If there is something you may or may not know about me it is this: I love trivia and Lindsay says does not know where I store all that useless information and wonders where it came from. When we watch Jeopardy, she asks “how did you know that?” I play an online trivia game with people all over the world from time to time and I have often made it to the top 1% in the world, each week it starts at zero. I don’t play all the time, but now that I am sitting with Noah more I have been playing more. So I have some Trivia for you today!
Can you guess who I am describing here?
At the age of 7, his family was force out of their home.
He had to work to support them.
At 9 years of age his mother died.
When he was 22 he failed in business
At the age of 23 he ran for state legislature - lost
At that age he also lost his job - wanted to go to law school but couldn't get in.
At 24 he borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off his debt.
At 25 he ran for state legislature again - won.
He was engaged to be married at 26, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken and had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
At 29 he sought to become speaker of the state legislature - defeated. 1840 Sought to become elector - defeated.
At 34 he ran for Congress - lost.
At 35 he ran for Congress again - this time he won - went to Washington and did a good job.
At 37 he ran for re-election to Congress - lost.
At 40 he sought the job of land officer in his home state - rejected.
At 45 he ran for Senate of the United States - lost.
At the age of 47 he sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party's national convention - got less than 100 votes.
At the age of 49 he ran for U.S. Senate again – and was soundly defeated
But at the age of 51 he ran for president of the United States and was Elected. Who am I talking about?
President Lincoln
Okay two quick ones, one easier and one harder – Who was referred too as the stammering King? King George the sixth. However there was another king from the 8th century that has that same title. Do you know the second Stammering King? Louis the Stammerer Louis the 2nd – he was the King of Aquitaine and later King of West Francia.
Lincoln, George the sixth and Louie all may have had challenges that restricted them or made them un-likely candidates to achieve what they did. Maybe you are here today and you have felt that you did not have what it takes to step up or lead a group. I know for myself the last thing I wanted to be was a pastor growing up. Even tough I knew from an early age God wanted me to be in ministry I ran from that. I was miserable because I knew I was not in God’s will. I always questioned God’s will because I did not think it was for me. Today we are going to look at even a more un-likely candidate for a leader or a ruler. Mainly because he did not even know he was a candidate for such a position.
The Situation
Before we start, I want to give you some background on this passage. We need to ask the question “what is the situation”. Throughout the book of Judges we see the Israelite people falling in and out of favour with God and the Lord punishing them as a result of this. In Judges 6:1 we see another one of these times. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. The Midians were a nomadic people and so were the Amelikites. These nomadic tribes would continually raid the Israelite land, destroy their crops, and steel their livestock and we see that in the following verses:
2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. (Tyndale commentary makes note on verse 5, that these nomads used camel regiments which allowed them to do mass damage in shorter periods of time.) 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
This seemed like a very hopeless situation. Verses 7-10 indicate that the reason this devastation was happening to the Israelite people was because they had turn from God, once again and as a result they were paying the price. Verse 10 in the Message says this: And I said to you, 'I am GOD, your God. Don't for a minute be afraid of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.' But you didn't listen to me. Let’s Read the account of this on verses 11-16 and look at who God raised up this time in the midst of this turmoil.
The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
But sir,” Gideon replied, “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.”
The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
But Lord, Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
A Look at this Gideon Guy
So the Question arises, why was Gideon Threshing grain in a wine press? Why a wine press? In those days, as obvious as it may seem, the wine press was used to make wine. Typically, the wine press was located in a valley or a secluded place so the wind would not blow infirmities into the wine process. On the other hand, the threshing floor was typically on the hill top where the wind would blow the chaff away. Many of you have seen a combine at work and you have seen the small golden fibres that are blown out the back end. These golden fibres are chaff. I have worked on many harvests and have found that this chaff can be itchy and uncomfortable. So the reason was threshing grain in a wine press was because he needed to hide from the Midinite and Amelikite marauders. He was scared!
And then this angel of the Lord, who was also referred to as the Lord in verse 14, appears speak to Gideon. The angel of the Lord is referred to in the Old Testament over thirty times. Many scholars believe that the angel of the Lord is a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Jesus.
The Humour of the Situation
Picture if you would. Here we have a man that it scared and is hiding. Then the angel of the Lord arrives and says ““The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” One cannot help but to see the humour in this statement. Some say when reading this that God has a sense of humour, but I believe that this is one of those God ordained pep rallies.
How did Gideon respond? If the Lord is with us why has all this happened? Has the Lord not abandoned us and put us in the hand of the Midinites?
What was God’s response? The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Picture this, Gideon responds by saying “but God, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the weakest in my family.
God responds by saying: “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
So what happened. Chapter 7 has the account. Gideon assembled an army of thirty-two thousand men. However, God said that there was too many. God said they may think their defeat of the Midinites was a result of their size and not God’s providence. So Gideon sent twenty-two thousand men home that were scared, but God still said that this was too many. So by another process of elimination Gideon sent nine thousand and seven hundred men home and was left with three hundred men. The Lord told Gideon to take the men to the water’s edge and have them drink. Those that got down and drank straight from the water were sent home but those that scooped the water up and lapped it like a dog were the three hundred he kept. By lapping it like a dog they remained aware of their surroundings and the attacks of their enimies. Gideon led these three hundred men against the Midinites and defeated them. Remember verse five said that the nomadic were as numerous as locus.
We would mistaken to see Gideon as the hero of this narrative. Throughout this passage we see the providence of God at work. The Lord took this man who was the weakest in family and his family was the weakest in his tribe. God took him and used him in a powerful way. God took so little and accomplished so much. So often, like me, we try to make excuses when God calls us to do something. We use excuses that there are others that can do a better job; we are not strong enough; not smart enough; and so on. We see in the case of Gideon, that God can take a nobody and use them in a powerful way.
Many years ago, at Thomas Road Baptist Church, they had a young man preaching named David Ring. David had a severe form of Cerebral Palsy and yet God had called him to preach. In very broken words he said “God has called me to preach. I am here to tell you about Jesus. Now what is your excuse for not telling others about Jesus”? What is my excuse? What is your excuse?
If God is calling you to do something He will give you the strength and ability to do so. If God is calling you He will give you the strength to accomplish the task. Today we focused on this big accomplishment of defeating an army. Realistically, most of us won’t be called on to lead an army, or ride in the Calvary or shoot the artillery, but we are in the Lord’s army and what does that look like?
Maybe God is calling you to share your faith with a neighbour, maybe love someone that others have rejected, maybe he wants you to step out of your comfort zone and take on a ministry. Maybe He is calling you to do missions. We have a small church in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta that just had 1/3 of their congregation go on a mission’s trip to Trinidad/Tobago. There Sunday service was quite small while they were gone. God will give you the ability to accomplish the task He is calling you too. We need to quit relying on our own strength and start putting out trust in God. In is all about God. It is not about us. We need to allow Him to use us and we will be amazed at what the Lord will do through us.
