GROUNDED IN TRUST
JUDGES 6:28-40
INTRODUCTION... Boy Trusted His Father, Our Daily Bread, April 8, 1996
A group of scientists and botanists were exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of
flowers. One day they noticed through binoculars a flower of such rarity and beauty that its value to science was incalculable. But it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone had to be lowered over the cliff on a rope. A curious young boy was watching nearby, and the scientists told him they would pay him well if he would agree to be lowered over the cliff to retrieve the flower below. The boy took one long look down the steep, dizzy depths and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” A short time later he returned, followed by a gray-haired man. Approaching the botanist, the boy said, “I’ll go over that cliff and get that flower for you if this man holds the rope. He’s my dad.”
Now that is trust. The boy knew because of his experience with his father that he could be trusted...
absolutely trusted. Today we are going to look at a passage about trust, not between people, but between us and God. I have some questions to think about before we read:
* Do you trust God to lead you where you should go?
* Do you trust God’s Word?
* Do you trust God even though life seems to be falling down around you?
* Do you trust God when bad things happen to you or your family?
Our passage this morning centers around a leader of God’s people by the name of Gideon. We’ll find as we read that Gideon earned a new name: ’Jerub-Baal’ which means “Let Baal contend with him.’ Why would he get a name like that? What does this passage teach us about trusting God? Let’s read the most important part of this passage. We will look at the whole of chapter 6, but let’s focus on verses 28-40.
READ JUDGES 6:28-40
I. SITUATION
Our passage comes at a time when the ’Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord’ (6:1) and as a result, God allowed the Midianites to oppress the people of Israel and invade. Verse 6:6 tells us that the Midianites plundered the land so much and so well that the people were ’impoverished’ and they cried out to the Lord for help. This is not the first time this has happened. All throughout the book of Judges we see this cycle of sin, crying out, deliverance, faithfulness, and then sin again. This happened over and over and over. We come into chapter 6 during a time of great sin. There were altars to Baal and Asherah poles all around the land. Gideon was called by God in 6:12 and is called to remove the idolatry from God’s people and deliver them from the hands of the Midianites.
The Lord tells Gideon (in the part of the passage that we did not read) several important things:
1) “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (verse 12)
2) Gideon was told he would deliver God’s people from Midian (verse 14)
3) The Lord tells Gideon He will be with him (verse 16)
God makes it clear that Gideon is His man to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Gideon will call the people back to faithfulness. Gideon will lead troops in battle and crush the Midianite armies. God told Him so. God also instructs Gideon that he is to lead the army of Israel into battle in the Valley of Jezreel. This will be a decisive battle to free Israel. Gideon begins to prepare by sending messages to all the surrounding tribes that he needs soldiers. A battle is near, but Gideon has a problem.
ILLUSTRATION... Trust Him, Author Unknown
Trust Him when dark doubts assail thee,
Trust Him when thy strength is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Seems the hardest thing of all.
Trust Him, He is ever faithful,
Trust Him, for his will is best,
Trust Him, for the heart of Jesus
Is the only place of rest.
II. COMPLICATION
Gideon’s problem is expressed twice in this passage. The first time occurs in verse 13-15. God has just finished telling him that He is with Gideon and Gideon will be the deliverer of Israel from the hands of Midian. What does Gideon say? What does Gideon do? He says and does two things:
First, Gideon is not obedient, but questions God about the task set before him. Gideon wonders if God is with him why all the bad things are happening around him. If God is with Israel, why are there invaders? If God is with Israel, why does he have to thresh grain in secret to hide it from the Midianites? If God is with Israel, where is the ’parting of the Red Sea’ power or ’pillars of fire’ or anything else described in the Exodus? Where is it?! Gideon questions God to the point of not trusting God.
Second, Gideon makes excuses about the task set before him. Reminiscent of Moses, Gideon complains that his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and that he is the youngest in his family. Does he make these excuses to try and change God’s mind? Does he make these excuses to try and prove God wrong? I do not know, but what I do know, is that Gideon made excuses because he did not trust God.
I said that Gideon’s problem is expressed twice in this passage. The first time Gideon did not trust God (and that is his problem) was when God called him. The second time occurs in verses 36-40. I will give Gideon points for being bold just as I give Abraham bold points when he bargains with God for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18. But that is all I give him. I see in Gideon a huge lack of trust in his God. Gideon asks God to take a fleece test.
It really is sort of a scientific test. He tells God that he will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor and that the fleece is wet with dew and the ground is dry. Science tells us that dew forms when moist air comes into contact with the warm ground. It has to do with the moisture in the air. It is not as though someone could have dumped a small amount of dew on this fleece and left the ground dry... faking Gideon’s test. That is not how dew works. And it happened just as Gideon asked. In my opinion, at this point Gideon should have packed up the troops and did as God asked. Did he? No! He had the audacity to test God again in the same manner. This time the ground was wet (no big deal), but the fleece was dry. Again, it was as Gideon had asked.
Gideon was a man who had trust issues with God. God wanted Gideon’s trust. It was needed so that Gideon could lead God’s people. It was needed so he would know the victory came not in his power, but came from above. Chapter 7 describes Gideon’s army as 32,000 men. That is a huge army. God through a process whittles Gideon’s force to 300 men. God tells Gideon in 7:7, “With the 300 men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.” 300 men!
How was Gideon to fight this battle?
How was Gideon to deliver the people of God with 300 men?
How was Gideon to defeat the combined army of the Midianites, Amalekites, and the eastern peoples?
III. RESOLUTION
IMPORTANT: The answer is that Gideon could do none of those things. All Gideon needed to do was trust in the Lord His God.
ILLUSTRATION... Is Anyone Else Up There By Unknown
A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet. He couldn’t hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff.
So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something. "HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!" He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice.
"Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I’m down here!" "I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?"I am the Lord, Jack. I’m everywhere."
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?" "That’s Me." "God, please help me! I promise if, you’ll get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person. I’ll serve You for the rest of my life."
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let’s get you off from there, then we can talk." "Now, here’s what I want you to do. Listen carefully." "I’ll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do." “Okay. Let go of the branch."
"What?" "I said, let go of the branch." Just trust Me. Let go." There was a long silence. Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"
Gideon was a man that had serious trust issues with God. He looked around in his land and concluded
that God must not be near because of the circumstances. He looked at himself and knew that he was not equal to the task of defeating Midian and did not think God was equal to the task either. We have been looking at Gideon this morning and I cannot help but point him out as an example of someone not trusting God. He had God’s Word telling him that he had God backing him up, and yet he doubted and made excuses.
We point him out, but then, as in so many of the narratives in the Old Testament, we are to look at ourselves as we look at Gideon. Do we, do you, have trust issues with God?
* Do you trust God to lead you where you should go?
* Do you trust God’s Word and the Promises He makes?
* Do you trust God even though life seems to be falling down around you?
* Do you trust God when bad things happen to you or your family?
* Do you trust God?
God is worthy of our trust. Trusting God is more than faith in His existence and more than obeying His commands. Trusting God must happen in all circumstances. Trusting God is looking at our life and life’s events through eyes of faith. We can trust God because He is completely sovereign, perfect in His love for us, and is all-knowing and boundless in His wisdom. Trust in God means we trust His Word for guidance and trust His Spirit for strength and help in troubles.
CONCLUSION
