WHEN YOU’RE WINNING, WATCH YOUR BACK
Judges 7:19-8:21
- Read Judges 7:19-25
Can you imagine the victory Gideon and the Israelites enjoyed that day? God sent Gideon and 300 men of Israel to fight against the Midianites, an army of 135,000. The odds against Israel were outstanding. It was 450 to 1. The Israelite soldiers probably could not have carried enough arrows to stick one in each of their enemies, and yet God sent them out with each soldier carrying a torch to shine, a pot to break, a horn to blow, and a voice to yell with. With those weapons, God gave them the victory. Their victory that day would be comparable to a “bunch of Jr. High girls beating a pro football team in the super bowl, 49 to nothing”. (Gary Inrig, Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay). My friend, when God is working, He often uses the weak to whip the strong, the uneducated to confound the wise, the humble to humble the proud. God gave His people a great victory. But my friends, it is often when you are winning and things are going well that you must be the most on guard. It’s when you’re winning that you have to watch your back. Look there with me at chapter 8 and verse 1 as we see the Devil’s next attack.
I. BROTHERS WILL UPSET YOU, DON’T BE DISTRACTED
- Read 8:1
Did you hear that? I don’t know about you, but when I first read that, I started to get hot. I started to get upset. Here Gideon and 300 men had faithfully followed the Lord, God had given them a great victory, the battle was still in progress and here come these fellow Israelites, here come these johnny-come-latelies, wanting to give Gideon grief because they were supposedly left out.
Let me tell you, I am sure that when Gideon began gathering his army, when he first began calling the Israelites together to fight their enemies, I am sure the men of Ephraim heard what Gideon was doing. I am sure they heard a battle was about to take place. There is no way the Midianites could have gathered an army of 135,000 in their midst without them knowing about it. When, Gideon was calling together an army, Ephraim was nowhere to be found. There were no men of Ephraim stepping up, volunteering to fight in the army, until Gideon had the enemy running scared, then they stepped up and complained about the way Gideon was fighting, without them, instead of having fought themselves.
Isn’t that the way it often is? When God starts working and He begins to bless in one church or in one ministry, other Christians, out of jealousy, begin complaining and putting the ones God is using down?
Do you remember how the Devil did that in the book of Acts? As God continued to bless the church, the Devil sent an attack from the outside, so Christians were scattered all over the place. But, the church continued to grow. So, the Devil sent an attack from the inside. He tried to get the church to split between the Greeks and the Jews, over the way the widows were being treated.
My friends, if the Devil can’t whip us from the outside, then he’ll try to cause us to lose focus and begin fighting among ourselves. Man, the Midianites were still running, there was still fighting to do, and the men from Ephraim wanted to argue over who was going to get the credit.
You ever notice how, in the midst of a building program, when a church is growing so much it needs to build additional buildings, when God is blessing and people are being saved; have you ever noticed how distracted that congregation can get over carpet color? I don’t think it’s any coincidence that such distractions occur at such inopportune times. The Devil will use any tool he can to get us distracted. He will use pettiness, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, unforgiveness, anything. That’s why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 … "what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes".
Gideon refused to lose sight of what was important. Look there at verse 2.
- Read vv 2-3
Listen, what Gideon had accomplished was much greater than the little Ephraim was doing, but Gideon said, “Listen, we are in this together. I couldn’t have come this far without you. Now let’s go get them,” and they continued the pursuit.
My friends, in this church we will not always see things eye-to-eye. I am sure we will disagree about things sometimes. I am sure we will get our feelings hurt from time to time. I do occasionally and I’m sure you do from time-to-time as well. That happens in the best of families, but let’s never forget that we are family. Let’s never forget where the true battle is. Let’s never forget who the true enemy is. BROTHERS WILL UPSET YOU, DON’T BE DISTRACTED.
But, God was not finished yet, and neither was the Devil.
II. PRETENDERS WILL DISSUADE YOU; DON’T BE DECEIVED
- Judges 8:4-17
After working things out with the Ephraimites, Gideon and his 300 men continued their pursuit of the retreating enemy armies. 120,000 had been killed already, but there were still 15,000 ahead of them.
Gideon and his men had now traveled many miles over several days. They were tired, and they were hungry. On their journey, they came to Succoth and asked the residents there for food. The people of that city were supposedly Israelites. They were supposedly God’s people as well. They had been freed from the Midianites because of Gideon’s battle, but when Gideon and his men asked for help from them, instead they received discouragement.
Gideon and his men left there, continued trailing their enemy and next came to the city of Penuel, another city filled with Israelites where supposedly God’s people lived. Again, Gideon and his men asked for help and instead they received discouragement.
Now think about it for a minute. Here was Gideon with 300 men. God had already given them a great victory. They had already whipped 120,000 men. Now they were tired, they were hungry; they were still outnumbered 50 to 1. They had crossed the Jordan River, and with each hour they were getting further from home and closer to enemy territory. I imagine they were very tempted to quit about then.
The Devil even saw fit to work in the hearts of some people who were supposed to be believers, to cause them to try to discourage Gideon and his men. But my friend, those people were no longer God’s children. Living on the East side of the Jordan River, they probably still considered themselves Israelites, they probably still considered themselves God’s children, but they were only cities filled with pretenders. They were cities filled with people who still went through some of the motions, but no longer walked with God, and no longer trusted God. They looked at the 300 men with Gideon, they looked at the army that had just come through with 15,000 men and said, “We can’t chance it. We don’t want the Midianites to hear that we helped Gideon and come back and take what we have.”
My friend, that is nothing new. That is no new weapon of the Devil’s. The Devil sent pretenders, to discourage and distract the 1st century church and he has continued doing the same ever since. Gideon said, “I will have nothing to do with these people. I will not stop want God has called me to do.”
Oh my friends, let’s not be distracted.
