Mighty Warrior Judges 6:11-16
Today we’re going to take a break from our study of Jesus life and look at an account from the Old Testament. Today’s reading comes from the Book of Judges. Judges is “shaphat” (shaw-fat) and it means to judge but it also means to govern so the book is not about magistrates but about a series of Israel’s rulers. The book covers about three hundred years of Israel’s history starting at the death of Joshua and ending with the installation of Saul as the first King.
As you read through Judges you will see Israel relationship with God is a series of ups and downs all revolving around the leader at the time. It was during this time that the nation of Israel was in one of its downs with God. Judges 6:1, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
Today we’re looking at Gideon and his story is covered in chapters 6, 7 and 8 but we’re only going to look at a few things from his story.
First thing, the nation here sinned against God and is being punished for it and that asks the question; if we sin does God punish us? We must remember that these people lived before the cross, they were being judges by the law. We are on the other side of the cross. Jesus died as the sacrificial lamb as payment for our sins, as believers in Christ all our sins; past, present and future have already been judged and punished at the cross. Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”
We need to understand something; punishment by God is our exclusion from heaven because of our sin. Sin is a constant in our lives but as believers God will not exclude us from heaven. However, we may still have to face the consequences of our actions. As a believer, if I steal I may have to face fines or jail for my actions.
So we have Israel being punished for their sin, but God has not abandoned them, when he was ready to act he sent Gideon.
Verse 12, “…the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” God sees Gideon as a strong and powerful leader, but see how Gideon sees himself. Verse 15, “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Gideon not only sees himself as low and unassuming, he sees his whole family as weak and unworthy.
There can be many reasons why people turn away from God. Some believe they have done something that will cause God to abandon them; some like Gideon think they are not good enough for God or not good enough to do what God wants them to do. I even heard one person say, “I come from a family of thieves, God’s not going to want anything to do with me.” Even as believers we can think like Gideon, “I’m not a ‘real good’ Christian; I can’t ask God for help. I believe in God but who am I to assume he cares about me?”
We should never think like this. Scripture tells us today that even though Gideon saw himself as weakest of the weak and the least of the least, God saw him as a mighty warrior. God saw Gideon for what was inside him. God sees you the same way, and what is inside you is nothing short of the power, strength and glory of Christ. Don’t judge yourself by what you think is a weakness, judge yourself by the power of the Holy Spirit that is within you.
After Gideon’s encounter with the Lord he went and made a sacrifice and then he destroyed an alter of the false god Baal. God approaches each of us, and he does it differently with different people. It may have been your parents or grandparents that taught you so you came to faith. Many people came to faith in Christ in the old tent revival meetings. For me, I was raised in church but always had unanswered questions. One day I heard a minister on TV talking about the Book of Romans. He was talking about righteousness and justification by faith alone. I went to the Bible and honestly I went to look it up to prove him wrong. He wasn’t wrong. I saw this and suddenly I wanted to know more.
We should not criticize or question someone’s relationship with Christ just because they came to believe differently than we did. The actions of Gideon show us that no matter how God approaches you, to have God fully in your life and to be given his grace you need to do your part. By sacrificing an animal and destroying the alter of a false god Gideon tells us we need to accept the sacrifice of Jesus as our own and we need to turn our lives from false gods; that is the desire for earthly rewards and sinful behavior.
As I said earlier Israel is under the control of the Midianites, and now God is going to use Gideon to gain their freedom. Gideon is not so sure about this and he does something that at first glance looks like it goes against what Jesus tells us; Luke 4:12, “…Do not put the Lord your God to the test” Yet this seems to be exactly what Gideon does, Judges 6:37, “Gideon says, ‘I will place a wool fleece on the floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know…” And God actually does this. And then Gideon goes even further by asking for more proof, Verse 39, “Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” And again God does it. If we’re not supposed to put God to the test what is going on here? To understand we need to know Gideon is not a military leader, he is not a political leader.
If we look back at verse 34, “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon and he blew a trumpet summoning the nation to follow him.” The warriors came to answer the call, and there stands Gideon. It’s very unlikely that they would even consider following him into battle against an army that outnumbers them. Gideon may have told them that God spoke to him, I can see them looking at him and thinking, “Yeah, ok; I’m going back home. Let me know how you make out.”
When I met the deacons here for the first time I said how God spoke to me inside, how he changed my life and wanted me to share what he shows me. They could have said, “That’s a good story.” But they listened to some of my old messages, you listened to some of my messages, and all of you had to decide if what I said about God in me was true. You all needed more than just my say so. The men Gideon was going to lead into battle needed more than just his say so. They needed these signs. These signs confirmed Gideon as God’s chosen one before the people.
I believe Gideon needed these signs too. Sometimes when God tells us what he wants us to do
Our first response is, “What, are you kidding? I’m not smart enough, I’m not rich enough, I’m not a leader.” I bet every one of us, when we feel God leading us to share our faith with someone Says to him, “I don’t know enough.” And I’ll just tell you, you know more than you think.
When I felt God calling me I said, “I don’t have time to go to seminary; I don’t have the money to pay for college.” It was very shortly after that that a seminary popped up in my browser even though I wasn’t searching for one. This school had a program I could do almost entirely on line. Suddenly I had the time. When I looked into it further and talked with one of the intake people I told him I didn’t think I could afford it. The school called me back two days later offering me a grant. Suddenly I could afford it. Sometimes when we doubt, God shows us he’s serious. As for Gideon, I believe that raising him up before the people by performing these tests was all part of God’s plan from the beginning.
Gideon was now leading an army of 32,000 men. But God said that was too many and 22,000 left. God then said that the 10,000 left was still too many and more left until there was only 300 men left. The Midianite army was larger than Gideon’s original 32,000 man army, what could they do with just 300 men? God did this so all their hope would be in him, only with God could they accomplish what they set out to do.
In the New Testament Book of Hebrews Gideon is mentioned as a great man of faith. Gideon did have faith in God and he trusted the Lord. And his story can tell us about ourselves; that unlike those who lived before the cross as a believer we are not punished by God. We are not excluded from the promise of heaven if we sin.
Gideon tells us to see ourselves as God sees us; full of the power of Christ.
We are shown that to fully receive God’s gifts of grace and mercy we must believe in Christ and the cross and we must turn away from earthly wants and turn our lives to God.
We see through Gideon’s story that sometimes God will do something in our life to show us he is serious about what he wants from us, and sometimes he will do things to show others that he is with you and you are a man or woman of God.
And last, the account of Gideon and the battle with the Midianites shows us that even when you don’t see how things could possibly turn out in your favor, when it looks like all the odds are against you; trust God. He will lead you and he will not lead you to disaster.
Amen.