Introduction
play Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri
Describes a world that is not liked. The situation is no good. It refers to injustice, American business snap up Van Goghs for the price of a hospital wing. The Second World War, burning down the synagogues. And says it never changes, no matter what we do we cannot make a difference. To a certain extent you can agree it wasn’t that long ago that some of the mistakes of the second world war were again repeated in the Europe in the ethnic cleansing in the Old Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Do you ever feel this way? Do you ever feel overwhelmed with a task? Do you ever look out at the world and think wouldn’t it be great but … It’s too big. I’m too small. How can I possibly make a difference? Look at the world, there’s so many of them and only one of me. Governments come and governments go, yet everything seems to stay the same. A TV program I really enjoy watching is Babylon 5. One of my favourite episodes is about a plague which attacks an alien species called the Markab. Past recurrence of the disease was on an island known for its immorality and the Markab treat the disease as a punishment and think they are all right because they are pure. Cases are covered up. So the disease spreads. Different alien species, including humans, react with fear and blame the Markab and attack them fearing for their lives. Our heroes struggle against this in their own way, the doctor seeks a cure, the captain of the space station seeks to help the Markab, security tries to protect them, and one the alien ambassadors goes into their quarantine section to help them. The cure is found, but it is too late, all the Markab are dead. And so our characters console each other that at least a lesson has been learned, and then the final scene of the episode is a shot of a bar where they are discussion the incident and you can tell from the conversation that nothing has been learned. And we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes again. Even heroes and great men and woman do not seem to be able to make a change an impact, what hope have we.
How can I or we make a difference for God in this community?
And then we remember that we are Christians. We look at our circumstances and see all that’s wrong with them and our situations. And then we sit in church listening to sermons, read our daily devotional books or shock horror even read the Bible, and we hear the message God is with you. And we reply with Gideon, “If the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, “The Lord has brought us up out of Egypt””, or insert your own example here, didn’t Jesus perform all those miracles, didn’t the early church really grow, didn’t God revive the land in the time of John Wesley, or didn’t this church use to have 100’s of members, “But now the Lord has abandoned us”.
Have you ever felt like that? If we serve God, and God’s so great, how come my circumstances? Now I don’t propose to give a full answer to this question this morning. There are many answers some of which are more true than others and combined they give a blurry shadow of an answer, but I think most of it has to do with the realities of evil and freewill. In fact in this passage God doesn’t answer Gideon. v13 Gideon asks God the question, v14 God tells Gideon to go and deliver the people. Sounds like dodging the question to me. On the basis of this, if Gideon had been Jeremy Paxman, several tedious chapters might have been added to judges, where he keeps asking the same question, while God continues to call him to action. However, we can deduce some answers from the surrounding story. But before we look at some of things that God says it is important to recognise that this is where our story starts and if we are honest this is where we often start from. At the bottom of a hole with impossibly high sides, the sky a small blue patch seemingly at almost a infinite distance above us, starving, smelling the barbecue in the field beside the hole. We sense, we seem to know that there is something better but how can we reach it? It seems so hard. So far. So much. The story of Gideon before we get to the bit everyone remembers, where Gideon wins the great battle with only 300 men, provides one of the ways out of the hole and to the barbecue. It’s not the only answer, nor is it applicable in all situations but it is a start. Lets look at the passage and see what we can learn.
Story in context: Background to Judges
Story takes place in Israel before they had a king. A loose collation of tribes held together by a common history and ancestry and the worship of the one God.
God had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. Under Joshua they had conquered the land of Canaan. However, after Joshua’s death the people had begun to stray from following God. This resulted in a cycle which was repeated many times. They would worship the idols of the nations around them. God in judgement would then give them over to their enemies, who would oppress them. The Israelites would then remember God who had saved them before and cry out to him. God would hear them and send them a deliverer, who was called a judge, who would lead the people to victory over their enemies. For a while the people would then follow God again.
This time the oppressors were the Midianites. They were particularly cruel because they took away all of Israel’s food and left them starving.
Holiness
And so what does God reply.
God starts by giving the answer even before Gideon asks the question
In verses 7-10, God complains against Israel, telling them all that he has done for them and on their behalf and then complaining that they have turned away from him. Here the responsibility for Israel’s current plight is placed firmly in their court. While the current occupation as the direct result of their forsaking God, is snot made here it is implicit and it is made clear elsewhere in Judges. And so if Gideon is Jeremy Paxman then it falls to God to respond with the traditional parliamentary response, I refer the honourable Gentleman to the answer I gave a few moments ago. Israel’s plight was because they had forsaken God and turned to idols.
This is made clear when we look at what God gives Gideon as his first task. We can think about what we might suggest as the first stage of a resistance movement to an occupying force. Start printing some propaganda. Or perhaps more realistically for the bronze age, start a low key recruitment process, use some guerrilla tactics to disrupt enemy forces. Or perhaps thinking Biblically start preaching against evil. But no, God’s first task for Gideon is to knock down his father’s altar to Baal and build one to God and make a sacrifice. His first task is to get his own life sorted out. To put away his foreign gods and worship God alone. If God is going to free his people, then he wants them to know that it is him that is freeing them. He wants them to believe in him. And Gideon is to be his representative before the people and the nations. And he has to be like God to represent him.
If we want God to use us then we need to be willing to put God first. We need to get rid of all the other gods in our lives. Now I’m guessing not many of you have shrines or wee statues that you worship at home, although there is some question in Dr. McGonigal’s case. For those of you who don’t know the principle at NTC has a rather large collection of Wesley memorabilia. Yet this lesson still applies to us. God is saying that whatever we consider to be more important than him must go. How do we know what is more important than God? What stops us obeying God? What stops us spending time with God? What would we rather do than worship him? Where do we spend our money? How do we spend our time? Now there are obviously things we need to spend time and money doing, working, our families, our boy or girl friends but what are our priorities. God wants to be the first and if we want to accomplish anything for him, he has to be the first. What is there in our lives that is blocking God working through us. Is it a possession, a person, an activity? Whatever it is God has to be first.
The first thing we learn if we see the task as too big and too much, is to get rid of any impediments in our lives that stop God working through our lives. Notice that God still appears to Gideon and is with him before he knocks down the altar. God can use us but when he points out the sin or the false gods in our lives we need to get rid of them to be of further use to God.
Not too much
But now we have the obstacle out of the way, it is still what seems an impossible task facing Gideon.
Parents expect too much from their children. Did your parents expect to much from you. Or perhaps parents’ expectations can be unrealistic. It can be tempting for parents to want their children to meet the goals they failed to achieve or perhaps even to emulate them. When in reality their children are different people altogether and have no interest in the goals of their parents. I think my father had a hard time accepting me as a scientist and not an engineer. Both my father and brother have an engineering mentality, while I was the scientist. This often provoked much, shall we say “discussion” in my house because although the two ideas are similar, they often look at similar subjects the drive or goals behind each are very different. I was the scientist, the one who drove to understand, the one who wanted to know and find out things that no-one had ever known before, I wanted to understand the universe, everything. But when I understood well, it was time to move onto the next problem and understand something else. While the engineer, understanding is the beginning and where I would be moving on to something else, they would delight in the tinkering and the practical. How does making the odd change here or there effect things, lets maintain everything at peak efficiency, regularly pulling the same thing to bits and putting it together again. You might be able to see where frustration with each other might begin to arise. You never stick with anything and but you’re always going over old ground, don’t you long for something new. You’re obsessed with ideas that are no use or relevance against you’re only interested in things which have a immediate use. We had a great difficulty understanding each others passions and desires.
But God is different. He doesn’t expect too much. He understand us. Our passions, our desires, our goals and our makeup. And when he asks us to do things he takes this into account. God tells Gideon to knock down his father’s altar and build one to him instead. Now if it was us that were asking we might include instructions like, go and do it in front of everyone so they get the point. But no God is different. “You want to do it at night in secret, fair enough.” “You want to take some friends or servants along so you’re not alone, ok”
God knew what Gideon was capable of and didn’t ask him to do anything he couldn’t. And God is like this with Gideon all through the story. He appears to Gideon and Gideon asks for a sign, which he graciously provides. And then he tells Gideon to gather an army to fight against the Midianites and Gideon again asks for a sign, the fleece. Now we shouldn’t make the common mistake by thinking that Gideon was asking for guidance. He wasn’t. He was looking for reassurance, either that God could do the miraculous or that God would act on his behalf. God had already appeared or sent an angel, it’s a bit ambiguous and told him what to do twice. God could have easily replied to Gideon. “Look I’ve already told you what to do, get on with it” but no he provides the sign, the fleece is wet and the ground is dry. And then Gideon asks again and does God say “I’ve done what you asked, now get on with it”. No! he again provides the sign, the fleece is dry and the ground is wet. But then later on in the next chapter, the night before the battle Gideon gets the jitters again. And does God give up or complain to him, this time. No sends a dream to some of the enemy soldiers predicting their defeat and allows Gideon to overhear the men discussing the dream.
God leads him along with reassurance when he needs it one step at a time. Again God doesn’t appear to Gideon and ask him to defeat the Midianites with 300 men. No he appears and tells him what he eventually wants to do, but starts small. First knock down that altar and build a new one to men. Then gather you’re army. Gradually the armies number is reduced. From 32,000 to 10,000 to 300. Perhaps at this point Gideon thought and now what send these people home and tell them to send their wives to fight instead :-) But then Gideon finds out that they are going to fight the battle with out weapons, only clay jars, torches and trumpets. If God had told Gideon that from the start he would have ran, but he led him along gently, step by step, giving him reassurance all the way.
I want to suggest that God does the same with us. He has the big plan, the goal he wants to accomplish, but often he doesn’t tell us this from the start. Rather he leads us along as we are able. Leading us step by step. He knows us. He knows what we are capable of. He knows when we need reassurance and signs. He knows when we fake it and ask for things to stall or dodge our responsibilities.
Jesus didn’t call the disciples to turn the world upside down, change the Roman empire forever and die a martyrs death, no he simply said follow me and led them along step by step.
We long to change the world, to influence it for Jesus. To change our community for God. Yet we fear, we can’t do it. Yet if we trust God to lead us step by step, it is amazing what we can do.
I think we often fail to accomplish the great things for God because we fail in the small things.
Paraphrase from Robin Hobb’s character Amber. Mysterious character, who lives in small town that has traditionally been a free town still ruled by the descendants of its original founders who most of whom have trading companies based on magic ships. Yet to the south, a large kingdom is showing an unhealthy interest, there are pirates out at sea and a hostile country to the north. As foreigners flood in they bring with them slaves, which have always been opposed, yet they are introduced as indentured workers or some other euphemism and the trade continues. And into the midst comes one who sees the situation deteriorating and associates with the slaves, while others turn a blind eye. She talks about true courage. True courage she says is not the final act of defiance or the charge on the battlefield. Anyone can find the courage to be valiant for one moment when they haven’t time to think too much. To give your life in the heat of the moment is hard but most can find the courage if called upon. No true courage is to live your life daily, making all the right decisions day in day out, when it’s inconvenient, boring or mildly unpleasant. Inconvenience often succeeds where outright opposition fails.
I think the same is true of us. So often we fail in the little things so we never gain the opportunity to try the great. By not passing the first stage the next is forever beyond our grasp.
Jesus told a similar story. The parable of the talents. Matthew 25:14-30. A master goes on a long journey and leaves his servants in charge and gives them each some money to look after, to one he gives one talent, to another two talents and to yet another five talents. The two with two talents and five talents put them to work and doubled their money. The one with one talent, hid his and did nothing with it. When the master returned he celebrates with those who have doubled their money and gives them great responsibility, but the one who did nothing looses the one he was given. If we are faithful with the day to day, the mundane, the small, then God will bring the great. We do need to be careful not following prosperity gospel, if your righteous you’ll be healthy and rich, it doesn’t work that way. This version of the parable is ambiguous as to whether the great responsibility comes after death, while others clearly refer to after death. But I think the principle that we will never do great things for God if we can’t get the small things right holds.
So what can we learn? God never expects too much, but we need to be careful that we do obey God in the small things. God gives us the power to do what he commands at the moment, not to do what he will call us to do in the future. Trust God, be confident that he is our strength, he will be with us and that he will not ask of us something we cannot do.
One of the interesting things to note about this story is that Gideon’s obedience inspires obedience in others. Gideon’s father, whose altar Gideon knocked down suddenly seems to convert and starts attacking Baal. Then when Gideon calls together an army, they come. Why? He was the least in his weak clan. Maybe they heard about his stand against Baal and for God. There are countless tales of offices where after one Christian makes a stand, other Christians start pouring out of the woodwork. If we are the one to make the small gesture, God can take and magnify they gesture many times. But we need to make that initial gesture.
Conclusions
God’s great purposes.
Do we find them overwhelming? Do we think how can I? Is our country in a bad way, heeding for worse and nothing really changes anyway?
Remember that God is calling us to first be holy and get rid of anything in our lives that will stop him working through us. Then we need to recognise that God will only take where we will and can follow.
