There is Strength in Weakness
-God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things-
Judges 6-7
In the life and mission of Gideon we see that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. In the person of Gideon we see there is strength in weakness. When you see how God used Gideon you realize that God also can use you for His purposes.
Judges chapter 6 we find the children of Israel under the oppression of the Midianites and Amalekites. The Hebrews fled to the mountains and were hiding in caves and strongholds. The Hebrews tried to provide for themselves by sowing seed for harvest, but when the harvest was ready the Midianites and Amalekites moved in and seized their harvest.
The children of Israel were brought low and cried out to the lord in desperation. God send a prophet who reminded them of their disobedience and God’s faithfulness. The prophet reminded them that they were suffering the consequences of their disobedience to God because of their worship of false gods and idols.
The primary focus of Judges chapter 6 and 7 is on Gideon. God called and commissioned Gideon to bring deliverance and freedom to Israel.
Gideon is working his harvest in a secluded area to hide from the Medianites. Judges 6:12, The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and gave Him God’s message. We see unfolded in Judges 6-7 some truths and principles for successful Christian Living.
I. The Lord Sees Positive Potential in Every Person.
6:12 The Angel of the Lord addresses Gideon: “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”
The angel of the Lord didn’t see Gideon in his present situation. The angel of the Lord saw what Gideon could become. “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”
The fact was that Gideon was in hiding, not what any mighty warrior would be doing. He was working in secret to keep form losing his harvest to the enemy…prowling bands of Midianite vandals.
6:13 Gideon had an honest response to the angel of the Lord. “I’m not so sure God is with us, look at all that has happened to us. Yes God has delivered us from bondage in Egypt just to turn us over to the Midianites.”
6:14 The Lord responded with a calling and commission. The angel now speaks as the Lord, God. (Many Bible Scholars believe the Angel of the Lord to be the person of Jesus, the Son of God, at work in O.T. times). The scripture says: “God faced him directly, “Go in the strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
6:15 Gideon questioned the commission: “But Lord how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I’m the least of my family.” V. 16. The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Here is a great principle for personal and family success. Put a 10 on every member of your family. Look at the potential in every member of your family. By your words and actions you encourage and empower people to be all that God wants them to be. In your own way you can say to your children or your spouse: “God is with you O mighty warrior!” You can be an encourager. You can be positive. Look at their potential. You can be supportive and caring.
# One of the dynamic preachers in America is Dr. E.V. Hill, an African American Pastor in Los Angeles. A few years ago he lost his wife after many years of marriage to cancer. He describes his wife as a partner that made him a better man.
In their early years of marriage he was a struggling preacher and had trouble earning a living. He decided to invest their family’s scarce resources over his wife’s objection in a service station. His wife was right and eventually the station went broke.
It was a critical time in the life of E.V. Hill and his wife would been justified in saying: “I told you so.” But when E.V. Hill told his wife what hap happened she just replied; “All right.” When he came home he was expecting his wife to give him the business. Instead she said: “I’ve been doing some figuring. I figure that you don’t smoke and you don’t drink. If you smoked and drank, you would have lost as much as you lost in the service station. So it’s six in one hand and a half-dozen in the other. Let’s forget it.”
She could have shattered her husband’s confidence, but she told her husband what he needed to hear: “I still believe in you.”
A few nights later E.V. Hill came home and his wife had prepared a candlelight dinner. She said, “We’re going to eat by candlelight tonight.” He went to the bathroom to wash his hands and the light would not turn on. He felt his way to the bedroom and flipped another switch. Darkness prevailed. He went back to the dinning room and asked his wife why the electricity was off. She began to cry. She said, “You’re working so hard and we’re trying, but I didn’t have enough money to pay the light bill. I didn’t want you to know about it, so I thought we would eat by candlelight.”
On another occasion Dr. Hill said his wife was his protector. He had received death threats due to his working with gangs in the inner city. One night he received notice that he would be killed the next day. He went to sleep and work up thankful to be alive. But he noticed his wife was gone. He looked outside and saw the car was also gone. His wife came driving up and he asked where she had been. She said it occurred to her that the bad guys might put a bomb in his car and if he got in it the next morning he’d be blown away. So she got up and drove the car all night. E.V. Hill’s wife demonstrated unconditional love in marriage. She practiced the marriage covenant, “In good times and in bad times…sickness and in health, richer or poorer.”
The Lord looks are you and sees great potential. He wants you to look at your children and your family and see great potential in each one. By your actions and words you can bring out the best in others. With not the same words but with similar words you can say: “God is with you, O mighty warrior.”
There’s a second truth we can apply to our lives and our family.
II. The Lord welcomes Honest Questions
The Lord didn’t scold or reprimand Gideon for his questions: 6:13, “If you are with us, why has all this happened to us?” 6:15, “I’m too weak, I’m not up to what You want me to do.”
Doubts and questions don’t bother the Lord.
During his earthly ministry Jesus encouraged a reasoning faith. Jesus doesn’t want quick, flippant decisions to follow him. Jesus never called for blind faith, or a faith that leaps in the dark. Jesus wants us to take a leap of faith in the light.
Luke 14:25-34. Jesus makes it clear that he wants people to count the cost before following him. Jesus said a person who builds a house first sits down and figures the cost to make sure he can complete it.
Matthew 13 Jesus told the parable of soils. Some seed fell on hard soil, some fell on stony soil, some fell on soil where weeds came up and choked the new plants, and some fell on good soil where the seed planted took deep roots. The seed that fell on stony soil took quick root in the shallow soil. The soils represented those who heard the word of God and made a decision to hear or not to hear. The seed that fell on stony soil had shallow roots because there was no depth of earth. When trials and hard times came the person folded and turned back. Why because the decision was made on feeling and emotions with no deep commitment.
A decision that is made with deep roots counts the cost and looks at the consequences. Person who follow Jesus are willing to take up their cross, anything that stands in the way of the person following Jesus. Luke 14:27, “and anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
The Lord welcomes honest questions and doubts. The Lord challenged Gideon. My assignment won’t be easy. But if you take it I’ll go with you.
God called for Gideon to put his plan into action.
III. The Lord Calls You To Act On His Plan
The Lord says to you: “I have given you the plan for your life and family. It’s in my Word. Trust me and I’ll answer your questions as you search my Word. I’ll give you the evidence you need. I promise to go with you.”
God gave Gideon all kinds of assurance to go forward with God’s plan. Gideon told the Angel to wait while he fixed him a meal. He made bread without yeast and put the meat in a basket and broth in a pot. The Angel told Gideon to place the meat and unleavened bread on a rock and pour the both on it. Gideon did so and then the Angel touched the meat with his staff and fire flamed up from the rock consuming the meat and the bread. The angel slipped out of sight and Gideon knew it was an angel of the Lord.
Later the Lord used a fleece of wood to let Gideon know God was with him. Judges 6:36-40 Before Gideon carried out God’s plan there were several things he needed to do.
1. Get you house in order.
The Lord told Gideon to get his house in order. He was to build an altar to the Lord using the Asherah wooden idols built out of wood. That night under cover of darkness Gideon took ten of his servants and torn down the pagan idols.
Before you can carry out God’s plan there may be idols you need to tear down. Check out your home—are their attitudes of selfishness that need to be torn down? Are words used that dishonor the Lord – swear words, condemning words, judgmental words?
Gilead torn down pagan idols and build up an altar to the Lord. Do you need to build up the altar of pray in your home? Do you need to build up the altar of love and forgiveness? Jesus said the person who has been forgiven much loves much. (Luke 7:47) I John 3:18 says, “Love not in word only but in deed.” Small acts of love go a long way in the home: cooking meals, vacuuming floors, giving extra effort to uncompleted tasks in the home. Acts of love give many words of affirmation. Go on a lunch date, take a walk together, and do things you both like to do.
2. Go forward, knowing that the battle is the Lord.
Gideon was given the promise that the battle was the Lord. You have the promise that whatever challenge you face the Lord is with you.
The key to success in meeting life’s challenges is to use God’s strategy and solutions and not mans.
The Lord made it clear that He was to get the glory and not man. Gideon was able to recruit 32,000 fighting men. The Lord said, “Tell any man who is fearful of fighting he can go back home.” 22,000 men left and returned to the safety of their homes. Gideon now had an army of 10,000. The Lord said, “You still have too many. Have the 10,000 men drink at the stream. Those who bend down and lap the water like a dog are to be sent packing. Those that bend down on their knees and cup water in their hands and drink are keepers. 7,700 men kneeled down and drank directly form the stream. They were sent home. Now Gideon only had 300 men in his fighting band…A group of bold, fearless, alert, totally committed men.
The Lord Jesus is still calling people to follow Him who are totally committed. Jesus I looking for Christians that are consistent in their Christian lives in good times and bad times. In every time of stress and challenge they take everything to the Lord in prayer.
Jesus is looking for authentic Christians. What you say is what you get. With Christian growth and maturity authentic Christians are the same at home, at church and at work. Their emotions are under the control of the Holy Spirit. Anger is under control and when words are said that hurt or actions are unwise the authentic Christian is quick to apologize.
Aren’t you glad the battle is the Lords? Gideon has a small band of 300 going up against thousands. 7:12 “The Midainites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern people had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.” In other words there were too many to take time to count.
Gideon practiced the words of the prophet Zechariah that would come later in the history of Israel, “Not my power or by might, but by My Spirit says the Lord.” (Zechariah 4:6)
Gideon used weapons blessed of the Lord.
300 trumpets made from rams horns
300 earthen water pitchers
300 torches concealed inside the water pitchers.
300 swords
The band of 300 soldiers were dived into three groups of 100 each and they surrounded the Midianite Camp. While the Midianite and Amalekites soldiers were sleeping Gideon game the signal – His band of 300 shouted out, “The sword of the Lord and Gideon.” They blasted their trumpets, broke the pottery, and surrounded the camp with flaming torches.
The normal army had one trumpet and torch per 100 men. It may have seemed to the Midianites they were surrounded by 30,000 fighting men. The Midianite soldiers and Amalekits soldiers panic and started fighting each other and fled in go the night.
The battle was the Lords. Little is much when God is in it. There is strength in weakness when God is in control.
Conclusion:
You may feel like Gideon. You are the least of the least. You are below ordinary. The thrust of Gideon’s life is that ordinary people and ordinary means are used to accomplish extraordinary things.
Look what Gideon was able to accomplish with some trumpets and jars and a few faithful men.
God, is a master at using the unlikely, he is an EXPERT at turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, time and time again in scripture, we see God’s power manifested in lives of someone who on the outside may not look that impressive, but on the inside, has submitted and surrendered his or her life (their thoughts & intentions) completely to God.
What about the disciples, most were just simple fishermen, not wealthy, not educated, not very influential-- that is until Jesus got a hold of them and those uneducated fisherman turned the Roman World rightside up in 30 years.
What about you do you feel kind of ordinary (most of us are), do you, feel like an unlikely candidate to anything significant for the kingdom of God, "I don’t have much to offer, what could I really do? What can I give that would matter?"
Do you feel that way? If you do? You are just the kind of person that God loves to work with, and through. God doesn’t use those who think they have already arrived, or those who think they know all the answers, or THOSE who think they can do everything, because they are always to busy listening to themselves, to even hear what God has to say.
The life of Gideon serves as an example for all who desire to be used of God, for all who have a passion to do something significant for the kingdom. In the life of Gideon we see dramatically illustrated, how God works in the lives of ordinary men and women, empowering them to do extraordinary things.
God is still looking for ordinary people today. People who will say “yes” to his calling!
Do you feel ordinary this morning? Are you tempted to say, “But God, you can be talking to me? What can I possibly do? I don’t know enough, and I don have enough.”
God is saying to you this morning. “I love to work through ordinary men and women – who are truly willing to put their lives into the Potters hand and say to him; “I’m yours, I’m not much, but I trust you God. Mold me and made me after your will.” “Such as I have I give to You.”
“Have Thine own way Lord, You are the Potter I am the clay, mold me and make me after your will while I am waiting and yielded still.”
