Judges 7 and 8. July 1, 2007. Jackie Bolen

So we continue on this week with the story of Gideon. Last week, I talked about how God is gracious, not giving up on us, despite our weaknesses and problems. If there were tryouts for God’s team, I’m not sure any of us would make it, including most of the people in the book of Judges and even the entire Bible. Gideon was a guy with a lot of problems, the biggest being his lack of faith. And yet despite this, God worked through him to achieve an amazing victory, as we’ll read about this week. But while most people, including the New Testament writer of the book of Hebrews remembers only his faith, his biggest problem is lack of faith. The story goes on to show Gideon leading Israel into idol worship because he wanted the comforts of victory without any of the responsibility of it.

I remember back when I was 19 or 20 years old and I started to follow Jesus and how simple it seemed. I would pray sometimes, go to Church occasionally, read the Bible once in a while, tell others the little that I knew about who God was and try to love people. It was when I started going to Church that things started to seem a lot more complicated. There were all these spoken and unspoken rules about drinking, smoking, dancing, Bible reading and prayer, having to be nice to everybody, what you talk about in coffee time, needing to always smile and pretend you’re happy. It kind of made me feel stressed out because being nice to everybody and always pretending I’m happy isn’t really my style. I didn’t really fit with all these people who’d lived their entire lives in the Church and talked Christian-y talk, using these big words and clichés that I didn’t understand. Born again, by grace through faith, sanctification, popcorn prayer, inviting God into my heart. I just didn’t get it. I read the Bible and don’t really think Jesus was an especially nice person who would be content with drinking coffee and talking about the weather. But in the last couple years, I’ve started to see that my life is ultimately about following Jesus, in obedience and faith and that following some moral code is not really so important. Following all these rules and appearing outwardly religious but inwardly having a heart that is far from God is a scary thing to me. To follow some moral code and ignore the bigger things like justice, obedience, mercy, grace, forgiveness and following Jesus seems a lot like the Pharisees that Jesus had very few good things to say about. In the end, it was these kind of people who were so focused on external rules and being religious that killed Jesus.

Throughout the book of Judges and throughout the entire Bible it seems to me, God is looking for people who will trust and obey Him in faith. We’re often seduced by spiritual gifts, thinking that these are really what matter. But they are useless without obedience because this is where the real power is. We’re seduced by thinking that we can contain God within a small little box and that we can coerce Him into blessing us. We want this control and these blessings but want none of the responsibility that comes with following Jesus. If you look at Gideon’s life, he was a mighty warrior, gifted by God with amazing leadership ability. He leads Israel to an astounding victory and yet because of his lack of faith, sets up an idol to worship and is only interested in personal comfort. He leads Israel to an even worse situation then at the beginning of his ruling over them. I’ll read Judges 7.

Chapter 6 ends with the famous story of Gideon testing God two times with the fleece. Chapter 7 starts with a reversal of this as God tests Gideon to see if he will trust Him to go into battle with the Midianites. In perhaps one of Gideon’s better moments, he seems pretty willing to go along with God’s plan as the numbers of his army are reduced and reduced even more to an amount so small that any victory they obtain will surely be because of God. Perhaps this is why the New Testament remembers Gideon’s faith.

Verses 13-15 in Chapter 7 ironically tell about how Gideon overhears an enemy’s dream predicting Israel’s victory and how, at this point he finally believes. Somewhat unbelievably, an Angel of the Lord, fire from a rock and the test with the fleece wasn’t quite enough proof for Gideon to take God at his word. And yet, God is patient, working with Gideon until he finally has faith. It’s at this point of faith that God leads Israel into battle.

So with 300 men, some smashed clay pots, good timing, fire and yelling, Israel, led by Gideon defeats the evil Midianites. Israel never has to draw their swords because the Midianites end up killing each other. There is some uncertainty as to what actually happened but it’s suggested that all the noise scared the camels and led to mass chaos inside camp, leading the Midianites to kill each other and flee. Without a doubt, this was God’s victory and not something that Gideon could really take any credit for. Upon first appearance, this stunning victory seems like it would be the center of the Gideon cycle within the book of Judges. And yet with a closer look at the structure, the center of the story is actually Gideon’s unbelief. Because of this, the story of Gideon begins and ends with Israel worshipping idols and not God.

The story continues on in Chapter 8 with some other battles and internal fighting within Israel which I don’t have time to talk about. I’ll move on to Chapter 8, verses 22-27 and read this short section.

In verse 22, Israel asks Gideon to rule over them. Gideon is a mighty warrior, filled with the Spirit of God who has just led them to an amazing victory over their enemies. It’s obvious why the Israelites are willing to follow him. At first glance, Gideon’s refusal to lead them may appear to be out of humility. And yet, by looking more closely, it is obvious that this isn’t the case. In verse 22, when the people of Israel credit Gideon with the miraculous victory, he does nothing to correct them when obviously it was God’s victory. When the people ask him to rule over them, he refuses but asks for some share of the plunder, which is the wealth taken from the Midianites. He wants none of the responsibility of leadership but all the benefits of it. The story continues with Gideon taking the plunder and forming it into an idol so that Israel could worship it. This brings to mind the incident with the Golden Calf that Aaron made while Moses was up on the mountain talking to God. As if taking the plunder from a victory that was obviously God’s and forming it into an idol wasn’t bad enough, the place Gideon chose to set up the idol is quite revealing as well. God had chosen Shiloh as the place of worship but Gideon sets up the idol in his hometown, bringing glory to himself. Later on, in verses 30 and 31 we see Gideon now has a harem, with many wives. Later on, after Gideon’s death one of his sons, Abimelek kills 70 of his other brothers in order that he might rule over Israel.

In way of summarizing this story, one of my professors Bruce Waltke perhaps says it best. “God’s rule cannot possibly mean to set up a Canaanite oracle, retire with affluence and acclaim to your hometown, gather a harem around you and refuse the people’s requests to lead them.”

This story seems shocking to me. So let's pretend that I was Gideon's friend and he was talking to me about this sudden hit of wealth that he obtained through this miraculous victory. He's telling me about how he plans to make this good luck idol for his family and hopefully his entire country to bow down and worship. I think I would say to him, "Gideon, what the heck are you thinking? Why are you such a dumb-ass? It seems obvious to me that you should maybe be worshipping the God who gave you this wealth in a miraculous way instead of this stupid idol. This idol is useless." But it seems that Gideon didn't have a friend like me or maybe he did but had too many dollar signs blurring his vision to see them. And yet the scary thing about these words I would say to Gideon is that they are probably words I could say to myself at times in my life. A bit too close for comfort maybe.

Gideon wanted the comforts of victory without any of the responsibility of it. The worst part about it is that Gideon couldn’t really take any of the credit for the victory. By believing in and following Jesus, we are changed and yet also like Gideon we can take no credit for the new life we have in Jesus. And yet I wonder how the Gospel that I often hear is so often about the blessings of God. Follow this set of moral rules and you’ll find salvation and God will obviously have to bless you is what I hear. The bigger things like justice, mercy, grace and forgiveness get ignored. Maybe life is easier that way, when you subscribe to a set of rules that you can mindlessly follow. Do we want the comforts of following Jesus without any of the responsibility? Do we want health, wealth and happiness, like Gideon but have hearts that are far from God. When it starts to become about religion and not about relationship with Jesus, I think this is a scary place to be . You will either end up feeling guilty because you can't measure up or you will be filled with pride, thinking that you're better than a sinner like me. But the truth is that we're all sinners, it's just that some of us are okay with that because we know that Jesus loves us anyway. The words of Jesus that I read in the Bible talk a lot about taking up your cross and following Him, being united with Christ in His death, giving up all to follow Jesus, that the rich cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God is not a vending machine. It's not all about God making us comfortable and wealthy. God, in the Old Testament was looking for people who would simply worship and follow Him, in obedience. Jesus, today is looking for people who will simply worship and follow Him, in obedience. I wonder how obedience somehow got mixed up with only obeying for the sake of coercing God into blessing us. What made Gideon think that he could enjoy the comforts of victory but not lead his people? I wonder how following Jesus somehow got mixed up into following some se tof rules that say I shouldn’t drink or smoke or dance. Following Jesus requires commitment and sacrifice and a life of surrender to the one who created you and forgives you and loves you.

And so wherever you are in your journey closer towards Jesus, there’s hope for you. Maybe you are a lot closer to the Gideon who believed that God would win an amazing victory with only 300 men and some clay pots. If this is where you’re at, I feel joyful and think that maybe you could help me a lot! But maybe you’re more like the Gideon who continually refused to have faith in God’s Word, which eventually led to his downfall. Jesus is pretty good at working with people of little faith and doing some miraculous things in them so don’t give up. Maybe you’re a lot like the Gideon who wants only the comforts and blessings of God without any of the responsibility. Following Jesus is a much more beautiful thing than slavishly following some sort of Christian code in order to coerce Him into blessing you. It’s about Jesus loving you enough that he would die a painful, humiliating death in order that you might be free and you loving Him in return. But if this is not where you’re at, don’t despair. Dying with Christ to the things of this world and being raised with Him is a pretty gradual process I think. Wherever you are, Jesus is always calling you to come home to Him, to walk in obedience and humility, living a life filled with grace, mercy, justice and forgiveness. God loves you and wants you to follow Him, in humility. He wants to know you and you to know Him as more than the God who dispenses blessings based on our actions. There's more to following Jesus then following rules, it's about love. Let go of the religion that is focused on external appearances and not so much on an inward attitude of surrender to Jesus. The health, wealth and happiness Gospel is usually at odds with the Kingdom of God. Gideon's story is enough of a warning for me.

Gideon: Judges 6 Jackie Bolen, June 26, 2007

So back when I was a middle school and high school student in Canada I loved sports. All my friends played sports and my happiness often seemed to depend on my performance and how my team was doing. In North America, we have school teams that play against each other in what can often be a deathly serious thing, not only for the kids but also for the parents and the whole town. To get on the teams, there were tryouts, which are these competitive sessions where you showcased your skills against the other hopefuls. You size up your opponents, count up the numbers and figure out all the angles to see if you’ll have a spot on the team. More often than not, I had what it took. But one winter way back in Grade 11 I was trying out for the school basketball team, convinced that I would make it. As it turns out I didn’t quite have what it took…too many other people had more potential than I did. The coaches who I had played for all of my grade 10 year had given up on me. It was crushing to the point that I remember crying and crying and not wanting to go to school for the next few days. It felt like my life was over.

I think we can sometimes take following and turn it into the same kind of thing. Like there’s some sort of tryout to get into the Kingdom of God. It’s perhaps easier to tell someone to follow a set of moral rules instead of introducing them to Jesus. Maybe it’s the way you even live your own life. But Jesus is gracious and takes us as we are, not as perfect, sinless people who need to be some sort of super-humans or Christians on steriods. I read the Bible and I see people who, by our worldly standards of success and competence are complete failures. They’d never make the basketball team or any sort of team for that matter. I see the small, the weak and the insignificant being used by God to do the work of His Kingdom. I see how God doesn’t give up on people even though they at times have such little faith. God sees who you could become.

The Old Testament in large part is the story of Israel, God’s chosen people. They often fail to keep their side of the covenant, choosing to worship idols instead of the living God. They’re characterized by dysfunctional family relationships and are often oppressed and abused by their vicious neighbors. But God worked through them and perhaps despite them in order that they might be a blessing to the nations. Eventually, God brought the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus in order that the world might have new life.

These next 2 weeks, I’ll talk about Gideon, from the book of Judges in the Old Testament. Gideon, although he’s remembered only for his faith in the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament has a lot of problems, the biggest being his lack of faith. Despite his weakness, disbelief, idolatry and lack of leadership, God works through him to achieve a stunning victory over the Midianites.

The book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua, Moses’ successor. Israel is partially occupying the land of Canaan that God promised to give to Abraham, the founder of the Israelite Nation. In the Book of Judges, Israel struggles to take full possession of this Promised Land through the process of holy war. This is achieved through the leadership of Judges. God was looking for a judge who would love Him and follow His commands, walking in obedience and humility. Gideon is one of these judges.

The story of Gideon has a lot to say to us today I think. His failures give me hope. Almost everyday I’m reminded of God’s promises as I read the Bible and other books, talk with people and see creation around me and yet I still choose sometimes to not believe that God is good. I worship idols, I’m addicted to my computer and struggle to worship God and not the cult of entertainment so prevalent in this world around me. I am weak and helpless, a foreigner in this land that is not my own. I sense that God is sometimes calling me to more, to have more faith, to pray, to love people, to serve but I choose to remain where I am because I’m often lazy and apathetic and it takes a lot of effort to change. Maybe your life, like mine looks a lot more like Gideon then you might initially think upon first reading the story.

I’ll read Judges Chapter 6. The story of Gideon begins with Israel once again doing evil and as a result of this they are oppressed for 7 years by the Midianites who used Israel’s wheat fields as pasture-land for their animals. The situation is so desperate that Israel resorts to hiding in caves in the mountains. Finally, Israel perhaps has no other choice but to call out to God for help. God sends an Angel to Gideon and calls him a mighty warrior, a foreshadowing of what he would later become. But for the time being, Gideon has a lot of problems and is far from the covenant-keeping, obedient, humble Judge who will eventually deliver Israel.

First of all, he’s ignorant of salvation history because he blames God for the Midianite oppression and fails to realize that it’s because of their own sin and idolatry that Israel is in the situation they’re in. Before Gideon’s very eyes is an Angel of God and yet he says that God has abandoned Israel. It isn’t until later that he actually realizes it’s an Angel. Those with eyes to see will see God but Gideon’s heart is hard and he fails to realize the true significance of the situation.

Gideon tries to evade God’s call by claiming to be small and weak and while this is partly true, Dan, not Manasseh is the smallest tribe in Israel. His Father, while perhaps partly powerless under Midianite affliction is a leader within the Baal cult and has his own altar so he must have some degree of wealth and status. Gideon tears down this altar and builds an altar to worship God, but out of fear of his Father and the people of the town, he does this at night. God’s word, given through the angel should have been sufficient but Gideon keeps seeking additional signs. The encounter with the Angel wasn’t enough to convince him. With a mix of faith, unbelief and desire to worship he offers God a sacrifice, which is consumed with fire from the rock. However, this still is not quite believable. Finally, God relents to Gideon’s demands for a sign with the fleece and defies nature two times but this still wasn’t sufficient. Gideon is living a life characterized by fear.

Finally, as we’ll see next week, ironically it’s an enemy’s dream that convinces Gideon that God can be trusted. Because of this dream, he no longer fears and goes into battle with only 300 men and achieves an astounding victory over the Midianites. However, even after this miraculous victory, Gideon refuses to lead Israel and instead enjoys the comforts of his victory as a Pagan King would and Israel once again worships idols and ends up in an even worse situation.
I like the story of Gideon because I’m reminded that God often chooses to work through the small, the weak and the sinful and that He works with us in our lack of faith and sin. Throughout the book of Judges, God works through some pretty unlikely people as he raises them up to lead and Judge Israel in order to deliver their nation. Othniel is a foreigner, Ehud is a left-hander and therefore considered handicapped, Barak is unmanly, weak-willed and indecisive. Jephthah bargains with God like a Pagan King and Samson is obsessed with sleeping with foreign women. But yet God, in his infinite patience seems willing to work with them graciously.

As I look at my life and around this Church I see a lot of small and weak people. I consider myself one of them. And yet in our weakness, Christ is strong. God worked through Gideon, despite his sin, bad background and almost non-existent faith. God chose Gideon in the same way that God has chosen you. God believes in you and gives you the grace you need to follow Him each day. God sees our past, our sins and guilt and yet despite this sees us as people who are forgiven and free to live a life of holiness because of Jesus. God saw what Gideon could become and He sees what you could be as well if you trust in Him and walk in obedience as Gideon eventually did.

Eugene Peterson, author of the Message when talking about spiritual formation says that the challenge in our psychology obsessed culture is to see what is healthy in people instead of what’s going wrong. It’s easier to look for dysfunction. It’s pretty easy to spot the dysfunction in Gideon’s life but harder to see how God worked through Him despite this. The book of Hebrews remembers only Gideon’s faith and I think that’s how God sees us as well. We’re created in God’s image and filled with the Spirit of God and despite our sin and disbelief God is at work in all of us. God is gracious, working through our weaknesses and accepting and loving us as we are. You are never too sinful, or too weak to return home to God. And yet the more we hear God’s call and turn our backs on Him, the harder our hearts will become until we no longer have ears to hear and eyes to see God at work in this world and in our own lives.

In way of conclusion, the message that I take from the first half of Gideon’s story is that there’s hope for me and for you as well. Maybe you feel pretty weak and are unable to stop sinning. It’s okay: I think God is pretty patient and sees the eternal picture. He knows your weaknesses and loves you anyway.

Maybe you have the opposite problem: you’re filled with pride and are too independent, too wise and too self-sufficient to actually think that you need God. You acknowledge with your mouth that God is alive and at work in the world but live as if He is dead. As I read the Bible, I see God humbling people a lot of the time so I think there’s hope for you.

Maybe you have a lot of excuses like Gideon as for why you shouldn’t follow God or have faith. Next year I’ll start giving money, next month I’ll start serving the poor, next week I’ll start praying. The good news for you is that Jesus is always calling us to come follow Him and just like the Father in the story of the Lost Son, God is watching and waiting for us to come home with open arms.

Maybe you have a little faith mixed with a lot of unbelief. I don’t think you have to worry: I’m pretty sure God is up for the challenge.

Maybe you wonder how God could actually work through you for the sake of His Kingdom. But if God worked through someone as dense as Gideon to defeat the Midianites, I’m pretty sure He can work through you too.

Maybe you don’t know who God is and struggle to see Him in you or the world around you. Be patient: it seems to me that God is pretty willing to reveal himself to those who are seeking Him and sometimes even to those who are not.

God is gracious and merciful. He created you in love, He forgave you because He loved you and He sustains this world each day in love. God will love you to the day you die and He will love you throughout eternity. So don’t lose hope that God will change you and work through you, I don’t think God has given up on you.

At sports tryouts, if you look around you will see the good-looking, the strong and athletic, the confident, the tall and tough. And yet everyone is nervous, under the scrutiny of the coaches, uncertain of their abilities, their very identity as an athlete being put on the line as they tryout for this team. And yet when I think of God’s Kingdom, I picture a tryout of a very different sort. Jesus, our coach welcomes us and invites us to sit and talk with Him, to rest, to be loved. Nothing we can do or no abilities that we have can make him love us more. I picture the lame, the crippled, the homeless, the prostitute, the bankrupt, the sinful, the alcoholic, the drug-addicted, the broken, the old and the young hobbling towards Jesus and as they get closer, they’re increasingly filled with joy and for the first time in their lives, become free from whatever enslaved them on this Earth. I can picture the weak, the prideful, the cynical, the disbelieving, the uncertain and the insecure all walking toward Jesus being transformed into His image. All are welcome and all are good enough because they know Jesus and that’s all that they really need. There are no tryouts for the Kingdom of God and no matter how weak or sinful you are, as long as you’re seeking Jesus, that’s enough.

So in my own life, I feel like and perhaps look like Gideon a lot of the time. Occasionally, I believe and have an astounding amount of faith, trusting that God is working through me and changing me. I pray and believe that God actually hears me and cares. But most days, I struggle to believe and trust that God is who He really says He is. I am weak, cynical and apathetic. Sometimes when I feel like this, it’s hard to pray.

And yet God often reminds me of the story in Mark 9 where a father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus to be healed right after Jesus gives a speech about how he’s tired of this unbelieving generation. The Father says to Jesus, “If you can do anything, help us!” I picture him saying it in a kind of resigned, pathetic way like Jesus is maybe their last hope but nothing else has worked so who knows if this will or not. Jesus says like, “What, if I can, of course I can, why would you even say that?” The Father responds with the line, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” And Jesus hears this half-hearted prayer of faith mixed with unbelief and He heals the boy in a miraculous way. So this is the prayer that I pray when I lack faith because Jesus seemed pretty willing to answer it. “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”