Last week we started learning about Gideon, and how he was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord tries to send Gideon to deal with the problem. Gideon wonders here God is in the current oppression by the mideanites and when sent by the angel, gives a aeries of excuses. We ended last week with Gideon asking how could he save Israel? The answered was that God was with him.
We ended with the discussion that we are no different than Gideon, we are thrashing around in a winepress and we must come out.
Let’s pickup with our scripture This morning,
Judges 6:17
Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."
And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."
Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
Gideon is out of the Press and hears that God wants him to do something and most importantly is promising to be with him. His response, If and I mean IF, I am the one you are talking to, hold on for a few minutes and let me make an offering…Wait Right here.
Gideon is not at all sure that he is the right guy. He has crawled out of the press and took the messenger, the angel, some physical manifestation that God created and he wants to make a meal.
A young goat and an epath of flower, they say that a epath was about 3 /5 of bushel. A bushel of wheat would weight 60 pounds, I don’t know if a bushel of flower would weight more or less. If it is 60 pounds then 3/5 is 38 pounds of flower to make bread.
The amount is not as important as the idea that Gideon was making a sizable sacrifice to this representative of God. It was a lot more than one man or two could eat. He brings the meal and the angel gives him instructions.
Put the meat and the bread on that rock over there then pour that gravy all over it. And Gideon does as he is told.
All this looks to me like a test. This fella, was just sitting there by the wine press talking really big and Gideon, decides to test the messenger. He is saying make me believe. Make me really know that God is with me, that God wants me to do something.
The angel takes the end of his staff and touches the meat and bread and flames jump put of the rock and consume the offering. While Gideon is staring with his mouth open, the angel disappears.
Gideon gets it.. God has been present. God was with him. And instead of joy and excitement he panics.
I have seen the angel of the lord face to face. From what he knows, he is gonna die. That is the deal, If you see the face of God you die.
But God responds in the next verse,
23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."
24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Gideon seems to be pretty impressed. He marks the spot. He makes an alter, which is a decent size stack of rocks. So he is not dead and because of his encounter he honors the event with a pillar of stones. That is a pretty good day don’t you think, Thresh a little wheat, meet with the angel of God, make an offering that God accepts in a miraculous way.
Gideon is not finished. You see, when God says he is going to be with you, and you listen and respond. You will never be done. God calls people to be in service and as long as you respond, He has plenty for you to do and he will stay with you and give you direction.
25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!
29 They asked each other, "Who did this?"
When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
God tells Gideon to go get the second bull, the 7 year old one. That means full grown. Full size, healthy piece of live stock. Go down to your father’s alter to ba’al, and cut down the asherah Pole.
Ok, we started last week with the statement that the people of Israel, had gone away from God. Here we learn that Gideon’s father had an alter to ba’al….For some reason God had a problem with false idols. God had a problem with people giving offering to another God.
It is not that the Israelite people stopped worshiping WYAGH, They just added to their worship the god of fertility. The one that brought rain in the spring and made the crops grown and children to come.
No wonder God removed his protection.
It seems that Gideon’s father was the keeper of the ba’al alter. They probably had the highest hill around and the community came together to build the site. The asherah pole could have been many things. Simply a large pole or number of poles stuck up in the ground. They could have been carved and even had human kind of shapes or figures. So say it was a certain tree or trees specifically placed by the alter and dedicated to ba’al.
What are the alters that separate us from God? TV, Money, cars, relationships, what things do we, Christians place on the hill of our attention that we add in addition to and sometime above God in our lives.
We live in a canonite world. We are exposed to all kinds of idolarity and most of it looks harmless, it does not hurt anyone. Some of it feels good and makes us feel good.
An idol is any object, idea or relationship that shifts our focus from God. Our health or problems, anything good or bad can be the point of separation.
Gideon is called to start his work for God with a litrle house cleaning. He is still a coward, and works at night. But he does as he is instructed. He destroys the unacceptable to God and builds a proper alter, He offers the exact sacrifice thar God calls for and uses the wooden idols as fuel to meet God’s expectations.
Even thought Gideon is afraid of what his family and the men of the town would say and do but he did it anyway. A coward, can do anything when he or she knows that God is with them.
The men of the town saw the destruction, and started an investigation. They had a bone to pick with somebody.
Things are always the same. When ever a committee works on a project, someone finds out what happened. Who had the ideas and who did the work. Someone on the night shift talked and gave Gideon credit.
30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."
The men of the town came to kill off Gideon, they see the least man of the least important family in Manasseh has gotten too big for his britches. They don’t yet see anything wrong with their IDOL worship. And all that Gideon has done is destroyed their work.
Whenever, someone points out the foolishness of IDOL worship, people get offeneded. People get angry. People get agrssive and sometimes violent. When people are involved in idol worship the can never be changed from the outside. They can nly be changed when life reranges their values.
When Gideon destroyed the idol and replaced it with a proper alter the people did not want change. For a brief time they were more worried about this change instead of worring about all the other attoackers that hd plagued them for 7 years.
Since the Ba’al alter was probably on JOASH’s property you yould think that he would turnover his son to the mob. But he doesn’t. Listen to his reply.
31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." 32 So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal, [g] " saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal’s altar.
It appears that the only person that understood what Gideon did was his father. Not only did he support him but he seems to have been in favor of what happened. I wonder if he realized the change in his son? If he saw the humble farmer that would not hurt a fly suddenly acting out, But not against his father and family , instead acting out on behalf of WAYAH.
Gideon was not the mastermind of some great plan that he cam up with. He was a timed at least and coward at most who God approaches to bring the people of Israel back to God. The only way to make that come about was to do some house cleaning. He had to make a statement that in order to have a relationship with God you have to take away the distractions. You have to take a little risk. You have to trust God for direction and strength.
Next week we will be getting to the big stuff… The mission with God the redemption of the people.
