What Faith Can Do Series

I imagine his heart was pounding as he hoped no one would hear him. Gideon from a human standpoint at that time was a very unlikely warrior.

B. Gideon didn’t have an impressive pedigree either. He did not come from a prestigious family. He was just an ordinary guy, from the weakest family within the tribe of Manasseh and he was the least (youngest) within this weak and unimpressive family.

C. And Gideon didn’t have a lot of confidence either, let’s put ourselves in his sandals, and I think we’ll see why. Here you are the least member of your family, which happens to be the weakest family in the whole tribe of Manasseh.

And the Midianites, who were worse then any bully you could ever imagine are picking on you stealing your donkeys, cows, your bike and your lunch money.

And here you are hiding out in a winepress or in the bathroom stale eating your lunch because you are afraid that the bad guys will beat you up and take it.

And while your hiding in the corner, heart pounding, palms sweating, as your ears are tuned in to hear the least little sound -- someone looks from over the top of the stall and calls you a Mighty Warrior...

I think if Gideon wasn’t so afraid he would have laughed - "are you talking to me, you must be nuts...me save Israel, surely you jest, My family is the weakest and I am the least one in my family.. you must have me mistaken for someone else." Gideon did not feel like a Mighty warrior.

D. Yes, Gideon did not seem to be a likely Warrior, he did not appear to have the resume that would land him the job of leading and delivering God’s people: no pedigree, no confidence, hiding in a winepress... and do you know what else made him unlikely for this job,? His father house was full of idols and altars to foreign Gods.

WE SEE IN THE LIFE OF GIDEON THAT GOD WORK’S THROUGH THE UNLIKELY AND THROUGH THE ORDINARY.

II. AND WE ALSO SEE THAT GOD HAS PATIENCE WITH ORDINARY MEN

Ordinary men don’t usually make the transition from weakness to warrior immediately, it takes time for their faith to grow and to develop.

Jesus’ disciples who turned the world upside down did not undergo an immediate transformation from fishermen to Gospel Warrior. It took time for their faith to reach the Warrior point. And as we read the Gospels we see many times the patience of our Lord with these ordinary man, as he waited for them to mature spiritually.

Gideon’s faith was weak, it was immature. And when your faith is weak and immature there are a lot of things you can’t understand; Gideon could not understand why God was letting all of this tragedy strike His people... He wondered where God was, where the miracles were.. but at this point in his life his faith was to weak to see that it was NOT God But Israel who brought this on , even his own family had altars and worshipped Baal.

Because Gideon’s faith was weak and a little unstable, three times in these chapters we see Gideon’s need to have his faith confirmed. And in these confirmations we also see The Patience of God.

A. The first time had do with a goat, after Gideon said to God, "how can I save Israel," we read [6:17-19]