Gideon: Discovering Why You Were Born
Judges 6:1-14
I have to confess that I used to like to watch American Idol. And the best part of the season was when all the wannabees come out for the auditions. I lose interest when it is narrowed down to the last 50 who actually have some talent. It is amazing to me that when Simon used to say, “Why are you here today?” their reply is always, “Because I am the next American Idol.” They don’t say, “Because I want to be the next American Idol.” It is always, “Because I AM the next American Idol.” It is amusing to see how bad some of these people really are. They interviewed one young man who was about to audition and told something about his life. He had a band back home. When they interviewed his father, the father said that his son could, “sing like a bird.” But when the young man went into the audition room and opened his mouth, he sounded more like a gorilla — growling, twisting and stomping like he was being tortured. The judges were not impressed. Simon buried his head in his hands, Paula just looked at the floor and Randy laughed.
It’s all hugely entertaining, not to mention amusing. The blaring message of the program for me is: Just because you think you can sing does not mean you can sing; just because you think you have talent does not mean you have talent. Some of those who audition believe that they were born to be a singer, when they’re actually a screecher. One girl even came to the auditions knowing that she could not sing, because she thought it was not fair that people who could not sing could not win a singing contest. There are a lot of people in the world who make themselves miserable because they are trying to be something that they are not. They have never found the purpose for which they were born. Some of these people come saying that it has always been their dream to be a famous singer, but their dream is a fantasy. Their real dream is to become rich and famous.
The message of the Bible is that God has made each of us for a purpose, and until we find, and live out, that purpose, we are missing out on something very important. We can rebel and go another way, but we will miss the blessing of finding the reason for which we were born. The Bible says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). All of us were born with the purpose of belonging to God and living for him and using our lives to make the world a better place. He is our Creator, Savior and friend, and to miss out on knowing him would be the greatest mistake of our lives. It does not take any talent to live out your purpose at this point.
There is an interesting passage in the gospel of Luke that says, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right. . . . But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves” (Luke 7:29-30). They fancied themselves to be the people of God, but they were wrong. They thought they were more religious than Jesus, and therefore they did not need him. Thinking we don’t need Jesus is a problem many people have.
Beyond that there is a more specific purpose for each of us. Some of you were born to be musicians. God has gifted you with an ability to sing or play an instrument, and many of you are using that gift to serve the Lord. Some of you were born to be teachers, bankers, salespersons, or parents. You may feel called to be a politician or preacher. Your gift may be cooking, entertaining, helping people in need or ministering to people in some way. The Bible says, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. . . . All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). Your purpose may be a life long vocation, or it may be a single act carried out in only one point in time, but all your life has been headed for that moment.
Gideon is a man in the Old Testament who was called by God for a special purpose at a special time. But there were several things that kept Gideon from understanding what God’s purpose was for him and how he fit into God’s plan. And these are the same things that keep us from discovering the reason for which we were born. Gideon’s first challenge was the challenge we all face: We have to overcome discouragement. The people of Israel were horribly oppressed. They were starving because the Midianites kept destroying their cattle and crops. There was great suffering and discouragement in the land. Hope was gone. Gideon was hiding in an old wine press that had been dug. He was threshing a few stalks of wheat that he had somehow managed to keep hidden from the Midianites. He was depressed. But the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior’” (Judges 6:12). I’ll bet he was tempted to laugh out loud. Mighty warrior? He was a scared young man hiding out in a wine press. But then, God always sees us in a different light than we see ourselves. We see our inadequacies and failures, and use them as an excuse. God sees our potential and what could be, and he wants to use us for his purposes.
Gideon’s discouragement comes pouring out. He says to the Lord’s messenger, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian” (Judges 6:13). The angel does not argue with him, but says, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” God promises to be with him, as he does with us. But Gideon is filled with thoughts about his own inadequacy. He says, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord simply answered, “I will be with you” (Judges 6:14-16). The answer to your discouragement, as it was with Gideon, is the knowledge that God is with you and makes up for your inadequacies. This is why we need God’s Spirit living in us. You don’t have to do it in your own power, or by your own ability — in fact you can’t. You go in the strength of the Lord.
But Gideon is not sure about this, even though the angel of the Lord is standing right in front of him. (So much for the idea that if God would just show himself, everyone would believe.) We, like Gideon, not only have to overcome discouragement, the second point is that: We have to overcome doubt. Gideon says to the Angel of the Lord who is standing right in front of him: “Give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” So Gideon prepared an offering to the Lord, and as a sign, the Angel of the Lord touched the offering with his staff, and fire flamed from the rock and consumed the offering. Then the Angel of the Lord disappeared from his sight. Wow. A visit from God and a special sign. That should have been good enough for anybody. But it still was not good enough for Gideon.
The Midianites encamped against Israel, and Gideon summoned the men from all the towns of Israel to come and protect the land from the invading army. Then the Bible says, “Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised — look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.’ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew — a bowlful of water” (Judges 6:36-38). This is the passage where we get our phrase of “putting out a fleece before the Lord.” What more could you ask. Gideon asked for a specific sign and God gave it to him. But then he thought, “Oh, I made a mistake. That could have a perfectly natural explanation. The fleece would naturally hold water longer than the ground around it.” So then he said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” Then the Bible says, “That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew” (Judges 6:39-40). Gideon finally decides to trust God and do what the Lord has been telling him to do.
I find it interesting that many people take this as an example of what we should do when faced with a dilemma — put out a fleece — as though it is a biblical principle. Putting out a fleece was actually a lack of faith on Gideon’s part. He had already been given clear direction by the Lord, and he had received a miraculous sign. But all that is not enough, and now he wants more proof. But there is never enough proof where there is no faith. Evidently, having faith is important to God, for the Bible says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The third point is that if we are going to realize the purpose for which we have been born: We have to overcome obstacles. There will always be obstacles. And some of these will be God testing your faith so it can grow. That was the case with Gideon. As he faces the army of the Midianites, which stretches as far as he can see, he realizes that he is overwhelmingly outnumbered. But God tells him that it is not that he has too few men to win the battle, he has too many. And you remember how this wonderful story goes. God directs Gideon to tell his men that if any are afraid that they may return home. With that, 22,000 men leave, and only 10,000 men remain to fight the hoards of Midianite warriors riding on their camels. But then the Scripture says, “But the Lord said to Gideon, ‘There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, “This one shall go with you,” he shall go; but if I say, “This one shall not go with you,” he shall not go’” (Judges 7:4). Then, as the men went down to the water to drink, three hundred of them kept going through the water\ as they scooped up the water in their hands and drank. All the rest fell to their knees and gulped the water down. And the Lord said, “With three hundred men I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go.”
This is a new obstacle for Gideon. He had a little hope when his men numbered over thirty thousand, but now he is down to three hundred. And as he looked at the enemy, here is what he saw: “The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore” (Judges 7:12). But God was about to introduce unconventional warfare to Gideon. The Lord directed him to have his little band of men go to the edge of the enemy’s camp at night. He gave each man a ram’s horn trumpet and a clay jar. The men were to take a torch and place it inside the jar. At Gideon’s signal they were to break the jar to reveal the fire, blow their trumpets and shout, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” And then God caused a panic in the enemy camp, and those who came to fight against Israel began to fight each other. Those who did not die in the battle fled back to the country from where they had come. They never threatened Israel again during the lifetime of Gideon.
It is a great story of overcoming depression, discouragement, doubt and huge obstacles. But, unfortunately, it is not the end of the story. The fourth thing that is necessary for finding the purpose for which you have been born is: We must remain faithful. Gideon has discovered God’s purpose for him, and God has wonderfully used him. He was used by God to deliver Israel from her enemies. But the reason that Israel was being oppressed in the first place was because the people were worshiping foreign gods. In the beginning of the story, the prophet spoke the word of the Lord to Israel saying, “I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me” (Judges 6:10).
Gideon let down his guard when it seemed the imminent danger was over. The people of Israel came to Gideon and asked him to rule over them. But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). Sounds great, but now Gideon wants to please the people. He had taken away the pagan gods, the Baals and Ashtoreths, but now there is a spiritual vacuum. He tells them that the Lord will rule over them, but he asks them to create an ephod so they can consult God. The high priest used to wear an ephod, a sort of breastplate, for this purpose, but there is currently no high priest. The Bible says, “Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family” (Judges 8:27). Gideon permitted this religious article to become an idol. It led the people into idolatry and spiritual unfaithfulness, and implied in the passage is that sexual immorality became a part of the ritual surrounding this ephod. So, in the end, the very reason that God brought judgment on Israel is going on once again. Even Gideon and his family are caught up in it. Gideon began well. He accomplished some important things that God had called him to do — things he was born for. But he failed to remain faithful. His wealth multiplied. He had many wives. His heart was proud, and he turned away from the Lord. We never hear of any other visitations from the Lord from that time on.
If you are going to discover the purpose for which you were born, you are going to have to overcome discouragement, doubt and obstacles. But most of all you have to remain faithful. It is important to finish well. Faithlessness in the end cancels out a lot of good that you may have done.
Ray Stedman tells about an old missionary couple, many years ago, who had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York City to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They happened to be on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions. No one paid any attention to or noticed the elderly missionary couple dressed in worn out clothes. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the legendary hunter and politician. The husband began to have feelings of envy. They had served in Africa for years and no one cared about what they had done, and this man goes to Africa for a hunting trip and everyone comes out to celebrate his arrival. When the ship docked in New York, the mayor and other dignitaries were present, and a band was playing. A limousine whisked Roosevelt off to his lavish residence. Newspapers were filled with stories of the president’s trip, but there was not a single person waiting to greet the old couple. They weren’t even able to get off the ship until the president had made his grand exit. They didn’t know where they would be able to stay, or how they would make a living now that they were back in the States. It all seemed so unfair. When they finally got their suitcase to a cheap room that night, the old man was broken in spirit and fell to his knees in prayer. He asked for the Lord to speak to him and explain to him why things were this way. They had given their lives to the Lord’s work and there was not a single word of appreciation. They were lonely and living in poverty. He later told his wife, “As I was in prayer, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said to me, ‘But you’re not home yet!’” Yes, there are rewards for faithfulness, but not necessarily here and now. And we will never receive those rewards if we are not faithful to the end, but glory, honor and blessing await those who persevere and endure.
Rodney J. Buchanan
October 14, 2012
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
