Sermon: Making Faithful Choices (Part One)

Gideon
#1405

Given 11-Nov-17; 79 minutes

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God has designed the human condition to be governed by a series of life-or-death choices. Gideon, whom the writer of the Book of Hebrews included in the "Faith Chapter," began his life as a coward, became a conqueror, and ended a compromiser, all the while needing continuous assurances from God to bolster his flagging faith. Gideon wondered 1.) whether God really cared about him, 2.) whether God knew what He was doing, 3.) whether God would take care of him and 4.) whether God would keep His promises. To this anxiety-laden man, God demonstrated His faithfulness and forbearance, in stark contrast to Gideon's continuous tests and childish demands, disturbing traits that some of us also display. We must learn that God always keeps His promises and cares for us so much that He is willing to chasten us to bring us to life-saving repentance. As His workmanship, we receive God's personal attention, guiding us through the baby steps needed as He strengthens our wobbly faith, giving us increasingly more abilities as the scope of our tasks increases. As God answered all four of Gideon's questions in the affirmative, He will do the same for those who are going through faith-testing trials. As God incrementally built Gideon's faith, allowing him to prove it privately before he would take a public stand, God will do the same for us, knowing that our frame is weak and frail, totally helpless without the power of His Holy Spirit.


transcript:

Right from the beginning, God forced people to make choices. The very presence of the forbidden tree forced Adam and Eve to choose whether to obey or disobey. This first recorded human choice resulted in heartbreak; and their wrong choice has had negative ramifications to this day, almost 6,000 years later, because they set the stage for disobedience and enmity against God.

Now everyone who reads the Bible is forced to make choices, because a condition of reading it means that we have to agree or disagree with its contents. In Deuteronomy 30:15, God presents this choice to every reader. "See, I have said before you today life and good, death and evil." Within the pages of the Bible, over and over again, we read of people making both good and bad choices.

We have all made bad decisions or choices. Some have made bad financial decisions or poor physical choices in jobs or homes. But by far, a bad spiritual decision is the worst because its result can be emotionally and mentally devastating and may even have eternal consequences. God does not change the ground rules for human life. People still have the free will to choose for or against God, in between good and evil.

Since all have sinned, we know that everyone has made and continues to make bad decisions. Some make harmful decisions as a way of life, but very few make wise decisions consistently. The Bible is full of examples of this choice we must make. Cain chose evil. Noah chose wisely and was used to restart the world. Lot chose selfishly. Abraham chose to believe the promises of God and live faithfully. Jacob's checkered life gradually moved from a series of poor choices to much better ones. Most of Jacob's sons chose poorly. Joseph chose to live a moral and faithful life.

From the very start of God's creation of human life, the people God calls are immediately placed at the defining moment, at the moment of truth. Tt the crossroads of life we choose God's way of life or we choose Satan's and the world's way. One is a choice of life and the other of death.

Deuteronomy 30:19 [the Eternal says] "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life."

When Moses was about to turn the leadership of Israel over to Joshua, he said, life and death, blessing and cursing before the nation of Israel, accompanied by the command, "Therefore choose life." Following in the same vein is Joshua's charge to the nation, "Choose this day whom you will serve."

Our choices are made based on who or what we serve. But sometimes we try to serve two masters. Sometimes we serve the master of our cell phones and sometimes we do not. But it seems like (from what we learned in the commentary) that we spend a tremendous amount of time enslaved to a physical master like that.

Obviously, many of Israel's choices were tragic ones. In many cases, the nation's disastrous cycles were tied to leaders who chose idolatry. Even the era of the judges had similar problems. Leaders can unintentionally lead people to idolatry. And if they introduce unauthorized worship and customs, they will lead people down the wrong path.

Now, this happened to ancient Israel again and again. Then, God had to spiritually mature someone to faithfully lead the Israelites out of their apostasy. A case in point regards Gideon, one of the judges of Israel. Over time, the Eternal perfected many virtues in Gideon and he became obedient, and industrious, and cautious, and tactful, and humble, and faithful. Hebrews 11:32 puts Gideon at the head of a list of judges. And though he sometimes wavered in his faith, he was still a man of faith who eventually had the courage to trust the Word of God.

When we realize that he was a farmer, not a trained warrior, we see how wonderful his faith actually was as God brought him along and developed that faith. Gideon's career of ups and downs is sketched in chapters 6 through 8 of the book of Judges. He began with weak faith which grew.

Now imagine for a moment that you have a garden and you work hard all spring and summer to make that garden produce abundantly. But every year, just about the time you are ready to gather in the harvest, your neighbors swoop down and take your produce away from you by force and devastate your garden. This goes on year after year and there is nothing you can do about it. If you can imagine that scenario that then you have some idea of the suffering the Israelites experienced every harvest when the Midianites made their annual raids. For seven years, God allowed the Midianites and their allies to ravage the land of milk and honey, leaving the people in the deepest poverty.

About the time of the eighth Midian invasion, God called this farmer in Manasseh named Gideon to become the deliverer of his people. However, Gideon started his career as somewhat of a coward. We find that in Judges 6. He then became a conqueror in Judges 7:1-8 and in verse 21, and ended his career as a compromiser in Judges 8:22-35. But more space is devoted to Gideon in the book of Judges—100 verses—than to any other judge of Israel. And Gideon is the only judge whose personal struggles with his faith are recorded.

Obviously, there is a lot for us to learn from Gideon's life. Gideon is a great encouragement to people who have a hard time accepting themselves and believing that God can make anything out of them, or out of each and every one of us, and do anything with us.

Turn with me, if you will please, to Judges 6. Before the Lord could use Gideon in His service, He had to deal with four doubts that plagued him and were obstacles to his faith. These doubts can be expressed in four questions and here are those four questions.

One, does God really care about me? Two, Does God know what He is doing? Three, will God take care of me? Four, does God keep His promises?

Let us look at the first one: Does God really care about me? We find this in a sense threaded through the first 13 verses of Judges 6. The Lord has forsaken us, was Gideon's response to the Lord's message in verse 13, and yet God had given Israel proof of His personal concern. This personal concern was shown by His chastening of them, His rebuking of them, and His helping of them. Chastening, rebuking, and helping; this is the way God showed His personal concern to the Israelites. Now, notice how God had chastened them.

Judges 6:1-2 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.

That sounds a lot like what I was talking about in my last commentary about how they found all these underground cities there in the Middle East where people lived for thousands of years even. Who knows, it may have started with something like this.

Judges 3:3-6 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 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 Midianites were remarkable, not only for the vast number of their cattle, but also for their great wealth in gold and other metal ornaments showing their connection with the gold country. At this time, they were allies with the Amalekites and of the Arabian tribes called collectively "the children of the East." They seem to have extended their settlements to the east of Jordan and to have belonged to the largest sect of Arabs called Ishmaelites, which I am sure you recognize that name.

Now, God does not allow His children to sin successfully and He certainly did not let Israel. He is not a permissive parent who allows His children to do as they please, because His ultimate purpose is so that they might be conformed to the image of His Son. The Father wants to be able to look at each member of His spiritual Family and say, as He did to Jesus in Matthew 3:17, "This is My beloved [child] in whom I am well pleased." He wants to be able to say that about each and every one of us in His church. And by extension, later to everyone else in the world.

Chastening is evidence of God's hatred for sin and His love for His people. And we cannot conceive of a holy God wanting anything less than His very best for His children. The best He can give us is a holy character like that of Jesus Christ.

Obedience to God builds character, but sin destroys character; and God cannot sit idly by and watch His children destroy themselves. This is what was happening in what was going on in Israel at the time of Gideon.

Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor to test His correction; for whom the Lord loves, He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.

If you truly love your children, you will correct them wisely. If not, you do not truly love them. Your love is actually pride. And that is what we see destroying families today. A false love, a worldly love that gives children whatever they want and hardly if ever tells them no.

Hebrews 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him."

Israel had already experienced 43 years of suffering under the harsh rule of the neighboring nations, but they had not yet learned their lesson and turned away from the pagan idols.

Now, unless our suffering leads to repentance, it accomplishes no lasting good. And unless our repentance is evidence of a holy desire to turn from sin, not to just escape from pain, repentance is only remorse. And so chastening assures us that we are truly God's children, that our Father loves us, and that we cannot get away with rebellion. This is something that we as parents should do the same to our small children, up until they are adults and they are making their own decisions. And even then, as adults, we should, every once in a while, caution them about things to try to save them the heartache that maybe we had gone through earlier.

The Midianites organized a coalition of nations to invade the land and all that Israel could do was flee to the hills and hide from the enemy. And when the Israelites returned to their homes, they found only devastation and they had to face yet another year without adequate food. So this is how God chastened them.

Notice how God had rebuked them similar to the chastening. Continuing on in Judges 6,

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.'"

So the message of the unnamed prophet here represents the first time God rebuked the people when they called upon Him. The prophet reminded the Israelites of God's faithfulness and their own apostasy. God is always faithful. Man is rarely that.

Before this, an angel of the Lord, probably the Son of God, had come to Bochim to reprove Israel for her sins. And now, an unnamed prophet came to repeat the message. Often in the Old Testament, when the Lord denounced His people for their disobedience, He reminded them of the wonderful way He delivered them from Egypt. And He also reminded them of His generosity in giving them the land and helping them overcome their enemies. It is amazing how many times God repeats this over and over and over again throughout the Old Testament, and also in the New.

If the Israelites were suffering from Gentile bondage, it was not God's fault! He had given them everything they needed just as He had this nation for so long. And now it appears that blessing has been taken away and it is deteriorating and degenerating. How far will God take that? He has been chastening this nation, will He take it to the point that He did with the Israelites under the judges, where foreign countries are just overwhelmed and just took whatever remained in the nation? I do not know, but I certainly think we should pray that God has mercy on this nation.

When you read the New Testament epistles, you cannot but help notice that the apostles took the same approach when they admonished the believers to whom they wrote. The apostles repeatedly reminded the Christians that God had saved them so that they might live obediently and serve the Lord faithfully. As God's children, they were to walk worthy of their high and heavenly calling and live like people who were seated with Christ in glory. The motive for Christian living is not that we might gain something we do not have, but that we might live up to what we already have in Christ.

The purpose of chastening is to make God's children willing to listen to God's Word. Often after spanking a child, parents will reassure the child of their love and then gently admonish the child to listen to what they say and obey it. God speaks to His children either through the loving voice of Scripture or the heavy hand of chastening. And if we ignore the first, we must endure the second. One way or another, God is going to get our attention and deal with us. And that is how God rebuked them. Notice how God helped them.

Judges 6:11-13 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!" And Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where 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."

So the people were crying out to the Lord for help as people usually do when they are in trouble. Is there not a saying something about someone in its foxhole? There are no atheists in a foxhole or something like that.

The Israelites gave no evidence of real repentance but their affliction moved God's loving heart just as it had at other times.

Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction He [God] was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.

So God in His mercy does not always give us what we do deserve, but in His grace gives us what we do not deserve.

When you consider the kind of man Gideon was at this time, you wonder why God selected him. But God has often chooses the weak things of the world to accomplish great things for His glory.

Gideon's family worshipped Baal. So we can relate to that or those in God's church who have family that worship other gods, so to speak, and possessions, or in other "Christian" churches that do not really follow Christianity or follow the Bible. Anyone with an unconverted mate can relate to this. Gideon's family worshipped Baal, although we have no reason to believe that Gideon joined them.

We will see later that Gideon called himself the least in my father's house. He may have been suggesting that his family treated him like an outcast because he did not worship Baal, since the entire nation of Israel, or almost everyone, did.

Initially, Gideon was not a man of strong faith or courage and God had to patiently work with him to prepare him for leadership. God is always ready to make us what we should be if we are willing to submit to His will.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God takes a very personal interest in our development.

Now, Gideon's negative response to the Lord's words indicate his lack of faith and spiritual perception. Here was Almighty God telling him that He was with him and would make him a conqueror. And Gideon replied by denying everything God said. So God would have to spend time with Gideon turning his question marks, so to speak, into exclamation marks or exclamation points. Gideon was living by sight, not by faith, and had he remained that way he would never have been named among the faithful of Hebrews 11. God strengthened his faith and that is how He helped them. God really does care about His children and this is an indication of it.

The second doubt expressed as a question that Gideon was struggling with that we also struggle with: Does God know what He is doing? Of course, we do not express it that way, but we express it in other doubts that we have. Now, Gideon's first response was to question God's concern for His people, but then he questioned God's wisdom in choosing him to be the nation's deliverer.

Exodus 3:10-11 "Come now, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

So you have two men here, Gideon who was a farmer and was told he was going to bring his nation out from under the bondage of the surrounding Gentile nations, and you have Moses, who had been second in command of all of Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth at that time, saying exactly the same thing to God. Both doubted God's ability. Both said, "Does God know what He's doing?"

Now, let us continue the story in Judges 6.

Judges 6:14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours."

The question I have at this point is He called him a mighty man of valor, but yet he was hiding in the wine presses. And now He is saying, "Go in this might of yours." See, this might was actually God's might that He was going to give him and He was going to empower him to do whatever God needed him to do.

Judges 6:14-15 "Go in this might of yours [you could say, "that I'm going to give you], and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?" 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."

In a sense, God's commandments are God's enablement. When He commands us to do something, He also gives us the strength and power to do them, as He does with His Holy Spirit. He empowers us that way so that we can do the spirit of the law, as well as the letter of the law. Once God has called and commissioned us, He empowers us by the way of His Spirit to perform what we must do to obey Him by faith. God cannot lie; and God never fails to support us in our obedience to Him.

Faith means obeying God despite what we see, how we feel, or what the consequences might be.

Gideon's statement about the weakness of his family is a bit perplexing since according to Judges 6:27, which we will read later, he had ten servants who assisted him. If you had ten servants today in this society, you would be thought of as not being the least of the brethren or the least family. But this is what Gideon said.

It may be that the clan of Abiezer, to which Gideon's family belonged, was not an important clan in Manasseh, or perhaps Gideon's statement was simply the standard way to respond to a compliment, as when people used to sign their letters "your obedient servant," no matter what status you were. In any event, Gideon seemed to think that God could do nothing because he and his family were nothing, at least in Gideon's eyes.

Judges 6:16-24 And the Lord said to him [Gideon], "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man." 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 [God] said, "I will wait until you come back." [That sounds like a dangerous way to talk to God to me.] 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 arose 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." 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 Abiezites.

Once God has revealed His will to us, we must never question His wisdom or argue with His plans. In Romans 11:34 Paul quotes Isaiah saying, "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" Everything God does is done in perfect wisdom and His first priority is His own glory, and then secondarily, for the greatest good of the highest number of people for the longest period of time.

Now, when you review God's gracious promises to Gideon, you wonder why this young man wavered in his faith. God promised to be with him. God called him a "mighty man of valor" and promised that he would save Israel from the Midianites and strike them as one man. How much more encouragement do you need than that? Well, if we were in Gideon's shoes, we probably would need much more, as he did, depending on how much faith we actually had. It sounds like Gideon at this time had a weak face but still had faith.

In Romans 10 Paul wrote that God's Word is the word of faith; and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But Gideon did not receive that word coming directly from God's lips and needed assurance beyond the character of Almighty God. Certainly, he must have seen God's attributes in creation, but still his faith wavered. Gideon asked for a sign to assure him that it was really the Lord who was speaking to him and the Lord was gracious to accommodate Himself to Gideon's unbelief, or weak belief.

Gideon prepared a sacrifice, which was a costly thing to do at a time when food was very scarce. Remember, the Midianites took everything and so it was tough to find an animal like that. And an ephah of flour was about a half a bushel, enough to make bread for a family for several days. It probably took him an hour to dress the meat and prepare the unleavened cakes. But God waited for him to return and then consumed the offering by bringing fire from the rock. The sudden appearance of the fire and disappearance of the Visitor convinced Gideon that certainly he had seen God and spoken to Him—and this frightened him even more. And why is that?

Since the Israelites believed it was fatal for sinful man to look upon God, Gideon was sure he would die. That is why God told him "you will not die." The human heart is indeed deceitful. Gideon asked to see a sign and after seeing it, he was sure that the God who gave him the sign would now kill him. With faith comes joy and peace, but faithlessness brings fear and worry and that is exactly the point at which Gideon was when God performed that miracle before him. He was most likely terrified. Romans 15:13 says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." More encouragement there.

There is encouragement to this whole story of Gideon. We learn his ups and downs and we see it in our own lives.

It seems like a paradox that God had to give Gideon a message of peace to prepare Him for fighting a war. Unless we are at peace with God, we cannot face the enemy with confidence and fight God's battles. In recognition of God and His intervention for the Israelites, Gideon built an altar and called it, The Lord Is Peace.

The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means much more than a cessation of hostilities. It carries with it the ideas of well being, health, and prosperity. Gideon now believed the Lord was able to use him, not because of who he was, that is, Gideon, but because of who God was. Jeremiah admitted that there was nothing impossible for God.

Jeremiah 32:17 "Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You."

So whenever God calls us to a task that we think is beyond us, we must be careful to look to God and not to ourselves. In Luke 1:37, the angel reminded Mary, "For with God nothing will be impossible." Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 19:26, "With God all things are possible." And Paul testified in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." More encouragement for each and every one of us. As members of God's church, how much more encouragement do we need? Well, we are human beings and we need a lot of encouragement and that is why the Bible gives so much of it.

In summarizing Judges 6:1-24, Gideon is shown to be somewhat of a coward and distrustful even of what God is telling him. When the Angel called Gideon a "mighty man of valor," it seemed a mockery. Yet God was only anticipating what Gideon would become by faith. But Gideon's unbelief, or weak belief, which was the cause of his cowardice, as he questions God using doubting words like if and why and where and how, then he asked God to show him a sign! This is certainly not a showing of faith!

Gideon confessed that God had chastened his people justly, and he could not understand how the Lord could use a poor farmer like himself to deliver the nation. So God met his unbelief with a series of promises: "The Lord is with you." "You shall save Israel." "Have I not sent you?" and "Surely I will be with you." So faith comes by hearing God's Word and Gideon was having some trouble hearing God's Word. He listened and he heard the sound, but he did not hear it because he did not have faith in its quality, in its power, and in its guarantee, in its assurance, and that is what is needed to hear God's Word, or read it, and understand it.

So God knows what He is doing. Thus far, Gideon has not been a good example for us to follow.

Now, the third doubt expressed as a question in Gideon's mind was: Will God take care of me? Judges 6, verses 25 through 32 parallel that thought or that question.

Judges 6:25-26 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."

This is interesting because immediately we are wondering what is his father going to do to him? We do not know how old Gideon was, but obviously he was fairly young, and here he is going to what God told him to do. It appears he is going to steal one of his father's prized bulls, which his father was probably preserving to offer to Baal, and he tears down his altar, and top of that, he is building an altar to God on top of it. And so you wonder what is his father going to do about that? Well, God intervened on his behalf in that way as well.

What kind of a day did Gideon have after his dramatic meeting with the Lord and he had to carry this out? Remember, he belonged to a family that worshipped Baal. And if he challenged the Midianites in the name of the Lord, it meant defying his father, his family, his neighbors, and the multitudes of people in Israel who were worshipping Baal at the time. So Gideon probably had his emotional ups and downs that day; rejoicing that God was planning to deliver Israel, but trembling at the thought of being named the leader of the army and having to carry out such a thing in front of everyone.

Well, knowing that Gideon was still afraid, God assigned him a task right at home to show him that He would see him through. He did not assign Gideon to do it in the public square. This is at home, among his family. After all, if we do not practice our faith at home, how can we practice it sincerely any place else? That is part of the lesson here. Gideon had to take his stand in his own village, in his own home, before he dared to face the enemy on the battlefield.

Turn with me if you will, please, to I Samuel 17. Before God gives His servants great victories in public, He sometimes prepares us by giving us smaller victories at home or in private. Before David killed the giant Goliath in the sight of two armies, he learned to trust God by killing a lion and a bear in the field where nobody saw it but God.

I Samuel 17:32-36 Then David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God."

David had clearly in mind He was faithful. He knew what God could do for him because God ran him through those tests earlier on in life, protecting him. And this was all planned by God ahead of time for David to come to this point.

I Samuel 17:37 Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

So when we prove that we are faithful with a few things, God will trust us with greater things. Matthew 25:21 says, "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you a ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." Faith in God's promises enables us to have peace of mind, which in turn promotes true joy.

Now, the lives of the saints of faith (or the faithful saints) listed in Hebrews 11 show that faith is an unshakable belief that God will do everything He has promised to do even before there is visible evidence to that effect. In short, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. For John and Thomas, before receiving God's Spirit, seeing was believing. But for every believer since the ascension of Jesus Christ, not seeing is believing. We live by faith, not by sight. The lives of the faithful show what faith can do.

In the Old Testament, faith enabled the believer to offer better sacrifices, as Abel did; to build an ark, as Noah did; to follow God on life's journey, as Abraham did; to endure suffering for the sake of Christ, as Moses did; to cross through the deep waters, as the children of Israel did; and so on as God has given us example throughout Scripture.

In the New Testament, faith can even enable a disciple to walk on water. Certainly, everything is possible for the faithful. Faith produces good works. We are not up to every good work but God can give us the strength and the power to be up for any good work, even the weakest of us all.

Are any of the saints of the Bible without faith? No, is the answer to that, which I am sure you know. They may have weak faith at times, they may have their ups and downs, but they all had faith, because faith, hope, and love in God are the defining virtues of the Christian.

Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Now, God's assignment was not an easy one for Gideon. God told him to destroy the altar dedicated to Baal, build an altar to the Lord, and sacrifice one of his father's valuable bullocks, using the wood of the Asherah pole for fuel (. . .with the wood of the image which you shall cut down), use that.

Israel's altars were made of uncut stones and were simple, but Baal's altars were elaborate. Next to them was a wooden pillar (like an obelisk) dedicated to the goddess Asherah, whose worship involved unspeakably vile practices such as child sacrifice and fertility rites. Since altars to Baal were built on high places, it would have been difficult to obey God's orders without attracting attention.

Gideon had every right to destroy Baal worship because that is what God had commanded in His law. For that matter, he had the right to stone everybody who was involved in Baal worship, but God did not include that in His instructions. Gideon decided to obey the Lord at night when the village was asleep, instead of during the day. So we see there again where Gideon had a weak faith rather than a strong one because he was going to do it under the cloak of darkness so that no one would see him doing it. This exposed his fear and he was not sure God could or would see him through, even at this point.

Judges 6:27 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 is not the only saint of faith to succumb to fear in his early years. This state of fear brings to mind the incident in Mark 4:37-40.

Jesus was in the boat with His disciples when a terrible storm arose and high waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water and about to sink. And Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat with His head on a cushion. Frantically, the disciples wakened Him shouting, "Teacher, do not you even care that we are all about to drown?" Then He rebuked the wind, that is, Christ, and said to the sea, "Quiet down" and the wind fell and there was a great calm. And He asked them, "Why were you so fearful? Do not you even yet have confidence in Me?"

Here are men who spent day in and day out, day and night with Jesus Christ—I do not believe at this point they had God's Holy Spirit, they may have had help with from the Spirit but I do not believe it was indwelling in them at this time, and so they did not have as much help—but they were relying on their human nature rather than faith in God and confidence in Him.

God wants us to remember always that He is our salvation; we are to trust Him and not be afraid. Why was Gideon so fearful? How is it that he had no faith? Even after all that had transpired with him so far, after all the encouragements God had given him, Gideon's faith should have been strong.

But before we judge him, we had better look at ourselves and see how much we really trust in God. Put ourselves in his shoes and ask ourselves, would we go out right now somewhere and tear down an altar or some pagan statue or whatever and put the God's altar on top of that? If God told us to do that, we would really have a tough time, even worse than Gideon's probably. But it is interesting to put ourselves in his shoes and realize that as much faith as we like to think we have, we still have a weak faith that can be strengthened. God is working that in us and He is strengthening us every day, every trial we go through, and every time we read His Word.

It is important to realize that true believers cannot build an altar to the Lord unless first we tear down the altars we have built to the false gods or idols we worship. Our God is a jealous God and He will not share His glory or our love with another. So ask yourself, are there any gods in my life that I am afraid to tear down? Is there anything taking my time away from God that I am afraid to do away with? Every last one of us, I am sure, has something in there that is bothering or affecting us.

So Gideon had privately built his own altar to the Lord, but now he had to take his public stand, and he had to do it without compromise. Before he could declare war on Midian, he had to declare war on Baal. And when ten other men are involved, it is not easy to keep up your plans in secret, so it was not long before the whole town knew that Gideon was the one who destroyed his father's idols. The men of the city considered this a capital offense and wanted to kill Gideon. And ironically, according to God's law, it was the idol worshippers who should have been slain rather than ones demanding Gideon's death. Gideon was no doubt wondering what would happen to him, but God proved Himself reliable, able to handle the situation.

Judges 6:28-32 And when the men of the city arose 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." But Joash said to all who stood with him, "Would you plead for Baal? Would you beg for Baal on his behalf? 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."

Joash, Gideon's father, had every reason to be angry with his son. Gideon had smashed his father's altar to Baal and replaced it with an altar to the Lord. He had sacrificed his father's prized bull to the Lord and had used the sacred Asherah pole for fuel. So their pagan altar was precious to them because it supported their idolatry, and they were angry. It is interesting how God moved Joash, Gideon's father, to actually make a very wise statement and say, "Hey, if Baal is upset about it, let him defend himself," and it quieted down the crowd.

Turn with me to Isaiah 44. Now, the prophet Isaiah describes the sheer idiocy of making and worshipping idols. You have read this many times, but it fits so perfectly here, understanding the mindset of those people there at Gideon's time.

Isaiah 44:13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, he marks out with chalk; he fashions it with a plane, he marks it out with the compass, and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in his house.

This is speaking of fashioning or making an idol.

Now, the beauty of a man is the projection of human self-idealization that he puts in his personal temple, his home. The false gods depend on human purpose for their existence. Without human imagination they do not exist.

Isaiah 44:14 He cuts down cedars for himself, he takes the cypress and the oak; and he secures it [this is the craftsman it is talking about] for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine. . .

Where do we know pine trees are fastened? For what purpose? Well, for Christmas, are they not? Not that they are keeping Christmas, but they are keeping something similar here or they are worshipping for similar reasons.

Isaiah 44:14-17 He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself; yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; indeed he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and he falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire; with this half he eats meat; he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire." And the rest of it [you can see here the ridicule in his voice] he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"

I do not know how he said that, but it was not just ho-hum. He is mocking it.

So the leftovers of ordinary human activity provide false gods to whom people turn for deliverance. The very thing he burns on a fire he also worships. Where is the logic in that? There is not a bit of logic anywhere in it.

Isaiah 44:18-20 They do not know nor understand; for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. And no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; and shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" [as he holds the the idol there in his right hand]

God causes people to focus thought in contrast to the muddled delusions about these idolatrous things—both the all-sufficiency of the God who makes true promises to His people and the emptiness of the false gods with their lies. Absolutely mind boggling! We can probably come up with example, after example, after example in this society where people are doing this very same thing (just with the other things, still with physical things though), where they use part of a physical thing to drive their lives and do what it says. And the other way, they use it to discard. So they are worshipping the material thing for a while and then they are discarding it, whether it be a car or a home or cell phone or whatever it might be, whatever their idol might be. And they are definitely idols in this world.

Years later, Elijah would take a similar approach against Baal as Joash and Gideon did. The severe three-year drought did not convince Israel of Baal's impotence in Elijah's time. King Ahab, rather than seeing himself as responsible, blamed the prophet Elijah, who, although searched for had not been found. Now, Elijah was commanded by God to engineer a direct confrontation. Ahab and Elijah met and a test was agreed upon. The people of Israel were invited to watch a supernatural contest between Elijah, the lone prophet of the Lord, and 450 prophets of Baal. Wow, that was stacked against Elijah, or at least it appeared so according to the king. I am sure he was hopeful. They met on Mount Carmel where Elijah challenged all Israel. Elijah chastised the Israelites for refusing to commit to and follow God and his wording of this reprimand is interesting.

I Kings 18:21-22 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word. [This was God's nation, the children of Israel, and they did not know, they could not decide.] Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men."

Now listen to how the English Standard Version translates the question in verse 21: "How long will you go limping between two different opinions?" It is interesting. The picture we have of limping between two different opinions expresses that they were spiritually weak and sluggish, and staggering and unsure of their footing with regard to who they served. They had one foot in the "Christian" church and one foot in the New Age pagan church, or the environmental church, or whatever church it may be.

This is obvious in that they did not even give a word of defense. They had strayed so far from God that they had a hard time recognizing the truth. They had a hard time recognizing the Word of God in their mind. Satan's Baal was just as powerful and just as good as God. Actually, they preferred Baal because of the freedom they believed that he gave them, or it gave them, to do what they wanted. Satan's way seems more enjoyable and interesting, but in reality, it is enslaving. And that is the catch phrase for this world today. It is enslaved completely—mentally, physically, spiritually, and soon to be physically worldwide.

We see a similar attitude today with Christmas. Many people commonly remark that they enjoy the attractive decorations and colorful lights and others love the parties and excitement and they do not care that they syncretize the name of God with the customs of pagan worship and celebration. And this is what the Israelites at the time of Elijah had done. They just called it something else. It was just the same as this nation keeping Christmas and Easter and Halloween and all of the rest. They wanted to continue their Christmas-like celebrations even though they knew it did not have anything to do with serving God. In fact, it dishonored God and He was repulsed by it.

Barnes' Notes has this to say about verse 21,

The people were mute. They could not but feel the logical force of Elijah's argument, but they were not prepared at once to act upon it. They wished to unite the worship of Yahweh with that of Baal—to avoid breaking with the past and completely rejecting the old national worship, yet at the same time to have the enjoyment of the new rites, which were certainly sensuous and probably impure.

This is exactly what has happened to counterfeit modern Christianity today. The idea expressed in verse 21 is one of limping between or because of lameness, mental lameness. They could not obey God because of their enmity against Him; yet they dreaded Him, and therefore could not totally discard Him. On the other hand, they feared the king and felt pressure to accept the religion of the state.

Also, peer pressure was tremendous. They were in a constant and heightened state of anxiety. Their conscience would not let them totally abandon God, yet their fear of men pressured them to embrace the glitter of Baal. But their minds seemed equally poised. They were not completely dedicated to anyone except Number One—themselves. Out of pride and out of desire they made themselves god in deciding what should be worshipped and what should not.

After a whole day of futile prayer, the pagan prophets were unable to bring fire to their altar. But God answered Elijah's simple prayer immediately, and in a blazing holocaust, the Eternal burned, not only the offering laid out on the water-soaked altar, but also the very stones of the altar.

Convinced, the watching crowds killed the pagan prophets who had polluted God's people and His land. Following this indication of God of Israel's return to God, Elijah announced return of the rains that had been withheld for the three-and-a-half-years or so that they had drought. And so, with God's help, faithful Elijah was Baal's antagonist, and Israel for a short time turned from Baal to God.

Getting back to Gideon in Judges 6, God intervened in Joash's heart, causing him to defend his son Gideon before the town mob. Joash even insulted Baal by disparaging it.

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 [that is, Gideon] Jerubbaal, saying, "Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar."

Now because of this, Gideon's father gave Gideon the nickname Jerubbaal, which means, "Let Baal contend" or "Baal's antagonist." Gideon learned a valuable lesson that day. If he obeyed the Lord, even with fear in his heart, the Eternal would protect him and receive the glory. Yet he needed to remember this as he mustered his army and prepared to attack the enemy.

It is one thing to meet God in the secrecy of a wine press, but quite another thing to stand up for God in public. That very night, God tested Gideon's dedication by asking him to tear down his father's idolatrous altar to Baal and to build an altar to God. In addition, he was to sacrifice his father's special bullock, possibly reserved for Baal, on the new altar.

The faithful person's testimony must begin at home, as I mentioned earlier. Gideon obeyed the Lord, but he showed weak faith by doing the deed by night and by asking ten other men to help him. And we can imagine the fervor of in the neighborhood when the people discovered that destroyed altar the next morning. So Gideon challenged the status quo and defied the pop culture. Did they kill Gideon? No, rather Gideon became a leader able to summon the army together to prepare to fight.

God does not use a secret saint to win great battles. We must be prepared to take our stand, if necessary. God will take care of us. That is why I summarized it at the end there just to show you that God does take care of His saints, His people, His faithful.

The fourth doubt expressed as a question is: Does God keep His promises? That is covered in Judges 6, verses 33 through 40. Let's continue on reading Judges 6.

Judges 6:33-35 Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezites gathered behind him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

So the Midianites and their allies made their annual invasion about that time as more than 135,000 men moved into the Valley of Jezreel. It was time for Gideon to act, and the Spirit of God gave him the wisdom and power that he needed. God gave the power of His Spirit to the judges of Israel several times during the approximately 365-year period, including Samuel.

I was going to read quickly from five scriptures from Judges that shows you how God supplied the power of His Spirit to certain judges of Israel. But I am just going to give you those scriptures: Judges 3:9-10, Othniel was given the Spirit of the Lord; Judges 11:29, Jephthah was given the Spirit of the Lord; Judges 13:24-25, Judges 14:5-6, and Judges 15:14-15 all talk about various times that Samson was given the Spirit of the Lord for a special purpose.

So as we seek to do God's will, His word to us is always "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," as God said in Zechariah 4:6. We have access to the same Spirit that helped the Old Testament saints of faith in Hebrews 11.

Gideon blew the trumpet first in his own home town and the men of Abiezer rallied behind him. Gideon's reformation in the town had truly accomplished something!

Then he sent messengers throughout his own tribe of Manasseh, as well as the neighboring tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. These four tribes were near the Valley of Jezreel and therefore the invading army affected them most of all. As a result at Gideon's call, 32,000 men responded. But what chance did 32,000 men have against an army of 135,000 men, plus numberless camels?

So they had 135,000 men and innumerable camels, which were used in war as an advantage. The camels added the advantage of speed and mobility on the battlefield. The Israelites were outnumbered and would certainly be outmaneuvered except for one thing: God was on their side and He promised them victory.

Nevertheless, Gideon doubted God's promise. Did God really want him to lead the Israelite army? What did he know about warfare? That was what Gideon was asking himself. What do I know about warfare? I am a farmer after all. He was only an ordinary farmer and there were others in the tribes who could do a much better job. So, before he led the attack, he asked God to give him two more signs.

Judges 6:36-40 So Gideon said to God, "If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said [he is acknowledging God had told him that that would happen]—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the flesh threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as you have said [he repeated it again]." And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

People like Gideon who lack the faith to trust God to do what he said He would do, still today test God in similar ways. They have conditions for their trust in God's promises and even for their obedience. God says, if you keep the Sabbath, I will bless you. The weak in faith says, God, if you will just give me a boss who will let me take off on Saturday, I will keep the Sabbath. God says, if you stop robbing me of tithes and offerings, I will bless you. And the weak in faith says, God, if you will just find me a job that pays more money, I will begin tithing to you. The excuses go on and on and on. God, if you would just put the Feast site closer to me, I will go to your Feast. You know, whatever it might be. We use excuses.

Malachi 3:10 "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it."

These are not always physical blessings, as we know. Often they are spiritual. Nevertheless, there is an abundance of blessings that come our way for obeying God. Setting down conditions because of our own lack of faith hinders spiritual growth and harms our relationship with God, because it shows we do not really trust Him. Twice Gideon reminded God of what He had said, and twice Gideon asked God to reaffirm His promises with a miracle or a sign.

We are going to be wrapping this up in within the next five minutes. Continuing on in verse 36.

Judges 6:36-37 So Gideon said to God, "If You will save Israel by my hand, as you have said—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on this fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said."

So God having promised Gideon was not enough for his weak faith and he still kept asking.

The fact that God bent to Gideon's weakness only proves that He is a gracious God who understands how we are made and the weaknesses we have. This does not excuse our weaknesses, but that God will help us through them.

Psalm 103:8-14 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. [he repeats the fact of people who fear Him receive these blessings in verse 14] For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.

So God does keep His promises. He always keeps His promises.

Who are we to tell God what conditions He must meet? Especially when He has already spoken to us in His Word. Having conditions for God to fulfill is not only evidence of our unbelief, but it is also evidence of our pride. The thought of requiring God to do what we tell Him to do before we do what He tells us to do, should terrify us.

Gideon spent two days pulling this stunt with God at the threshing floor. The first night, he asked God to make the fleece wet, but keep the ground dry. And God did. The second night, the test was much harder because he wanted the threshing floor to be wet, but the fleece to be dry. The ground of a threshing floor is ordinarily very hard and normally would not be greatly affected by the dew. But the next morning, Gideon found dry fleece but wet ground, exactly as he had asked.

God had given Gideon very little to do, but He had answered some of his requests there. Actually, there was nothing for Gideon to do but to confront the enemy and trust God for victory.

In I John 5, verses 4 and 5, it assures us that our faith, strengthened by God, conquers worldliness.

I John 5:4-5 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God requires that we submit to Him and live as He instructs and as He gave us example.

As we will see as we continue with Gideon's story the next time, he conquers his fears. An army of 32,000 men rallied to his side, but he was still doubtful of victory. But God was patient with him as He is with us and that is very encouraging.

Gideon put out the fleece twice, and both times God answered. It is too bad, though, when God's people trust circumstances to lead them instead of relying on God's clear written Word. Gideon was not the only one afraid, as we will see next time. Twenty-two thousand soldiers were also fearful and went home.

However, God did not need all the remaining 10,000 men, so He tested them and sent most of them home. The 300 who drank from the hand would have been in better position to face and fight the enemy in a surprise attack. They were constantly alert to the enemy.

The question I have for you is: Are you always alert and constantly looking for the enemy who is always lurking around waiting to grab you at your weakest time?

On the night of the battle, God saw that there was still fear in Gideon's heart. So He graciously gave him a special sign, assuring him that he would win the battle. God was going to use this ordinary farmer to win a great victory despite his weak faith, which should be very, very encouraging to each and every one of us.

MGC/aws/drm





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