribe. My father is a nobody. I’m the youngest in my family. He sounds like Moses in Exodus 3:7-12 when God called him. Moses also gave God a long string of excuses.
The Lord Speaks To Gideon A Third Time (16).
"I Will Be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were but one man." This is the secret of your power. Not your strength Gideon, but my strength. You are to go in my strength. You are to go in the strength of this COMMISSION I have given you, "..I am sending you"; and you are to go in the strength of this COMPANIONSHIP, "I will be with you." The Lord said the same thing to Moses…to Joshua…to Jeremiah…to the Apostles,, and he says the same thing to us. Hebrews 13:5: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." This is the promise of His presence.
What a clear call from the Lord! Gideon, you will have strength sufficient for the task. I will be with you. I guarantee victory.
Gideon Responds To God (17)
How did Gideon respond? Verse 17: "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me…" He still had an excuse. Is this really the Lord? I’m not sure. Gideon was a questioning and doubting man–unsure of himself, so he asked for a sign. You would think that he had enough already. God said, "you are a mighty warrior. I am sending you. I will be with you. I guarantee the victory. Now go!" But Gideon says, "No, wait! I have to be sure! I need a sign!"
So…in verses 19-24, the LORD graciously gives him a sign to validate and confirm his call. READ vv. 19-24. I think this sign stayed with Gideon! Finally he is sure that God has spoken to him–that God is in it. He was not an eager, excited candidate for the job. But God has called him, and he is sure that it is the voice of God, and he is now willing to go.
Now beginning in verse 25 to the end of the chapter we have…
THE PREPARATION OF GIDEON FOR HIS WORK (25-40)
There were three stages in the preparation of Gideon. Three things that prepared him to fulfill God’s call. The Lord had called him, but now he prepares him for the task–the task of delivering God’s people.
First Stage Of The Preparation (25-32) was not to send him out on a campaign against the Midianites, but to start at home. READ vv. 25-27. Knowing that Gideon was still afraid, God assigned him a task right at home to show him that He would see him through. Gideon had to take his stand in his own village before he dared to face the enemy on the battlefield.
Before god gives His servants great victories in public, He sometimes prepares them by giving them smaller victories at home. Before David killed the giant Goliath in the sight of two armies, he learned to trust God by killing a lion and a bear in the field where nobody saw it by God (I Samuel 17:32-37). Jesus said that when we prove that we are faithful with a few things, God will trust us with greater things (Matthew 25:21). The assignment wasn’t an easy one. God told him to destroy the altar dedicated to Baal, build an altar to the Lord, and sacrifice one of his fathers valuable bulls, using the wood of the Asherah pole for fuel.
If he could succeed here at home, it would build his confidence and it would establish him as a leader among his own people.
Let’s read the rest of the story. Read verses 27-32
Having trusted God and found HIS courage to stand against false worship, Gideon becomes a man of character, authority and strength in the eyes of the people around him. His reputation as a courageous leader is being established. Not only that, but his reputation as a follower of the LORD–the one true God in heaven is being confirmed.
Second Stage Of Preparation (33-35).
One writer said, "The Spirit of the LORD became incarnate in Gideon–who then became an extension of the LORD." Literally this says, "the Spirit of the LORD clothed himself with Gideon." Gideon is now to be the Lord’s instrument in the conflict against the enemy. So in the second stage of preparation, he musters an army in the power of the Spirit of God. At Gideon’s call 32,000 men responded (We see this in chapter 7). But what chance would 32,000 men have against an army of 135,000 men (We will see that in chapter 8).
So before he led the attack, he asked God to give him two more signs.
This is….
Third Stage Of Preparation (36-40)
Remember Gideon’s dramatic call when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him. The call was confirmed by a vivid sign–the fire flashing up out of the rock, consuming the food. Then God gave him a job to do at home, which he performed successfully. Then the Spirit of God came upon him and he mustered the troops, and they came and are ready to go. But now he hesitates. He’s not sure! If you really meant what you said….vv. 36-38. But he was still unconvinced…vv. 39-40. FINALLY he is ready to go to battle.
What do I see here? I see the patience of God dealing with Gideon. How loving, how tender, how compassionate, how patient He was with Gideon, how Gideon tried His patience. And how WE try His patience! And how loving and tender and gracious the LORD is with us. He was a man of weak faith. And he kept asking for signs out of the weakness of his faith. But God planned to use him mightily for His glory and so he patiently, lovingly prepared him for the task he had in mind for him.
CONCLUSION
Let me close with a story which may help us to apply this passage to our lives: It’s the story of the world famous Polish piano maestro, Ignace Paderewski, who had been invited to appear at one of the great music centers of New York. It was a very formal evening with everyone wearing tuxedos and evening gowns. In the audience was a lady who brought her little boy along for the concert. She thought that if he could hear Paderewski play the piano, the experience might spur him on to practice piano a little more each day after school.
As they were waiting for the performance to begin, the mother turned to talk to some friends, and the little boy managed to wiggle out of his seat and headed down the aisle. He quietly made his way up the steps and across the stage to the piano stool. He climbed up on the bench and began to play "chopsticks."
The well-starched audience was horrified. As they heard the simple tune, the crowd responded first with stone-cold silence, then murmuring, and finally a few shouts.
"Whose kid is that?" "What’s the meaning of this?" "I didn’t buy a ticket to hear this noise!" "Doesn’t that child have parents?"
The tinkling notes and the commotion reached the ears of Paderewski backstage. When he figured out what was happening, he made his way onto the stage. Paying no mind to the crowd, he moved behind the boy, reached around him and placed his own two hands onto the keys together with the child’s.
While the boy continued to play, the master built a rich, accompanying melody to embellish the simple tune. All the while, he stooped down to whisper, "Don’t stop now son. Keep it up. That’s it. Keep playing. You can do it."
Application: This is a picture of the life that is available to all of us who know Jesus Christ. We may not think we have a lot to give in the way of expertise and talent. We may be fearful and full of doubts, like Gideon. But if we will just put our hands to the task God puts before us, we soon discover we have a Savior, a Master, who takes the best we have to offer, however humble that may be, and fashions it into a glorious composition as His hands join ours in following His will.
May God raise up an army of Gideons in our congregation who are willing to trust God to do great things for His glory as they place themselves in His hands and seek to obey Him.
Copyright ©1999 2000, 2001 by Rick Bartosik
