The Times of the Judges Part 4

Today's sermon is going to be a continuation through the book of the Judges. We'll continue to look at those that God has raised up to deliver His people in their time of trouble and challenge as they walked into the Promised Land. The setting for that period is the Promised Land. About 25 years after the death of Joshua is where we started off. Now we've come down the road a couple hundred years in Israel's history, now having been in the Promised Land for a time. We've seen the ongoing consequence of them not following what God gave them to do, frankly, when they entered the land.

Their refusal to completely remove the Canaanite inhabitants has led to their ongoing troubles and challenges, their continuing cycle of downfall as they immerse themselves into the ways and the culture around them.

They worship the gods of the pagan people around them and they get immersed into their culture of sin. It's something that we see repeatedly time and time again. It leads to this cycle of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation. Today's message, we're going to look at one judge, just one today in particular, who God rose, brought up, and put among his people someone who would deliver them in a very special way against incredible odds. As we walk through the story of this judge, there are some leadership lessons that I believe are important for us to take note of that we can apply to our Christian lives today.

So the title for today's message is the Times of the Judges, Part 4, which maybe you guessed. Times of Judges, Part 4, subtitle Gideon, a mighty man of valor. Gideon is someone who God raises up here through the section that we'll look through today in a very powerful way. As we come to Judges 6, we wrapped up last time at the end of Judges 5 with Deborah. She was a judge and a prophetess in Israel and someone that God used powerfully.

By her hand, as the last verse of chapter 5 says, rest for 40 years in the land. But as we come up to Judges 6, now we see the same pattern of behavior that Israel has gone through time and time again. Their lax approach to the commandments of God, to that relationship he would have with them.

And we find them again in a difficult spot. Judges 6, verse 1 is where we'll pick it up today. It says, And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel because of the Midianites. The children of Israel made for themselves dens.

They made caves and strongholds in the mountains. So they had to get up out of the valleys and essentially go to places that were less accessible. But see, that also took them away from their livelihood as well and their crops and how they would make a living. But they are fleeing for their lives, essentially. Verse 3, so it was whenever Israel had sown a crop, the Midianites would come up. And also the Amalekites and the people of the east, they would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth, as far as Gaza. And they would leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.

Verse 5, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts, as they and their camels. They were without number, and they would enter into the land to destroy it. Verse 6 says, so Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. So again, they're in a very tough position here, being overrun by the Midianites year after year. They're swooping in again into the valleys, and the Bible describes it almost like a locust plague.

When you've maybe seen documentaries on locust plagues or read about it, they just come in and devour everything. Leave nothing behind, and that is likened unto that description here. They come in and they push Israel up into the hill country, up into the dens, the rocks. They actually had to build strongholds up there, because if they tried to stand in the valleys against the Midianites, they were killed. Their animals were taken. Of course, their crops destroyed. So this isn't the settled existence, is it?

This isn't what you expect to see of God's people, blessed people in the land of promise, of abundance and prosperity, where opportunity was before them, and their God was the Almighty. This is not what you would expect to see. But again, what we're seeing as we walk through all of this is the consequence of them not trusting God, not yielding to Him fully, holding up idols, holding up other things before God. God said, there is a consequence and a price to those things.

Israel refused to humble themselves before the Eternal, who is the provider of it all. And, you know, these may seem like old historical stories that what do they have to do with us today? Israel today, brethren, is in the same spot.

I would say very much so. Modern-day descendants of Israel. I'll speak for our country, the United States. We are in a very tedious position, in a dangerous spot, as we have failed to yield ourselves as a people to God. The opportunity is set before us, the abundance, the blessing, and yet our idols are elsewhere. Right? And our focus as a nation, as the descendants of Israel today, they're not on God. And there's a reckoning coming, and there is a time in which this cycle will repeat even before our very eyes.

The time of Jacob's trouble will return as it was in their day, and yet, as the Bible shows as well, it will come in a magnitude beyond anything that has ever befallen mankind. But what we understand is God has a plan and a purpose always to bring his people back. And that is part of the encouragement of this book as well. But here, Israel is in a tough spot, and God then again allows Midian to come in like locusts, and they swarm across the land at harvest time, and they just destroy everything.

They take Israel's crops, they eat them up, their camels come in, they graze everything down to stubble, whatever livestock they find around that aren't up in the hill country with Israelites, they take unto themselves, plundering, destroying everything as they go. And as a result, Israel is starving, and they're impoverished, and they're without anything, because this is a desperate time for seven years, year after year, this has happened. And as you can imagine, every year they go out in springtime and they plant a crop, because you have to plant in hope that there will be a harvest.

Maybe this year the Midianites won't come, maybe this year will be a success, and yet it's a cycle that returns again, and Israel is just barely surviving. It's because of their rebellion against God who gave them the land in the first place. Now, if you go far enough back, what you're going to discover is that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people of the east aren't incredibly unknown people. In fact, they're Israel's relatives, if you want to get right down to it. They're their cousins of varying degrees. The Midianites were descended from Abraham as well.

They came through his wife, Katora. You remember Abraham married Katora after the death of Sarah and had children. There were children, and they were children that were blessed, and he even sent them with inheritance. But they weren't the seed of promise, as what came through Isaac. But these are still descendants of Abraham. And the Midianites came from that union between him and Katora.

Genesis chapter 25, verse 1-4 is your reference there. We won't turn there, but you can check that out later. So that's the Midianites. The Amalekites descended from Jacob's brother Esau. So they're also out of Abraham's lineage. You recall earlier this year, if we go back to a sermon I gave on Beware of the Root of Bitterness, we saw how the descendants of Esau held on to this resentment of Israel. And the Amalekites were among those who, frankly, had this bitterness towards the descendants of Israel and Jacob, specifically, because of the inheritance that they considered theirs.

The fact that their father's birthright was stolen, right? Esau's birthright was stolen by Jacob. And you come down, the Amalekites are from Esau, from his lineage, at least a portion of his lineage. He was still pecking away at Israel over the inheritance. And finally, the third listing of people here was the people of the east. And who do you imagine they might be if there's a third relative to Israel in the region? It's the Ishmaelites. Okay, Abraham and Sarah could not have children for quite a long time, and there was this solution of, you know, take my handmaiden, Hagar, and Ishmael was the product of Abraham and Hagar.

So you have these people who are akin to one another. They're Israel's cousins, essentially, that are swelling into the land and destroying it. And, you know, they're not friends, though. They're not companions by any means. They're enemies in this case. So the main areas, if you want to look at your map affected, is northern Israel. The main area of invasion here was Manasseh, and it included, as well, the other tribes adjacent to the Valley of Jezreel, which would be Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali.

So this is where the main focus of this invasion would come in. Remember that superhighway that ran through Israel, and they'd come up right there into the Valley of Jezreel, which was very productive in a prominent region. The verse 11 says, well, summarize, verse 7 through 10, which is a prophet. Okay, God sends. And He says, there's a reason for your troubles and its disobedience, and the prophet is crying out for repentance of Israel.

That does not come. Verse 11 says, now the angel of the Lord, the Malek Yahweh, we've addressed this being before, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terribimth tree, which was at Oprah, which belonged to Joash, the Abazarite, while his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and he said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. So we're first introduced here to Gideon in a way that is maybe somewhat humorous. He's threshing wheat, not up on the threshing floor, as would be normal, but down in a winepress, because, well, the Midianites, the danger, the threat that's around, and typically what happened was you put a threshing floor up on a hilltop or some area where the wind would blow across.

It was an elevated open area, so when you threw that wheat into the air, the chaff is separated by the breeze and blown away, and you're left with the grain. So Gideon's doing this, not up out in the open, but he's in the winepress, basically a rock pit that's been hewed out of the ground for treading down grapes, and he's doing this again to escape the Midianites.

And you here have the angel of the Lord, and he says, you mighty man of valor. And there's actually a little debate back and forth, whether this is a sarcastic kind of comment or not. You know, Gideon's here hiding out, doing this. That doesn't seem necessarily courageous, but on the other hand, he's doing it. Right? Even at risk of the Amalekites, the Midian people and the people of the East, and putting his life at risk.

So perhaps this is something of a bit of courage as well. Either way, I would say that God, many times in the Bible, calls things as He sees them, as what they will be. In terms of the end result, and it very well could be as well that Gideon is being called by a description of who and what he would be in God's service. A mighty man of valor. Someone who would stand up in service to God and his people Israel. As we'll see, as we go on, Gideon didn't particularly think of himself as mighty.

Verse 13, Gideon said to him, Oh, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why has this all happened to us? He says, And where are his miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Verse 14, it says, Then the Lord turned to him, Yahweh, and he said to him, Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have I not sent you? You'll notice here it says that the Lord turned to him. Yahweh turned to him. There are times in the Scripture where the angel of the Lord is also referred to by this name Yahweh, just also the Father as well, referred to by this name. You recall the first appearance of the angel of the Lord set this precedence back in Genesis, Chapter 16, when he appeared to Hagar and made promises to her.

And it says, She called the name of the Yahweh, who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. So in this passage, the angel of the Lord, the Malek Yahweh, visibly appears under the Terribence tree to Gideon. And as he turns and the conversation continues, verse 15, So he said to him, O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father's house.

And the Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. You know, Gideon basically asks, Who am I to do this? Who am I to do this? And God's answer is, I'm with you. And that's who you are to do this. You are, as you would acknowledge, Gideon, nobody. But who you are is the man whom God is with. And that's the lesson here. That's who made him somebody.

And for us, herein lies an important leadership lesson about how God often works with human beings. Because you see, Gideon basically again said, I'm a nobody. But it's not the strength and the might of the man that matters, it's the strength and the might of God. And oftentimes, as human beings, we tend to look to the man, to the individual that God works with.

And sometimes we judge up certain things based on the man. But the point is, if God is working with this person, and if God is raising this person up in his service, it's not the might of the man beyond their willingness to submit to God. It is the might of God in them. And as we'll see shortly, God would empower Gideon by his spirit, make him mighty in these things that he would carry on. Last time I referenced 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27, which reminds us that God chooses the weak things of the world to put the shame of the things which are mighty.

Right? God does that. And he does that so that no flesh should glory in his presence. So that no one would say, I did this, this is my might, my hand, and my power. No, it is God, and the glory must always go to God. The same concept was expressed to Zerubbabel when God stated to him, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Zechariah 4, verse 6. Again, if that temple is going to be rebuilt, God says it is by, essentially, my hand through you, that this will be done.

And so a true leader who is being used of God in his service will always remember that principle. They'll always remember where success comes from, and they'll always use that to point people to God. So if someone holds them up, this is a great leader. You can recognize God worked powerfully through this person, but that person should not say, Yes, that's me. They should always say, this is God. And the glory goes to God. Gideon knew from the beginning where he came from. He knew his family wasn't particularly special in the tribe, and he knew he wasn't particularly important in his own family. Yet the story is, God will use him mightily. Verse 17 carries on.

And bring out my offering and set it before you. And he said, I will wait until you come back. So Gideon went in. He prepared a young goat and unleavened bread and an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put broth in the pot, and he brought them out to him under the terraimeth tree and presented them. Well, who was again under the terraimeth tree. Verse 11, tells us the angel of the Lord appeared and sat under the terraimeth tree. So Gideon now is bringing this out to him. He says, we need a sign. Bolster my faith, you know, honestly. That what you're telling me is true. You are who you say you are. Verse 20, and the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. And the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand. He touched the meat and the unleavened bread, and the fire rose out of the rock, consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Doesn't say he left necessarily, but he disappeared from his vision. Verse 22, and Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, the Malak Yahweh as it is in the Hebrew. Gideon said, At last, O Lord God, for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. You know, I'm going to die is his response. As he realizes fully who it was he was seeing face to face, I'm going to die. Verse 23, and the Lord said to him, Peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not die. So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is peace. And to this day it is still an opera of the Bezerites. So we have now the point where Gideon's been given a message. Here's your calling. Here's what you're going to do. It's been confirmed to him by this miracle, the sign. The offering was consumed. It was accepted. And this individual was not merely a man. He vanished out of his sight. This empowers Gideon now to understand not only the importance of the being, but who it was that was delivering a message. And that he must act. Verse 25 says, Now it came to pass that same night that the Lord said to him, Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has. And he says, And cut down the wooden image that is beside it. And build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down. So Gideon took ten men from among his servants, and did as the Lord said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. He was a mighty man of valor, but you know that still is going to have to grow and develop along the way.

And so by night, verse 28, And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal torn down, and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. This leads us to another important leadership lesson today. That is, if you're going to do the work of God, and if you're going to do it on behalf of God, your own house needs to be set in order first. If you're going to do a work on behalf of God, your own house needs to be set in order first. God asked Gideon to respond to his calling by first taking decisive action, not against the Midianites, but within his own family. You know, it's maybe kind of easy to get a mission that you can go do somewhere else, and maybe against these oppressors, these enemies, and people you don't know, but God said, no, this begins at home. If you're going to be useful in my service, you're going to put your own house in order before you go out to defend my house, the people of God, Israel. So this is what Gideon had to do amongst his own family. The community where he lived were Baal worshippers. Frankly, his father and his father's household were Baal worshippers as well. There was an altar of Baal apparently standing on his family's property. The wooden image next to it would have been the Asherah, because oftentimes that was how they did it. They erected Baal. He's the male god. You erect Asherah next to him, which is the female god. You worship them together, and sexuality was a part of that worship as well. The two went hand in hand. Gideon went out to tear those two down by night to build an altar of God instead and offer that seven-year-old bull. Because, again, bull worship, you go back to Baal worship, the bull would have been part of the worship practices of that religious cult as well. He's offering the bull on an altar to God, and he's burning it up with the wood of Asherah. This is a slap in the face to the community, to his father's house, to take their gods and to use it in this way. But, again, the lesson is, if you're going to work on behalf of God, then your own house needs to be set in order first. Gideon, the story of Gideon, is full of many leadership lessons we can take. Set your house in order first. Be useful in service to God. We can find a similar principle in the New Testament as well. It pertains to those who would serve in the ministry of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 3, verse 5, just as a reference. 1 Timothy 3, verse 5, it says, So it starts at home. So many things need to start at home. Love, compassion, unity, mercy, outgoing concern, as God has. All these things start at home, and they extend out from there.

Interesting, the name of Gideon, it means feller. And not as in, you know, he's a jolly good feller. But feller, as in, if you're a logger and you fall trees, there's one who cuts down, also a meaning of his name. And what we see is that now, at the beginning of a service to God, he's fulfilling his name. He's pulling down and cutting down that which stood in opposition to the God of Israel, and he indeed will raise up in the eyes of people their God, the true God, one who is truly worthy of their worship.

Carrying on in verse 28 of chapter 6, it says, And the men of the city arose early in the morning, and there was the altar of Baal torn down, And the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, And the second bowl was being offered on the altar, which had been built.

So they said to one another, Who has done this thing? You know, let's kill him. He deserves to die. Right? That's the response. And when they acquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. Remember, he took ten servants with him to go rip this down. It's not going to stay secret. But God's work isn't what God calls and instills to remain in secret. It is what is to go out and to be a direct and open work. Verse 30, Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he is torn down the altar of Baal, And because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.

Again, these were the central fixtures of their worship, and the response isn't, Yes, you're right. We oppose God. We brought this on ourselves. This is not what we should be doing. The response is, Kill the man who has tore this down. Kill the man who is standing up for God. And it shows us what things had become in Israel, how far they had fallen, and the perversion of their focus. God had sent them a prophet, proclaimed repentance, and they blew him off.

Now God sends Gideon even to his own house and community, and the result is, We don't want to repent. We want this man to die. Verse 31 says, But Joash said to all who stood against him, Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? He says, Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down. In other words, if Baal is really a god, he can take care of himself. If he's really powerful, let him handle this person, and let him exact judgment against one who would tear his altar down.

Verse 32 says, Therefore on that day he called him Jerub-bael. This is Gideon. Jerub-bael, they named him, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar. So this is Gideon's new name, at least by his community, Jerub-bael. And it probably started out as a derogatory reference, as in, You're gonna die.

People are probably watching him, and as they heard the name Jerub-bael, it was, Oh, Baal is going to get him, he's going to pay. And they watched him intently for the punishment that would come on him. As nothing happened to him, likely the name Jerub-bael became known for one who actually was in the graces of God. One who stood up for God, and who God was on his side. It maybe even became a taunt to them, as they would consider the name.

Verse 33 says, Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites, the people of the east, they gathered together, and they crossed over, and they encamped in the valley of Jezreel. It's harvest time again, right? And they're coming after the crops. Verse 34 says, But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew the trumpet, the call for war, and the Abisarites gathered behind him. And he sent messengers throughout all of Manasseh, who also gathered behind them. And he also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet him.

So Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, I need a sign. God, you've said you do this, but I could really use a little confidence here, a little reinforcement that you're with me. You could really use a sign. Verse 36 says, Look, I have put out a fleece, a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.

And it was so, when he rose up early the next morning, and he squeezed the fleece together, he wrung out the dew of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, but let me ask, just once more, let me test, I pray, just one more time with the fleece, because, you know, the problem is, if the ground is dry all around and the fleece is wet, who is to say that the ground wasn't wet, and, you know, fleece just kind of soaks everything up?

And so now the ground is dry and the fleece is wet, and that's probably a pretty good God, but, you know, how about if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet? You know, then I can't deny that. That's Gideon's thinking. One more test, I pray, just one more with the fleece. Now let it be dry only on the fleece, but all the ground let there be due.

And God did so that night, and it was dry on the fleece only, but there was due on all the ground. What we need to understand about the story of Gideon is it's a story of emerging faith. Okay, it's a story of faith developing along the way, being built along the way. God made provinces to him, but, immediate confidence, especially when you're staring at him, looking down an enemy that greatly outmatches you and can wipe you off the face of the earth quite easily by military might. You need some confidence, and it wasn't that Gideon lacked faith, but he needed that faith bolstered along the way.

But God's merciful, and so he provided what Gideon needed to be encouraged to be strengthened. And brethren, he's merciful with us as well, because aren't there times in our life where we go along and we wonder, God, is this really what you have in store for me? God, is this really what I'm going to have to walk through in my service to you? And it's not that we should be, God, show me a sign and show me a sign. Right? What did Jesus say? Proverse, an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. So if a sign is all we're wanting, then I think we're looking in the wrong place.

But God works with us to bring our faith, because at our baptism, it is an element and an act of faith. But can we say we are 100% full of faith and confidence without wavering in whatever would come our way? Most of the time not.

And most of the time, as we face things in this life, God works with us in His care and mercy to build our faith along the way. He is patient, and He's working with Gideon as well. Judges 7, verse 1, so now he's received a sign, he's confident this is what God's going to do, and he will deliver. It says, then, Jerubabel, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early, and he camped beside the well of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Morah in the valley.

And the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many, too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel claim glory for itself. And they would do so against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

He says, Now therefore, verse 3, proclaim in the hearing of all the people, saying, Whoever is fearful, let him turn, let him depart at once from Mount Gilead, and twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remain. And God didn't want doubt in anyone's mind where the victory came from. When they started out with thirty-two thousand troops against the Midianites, it was essentially a four-to-one opposition, and maybe they could claim victory as good warriors.

You know, maybe. You know, we're such mighty warriors. One of us took four of them each and every time. Maybe, humanly, you could pull that one out. But with a dismissal of twenty-two thousand more, the odds are increased dramatically. And even though the army is going to play an important role in what God is doing, there can't be any doubt in Israel's mind who the deliverance comes from.

It is of God by the hand of these men. Verse 4, it says, But the LORD said to Gideon, The people are still too many. Get rid of twenty-two thousand. You're down to ten. Still too many.

We've got to do something about this. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And then it will be that of whom I say to you, This one shall go with you. The same shall go with you. And whoever I say to you, This one will not go. The same shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water, and the LORD said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as they dog-laps, you shall set apart by himself. And likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.

And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, essentially it would be, you know, if you're still standing, you reach down to scoop up some water, and you bring it to your mouth, and suck it out of your hand, or maybe you even crouch down and scoop. But you're remaining in a posture of vigilance, like you're watching for the enemy still while you scoop up some water.

Those were putting in essentially as the dog lapped the water. That was 300 men. Verse 6, But of the rest, the people got down on their knees to drink the water, and like right at the edge of the stream on your hands and knees, and you just suck it off the surface.

Verse 7, Then the LORD said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped, I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand, let all the other people go, so every man, to his place. So you have this reduction. You didn't start with a huge army to start with. It's reduced by two-thirds, and now you have this reduction. Again, Gideon's left with 300, which is less than 1%, right, of the original army, which he had. Judges chapter 8 verse 10 shows us that the Midianite army was 135,000 men.

So now your odds are 450 to 1, and God says, yeah, that's about right. It's about right. Now it's a fair fight, right? 450 to 1. But whose side is God on? A lesson for us here, brethren, is that learning to trust God, especially when we feel weak and inadequate, is another attribute of godly leadership.

You know, you look around, you've got 300 men, and there's 135,000 facing you down. Learning to trust God, especially when you feel weak and inadequate, is another attribute of godly leadership. Gideon had to learn to trust God step by step. And God didn't lay all this on him right at the start, because imagine the angel of the Lord had appeared to him and said, you might have a man of valor, you're going to take 300 men and go to war with 135,000 Midianites. You might have had a hard time believing that message was from God. But he brought him along, step by step. And Gideon willingly followed where God led.

Verse 8 says, so the peoples took their provisions, they took their trumpets and their hands, and sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below them in the valley. And it happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, Gideon, arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. He said, but if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pirah, your servant, and shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. So Gideon went down with Pirah his servants, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east were lying in the valley, as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. And when Gideon had come there, there was a man telling about a dream to his companion. And he said, I have had a dream. And he said, to my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came into the tent, and it struck it so that it fell down, it overturned, the tent collapsed. And his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the man of Israel. And to his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. Now how exactly do you get that interpretation from barley loaf rolling down the hill into your tent? I'm not sure. But apparently it was clear to them barley would have been one of Israel's main harvest crops. So perhaps they're saying, okay, these ones whom crops we take, they're going to come and overpower us. Either way, God made it clear to these two Midianites and to Gideon that the victory would be theirs. And it strengthened Gideon's hand. Strengthened his hand. Verse 15.

And he said to them, look at me and do likewise, and watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do. And when I blow the trumpet, and I and all who are with me, then you shall blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And so there's a bit of a strategy here. They're going to spread the 300 men around the camp of Midian, and when Gideon blows the horn and his 100 men do, the rest are going to blow the horn. They're going to smash the picture. They're going to pull the torch out of the picture, and they're going to have this bright light in their hand, and they're going to shout.

Back in the ancient day, oftentimes what you had was the commanders of the armies that had the trumpets. One trumpeteer could represent hundreds or a thousand people in an army. So 300 trumpets was a massive army by reckoning of that way of doing things. The lights as well, you would have had not every man with a torch either. It would have been the commanders and the leaders of the various divisions.

So the point is, there's a strategy here. The army is going to appear much larger than it is, and God will play a part. Verse 19, so Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch.

Just as they had posted the watch, and they blew the trumpets, they broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies, the others blew their trumpets. They broke the pitchers which they held in their hands, and the torches were in their left hands, and the trumpet in their right hands were blowing.

They cried out, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. You can imagine maybe how this would have been if you're a Midianite and you're comfortably asleep in the dead of the night. Suddenly, this loud sound wakes you up, the blowing of the trumpets. You sit up and you look around, and you have all these lights burning around you. You're in the valley. They're on the hill surrounding you. Now you're in a very vulnerable place. You hear those pots smash, which sound like clanking armor of the army now that's about to descend on you, and you hear the battle cry.

Imagine how startling that would be. They didn't consider Israel a threat. Now, where did this massive army, at least by their perception, come from? Again, this is part of the strategy. Verse 21 says, And every man stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army ran and cried, and they fled. You know, they cried out in panic. This is in the darkness now, and God delivers them unto panic. And what we find out as well is He's going to deliver the enemy of Israel, frankly, into their hand by their own slaughter.

Verse 21, Everyone stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When three hundred men blew the trumpets, the Lord said, Every man soared against his companion throughout the whole camp, and the army fled to Beth-Ekesha toward Zira, as far as the border of Abel-Mahala by Taboth. So, in the middle of the night, they're awakened, they rise, the confusion sets in, they slaughter one another, it's every man for himself, and those who survive flee, Gideon's army close behind.

Verse 24 says, Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth-Barah and the Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together, they seized the watering places as far as Beth-Barah and the Jordan, and they captured the two princes of the Midianites, Orib and Zeb. And they killed Orib on the rock of Orib and Zeb they killed in the winepress of Zeb, and they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Orib and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

So it's a great victory. Incredible slaughter, a great victory, and it's by the hand of God. You would think everyone would celebrate. You would think that one man's victory is everybody's victory, and it would be great rejoicing all throughout Israel. Chapter 8, verse 1, says, the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, Why have you done this without us but not calling us when you went out to fight with the Midianites? And they reprimanded him sharply.

What do you think is going on here? What's their problem? Well, pride. Right? They wanted to be in on the victory. Gideon has this great victory. There's this slaughter. They got to play a part, but you know what? How come our name isn't with your name? And they were not happy with Gideon, but notice what Gideon's wise response to them was. We can learn from this. Verse 2, he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you?

Is not the gleamings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abbe-Ezer? God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Orb and Zeb. What was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger towards him subsided when he had said that. And herein we see another principle of godly leadership being exercised by Gideon. It's humility. It's humility. You know, these guys, you took our good name, our good standing, what could have been if we were with you. And Gideon's like, hey, you know, armies rise and fall, but you killed the leaders.

You killed the princes. It's your name that's going to go out as those who had victory over these people. And, okay, now that buys them in on this, in on the victory, and they're willing to accept it. But Gideon was a man of humility. Remember where he came from. Remember who he knew he was from the beginning. Gideon could have gotten angry over Ephraim's rebuke, but he even led to civil war right then and there.

The Gideon had a purpose. He was humble, and he wasn't going to fight over an issue that wasn't worth fighting over because God had given him a mission and a purpose. And he wasn't going to be distracted or derailed because that purpose still had to be accomplished. This is a prime example of the instructions of Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 1, which tells us, A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15 verse 1, a soft answer turns away wrath. Gideon, you know, he could have been a little hot under the collar if he wanted to be.

He could have gotten in their face, and it could have been a contest pretty quick. But he just said, hey, what you've accomplished is even greater than what I've accomplished. And that was the answer that needed to settle down their ego and allow Gideon to carry on with what God had given him to do. Brethren, that's good leadership. Knowing what to say, when to say it, and how to say it, and how to bring people together, as opposed to let a rift just rip them completely apart.

God used Gideon in a powerful way because, remember, he is a judge at this point. He is a judge in Israel. And his job is to bring people together and point them back to God. If we carry on in verse 4 of chapter 8, it says, Then when Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with them, they crossed over, exhausted, but still in pursuit.

Again, he has a job to finish of the retreating army. Verse 5, Then he said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted. And I am pursuing Zeba and Zalmena, kings of Midian. And the leaders of Succoth said to him, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmena now in your hands, that we should give bread to you and your men? The point is, we don't see your victory yet. Which way is the wind blowing? And if we support you, they may just come back around, defeat you, and kill us for holding up your hands.

These are Israelite cities. They refuse Gideon. Verse 7, Gideon says, For this cause, when the Lord has delivered Zeba and Zalmena into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. And he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth. And he answered them as well, because they refused. He spoke to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come back into this place in peace, I will tear down this tower.

Now Zeba and Zalmena were at Kharkor, and their armies were with them. About 15,000, all who were left of all the army of the people of the east, and for 120,000 men who drew the sword, had fallen. So this is still a substantial army that he's going after. 300 men, remember. This is still Gideon's core army. 300 men going after 15,000 who are sworn to defend these two kings. They're well-armed. This is still quite an undertaking. Verse 13. Now let's go back a little bit. Let's go to verse 11. Gideon went up by the road of those who dwell in tents on the east of Noba and Jabbiah, and he attacked the army while they were camped, and they felt secure.

And Zeba and Zalmena, he pursued them, and he took the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmena, and routed the entire army. So again, success by the hand of God. Verse 13. And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle, from the ascents of Harries, and he caught a young man of the men of Succoth, again one of the Israelite towns that had rejected him. And he interrogated him, and he wrote down for him the leaders of Succoth and its elders, 77 men. I don't know, to me that's kind of interesting, little tidbit just to consider. Can you name off 77 elders, leaders of West Richland, or Spokane?

Well, maybe I can give you the mayor and the police chief, but a lot beyond that it gets pretty hard. Maybe a council member or two. You know, they capture this young man from Succoth and interrogate him. He writes down the 77 elders of the city. Verse 15. Then he came to the men of Succoth, and he said, Here are Zebah and Zalmuna, about whom you ridiculed me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmuna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your weary men?

And he took the elders of the city and the thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. He taught them a lesson, essentially whipped them with the briars of the wilderness, as said earlier, that when I come back I'm going to tear your flesh from your body. Verse 17. Then he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of that city.

And you know, that might seem kind of harsh to us. You might think, why? Is that what God wanted? You know, someone of Israel coming in and destroying these other men of Israel. But again, what we have to remember is that Gideon is the judge. And he's God's appointed man over Israel. And according to the culture of the day, he had every right to request assistance from the Israelite cities to help end the fight against Israel's enemies.

And to refuse Gideon would be to refuse not only the man, but to refuse God as well. And the work that God was doing in their midst by the hand of the judge. So this was justice being carried out and a just punishment. And here we see Gideon acting in the role of a judge, in the role of the appointed leader of God over Israel. Verse 18 says, So Zeba and Zalmuna said, And he said, And if you were a king of basically any nation to be killed by a woman or a child would have been a huge disgrace.

So they said, Gideon, you kill us. It was a man's job. Not to mention, if someone who was inexperienced with a sword goes to kill them, that takes that much longer. You know, that many more swings with the blade. So they're saying, Let the man do the job. So Gideon did with his sword. It says, He arose. He killed Zalmuna and Zeba.

And he took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels next. So he exercised judgment. You kill the kings. Now you bring complete victory to the people of Israel. And he also avenged the deaths of his own brothers, who apparently were killed in the past by the Midianites. Probably a past raid, because when they came into Israel, they didn't just eat the crops and take the animals. They killed the people who resisted them as well. So there's a level of just recompense taking place here.

Verse 22, it says, Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son and your grandson also. For you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to him, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. We need to understand what they're offering here. They're offering a kingship. But beyond that, they're offering a dynasty. They're saying, you know, you rule over us, but your son also and your grandson. And Gideon says, that's not who I am, and that's not what God has given me to do.

God is your king. Remember, time and time again, in Judges, where he said, there was no king in Israel. There was no physical man, but God was their king. And the judge was to point them back, time and time again, to God. And he reminded them to renew their allegiance to him. Now verse 24, unfortunately, reminds us that Gideon did make one mistake.

And it is something we do need to make note of here as we conclude. Verse 24, it says, Then Gideon said to them, I would like to make a request of you, That each of you would give me the earrings of his plunder, for they had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites. The men of the east whom they plundered were Ishmaelites. Verse 25, so they answered, we will gladly give them. And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.

Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes, which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around the camel's neck. It says, Then Gideon made it into an ephod, and he set it up in his city, Ophra, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, and it became a snare to Gideon into his house. It's a rather disappointing turn of events, actually, when you consider all that Gideon had done in response to God and his loyalty, and especially considering the victory God had given him.

This was rather disappointing. The ephod, you'll recall, was a ceremonial garment worn by the high priest, and Gideon here makes one out of gold, and it's an object that is set up then in Israel's worship of God. And it's not clear that maybe they worshiped it as an idol. That is possible. But the point was it was an object in worship of God. It's like the golden calf, when Aaron said, Here's your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

It's an object, an image, made that directs people's worship, even if it's intended towards the true God. There's still something God had commanded them not to do. And as it said, it had become a snare to Gideon and his house.

We don't know if he ever repented. It doesn't necessarily say how this ended for Gideon. But in spite of it, we do know he's listed in Hebrews 11, verse 32, as a hero of faith. Someone that we can look to today as an example of faith, who responded to God, responded to the call, and led with God and the power of God on his side. So we can look to Gideon's story as a positive example. From Gideon's example, we see the value of trusting God, even when we feel weak or inadequate.

The value of trusting God, even when we feel weak and inadequate. From Gideon's example, we see the importance of obeying God, even when we don't fully understand what he has in mind. God knows the end from the beginning, and a lot of times he shows us the end as well. But what's going to happen between now and then to get us there, we don't know, oftentimes. But there's importance in obeying God, even when we don't fully understand what he has in mind, and why he's allowing us to walk through the things we walk through.

Finally, from Gideon's example, we see the outcome of staying focused on the mission, even when distractions threaten to derail us. We see the outcome of staying focused on the mission, even when the actions threaten to derail us. Gideon could have got bogged down in a civil war and not finished what God had given him, if he allowed his ego and pride to get the better of him.

But he was humble, and he never took his eyes off of what God gave him to do. For you and I, in this world there are so many distractions, there are so many pulls that can distract us from the vision God has given us. Never take your eyes off the vision. Never remember or forget who empowers you. Never forget what it is that God has given us to live for. That is the goal in the outcome, in terms of what Gideon was able to accomplish was great. In our lives, the outcome will be great as well.

Overall, brethren, Gideon's effect on Israel as a judge was positive. I'm going to wrap up with Judges 8 and 28. Judges 8, verse 28, it says, So once again, they come around full circle. In a time of peace was restored, and Israel, Gideon sat as their judge, and they lived under the leadership of Gideon.

Brethren, the story of Gideon is a story of emerging faith, of developing faith. It's a story of great courage, and it's a story of decisive leadership. In a week ahead, I'd encourage us to consider, to think about these things, consider the story of the fifth judge of Israel. And as we do, let's reflect on our own response to God's calling as well. Let's consider, do I have the faith? Do I have the humility? Do I have the zeal to follow God's lead in my life?

Because, brethren, the wonderful truth of the Bible is the same God who was with Gideon, is with us today, and he will indeed see us through to the end, unto victory, accomplishing his purpose, living according to his call.