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.”