HEROES OF THE FAITH SERMON SERIES

Gideon

Judges chapters 6-8

Pastor Robyn Hogue August 11, 2013 Skyline Presbyterian Church

The story of Gideon is a lesson for all fearful people, all defeated people; for all those who discount themselves and either have given up completely… or are just ready to throw in the towel.

Gideon is so much like us that his story, from the Old Testament, sounds like some character in modern film. The nation of Israel has done wickedly, they’ve turned from worshiping the one true God, Jehovah to idol worship, and as a result, God has allowed them, for seven years, to be harassed by their enemies. These enemies include the Midianites, a nomadic tribe of warriors on camelback.

Every time Israel plants a crop, these enemies come in to steal it at harvest. The enemy has camels and they run so fast, are so powerful, that the poor Israelites don’t stand a chance. So the people are reduced to abject poverty, they hide in caves, they cower when the Midianite hordes descend upon them; and finally cry to God for help. This, then, is the existing situation when Gideon enters the account. How like us he seems!

Gideon DIDN’T HAVE MUCH CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF

When we first see Gideon he is hiding in a cave hoping the Midianites won’t find him. Most of the crops have been plundered and destroyed, but what he has somehow managed to save must now be winnowed. So Gideon is in a cave, threshing wheat in a wine press, trying to get enough grain for flour for food. He’s doing his job in the worst possible way. To winnow wheat you need to be out in the open air where the wind can blow the chaff away as the grain is tossed upward, leaving the good grain. But he’s scared to be seen out in the open so he’s doing the best job he can, in hiding.

Then, one moment, probably when he stops long enough to wipe the dust out of his eyes and the sweat from his brow, he glances into the distance and sees, of all things, an angel sitting under the oak tree! The angel speaks and says: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!” (Now here’s an angel with a crazy, mixed-up sense of humor. It doesn’t look like God is even close to helping Gideon with his presence, and to call him a mighty warrior is impossibly funny. Gideon knows he isn’t brave, in fact, he’s frightened half out of his wits.)

And God says further, through the angel, “Go, save your people!” and Gideon’s response is what you might expect under the circumstances: “Who, me? How? Why? My family is the poorest of the tribe and I’m the weakest and least in the family.” But the Lord said, “I will be with you!” (That’s probably the best news Gideon has heard in something like seven years) And Gideon said: “Oh, yeah, prove it.” And he went home and fixed a meal for his visitor. He gave it to the angel still sitting under the oak tree who told him to put it on a rock and it was suddenly and miraculously consumed by fire. And then the angel disappeared!

Then it dawned upon Gideon, that he had really been talking to God (and he’s not sure but that he may die from the experience) and God says again: “Gideon, you won’t die, but here is what I want you to do. Start restoring Jehovah worship to the land, tear down the altar of Baal, cut down the wooden idol of the goddess Asherah, replace Baal’s altar with an altar to Me, put an ox on it as a sacrifice, and use the wooden idol you destroy to make the wood on the fire for God’s altar.” And Gideon did it.

But doesn’t Gideon’s lack of confidence in himself remind you of us? Some of you may be very certain and sure of yourself; you have no fears, no insecurities, no feelings of inferiority, but if so, you are in the minority. Most of us, if we know ourselves at all, admit that we don’t have too much self-confidence.

There was a man who patronized a certain service station. A boy named George occasionally checked his oil, washed his windshield and filled his gas tank. One day the motorist stopped for gas and didn’t see George. The next time he stopped at the station, George was not there - nor the third time, so he asked the manager: “Where’s George?” The manager replied: “George doesn’t work here anymore.” The customer said, “Who’s going to fill his vacancy?” The manager replied: “George didn’t leave any vacancy!”

Isn’t that a pretty good picture of us? Who would miss us if we didn’t show up for work, for church, or a party to which we were invited? Who are we, after all? There is always someone richer, or younger, or smarter, or stronger, or prettier than we are. Yes, Gideon’s feelings are as modern as today’s humanity. He said, “I’m the weakest in my family and my family is the poorest in the tribe.”

Like us, Gideon had little confidence in himself, but also Gideon DIDN’T HAVE MUCH FAITH IN GOD

One day, after the angel’s visit with Gideon, the Midianites and their allies were preparing for an all-out attack on Israel again and God told Gideon he was to deliver his people. Gideon told God: “If you really mean to use me, prove it. I’ve got to have another sign. Tonight, I’ll put some wool on the threshing floor; in the morning let the fleece be wet and the floor be dry.” Sure enough! The next morning God had confirmed it by doing just as Gideon had asked.

But, Gideon wanted to be absolutely sure. (Just how sure do you have to be?) God has already visited him with an angel that talks to him and consumes food miraculously with fire on the rock, has helped him to destroy the altars of Baal and Asherah, has made the fleece wet and the floor dry all around it, but still Gideon wants more proof. So Gideon says: “Now, God, don’t get mad, but let’s do it just one more time, only this time the other way around, in the morning let the fleece be dry and the floor wet all around it.” And God did that for him too. Gideon’s lack of faith in God has become a popular way of proving something yet today. When we want to test something to the limit we say we “put out a fleece.”

Doesn’t Gideon’s lack of faith in God look familiar? God puts thousands of promises for us in the Bible; and we are not sure God means to keep them. God has never, not even one time, failed us, but we keep expecting it to happen.

Gideon didn’t have much confidence in himself. He didn’t have much faith in his God. And Gideon had still another problem: Gideon DIDN’T HAVE MUCH HUMAN HELP.

At the first blast of the horn for war 32,000 men volunteer to fight the battle. But God said, “That’s too many men, Gideon. You’ll think you won the battle all by yourself, so allow the ones who are afraid to go home.” And 22,000 of them left, leaving only 10,000 to fight. God said, “That’s still too many; I’ll sort them out for you.” So down by the river, God thinned the ranks till Gideon wound up with only a small army of 300 men to do battle with the vast armies of the Midianites. Not much human help, is there? If Gideon is depending on man-power alone, he is doomed to failure. Three hundred men is almost no army at all!

There will be a lot of times in our lives when, like Gideon, we will feel we have little human aid. We will be a minority, our friends won’t always understand us, we may live life with thousands of acquaintances and friends, but when the going is hard, when the battle is rough, we will probably be able to count on the fingers of one hand those who will really stand by us.

An elderly woman in Tacoma said, “When my sister died, the last person on earth who cared about me was gone. I don’t even have anybody to put in the blank space on my identification card in my wallet whom to notify in case of emergency.” But, however small our human helpers and resources are, remember that God always gives us Jesus. And beyond that Jesus gives His Word: “I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will be with you always.”

Gideon didn’t have much confidence in himself. He didn’t have much confidence in his God. Gideon didn’t have much human help. And Gideon DIDN’T HAVE MUCH EQUIPMENT.

Gideon only had a few guys on his side, about 300; the Midianite army was so big it covered the floor of the whole valley where they were camping; 135,000 men. Big tents were pitched everywhere. Smoke from hundreds of cooking fires filled the air. Tough warriors sharpened their iron swords. Their gold earrings sparkled as they slapped each other around roughhousing.

And the smell and sound of all those thousands of camels filled the camp.

How could Gideon’s few men fight such a mob? God gave Gideon a great idea. If you cut off the long curly horn of a goat, you will find that it is hollow. The people of Israel often made trumpets for signaling this way. They are called shophars and they make a sound louder and deeper than any whistle you’ve ever heard. Gideon had each of his men take a shophar, and a flaming torch hidden inside a clay pot up in the hills above the enemy camp. Then they waited till late at night, till the Midianites and their camels were asleep.

When Gideon gave the signal, the men of Israel did four things: They blew the shophars—300 of them in unison! They broke the clay pots. They waved the burning torches around. And they all started yelling, “The sword of the Lord! The sword of Gideon!”

Stampede! All those sleeping camels woke up and started running. They ran toward the center of the camp away from the waving torches, breaking pots, blowing horns and yelling men. They tripped over tent ropes and fell screaming on the men sleeping inside. Tents toppled. Midianite warriors stumbled in the dark grabbing for their clothes and swinging their swords wildly at anything that moved.

At first, the farmers of Israel stayed up on the hillside and let the bullies fight each other in the dark. Then Gideon’s men ran down the hill to finish things off. After the battle, Gideon’s men brought him a present. They brought the gold earrings to Gideon. And the Bible says the weight of them was one 1,700 shekels of gold. It made a huge pile.

That day, with such puny resources of their own, Gideon and his men won the battle for the nation and for God! Haven’t you noticed how paltry your resources often are? Moses had only a rod in his hand. The little boy had only five loaves and two fishes; but it was enough for Jesus to feed 5,000. A little is a lot in God’s large hands!

You feel you can’t teach too well, or sing too well, you’re not well-educated, you can’t speak in public, you haven’t much money, or strength. But what, after all, does it matter, how limited your resources are? In God’s hands they mean the final defeat of the enemy.

Now don’t you see how modern Gideon’s story is? Not much confidence in himself, not much faith in God, not much human help, not many resources; but the end result is what is important. And when the narrative ends we see Gideon has led the victory over the enemy, honor has come to him, peace has come to the whole land for the 40 years he lives and it was not by chance, nor by luck, nor by coincidence. When Gideon returned to the worship of the one true Lord, he took the first step toward becoming a hero. The same can be true for each person here in this sanctuary today.