Judges Series #8
Life Cycles
“God Empowers the Timid and Insignificant”
Review
We should all be familiar with the cycle by now.
Sin-Slavery-Supplication-Salvation-Service
Up to this point, I have described the fourth stage as God raising up a deliverer.
Technically God is the Deliverer who commissions or raises up an instrument of deliverance.
This third generation of people following the glorious deliverance from Egyptian slavery lapses into a period of sporadic servitude spanning nearly three centuries (299 years).
What were the sins of this generation?
They rejected the teachings of their founders.
They no longer passed on the stories of God’s amazing loving acts for His chosen people.
They became enmeshed with the pagan nations that God commanded them to destroy.
They purposely ignored God while picking up the dreadful beliefs and practices of those nations and worshiped multiple deities.
They arrogantly did their own thing.
Every man did that what was right in their own eyes.
They lapsed into idolatry, immorality and anarchy.
These are sins not unlike the practices of people today; even in the church.
The author weaves three main “take away” messages all though this journal of Israel’s history
Sin continually causes bondage and enslavement.
God mercifully grants deliverance from slavery.
God powerfully enlists the unlikely to precipitate the unimaginable.
I. Cycle Identified 1-2
II. Cycle Illustrated (Seven examples) 3-16
A. Othniel 3:1-16 God empowers the faithful
B. Ehud 3:17-30 God empowers the weak
C. Shamgar 3:31 God empowers with whatever is available.
D. Deborah 4 God empowers the disenfranchised
Before we shift our focus to Gideon, we passed by a contemporary of Deborah who appeared in the last verse of chapter three who God used to deliver a small group of Israelites from oppression.
He got one verse (3:31)
This could be considered part of the Salvation section of Deborah’s cycle.
Shamgar belonged to the tribe of Naphtali.
The record reveals that God used Shamgar to break some local oppression from the Philistines.
Shamgar, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit killed 600 Philistines with just an ox goad.
A clear lesson emerges from this brief reference.
God uses whoever and whatever happens to be available.
Availability and obedience stand out again as criteria for usability.
A fair guess is that Shamgar was not a warrior but a keeper of livestock.
God encouraged and empowered a common person to use what was available to accomplish the purposes of God.
I bumped into a ministry on the internet called “Shamgar Ministries”.
I know nothing about their ministry but their logo intrigued me.
“Start where you are.”
“Use what you have.”
“Do what you can.”
That about sums up the Shamgar principle.
INTRODUCTION
One universal struggle lies at the heart of so many of our actions.
This struggle can lead to life paralysis, misery and a host of difficulties in life. FEAR!
The subject of fear flows from Genesis (Adam hid from God because he was afraid) to Revelation.
Remember how many times God encouraged Joshua not to fear but to take courage.
Jesus constantly addressed fear in His disciples.
If fearlessness were a criterion for usefulness, the number of possible candidates would be minimal.
E. Gideon God empowers the fearful.
This cycle begins just like the rest.
1. Sin
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD,
Every time a godly influence passed from the scene, the people lapsed into the same sins as before.
It seems clear that the people’s heart really had not changed.
They only followed God because of some external influence.
That is the shortcoming of law-based motivation.
Israel lacked true heart change.
To attain a better idea of the level of evil’s permeation in the people, let’s skip ahead to a snapshot of Gideon’s own family.
That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.”
Baal worship took front and center right in Gideon’s family.
The Asherah was a pole or tree that represented Baal’s wife the goddess of fertility.
They were carved and placed near places of worship and were often placed next to altars erected to Baal.
At times they put an Asherah pole next to an altar to Yahweh.
How serious was their Baal worship?
Look at the response after Gideon tore down the altar and the Asherah pole.
And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.”
You clearly feel the depth of corruption that had spread through the people.
Because of it, God devises a way to get their attention.
2. Slavery
and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. Judges 6:1
The Midianites settled east of the Jordan near the Dead Sea through a son of Moses by his concubine Keturah. Moses hung out in this area after fleeing from the Egyptian Pharaoh and received his commissioning at the burning bush. Moses father-in-law was Jethro a priest of Midian.
Midian allied with Edom, Amalek Moab and Ammon to resist Israel’s occupation.
And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian.
The oppression from Midian and Amalek completely devastated the people of Israel.
The Midianites were starving out the Israelites.
They kept stealing their lunch and breaking their toys.
The people were so intimidated they continually hid in nearby caves.
Midianites significantly outnumbered the Israelites in this region.
Fear, intimidation, starvation, helplessness and hopelessness demoralized them.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." God was shouting to His people, as He sometimes has to shout at us when we refuse to listen to His Word.
The Israelites trusted Baal to bless their crops and grant prosperity and fertility.
God allowed the Midianites to demonstrate the inability of Baal to meet their longing.
3. Supplication
And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel.
And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” Judges 6:6-10
Sometimes we forget the clear examples of God’s mercy to us in the past.
King David affirmed that God’s mercies are new every morning.
We also forget our struggle in the present has connections to our sin the past.
Sometimes we ignore the obvious.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they crawled into their tent and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, Holmes awoke and nudged his friend. “Watson, look up and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.” “What does that tell you, Watson?” asked Holmes. Watson pondered a moment and then replied, “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is within the Leo constellation. Chronologically I observe it’s nighttime 3 a.m. on June 14th. Meteorologically, the air appears dry, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day. Why did you ask? What does it tell you?” Holmes says, “Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”
The author reaffirms the reoccurring principle.
Sin leads to bondage and difficulties.
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you” (Isa 59:1-2
God reaffirms this fact later to Gideon.
People too quickly shift blame to God for the problems in our life and the world.
“If God is such a loving God what do bad things happen?”
“Why doesn’t God do something?”
“How could He allow this to happen?”
The answer; God makes a way of escape and promises deliverance but we too often fail to “obeyed His voice.”
Ever responded that way?
4. Salvation
In God’s mercy, He set a deliverance plan in motion by choosing an instrument of deliverance.
Again, the judges did not deliver Israel.
God delivered Israel through His specially chosen instrument.
Notice God specially chose, not chose specially gifted person.
As has been clear throughout these cycles, God often chooses the most unlikely people as His instrument of deliverance.
Gideon is certainly a striking illustration of this principle.
Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
In most cases where the phrase “THE Angel of the LORD” appears, it refers to a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Jesus.
This is no ordinary angel that shows up periodically through the history of man.
Jesus visibly appeared to man as THE Angel of the LORD.
The angel spoke words familiar to many ordinary people chosen by God to do extraordinary things, “The LORD is with you”.
The affirmation that followed was not familiar to Gideon. “O mighty man of valor.”
Jesus did not focus on who he was, but who he would become because the LORD was with him.
At the moment, Gideon was anything but a “might man of valor”.
God sees the potential while we focus on the problems
Gideon aired his frustration the same way some of us do from time to time.
He blamed God for not rescuing them out their difficulties.
And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Who did the forsaking?
Israel did the forgetting and the rebelling.
Gideon and perhaps the people expected God’s blessing and rescue in spite of the fact they maintained an altar to Baal in their home forsaking the true God.
They pursued other interests than those of God.
How easy it is to become indifferent to sin in our life.
Just because we do not maintain a physical altar in our home does not mean we have shifted our devotion to someone or something else while maintaining we are devoted to Christ.
The gods of the pagan all represented a primary focus in their life.
They did not give their energies to a piece of rock but to the gods it represented.
Each of the various gods promised certain things.
The people worship those gods that promised to fulfill their longings.
Goddess of sex, god of war, god of materialism and success, the gods of fertility, the gods of health and physical ability the gods of pleasure.
Does that sound like any prime pursuits of people in our culture today?
Paul confessed his concern that Satan had succeeded in leading the Corinthians away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
An idol in our life is anything we pursue other than God as the source of wellbeing.
Where we spend our resources, what dreams occupy our thoughts, what we fear losing expose what we really trust to fulfill us.
And the LORD turned to Gideon and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
At this point, the Angel did not set Gideon’s theology straight.
He issued a commission, a purpose, and a job to accomplish.
What might did the Angel refer?
Gideon certainly did not feel it as he exposed his “worm mentality.”
Who am I?
And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
If God sends us and empowers us, it has little to do with us.
It has everything to do with HIM!
And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
The key phrase in warfare and victory is ALWAYS “I will be with you.”
Gideon was not the only person to shrink from a monumental mission.
Listen to Moses after a life-changing encounter with the holiness of God.
Moses said, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
God said, "Certainly I will be with you”
Moses said, “What shall I say to the sons of Israel? Who shall I say sent me?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
Moses said, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Exodus 4:10-11
"Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." Exodus 4:12
But Moses said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will. Exodus 4:13
What excuses do we give the Lord?
Gideon recognized that someone greater than an angel stood before him.
And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
Gideon gained a new perspective through this encounter with Jesus.
God reinforced courage in this fearful man.
Peace, meaningful encounter, promise of His presence and protection diminished his fear.
Now before Gideon could steer Israel away from idolatry, he need to stamp out idolatry from his own family.
That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.”
Gideon did as the Angel of the LORD instructed.
So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:11-27
Courage is not the absence of fear but obedience in spite of the fear.
The town’s people violently reacted but Gideon’s father stepped up.
But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. Judges 6:31-32
So far, we have the call, the commission and the consecration.
Next God prepared Gideon for the confrontation of the enemy.
Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.
There is nothing like a Spirit-empowered leader to inspire the troops.
But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
Paul encouraged timid Timothy in his pastoral ministry.
I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7
God’s Spirit stirred men from the surrounding tribes to join Gideon.
In spite of Gideon’s encounters with God to this point, the prospect of battle unnerves him.
Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” And it was so.
When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Judges 6:33-40
We all need the confidence stirred by affirmation of God’s presence and promise.
God already promised His power and protection.
He promised to deliver the enemy into his hands.
He promised he would not die.
He promised His presence.
Still it was not enough.
Fear is a powerful thing.
At its core, fear is fundamentally a failure to take God at His word.
Many draw the wrong conclusions from this account.
This account does not prescribe a particular action but simply describes Gideon’s action.
Gideon’s actions demonstrated weak trust in God not a strong one.
There is much more to Gideon’s story than we can finish today so I want to focus on some universal principles applicable to every generation we have encountered so far.
The subject of fear is such a monumental concept (appears nearly 400 times) that after we finish Gideon, I want to take several Sunday’s to discover what the Bible has to teach about it.
POINTS TO PONDER
Point of interest: In this passage the existence and work of the Trinity comes into view.
Yahweh, His Messenger Jesus, the Holy Spirit clothed Gideon.
The reoccurring principles emerge once again.
• Sin leads to slavery.
• God mercifully grants deliverance
• God empowers the improbable to bring about impossible.
God used Gideon in spite of his background and heritage.
God used Gideon in spite of his stature.
God used Gideon in spite of his insignificance.
God used Gideon in spite of his fear.
God can use us in spite of whatever reason we think excludes us.
All that is necessary is availability and obedience in spite of fear.
Like Gideon, we have been called.
Like Gideon, we have been commissioned.
Like Gideon, we have been cleansed.
God promises His presence and His power through the Holy Spirit.
Do you wonder what God has commissioned you to do?
Of course, God commission us all to reach and teach followers of Christ.
The ultimate is to draw attention (glorify) to our blessed Lord and Savior.
How do we do that?
Don’t think that only those who engage in formal ministry for the Lord glorify him.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:22-24
It is obvious from these verses that everything we do has importance and potential to draw attention to Christ in us.
Since God exists…
Since God created all things...
Some God orchestrates ALL THINGS for good…
EVERYTHING is important.
Make sure He is the reason you do what you do.
Be available! Listen for His direction – get in the game!
Be obedient! Do what He tells you.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON GIDEON
Here are some additional thoughts gleaned from the passage on Gideon we didn’t have time to cover in the Sunday messages.
Through this passage we bump into some important points regarding God’s part.
LESSONS ON GOD FROM GIDEON
• Self-revealing God
• Early revelation of a Triunity
The Scriptures reveal that it was YAHWEH who spoke to Gideon but we also find that the visible messenger was the “ANGEL of the LORD.”
Later we read that the SPIRIT of the LORD came upon Gideon.
• God sees the potential while we see the problems
• God of the supernatural
• The God who is there
• Mighty Warrior
Then he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts. Zech. 4:6
And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
• Patient and merciful God who sometimes overlooks our imperfection to accomplish His purpose.
• Holy God who is interested in fidelity among His people
Character of Gideon An unlikely hero
• Negatives
? Ignorance / bitterness
Gideon was first ignorant as to who he was talking to. Gideon was unable to recognize the presence of God. Gideon was ignorant of God’s faithfulness. Gideon was ignorant of the source of their calamity.
? Insignificant, obscure and insecure
? Doubt & hesitancy
? Fearful
? Made some unwise choices
Positives
What earned Gideon a place in the Hebrews hall of faith? What transformed an obscure farmer into a valiant warrior?
? Trust and obedience
Even though he was fearful he still obeyed.
? He was cautious
Gideon wanted to make sure it was really the Lord talking to him and not someone else.
? He was committed to serve the Lord. (Built a place of devotion - altar)
? He understood the majesty and power of God (bowed in worship)
? He became willing to face impossible odds because of the presence and promise of God
? He was unselfish and diplomatic (not looking to be famous)
? He was God focused (I will not rule over you but God will rule over you)
? He certainly was a courageous, valiant warrior when God was through.
Lessons to Live by
? When we do evil in God’s sight, He allows the enemy to destroy our fruitfulness.
? God calls even the most minuscule to accomplish the monumental.
? Significant national motivation begins with initial family cleansing.
? God doesn’t need vast numbers to achieve His purposes against impossible odds.
? Supernatural signs do not necessarily inspire genuine faith.
? Courage comes from a significant encounter with the person and promise of God.
? God rewards obedience even when everything in our life wasn’t perfect.
