Sermon # 18 - Faithful With Our Finances Series

In Judges 6:12-13, we read, the Lord’s angel appeared to him there and said, “The LORD is with you, brave and mighty man!" Gideon said to him, "If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do---how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites." (GNB)

In this incident that is recorded in the book of Judges, the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, who was discouraged and disheartened, and gave him the message of encouragement that the Lord was with him. Gideon was at a point in his life where he failed to recognize that the Lord was indeed with him, and the Lord sent His angel just to reassure Gideon that He was most assuredly with him.

Though Gideon was scared and timid, the angel of the Lord addressed him as a brave and mighty man. The confidence that the angel of the Lord imparted to Gideon was the fact that when the Lord was with him, there was no room for fear and discouragement, because the Lord considered him as a man of valor.

We studied in detail in the previous chapter how, Mary Magdalene and the disciples of Jesus themselves were unable to recognize the risen Lord who was so close at hand. Often times we too are overwhelmed by our situations and difficulties, wherein we don’t perceive that the Lord is with us, and our hearts are in doubt if the Lord has abandoned us. The circumstances in our lives are prone to constant change, we will have seasons of joy, seasons of sorrow, seasons of challenges and trials, but through all of it, we have the assurance from the word of Lord that the Lord is with us, and He will never leave us not forsake us, no matter what we are going through. Our God is a personal God, and his desire is to transform us into robust men and women of God.

The people of Israel had rebelled against God, and had walked in disobedience as a result of which the Lord delivered them into the hands of their enemies. Gideon and the Israelites were constantly attacked by the Midianites, who raided their land, plundered all their fields and belongings and left them destitute and helpless. Therefore when the angel of the Lord came to Gideon, the one query that was topmost on Gideon’s mind which he asked the messenger of God was, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? Judges 6:13

In many of our lives we work and labor so hard, but at the end of it, we are not enjoying the fruit of our labors, and often like Gideon we too wonder why this is so.

Israel was oppressed and called out to the Lord

In Judges 6:6 we read, “And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD.” (ESV)

The people of Israel were in a deplorable situation because of the Midianites. It was in such a despicable circumstance that they called out to the Lord. The people of Israel were God’s people, but they were in this crisis only because of their willful disobedience, and rebellion. They refused to let the Lord lead them, and be their shepherd.

We read in Judges 6:1, “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.”(ESV)

The reason for the low and distressing plight of the Israelites was that they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. They had forgotten that the Lord was watching over them, and continued to live in disobedience and wickedness. God handed them over to the Midianites, not to abandon them as they thought, but to discipline them, for only when they were in dire straits they earnestly sought the Lord and called on Him.

In recent years we may have noticed that several residential building, shops, offices have CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras installed in them. The reason for this is that in general people tend to behave differently when they know that they are under surveillance, and also the fact that they are being watched prompts people to be more disciplined. It is far more important for each one of us to be aware that the Lord is watching our every thought, word and deed. Therefore, if we don’t submit to the Lord, and allow Him to be the shepherd of our lives, we too will face similar situations of want and abandonment that the Israelites faced. Just as the Israelites were subjected to the Midianites, we will fall prey into the hands of the evil one, when we choose to disregard the fact that the Lord is watching us, and deliberately choose to walk in disobedience to His word.