Judges 6:1-16 GOD CAN DO GREAT THINGS THROUGH US
For 7 years a cruel enemy, the Midianites, oppressed the Israelites, causing many to flee to the mountains where they made hiding places for themselves in caves and dens. The Midianites come like swarms of locusts (v.5) and when they attack, they destroy the crops and took away the flocks. Israelites were left with nothing to eat. In their suffering, they cried out to God for help.
Is God going to help? Yes. God is gracious. These people were suffering because they have sinned against Him - they worshipped idols - gods of the Amorites (v.10). Now they are crying out to Him and God will act.
He is going to send Gideon to rescue the people. An angel was sent to this man. He was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites (v.11).
6:12 Angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon: "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Amazing how the Lord calls him. Everyone living in fear and yet God calls him - mighty warrior.
- How can he be a mighty warrior, when he was hiding from the Midianites?
- Gideon himself felt he is very small - v. 15 "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
Why did the Lord call him mighty warrior? What strength does he have?
Is Gideon really strong and courageous? No. In fact, he has a hard time believing what God has said. He kept asking God for a sign to prove that is it true.
Then why was he considered mighty? God knew Gideon will be successful - and will accomplish His plan - not because Gideon is strong by himself - but He will help him succeed.
- The first words the angel said were, "The Lord is with you."
- 6:16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together (as one man)."
- 6:34 "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon..."
We read in Chapter 7 that Gideon went to fight the Midianites. At first, he has 32,000 men with him. Judg 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against Me that her own strength has saved her..."
God asked him to reduce the numbers, all the way to only 300 men. And how big is their enemy?
Judg 7:12 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.
300 against a swarm of locusts... And they won, because God fight for them.
We learn something here - how God sees and how we see -they are very different.
God sees a mighty warrior. Gideon sees himself the smallest one, in the weakest clan.
God says "You will defeat them as one man."(v.16). Gideon says, "How can I save Israel?"
DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF - DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES US STRENGTH
Do you know how God sees you today? How do you see yourself? Are we like Gideon - living in defeat, with fears, without the courage to face the problems?
Do we see ourselves very small and very weak?
Gideon felt that way, because his eyes were on himself and not on God. The Lord’s answer to Gideon was - it’s not about you, it’s about Me. "I will be with you..." The question is not ’How strong you are?’ but ’How strong I am?"
Rom 8:31b "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Phil 4:13 Paul says, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
What more do you need? If God is all you have, you have enough.
Hold on to His words - to what He has promised us...
Illustration: THE RESOURCES WE NEED
Federal Express, a speedy postal delivery company once ran a commercial similar to movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years.
Looking like Tom Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived 5 years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her.
She gives a simple, "Thank you." But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
Like the contents in this package, the resources for survival and growth are available for this man, if he would only open it up and take advantage of them.
So don’t limit yourselves. God wants to fulfil His purpose through us today. Are we in hiding? Or are we doing what God wants? Let us respond to His call.
HAVE FAITH IN GOD - WHEN YOU HAVE GOD, YOU HAVE ENOUGH
God will help us, even when we do not have the faith to fully trust Him.
Looking at the circumstances, Gideon found it difficult to believe he could do something great for his people. He has many doubts. The first thing Gideon wanted to do was run a test to see if this really was the Lord speaking to him. There is no faith present or he wouldn’t have to run this test.
- he wasn’t sure if God is with them.
Are you really with us? 6:13"If the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?"
- he wasn’t sure if the words are really from God
Is that really you? 6:17 Gideon replied, "...give me a sign that it is really you talking to me."
Gideon asked in 6:13 "... 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."
Looking through his natural eyes - Gideon concluded that God has left them. He may be a God of miracles, but that was in the past. "Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about..." See with natural eyes, he lost sight of God.
He needs to see with eyes of faith. The miracle-working God is still with him.
Faith in God releases God’s power in our lives. We see that in Jesus’ ministry. Faith releases the healing power of God. Faith releases the power to cast out demons. [See Matt 17:14-21]
Jesus gave His disciples the ability to cast out demons, yet they came across a case where they found themselves powerless to perform. Jesus arrived on the scene and did what they could not do. Confused and disheartened over their inability, the disciples asked Jesus why.
Jesus explained, it is not lack of ability, but lack of faith in God. Matt 17:20 "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
It is simply a matter of belief in the God of the miracles, the God that knows no limits.
It is when we place trust in ourselves that failure is inevitable, but when our faith is in God we cannot fail to succeed.
Is this where we are today? Have we heard the stories of God’s help in this person’s life, that person’s life, but fail to experience the reality of His presence in our own lives? The truth remains unchanged - He is with you. Put your faith in His Word. Ask God to strengthen our faith.
See how God helped Gideon - READ Judges 6:18-21
18 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 home, cooked a young goat, and made some 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 tree.
He placed them upon the rock and when the angel touched them with his staff, fire flared up from the rock and consumed everything.
This was the miraculous sign God gave - to help Gideon know that He is really there with him and he can trust His words.
It’s amazing how patient God is - He tells Gideon, "I will wait until you return." It could take a while for Gideon to prepare the offering. Can you imagine God’s messenger standing around until Gideon return. Yet He waited!
WHY? - to help him trust God, help him move from DOUBT to TRUST
In fact, Gideon asked for another sign at the end of chapter 6. And God helped him again.
In Mark 9, the father of a demon-possessed boy came to Jesus for help. Jesus said, "Everything is possible for him who believes." (Mark 9:23). 24Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" This is also our prayer today.
Conclusion
So what can we learn from this story of Gideon?
- Gideon isn’t exactly your Hollywood image of a hero. In fact he’s the exact opposite. He’s timid, indecisive, lack faith in God. Yet God uses him. God calls you today to serve him.
- Today we are also fighting against God’s enemies, against the idolatry of our world - we too feel inadequate to the task. God will enable us to fulfil His purpose. Ask God for strength. Our culture sees asking for help as a sign of weakness, but it’s not. It’s a sign of strength.
- Ask God to strengthen our faith - we want to trust God fully. The battle is his, and that we don’t need superior firepower of our own when God is fighting alongside us. We stand strong because of our faith in Him.
