The Reluctant Warrior Series

(Props: Ram’s Horn; Fleece - obtained at “Joanne Fabric”. I dressed in Old Testament clothing and wore a convincing wig and fake beard. I began the sermon by singing two verses and the chorus from “He Is Jehovah” by Betty Jean Robinson.)

"He is Jehovah, God of creation

He is Jehovah, Lord God Almighty

The Balm of Gilead, the Rock of ages

He is Jehovah, the God that healeth thee

He is the Great I AM, the God of Abraham

Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace I am

The God of Israel, the everlasting One

He is Jehovah, the God that healeth thee

Sing Alleluia, sing Alleluia

Sing Alleluia, sing Alleluia

He is Jehovah, Lord God Almighty

He is Jehovah, the God that healeth thee”

(I entered the sanctuary from an entrance a third of the way back in the room)

My name is Gideon, the son of Joash, of the family of the Abiezites, the tribe of Manasseh and the nation of Israel. There are those who say that I am a great warrior. And it is true that if have always fought against the enemies of Israel. But there was a time that I was little more than a flea on the back of a dog of nation called the Midianites.

(Began walking toward the stage and eventually stood in front of the communion table)

The Midianites had been raiding our land for several years now. They took what they wished, and killed who they would. My one consolation was that I was able to pay them back in part for the pain they had caused our nation.

But they were a powerful and vicious people and many of our people fled to hide in the mountains and the hills and even holes in the ground. When the angel of the Lord found me, that was what I was doing – hiding. I was in my father winepress threshing wheat, hoping that the Midianites would not find me and take away what little food I could supply for my family.

It was there that the angel of the Lord found me. And he said to me: “The Lord is with you Gideon. You have been chosen by God to deliver Israel from their enemies. God will be with you and together you will crush the might of Midian in a single night.”

(PAUSE, then turning to someone in the audience)

Have you ever seen an angel?

(Turning to another in the crowd)

Have you?

(Speaking to still another)

Have you?

Neither had I. I had no idea who this man was. But what he said, and the way in which he said it spoke to my heart. And I WANTED it to be true. But I had no idea whether he came from God or not. So I told him if God truly was calling to this task I would need a sign. First though I wanted to make an offering to God, and I asked him if he would stay till I returned. He said he would.

I returned to my home and took the meat of a young goat and placed it in the pot to cook. Then I took an ephah of flour and made bread without yeast. And once the meat was cooked, I took it and put in a basket along with bread and took the pot filled with the broth from the young goat and returned to the angel who was not standing in the field beside an oak tree. I offered him the food, but he said that I should pour out the broth and then place the basket with my offering on a nearby rock.

As I stepped back from the offering, the angel took his staff, and with the tip of that staff he touched the meat and the bread… and the rock on which it sat erupted with flames that consumed the entire offering.

When I looked up from the flames, the angel had disappeared.

(Looking in disbelief at one person in the audience) He disappeared.

(Turning to another in the audience) He disappeared.

(Speaking with growing alarm) I had seen the angel of the Lord… face to face.

I had heard it said that no one who had ever seen such a being had ever lived.

(Spoken in fear) Oh Sovereign God! I have seen your angel face to face!

And then I heard a voice from heaven: “Peace… peace. Do not be afraid, Gideon, you will not die. Peace. Peace.”

(Pause) I had not known peace for a very long time.

And so I built an altar there unto God and I called it “Jehovah Shalom” or “The God of Peace.”

But I was still troubled.

I am afraid I was very rude to the angel. When he said “The Lord is with you” I nearly shouted “Who is this God you speak of? Who is this God that our fathers taught us about for so long? Who is this God who supposedly led Israel out of the bondage of Egypt? He doesn’t care for us! He has turned away from us and abandoned us!