Sermon Cloud

Gideon Introduced
When we’re introduced to Gideon in Judges 6:11 he is threshing wheat in the winepress. Now, obviously, the winepress is not where one would normally go to thresh wheat. You would normally do this on the threshing floor. But Gideon is living in abnormal times. The powerful Midianites have been oppressing him and his people for over 7 years. So Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress because he was hiding from the oppressive Midianites. He wasn’t alone in his fear. Look at verse 2, “Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.” Everyone was hiding because everyone was trying to survive. Gideon was no exception. And here, in the midst of his hiding and secrecy, Gideon receives a visitor. Not just any visitor, but a very unique visitor. Not the enemy he was hiding from, but someone far more powerful and far more frightening: The Angel of the Lord. You’ll remember from our study of chapter 2 that the Angel of the Lord is not an angel of Yahweh but the Angel of Yahweh. He is God himself. He is Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, before his incarnation. So here is Gideon, hiding from the Midianites and threshing wheat in the winepress, when Yahweh himself appears to him and says, “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”

That sounds ironic doesn’t it? Almost humorous? The Lord refers to Gideon as a mighty warrior and yet this mighty warrior is hiding by the winepress out of his fear of the oppressors. That’s the first thing we notice as readers. But that’s not the first thing Gideon noticed. Gideon wasn’t concerned with the second half of the sentence but with the first. Gideon had trouble with the Angel saying, “The Lord is with you.” Look at Gideon’s response in verse 13, ““Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” This is the first thing Gideon should be ashamed of almost as much as Derrick and Keela should be ashamed of those pictures we saw earlier. He should be ashamed of his bad theology. Gideon sees the suffering of his people and he concludes that the suffering of his people is proof that Yahweh is not with them. He thinks that their suffering is proof that Yahweh has abandoned them. But Gideon has it all backwards. Their suffering is not the result of Yahweh abandoning them, their suffering is a result of them abandoning Yahweh. In his mercy Yahweh had just sent a prophet to Israel to remind them of that. Look back at verses 7-11. Yahweh’s message through his prophet is that he has never abandoned his people. He has rescued them and delivered them from all of their oppressors even though they have done nothing to deserve it! But his people have abandoned him for other gods.

Gideon’s theology was twisted. Human suffering does not in any way prove that God has abandoned human beings. Human suffering is proof that we have abandoned God. Yahweh created a world entirely free of suffering. No sickness, no heartbreak, no disease, no natural disasters, no death. But in this world free from suffering lived a man and a woman just like you and me. And like you and me this man and woman chose to rebel against God. They chose to worship something other than Yahweh, the Ultimate Good. They took other things – even good things like themselves and each other – and they turned them into God things. And this is a very, very bad thing. Because when they chose to give their worship to creation rather than their Creator they fell from a proper relationship with him. And when they fell from a proper relationship with Creator they also fell from a proper relationship with everything he created. That opened the door for every type of suffering. All of this suffering still exists today because millions and millions of human beings are still not in a right relationship with the Creator and, consequently, they are not in right relationship with his creation. Suffering entered the world because human beings lived for themselves and not Yahweh. The Midianites oppressed Gideon and his people because Israel worshiped themselves and not Yahweh. Suffering does not exist because Yahweh has abandoned us but because we have abandoned Yahweh.

Likewise, suffering does not prove that God is not here it actually reminds us that God is here. It does this in a couple of ways. First, God uses suffering to bring us back to him. As we suffer our false gods are exposed because suffering reveals the absolute inadequacy and insufficiency of all the things we worship apart from Jesus. It reminds us that our money cannot save us, our health cannot save us, our relationships cannot save us, our education cannot save us, our career cannot save us, our self image cannot save us, the government cannot save us. Suffering shows us that created things are easily destroyed and incapable of redeeming our pain and suffering. Through that we are led to Yahweh, the Creator, the only one who cannot be destroyed by suffering and the only one who can redeem our pain and suffering. Suffering is proof that God is here because suffering brings us to him just as it brought the Israelites to him. Look at verse 7. Because of 7 years of oppression the Israelites finally cried out to the Lord. Second, Yahweh doesn’t just use our suffering to bring us to him, he also comes to us by entering into our suffering. That’s why he was standing next to Gideon having this conversation in the first place. He had come into Israel’s suffering for the purpose of delivering them from it. Years later the Angel of the Lord would once again enter into the suffering of his people. He would do so by putting on human flesh, being born of a woman, and living a life of poverty and rejection and abuse that would ultimately end in the most violent and most painful and most humiliating of deaths. God, in Jesus, suffered so that his people could be rescued from suffering. God, in Jesus, was oppressed so that his people could be freed from oppression. God, in Jesus, died violently so that his people could live peacefully. Suffering is not a reminder that God is absent. Suffering is a reminder that God is ever-present in our suffering and that one day his people will be entirely free from it.

Gideon had it all backwards. His theology was distorted and it was self-centered. Most of all, though, it was selective. And ours often is too. We tend to only remember the good things we have done and none of the bad. And then we tend to only remember the times when God seems to be silent instead of the many times that God’s presence has been obvious. We forget about all of our prayers that Yahweh has answered. We forget about all the mighty acts of provision and deliverance he has worked. And we most definitely forget about the evil that lives in our hearts and minds and the innumerable evil actions we have committed. So we cop an attitude like Gideon. “Lord, how could you forget about me? I’ve done this and that for you. It’s time you finally did something for me! I’ve earned it!” This is such a common attitude and such a despicable attitude. The truth is there is not a human being on earth who deserves anything from God other than his judgment and wrath. And yet that is not what Yahweh offers us. Yahweh offers us grace and forgiveness. He offers us blessing and deliverance, rescue and salvation.

Gideon Called
This is why Yahweh is at the winepress talking to Gideon and this is why Yahweh responds as he does. He could have struck Gideon down right then and there for his arrogance. But he didn’t. Instead, he offered deliverance. Read verse 14, 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?” Gideon should have responded in humility and obedience. Instead he questioned Yahweh’s decision in verse 15, “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Now, Gideon is right, of course. He’s hiding from his oppressors because his clan is weak and he is weak. It is obvious that this man could never save Israel. He can’t even save himself. But Yahweh can. Yahweh can. And Yahweh will. But, as always, Yahweh chooses to bring salvation not through power but through weakness, not by way of the expected but by way of the unexpected. Yahweh does this to so that we will know that there is no power greater than his and there is no savior other than him. With that in mind Yahweh promises Gideon, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

Even hearing these words and seeing the Angel of the Lord face to face was not enough for Gideon. He needed further assurance and further proof. He needed another sign. So he said, “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.” The Lord graciously obliged. So Gideon went in, he prepared a young goat and some bread without yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and he brought them out to the Angel of the Lord. I’m sure Gideon expected his visitor to receive his offering and eat it. Instead, the Angel of the Lord told him to take the meat and the unleavened bread and put them on a rock and pour out the broth. Gideon did what he was told. Then the Angel of the Lord raised his staff and with it he touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Immediately fire came out from the rock and it consumed the meat and the bread and at that moment the Angel of the Lord disappeared. Finally, Gideon realized the obvious. He had been talking with God himself. He cried out in fear, “Sovereign Lord! I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face!” The voice of the Lord replied, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” Gideon was grateful for Yahweh’s mercy so he built an altar to the Lord there and called it, “The Lord Is Peace.”

So Gideon has seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face. He has heard his voice and he has seen him consume his offering with fire. You would think that would be enough, wouldn’t you? You would think from this point forward Gideon would trust Yahweh and do whatever he said, wouldn’t you? But as we’ll see, even after all of this, Gideon still doubted. Gideon was still afraid. Yahweh spoke to him and told him to tear down his father’s pagan altar to Baal, cut down the idolatrous Asherah pole beside it, and build an altar to Yahweh in its place. Gideon did it but he did it at night. And verse 27 tells us that he did it at night because he was afraid of the townspeople. He knew how angry they would be if their idolatrous altars were destroyed. And he was right. When the people of the town woke up and saw their idolatrous altar replaced with an altar to Yahweh they were furious! “Who did this?” they asked each other. Eventually they found out that it was Gideon, Joash’s son. They quickly called for Joash and demanded that he present his son to them so they could kill him. Joash was under tremendous pressure. On one side he had his son who he wanted to protect. On the other he had the entire town wanting to kill him because he destroyed the altar of their idolatry. His response was insightful. “If Baal really is a god,” he said, “he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.”

Yahweh preserved Gideon’s life because he is gracious and because he was going to deliver Israel through this unlikely man. Now, with that said, let’s pause for a second. Do you see the audacity of Gideon and his people? Remember how Gideon’s story starts? It starts with Gideon complaining about the fact that his people are suffering. He blames it on Yahweh. He says that the Lord must not be with the Israelites or they wouldn’t be facing this oppression. Think of the nerve of Gideon. So quick to accuse Yahweh and complain against him and yet all this time he has had a pagan altar in his own backyard! All this time there has been an altar to Baal and an Asherah pole in his own backyard! He is not worshiping Yahweh, he is worshiping false gods, and yet he still acts as though Yahweh owes him something. And his people behaved the same way. When the pagan altar was destroyed they were outraged. How dare someone challenge Baal! They were ready and willing to kill whoever would dare to sin against their idols! And yet for years and years and years the people of Israel have been doing far worse to Yahweh! They have forsaken him, they have given their worship to false gods, and they built altars to their idols and no one seems to care! An entire people forsakes Yahweh and no one is disturbed. One man tears down one altar to Baal and the entire town is out for blood! The audacity of these people is mind-blowing!...

…Until we recognize how often we do the same thing. How often do we give ourselves to other lovers and then complain to Yahweh when they don’t deliver? How often do we worship other gods and then complain about Yahweh when they fail us? We so often commit idolatry and then get angry with God because he doesn’t bless or reward our idolatry. Some of us live our lives like we’re god and then we get angry when God doesn’t treat us the same way. We don’t give anything to God but we expect God to give everything to us. We don’t obey God’s desires but we curse God because he doesn’t obey our desires. We have built pagan altars in our own backyard and we have the audacity to expect God to do our will. Some of us are angry with God because we feel like we’ve done the important things he’s asked. “I give money to the church. I volunteer in the church. I haven’t been having sex outside of marriage even though I desperately want to but you still haven’t done this for me or that for me.” When we make complaints like that we just incriminate ourselves even more. We make it obvious that we weren’t serving God because we loved him, or because we wanted to worship him, or because we were grateful – we were serving God because of what we thought we could get from him. All of our obedience to God was nothing but a coin in the candy machine. We only did it because we thought we’d get something in return. And when we don’t see the results we want to see we turn from God and try to get the things we want in our own ways. I see this all the time in the Church – even in this church -- and it absolutely breaks my heart. We are bowing to pagan altars and then blaming Jesus when they don’t deliver.

Gideon Unfaithful
We are not so different from Gideon and his people. And as we read on in the story of Gideon we see more of ourselves in him. By now you would think Gideon would be full of faith and ready to do whatever Yahweh asked of him. He’s seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. He’s seen his offering miraculously consumed. Yahweh himself has explicitly promised Gideon victory. And Yahweh protected Gideon from the townspeople when they wanted to kill him. Gideon has every reason to believe Yahweh and do as he says. And, at first, it looks like that’s what he’s going to do. In verses 34 and 35 he blows the trumpet and calls his people to join him in a battle against the oppressive Midianites. But that confidence has faded by the very next verse. In verse 36 he is once again asking Yahweh for a sign. He’s not merely asking for a sign but he’s telling Yahweh exactly what he wants to see. If you’re really going to save Israel through me, like you promised, then do this. I’ll put this wool fleece on the ground and if you make the fleece damp while the rest of the ground stays dry then I’ll know that you’re really going to do what you said you will do. Again, in his mercy, Yahweh obliged and gave Gideon the sign he asked for. When he awoke in the morning everything was just as he had said – the fleece was damp and the rest of the ground was dry. But this was still not enough for Gideon. This time he said, Okay, if you really are going to do what you said you will do then this time when I lay out the fleece make the fleece dry and the rest of the ground damp. Again, Yahweh obliged.

But Yahweh did not stop there. He wanted to build Gideon’s faith. He wanted to help Gideon trust in God and not in himself. And he wanted to be certain that everyone knew this was Yahweh’s war and Yahweh’s victory and no one else’s. So, to do this, Yahweh scaled back Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300. The odds were already ridiculous. The Midianite army was 135,000 strong and now Gideon would be attacking this army of 135,000 with only 300 men. This was nothing for Yahweh but it was frightening to Gideon especially in light of his disbelief. So Yahweh again had mercy on him and gave him one last sign. Yahweh said to Gideon, in verses 10 and 11, “If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So Gideon and his man went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites and Amalekites had settled in the valley with their vast army. Gideon was afraid but as he arrived he overheard a man talking. “I had a dream,” Gideon’s enemy was saying, ““A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.’ His friend responded, ‘This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.’” How do you think Gideon responded to that? Verse 15 says that he bowed down and worshiped. Immediately he ran to his camp and announced that Yahweh had given Midian into Israel’s hands.

All in all, Gideon needed four separate signs before he believed that Yahweh would do what he said he would do. First the offering, then the fleece, then the fleece again, and then the enemy’s dream. And ultimately it was the words of the enemy, and not the words of Yahweh, that finally convinced him of what God had already told him several times. Gideon was unfaithful in that he did not believe what Yahweh told him. The amazing thing is that God gave him more reassurance than any other judge in this book (including a face to face encounter with God himself) and yet he is still the most hesitant to act. Gideon had serious trouble with taking God at his word and obeying him accordingly.

Our Unfaithfulness
Now I know that most of you don’t have to go to war against 135,000 men but you do have to make serious decisions that, at times, can be very difficult and even frightening. It’s in times like these that you really want direction from God. You want to know things like: should I work here or should I work there? Should I do what I love or should I do what is most practical? Should I live here or should I live there? Should I marry this person or should I not marry this person? Should I go to this school or that school? Should I confront the tension in my family or should I just pray about it? Should I pursue this career or this ministry or what? Should I have more kids or should I have no kids or should I adopt? These are questions that we all wrestle with, aren’t they? They’re normal questions. There’s nothing wrong with asking them. But I am afraid that oftentimes there is something wrong with why we ask, how we ask, and how we want God to answer us.

I know that sometimes we ask these questions because we say we just want to know God’s will. We say that we just want to know God’s will so that we can do what he wants us to do. We say it as if there’s nothing more important to us than obeying God and doing just precisely what he wants us to do. We hesitate to make certain decisions because we want to be sure that we’re obeying God and doing precisely what he wants us to do. That’s what we tell other people, right? That’s what we tell ourselves, right? But if you’re honest with yourself you will see that sometimes that’s simply not true. Do you want to know God’s will for your life? Yes. Do you want to know what God thinks about where you should work, or who you should marry, or what you should do? Yes. But do you want to know these things because more than anything you want to obey God? No. Do you want to know these things because you are primarily concerned with pleasing God in every sphere of your life? No. The truth is that in many of these cases where you are so desperate to receive direction from God you are not really concerned about what most honors him you are really concerned about what most benefits you. And so you want to know God’s will – not because you desperately want to worship God in every area of life – but because you want what you think he will give you if you do what he wants. You want God to make your decisions for you – not because that’s the right way to go – but because you think it’s the easy way to go, the prosperous way to go, the blessed way to go. You fear making the wrong decision – not because you fear disobeying God – but because you fear what might happen to you if you do. You fear that you might miss out on this blessing or that blessing if you make the wrong choice.

Obeying God’s will so that you can worship Jesus in it is not your ultimate concern. Being in God’s will so that you get from Jesus is your ultimate concern. I know this is offensive. Some of you are arguing with me in your mind right now. But I would ask you to do something for me. Think about those areas where you are really hoping to find out what God wants you to do. Dig underneath these questions and ask yourself why you really want to know. Is it because you want to obey God? Or is it because you fear what will happen if you don’t? Is it because you want to give yourself to him in every decision you make? Or is it because you think it’s most beneficial to you to do what he wants? In many cases, not in all cases, but in many cases, you want to know God’s will because you think that’s the way to blessing and prosperity and security – not because you want to worship Jesus through obedience. Now, how can I say that to you with such confidence? Easily. God has already revealed his will to you in this book. And if you were so concerned about obeying God for the sake of worshiping him you would be obeying every aspect of his will that’s revealed in this book. But you’re not. You’re not. You’re obeying some of his will. But not all of his will. If you were so concerned about obeying God for the sake of worshiping him you’d be obeying all of his will instead of some of it. But you’re not and here’s why. To obey God in some areas requires suffering. To obey God in some areas costs you. To obey God in some areas feels risky and dangerous. So you don’t obey. Because sometimes you are more concerned about your comfort and your pleasure than you are about obeying God. And sometimes that’s the same reason why you are so desperate to know God’s will for this particular situation you find yourself in. Not because you so fervently want to obey God in every area of your life – if that was the case you’d be obeying his will as revealed in this book -- it’s because you think that working where he wants you to work, or marrying who he wants you to marry, or pursuing what he wants you to pursue will be more beneficial to you and more comfortable for you than not doing so. You want to know what God wants you to do because you want to do what is best for you.

Now, of course, even our motivation for this is based on an incorrect assumption. The assumption is that if we make the decision that God wants us to make that we will be most comfortable and face the least amount of suffering. But, oh, how untrue that is! God’s will for Joseph was for him to be betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. God’s will for Paul was for him to imprisoned, shipwrecked, beaten repeatedly, stoned within an inch of his life and, ultimately, beheaded. Making the decision that God wants you to make guarantees you the pleasures of worshiping God but it does not guarantee you the pleasures of this world. And this is why sometimes we have such difficulty discovering God’s will for this or that particular decision. Because we’ve been taught to discern God’s will by looking for signs of his blessing and proof of his presence. That’s what Gideon wanted. He knew God’s will, God had specifically told him what he wanted him to do, but Gideon wanted further assurance of God’s presence and further assurance that God’s blessing would be with him. God’s Word and God’s work was not enough. Gideon wanted more. Gideon wanted a tangible sign that proved God’s presence. He wanted tangible proof that God was with him. And we want the same thing. We think the way to discover what God wants us to do is to look for fleece, to look for peace, and to look for ease.

Like Gideon we look for the fleece, right? We look for the miraculous. We want God to speak all over again and to confirm his will with miraculous signs so that we don’t have to exercise faith. We want prophets to come to us and prophesy about what God specifically wants us to do and where God specifically wants us to be. We want God to confirm his will for us by making the phone ring at just the right time, or making the parking spot available in just the right place. We want tangible signs of blessing. Oh, this must be the job God wants me to have because it pays the most. Oh, I must be making the right choice because everyone else supports my decision. Oh, this is the person I’m supposed to be with because they make me feel good. This is not how God calls you to determine his will.

In addition to looking for the miraculous as signs some of us also look to our emotions as signs. We’re looking for a feeling of peace. How many times have you heard someone say, “I know this is what God wants me to do because I feel peace about it”? How many times have you heard someone say, “I know this isn’t what God would want me to do because I don’t feel peace about it”? Or even people who just put off making a decision because they’re not sure if they’re at peace about it? Please, eliminate these sayings from your vocabulary. This is not how we determine God’s will. You want to know someone who fulfilled God’s will perfectly? Jesus. Do you want to know what Jesus was doing several hours before he fulfilled God’s purpose for his life? He was sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was asking the Father to provide another way of redemption if there was one. Does that sound like peace? He was troubled about doing God’s will and yet it was, without a doubt, God’s will. We don’t determine God’s will by fleece or by other miraculous signs or by peace or other emotional states.

Some of us also try to determine God’s will by looking for the sign of ease. We think we can determine God’s will by looking for the easy way and assuming that the hard way is not God’s way. People pray prayers like, “God, if this is your will, open the doors and let it go smoothly and simply.” They pray prayers like, “God, if this is not your will, then shut the doors and make it difficult.” What is this? Where does Scripture encourage us to determine God’s will by judging how easy or how difficult something is? Look at the life of Jonah. We know what God’s will was for him. His will was for Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to the people. And yet there was this wide open door for Jonah to flee and sail away to Tarshish. “But wait,” you say, “didn’t God eventually stop Jonah and throw him into the belly of the fish?” Yes. But what would that have looked like to him? It would have looked like a closed door. It would have looked like death. And yet it was actually God’s means of rescue. It was God’s way to fulfill his will of sending Jonah to Nineveh after all. We do not determine God’s will by fleece and other miraculous signs, or by peace and other emotions, or by the ease or difficulty of any given path.

Jesus’ Faithfulness
This is what Gideon did. Gideon knew God’s will but he hesitated to do it. He wanted to know if God could really be trusted. He wanted to know if God would really be with him. He wanted to know that he was going to be okay and this would all turn out well for him. He wanted all of these things confirmed by signs of various types. I know that you have many tough decisions to make. I know that sometimes you feel like you are clueless as to what God’s specific will is for you in this or that situation. I sympathize with you. I’m a church planter for God’s sake. I know what it’s like to have that fear about making the wrong decision. And as one who can sympathize with you I beg you: don’t make Gideon’s mistake. Don’t doubt Yahweh and don’t fear that he will not be with you.

My friends, if you want to know God’s will you don’t have to look far. He has given you the sign of all signs. He has given you himself crucified and risen from the dead. He’s given you Jesus Christ. You want to know if God is going to be with you in this decision? Of course he will be with you, he already is and has been! That’s why he came to you and became like you in order to save you. You want to know if God is going to bless you if you make this decision? Of course he’s going to bless you. He already has and is! That’s why Jesus lived the life you could never live and died the death you should have died so that you could be made right with God and receive his blessings instead of his judgment. You want to know if you will find pleasure and comfort if you make this decision? Of course you will. That’s why Jesus suffered intensely so that you could find your pleasure in him, your comfort in him, your prosperity in him -- right now and forever more.

I know you have these questions in front of you. These decisions in front of you. You wonder what you should do. But you have everything you need in order to answer that question. You have the words and the works of Jesus Christ. You have the words and works of the one who has fulfilled God’s will in every possible way – the true and perfect deliver that Gideon just foreshadowed. Look to Jesus’ words and work and you will see what God is like, you will see what God desires of you, you will see his will expressed perfectly in Jesus. Now of course there will be times when you have to apply Jesus’ words and works to very specific situations in very specific ways. Sometimes it will be unclear which is the better of two or three choices. But you don’t have to fear. You don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to look for more signs and more assurance. Maybe you won’t make “the perfect decision.” So what! Because you know Jesus’ words and works you know that no matter what you decide Jesus will love you, Jesus will bless you, Jesus will be with you, and Jesus will redeem your decision and use it to glorify himself and make you more like him.