Wooing a Warrior
Preached by Jason Abbott
July 12, 2016
As a parent, I often find myself in my parenting longing for more than sorry. What do I mean? I mean I long for heart-change in my children—a transformation in the way that they behave—not simply the get-out-of-jail-free type of repentance void of any real intention of really repenting, which I most often get.Those who’ve parented children or even consistently worked with children know precisely what I mean. Thus, I often find myself on the parenting carousel going around and around with the same kinds of issues. There are many apologies but relatively few changes in behavior.During this repetitious wrangling, I’m regularly tempted to grow impatient with my children (and many times I do); however, when I do, I find it very helpful to recall how God deals with sinful human beings (like me) in a book like Judges. And as I read today’s account, I’m really challenged by God’s gracious patience with Gideon and with Israel.Let’s read this passage together, and, then, we’ll pray for God to teach us.
Judges 6
1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.7 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
As we study this passage, we’ll want to see two different movements in it. We’ll want to look at (1) the movement of Israel away from relationship with God and (2) the movement of God back into proper relationship with his people, Israel. In short, we’ll look at a relationship revised and, then, a relationship revived.
1. A Relationship Revised (vv. 1-6; 25-32)
Well, at the very beginning of this chapter, we find a sadly familiar refrain: The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…(v. 1a). Consequently, the next 5 verses tell us how God uses Israel’s enemies to wake her from her dangerous, idolatrous slumber.Apparently, “the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East” conducted seasonal raids on Israel in which they pursued a scorched earth policy, i.e. leaving Israel nothing on which to survive after raiding her towns and villages. In fact, it gets so bad that the Israelites begin to make homes in mountainous caves in order to protect themselves from these eastern invaders. Thus our author tells us: And Israel was brought very low because of Midian…(v. 6a).It’s worth noting, at this point in this sermon, that it often takes these kinds of “very low” moments for us to see we’ve begun to wander away from our faith—for us to recognize that we have begun to hold less tightly to God and more tightly to the things of this world (e.g. possessions, vacations, pleasures, relationships). Thus, only when such things are rudely interrupted or even completely taken away from us, do we turn back to and cling to the only true God.Friends, if you find that you’re in this type of “very low” place this morning, if you find that you’re seeking refuge from some kind of enemy in this fallen world and that you’ve not been clinging to Jesus in the way that you know you should then do not hesitate to turn in faith to God for help. He waits with arms wide open in order to embrace and forgive you—to love and restore you (cf. Luke 15:11-32). (On the flipside, when things are going splendidly, be on guard!)Well, before we move on, let’s take a closer look at the evil which Israel did. What was so bad here? What sin have they committed?We find that it’s not that they’ve forsaken the worship of God in this case; rather, they’ve simply placed God in the midst of a pantheon of various other gods. They’ve constructed a pick-and-choose, mix-and-match marketplace of worship. They’ve revised the worship of Yahweh. Just look again at the text:
God through his prophet says: …I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice (v. 10).
When Gideon is called to save Israel, God first tasks him with destroying his family’s idols: Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it (v. 25).
Finally, we find out that this isn’t merely a revisionist-worship problem, in just one family, but an entire community (doubtlessly beyond too!). Thus, the morning after Gideon destroys the idols, the town is up in arms: Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” (v. 30).
The people of Israel still have a place for Yahweh in their national worship. After all, they cry out to him for rescue when Baal and Asherah prove insufficient, and Gideon sure seems to know a bunch about God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt, doesn’t he (v. 13)?! No, they haven’t completely stopped worshiping Yahweh. Rather, they’ve simply revised and augmented their worship of Yahweh.And, friends, doesn’t the very same kind of thing happen in the church now? Don’t we quickly revise and augment our worship of God today with other idols? Indeed, we do. Let me illustrate.Our four-year-old son came down with a pretty high fever a few nights ago. We were putting him to bed so I went to give him a big hug, and he was very hot. What do you think we did? Well, we did what I bet most every one of you’d do. We took his temperature and then gave him medicine and then put him to bed. When he woke up and still had a fever, we made a doctor’s appointment.You might be wondering where the problem with this course of action is. You might think it sounds like pretty good Christian parenting. Except, it isn’t because it betrays our western revisionist idolatry.See, in all this, my wife and I had neglected to remember God’s sovereignty. We instead—when confronted with my son’s illness—quickly prostrated ourselves at the feet of the gods Advil and Tylenol and pediatrician. We went and worshiped; we worshiped the created instead of the Creator.Please don’t misunderstand me! Pain medication and modern medicine are very good things. Praise God for them! But, does it not betray our tendency to do the very same thing that Israel does in this passage when we don’t first turn to God in prayer before we run to the medicine cabinet?!And, this is just one instance of a great pantheon of potential idolatry today. We can do the same thing with bank accounts and political parties and popularity and academics and sexuality and literally every created thing!Yet, in the end, all of these, when pursued, will leave us running for a cave, looking for a mountain shelter, and longing for real salvation—real worship.This brings us to our second and final point:
2. A Relationship Revived (vv. 7-24; 33-40)
Sometimes we can become a bit annoyed with Gideon’s proof requesting. “Hey, I’ll believe the Lord is with me just be kind and show me a sign that you’re who you say you are” (cf. v. 17). “Hey God, Gideon again—if I’m really your guy, please give me a wet fleece on dry dirt” (cf. v. 37). “Wow God, that was awesome! Now don’t get angry, but let’s try a dry fleece on wet dirt” (cf. v. 39). In all this, we may judge Gideon pretty harshly. We may only see Gideon’s constant requests and not see God’s beautiful, patient provisions.Look, years of idol worship—years of revisionist worship—have left Gideon with some very bad theology. He has something of a prosperity gospel worldview. We see it when the angel of the Lord first speaks to him. Look at that conversation with me for just a moment:
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian” (vv. 12-13).
In short, Gideon believes quite naively that, if things go well for his team, then God is surely with them, but if things go badly for his team, then God is not obviously with them. He has no category for righteous suffering in a fallen world. He has no category for the loving discipline of a heavenly Father.Consequently, we should read his requests and God’s answer to his requests in light of that context. Gideon is beginning to get some good theological training. God is graciously building up Gideon’s faith in his divine character. In this way, God patiently prepares Gideon for the momentous ministry of saving his people from their enemies.And, I think there is a lesson for the church in this scene. There’s a lesson about patiently and graciously working with those who are visiting our fellowship or who are joining our family. Brothers and sisters, those who walk into our midst on a Sunday or at a church function or anywhere we gather in the name of Jesus must be treated with the sort of patience and kindness which God offers to Gideon in this passage. Why? Because, that’s precisely the way God treated us in Christ—with patience and kindness and grace and love.
It’s my prayer that we’ll be a people who allow those (just like Gideon) to confess their doubts so that we might walk with them and help them see those doubts turned into faith as they come to know more and more of the person of Jesus Christ.
It’s my hope that we’ll be a people who even when others are exhausting (just like Gideon) are nevertheless patient (even as God is patient here) and, in that way, increasingly image Jesus Christ in order to bring him glory and honor and praise!
This kind of revival work won’t be easy, but it is (I believe) our commission as the church—and it’s the work by which God is pleased to transform lives.Well, there’s more to Gideon’s story so comeback next week for the sequel. But, here’s a little teaser (or a spoiler)—Gideon does experience a transformation yet it doesn’t last! Benjamin will deliver Gideon Part Two in next week’s sermon, nonetheless, just know that Gideon’s heart doesn’t stay transformed.
In God’s power, Gideon does save Israel from Moab.
But, in his own power, he leads them eventually right back into idolatry!
No, there’s no permanent transformation here for Gideon—or Israel either. Consequently, God our Father would finally and decisively raise-up another Judge for the redemption and transformation of sinful hearts! However, unlike Gideon, this Judge would not doubt God but, rather, perfectly trust his heavenly Father—even when trusting him meant dying for his enemies so that they might experience, through faith in him, revived relationship with God!
