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“The Call Of Gideon” • 7.6.14 •
Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- In the time of the Judges, God displays
unbroken, loving faithfulness to the people of Israel by raising deliverers,
heroes, Judges, to lead them out from under their self-imposed oppression.
- To this point, most of the Judges have come
up out of nowhere and not much is said of how they came to be a judge, nor
about what happened to them after the fact.
- There are two exceptions to this in Gideon
and Sampson, who share large blocks of text, the largest block belonging to our
current character.
- Today, we'll learn about God's call to
service and Gideon's response. As far as this section goes, it breaks up into
three sections.
I. The Distress (v.1-10)
II. The Discovery (v.11-22)
III. The Disturbance (v.23-32)
Text
I. The Distress (v.1-10)
• Judges
6:1-6 : "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of
Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the
Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and
the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had
sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East
would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of
the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor
ox nor donkey. For
they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous
as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would
enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and
the children of Israel cried out to the Lord." : The bondage brought about
by the Midianites may be the most humiliating low point for the people of
Israel.
- The Midianites were cousins through Abraham's
second wife Keturah.
- The Lord delivered, assigned the Israelites
to the authority of their Midianite cousins for 7 years. This was not a
continual occupation, but The Midianites chose to raid at just the right times.
- Their
annual arrival caused the people to hide themselves like animals away in
any crag they could find! They had no strength to stand before their numerous
enemy.
- They were bullied, harrassed and helpless
against this horde of scavengers that were like locusts, covering every good
piece of ground.
- Their harvests, which would have previously
been a cause for joy, were now invitations to the allies of the Midianites,
specifically the Amalekites and the people of the east.
- All their work, all the fruit of their labors
went to feeding their enemies and their livestock. Their land was ransacked.
- Israel was humiliated and economically
ruined. As is the case with so many, this is the cue to call out to the Lord!
The resource that should be employed first is used as the last resort!
•
Judges 6:7-10 : "And it came to pass, when the
children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of
Israel, who said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out
of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of
the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you
their land. Also
I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’" : It's been 47 years. They have again failed, but God has again
been faithful. That message can't get old! Whenever you cry out, He answers!
-
God wants our hearts more than we could ever want His and He is always
responsive!
-
Before God sent a deliverer, a "judge," God sent a prophet that
Samuel doesn't identify, who spoke to them, reminding them of His power to
bring them out from bondage and oppression!
-
God sends a vehicle through which His voice would be heard. "Yes, I'll get
you out of trouble. That's the easy part! That's what I've always done. But
will you finally obey me?"
-
He calls them to believe and to trust Him and to show that by obeying His
voice, something that they had not done to this point. He wants them to believe
and they have the choice to do so.
-
Will you trust Him when it seems counterintuitive and when it's not what you
want? Obedience is never easy, but it's the ticket out of trouble!
II. The Discovery (v.11-22)
•
Judges 6:11,12 : "Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth
tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son
Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the
Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'The
Lord is with you, you mighty man of
valor!'" : As God's
prophet rouses the people to recall their former estate, the Angel of the Lord
begins His work at an oak tree in Ophrah, Bethlehem.
- Gideon is threshing or beating
wheat in a winepress. For those with no agricultural background, generally,
wheat threshing happens out on the top of a hill.
- The cross currents separate the
heavy wheat from the worthless and weightless chaff, which blows away with the
wind.
- A winepress was generally below
ground level for maximum environmental control. There's no wind to thresh the
wheat so Gideon is literally beating at it!
- Some believe that he must have
had very little to fit it in the winepress. Others believe that he was simply
threshing the daily wheat that his family had.
- One way or the other, it must
have looked pretty silly and been frustrating, but had he done this above
ground, that wheat would have become Midianite property!
- Like the rest of Israel, Gideon
possessed no special gift in protecting himself from Midian's packs. He was
just as vulnerable as everyone else. You wonder how that made him feel.
- You wonder if he resented them
and wished for some far off and impractical deliverance! I wonder if he had
been thinking that in that very moment.
- If that was his thinking,
imagine the shock of hearing the Angel's answer: "The Lord is with you,
you mighty man of valor!"
- When Gideon later rehearsed this
story, he likely had to add the words "His words. Not mine!" He had
to have snickered or at least looked around to see if anyone had joined him!
- The Angel of the Lord tells Him
the truth! He's a mighty, brave and strong man. He sees what He is and knows
that what He lacks is the chance to show it! He'll have that chance soon!
- For Gideon's sake, I don't
believe that he knew who he was talking with. Notice his words.
• Judges 6:13,14 : "Gideon said to Him, 'O my lord, if
the Lord is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about,
saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us
into the hands of the Midianites.' Then the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours, and
you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?'" : Gideon heard the voice but did not
really stop working on his wheat. He calls his visitor, "Lord" or
"Sir."
- He doesn't perceive this to be
the Lord! "Sir, if YHWH is with us, why has this happened to
us!" Gideon is a pragmatic
person without much of a view to his nation's apostate character.
- It's sad when a person or a
group of people begin to consider the consequences of their sinful plight in
the light of a perceived failure of God's! Israel had made their bed with their
own sin!
- I pray we would be careful to
consider the grace of God in extending His good hand to us, more often than
not, to save us from ourselves!
- God's call to Gideon comes in a
very straightforward way: Go in this might of yours. What does He mean?
- I had wondered in the past if
the Lord meant that Gideon should go with this strong resentment that he had
against the Midianites. This is not the meaning.
- To go after a call of God in the
resolve of your own will power is to set yourself up for failure!
- Neither does it mean "Go
with the strength that you have." Why can't it mean this? Because in and
of ourselves we possess no strength for spiritual service!
- It is true that ministry calls
begin with what provokes us and that we wish we could right. It's also true
that we are to give all the strength that we have toward God's call and that
will be enough.
- But our true strength is the God
who will have sent us! God was sending Gideon to save Israel from Midian. If He
sends you, He will win the day in spite of you and through you!
• Judges 6:15,16 : "So he said to Him, 'O my Lord, how
can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the
least in my father’s house.' And the Lord said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall
defeat the Midianites as one man.'" Gideon has an "I" problem, as he saw too much of
himself and not enough of the Lord! "How can I," "my clan is the
weakest," and "I am the least!"
- The job was too big. "How
can I save Israel?" "How can I change our situation?" "How
can I make them different than they are?" Those jobs are too big for you
as well!
- Gideon also knew that he was not
well regarded within his own clan and Manasseh was only a half of a half tribe
in Israel! Additionally, most of his clan were actually Baal worshippers!
- Gideon was an outcast for
holding onto his belief in the Lord! No special skills, no family support, no
resource, no problem!
- Whatever God calls you to do,
you can do if He is with you! However small your view is of yourself, if God is
on your side, you are now the majority!
- Gideon was a nothing from
nowhere, with no one to boast about! But the Lord said to Him as He says to us:
"Surely, I will be with you!" It's at this point that Gideon begins
to suspect something.
- He's beginning to understand
that this person is not a mere man!
• Judges 6:17-22 : "Then he said to Him, 'If now I have
found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray,
until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.' And He said, 'I will wait until you
come back.' So Gideon went in and prepared a
young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a
basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the
terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel
of God said to him, 'Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on
this rock, and pour out the broth.' And he did so. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and
touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and
consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his
sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the
Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, 'Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the
Angel of the Lord face to face.'" : Gideon needed to know that this was more than imagination and
more than a vision in his own mind. He tested his theory by preparing a
sacrifice.
- He had brought out what seems to
have been a fellowship offering, as that offering required grain, a picture of
putting our hands together with the Lord.
- The Angel of the Lord prescribed
that it be put upon a rock, as God never wanted His sacrifices placed upon
altars that were designed by men. Worship is for God's pleasure, not ours!
- When Gideon placed the offering
on the rock, the Lord consumed it all and Gideon knew that this was the Lord
God! He was sure that he was going to die!
- But more importantly, he knew
that this moment was a defining moment and that there was now no turning back!
III. The Disturbance (v.23-32)
• Judges 6:23-27 : "Then the Lord said to him, 'Peace be with you;
do not fear, you shall not die.' So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still
in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, 'Take your
father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the
altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is
beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this
rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt
sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.' So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as
the Lord had
said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the
city too much to do it by day, he did it by night." : Gideon's fear is what everyone
experiences when they come into contact with the Lord. They have a sense of
dread!
- Being in the presence of pure
holiness and power has a way of causing us to know that we deserve nothing less
than death! This is why God's grace is so wonderful!
- Gideon responded to His Lord's
goodness by building an altar, a place of worship and commemorating it with the
name "The Lord is peace" or Yahweh Shalom!
- There is an acceptance that he
must go out in God's strength to defeat the Midianites. That part progressively
became easier to accept. But let's get the hard part done first!
- Before Gideon could go out
against the Midianites, he had a task to take care of that was in his home.
When God calls you to minister, understand that He will call you first to tend
to your home!
- Are there things that have been
built or have been allowed to stand in your home that are offensive to Him? Are
there altars that exist before your eyes that your family is learning to bow
to?
- Joash of Abiezer had an altar
and an image that stood. After Gideon tore it down, he was to put up a properly
arranged altar to the Lord and sacrifice a burnt sacrifice on it.
- He was not to use the altar that
stood there before. There was no use for it, save to be utterly destroyed.
"But couldn't I just use this altar?" God will have it His way or no
way!
- He began, but not in a very
courageous way! He did what the Lord told him to do by night because of his
fear of the people. Listen: It doesn't matter how you start, so long as you do!
- It turns out that he understood
all to well how they would respond to their destroyed altar!
• Judges 6:28-30 : "And when the men of the city arose
early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden
image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on
the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, 'Who has done this thing?' And when
they had inquired and asked, they said, 'Gideon the son of Joash has done this
thing.' Then the
men of the city said to Joash, 'Bring out your son, that he may die, because he
has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image
that was beside it.'" : Here was the spiritual temperature of the people at Gideon's
time. They wanted to kill the person responsible for pulling down Baal's altar!
- Look at their devotion: They
arrived early in the morning! Baal worship was all the rage in Israel, but when
they got there, it was boring old genuine God worship!
- The choice is picturesque. The
altar of Baal is torn down, in shreds, disabused and disrespected. The altar of
God is built up and a burnt offering is simmering as the sun rises!
- God is calling His people to
consecrate themselves, to offer themselves wholly to God! And yet, their
desires are so vile that they would rather kill Gideon for his actions against
Baal!
- God had commanded Israel in Deuteronomy to put to death anyone who
would fall away to worship another god! Look how backward the people had
become!
• Judges 6:31,32 : "But Joash said to all who stood
against him, 'Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who
would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead
for himself, because his altar has been torn down!' Therefore on that day he called him
Jerubbaal, saying, 'Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his
altar.'" : Gideon's
actions woke his Father up! It seems that he had been a leader of Baal worship,
but now saw how empty it was!
- Gideon had likely wondered if
anyone would be on his side. What a pleasure it would have been to him to see
that his Dad had turned!
- You just never know who you will
influence when you decide to follow the Lord obediently and fully!
- Joash stands between the angry
mob and his son and questions Baal's credentials as a god. "Let him fight
for himself! If he wants what was on his altar, let him come and fix it!"
- From that day, they named Gideon
"Let Baal plead against him!" It was a bit of a nickname and a
reminder that every day Jerubbaal, Gideon, lived, was another day of defeat for
Baal!
Conclusion
- Four
observations about the call of God from Gideon's life. First, the call of God
comes at your lowpoint! Gideon physically was low in the ground and thoroughly
frustrated. Perfect time!
- The call of
God comes at a time when everything is bigger than you! He was in the midst of
an apostate family and people, surrounded by a horde of hostile pagan nations!
- The call of
God will not go forward until things are put in order in the home! He will not
deliver a nation of idolators by a person willing to put up with idolatry.
- Finally, the call
of God will polarize and catalyze the people of God around you! Your call will
stir up dissent and raise up defenders! Nothing will stay the same when God is
at work through you!
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