Gideon as a School Boy
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text: Judges 6-7 February 26, 2012 Sermon #0291
Rich Mullins was a gifted musician and lyricist. This video was from Wheaton College in April 1997, 5 months before he died in a car accident on his way to a benefit concert.
The thing that makes Rich Mullins one of my all time favorite Christian artists, is that he really did do it all for God. In fact he lived the vision of our church, honoring God by building a place where Christ’s love is visible and accessible to all. He built his place…
He lived on an Indian reservation in New Mexico and taught music to the children there. He asked not to be told how much money his records and concerts earned him, but rather was given the average income in America each year and the rest was given to various charities including Compassion International.
And God inspired his music with words that hit you right in the soul.
We are frail we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens So few inches apart
We must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are
This morning as we focus on salvation and leading people to know Jesus, Rich Mullins – with all his rough edges – stands out to me as a demonstration of what real faith in Jesus looks like. What can one man do?
Join me in the book of Judges this morning for a short lesson in faith and the strength of God
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. – Judges 6:1
Judges 6:2-6: Forged in the fires of human passion Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
· Midian overpowered Israel
· Israel hid and lived in caves
· Midianites and Amalekites would raid and steal their crops and livestock
· Israel was brought very low because of Midian
· Israel cried out for help to the LORD.
So God sent a Prophet who – basically – rubbed it in their faces.
And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice."
– Judges 6:8-10
And with these our hells and our heavens So few inches apart
How do you picture Gideon? [SLIDE CHANGE]
· The angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. – Judges 6:11
The angel of the Lord is the Lord Himself (pre-incarnate Jesus?)
Judges 6:12-18 – Conversation between the Angel of the Lord and Gideon
· The LORD said, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor."
o Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.
· Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?
o Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
· But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.
o If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.
· I will stay till you return.
So Gideon prepares a young goat, some bread and broth. When he goes back out to the Lord and offers it to him, he is told to put the meat and bread on a rock and pour the broth over it.
Then the Lord touches the meat with his staff and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
So Gideon freaks out! Well, it says he ‘perceived that he was the angel of the LORD’.
So Gideon was afraid he was going to die, but the Lord (out of the air?) said, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”
Why is this sermon titled ‘Gideon as a School Boy’? We are not considering Gideon’s youth this morning, but rather God’s choice to work through him to save His rebellious people. God uses the weak to show His strength. Gideon must have been as giddy as a school boy.
We must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are
That night the Lord told him to cut down an altar to Baal and sacrifice a bull to the Lord on the spot, so Gideon took 7 men and did it that night so no one would see him. But in the morning, the men of the town saw what he had done and found out it was he that did it.
They wanted him to die for it, but his father stood up for him and said let Baal defend himself if he really is a god. So Gideon found fame for his boldness. So when the Midianites and the Amalekites came together across the Jordan, Gideon sounded the trumpet and called the fighting men of several tribes of Israel to him.
Then he tested God with a fleece: [SLIDE CHANGE]
· If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground
· Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew
What can one man do?
Or perhaps the question for us is, “What can a church our size really do?”
Some say the Midianite army was about 135,000 and Gideon gathered 32,000.
Outnumbered 4 to 1.
Then God said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many”. He would not let them say to themselves 'My own hand has saved me.' (Judges 7:2)
Apparently, 4:1 odds are too possible, so Gideon creates tests to thin out the army:
· ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’ Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. – Judges 7:3
· Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink." – Judges 7:5 (300 lapped)
32,000 down to 300. Less than 1% of the army he had assembled! Now with odds 400:1!
Consider a church of 3,000 and all they could accomplish with their resources. Now consider that God says ‘I want to do something incredible’ and whittles that church down to 30 and says, ‘now I can demonstrate MY power and not yours’. Look around, we are a church of 30.
Another way to consider this reducing of the fighting men to 300 I found commented on the web and want to share with you. Someone said: “The thought is disturbing, but it may well be true, that the composition of God's army to fight Satan's hosts in any day is really little different. How many Christians are so fearful of the enemy that they are of no real use in this warfare, and how many of the remainder are so self-centered, rather than God centered, that they find little place for effective ministry.” (Wood)
We are weak but He is strong
And the LORD said to Gideon, "With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home." – Judges 7:7
How did Gideon defeat an army that Judges says was ‘like locusts in abundance’ (Judges 7:12)? It took the hand of God Almighty to part the waters and the sea.
he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. – Judges 7:16
They surrounded the Midianites on three sides and at Gideon’s command they smashed their jars and blew their trumpets and shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
Why would this have defeated them?
· First God had given one of the Midianites a dream that Gideon and has army would defeat them, so they were scared, on edge.
· Second they heard 300 trumpets.
o The use of a trumpet was the means of giving commands on the battlefield. The sound of a trumpet could be heard over the noise of battle. Soldiers, through practice and drill were made familiar with what each trumpet call meant.
o But there were maybe a couple trumpets for every 1000 or so soldiers.
o The Midianites were terrified and thought an army bigger than theirs was on them. So they scrambled and began killing each other as they fled
So what can we take from this?
· Gideon gathered an army that he would have believes was still a bit too small
· God reduced it to 1% of its strength and then said He could use them
Thomas Kempis said, “Occasions do not make a man either strong or weak but they show what he is.”
God shows us His strength in our weakness. As Rich Mullins said, “We are not as strong as we think we are”
We come to Christ broken. In accepting our weakness, we can accept His grace and love.
Short call to commitment closing with ‘Gentle Hands’