Judges 5:31b-6:32, You are never too weak to do what God has called you to do

REVIEW:


Judges 5:31b-6:10 (NIV) Then the land had peace forty years.


6:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.


7 When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."


• Again, we see aspects of the cycle on display, what are they?
• Peace
• Doing evil
• Giving them over to their enemies
• Oppression
• Israel cry out
• God sends a prophet
• Also, what is different about the oppressors?
• They do not stay, the repeatedly invade
• They wait until after harvest and like locusts, destroy the land and steal the harvest
• These are Bedouin nomads. They would attack, strip, and leave. This is the earliest instance of the domestication of camel recorded in the bible. It had occurred earlier in the south and east and now spread to the region of Palestine. The Israelites had probably never seen such mobility before (Bright)
• The reason Israel hid their crops in caves and strongholds was to protect them
• What is different about God's response?
• Initially, the God's messenger only corrects them rather than saves them
• Why is God's response different?
• God chastens them with words and explains why they are being disciplined
• It could mean that things were getting worse in Israel
• For some reason, the people needed to hear God's argument. Previously, people understood. Now, God repeats the argument given at the beginning of the book
• In the last section, we had women leading because none of the men would stand up
• Now no one is leading, nor does anyone understand why God is doing this
• APPLICATION: There is a broader cycle happening in the book. The sin is worse. The discipline is worse. Men have forgotten their role of leadership. Men and women have forgotten God's word (probably no one is teaching it)


Judges 6:11-24 (NIV) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."


13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."


14 The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"


15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."


16 The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."


17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."


And the Lord said, "I will wait until you return."


19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.


20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!"


23 But the Lord said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."


24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.


• So first of all, where do we find Gideon?
• In a winepress threshing wheat (doesn't sound very might)
• What does the angel call him and why?
• Mighty warrior because he was a strong fighting man
• Mighty warrior because he was to become one
• Or maybe he was, but fear kept him from being effective
• What is Gideon's response to the Angel of the Lord?
• If the Lord is with us, why is this happening
• Where are all his wonders we heard about?
• Conclusion: It is God who has abandoned Israel
• It is interesting that Gideon specifically questions the wonders, because he is about to party to a number of amazing miracles
• God commands him to go and to save Israel, what is Gideon's response?
• He is the youngest in his family
• His clan is the weakest in Manasseh
• In other words, you've chosen the weakest and worst possible person to be the savior
• What is Gideon's focus as he argues against his ability?
• Gideon is looking at natural abilities while all the time arguing for supernatural presence
• What is God's response to Gideon?
• I, the supernatural one, will be with you
• Technically, God is all we really need, but most people don't see it that way
• How does Gideon then reply?
• Gideon asks for a sign
• What does Gideon do?
• He prepares an offering
• Afterwards he builds an offering (acknowledging the presence of God)
• God miraculously consumes the offering for our soon-to-be-judge (more than we know that he did for the other judges)
• APPLICATION: You may consider yourself weak or your insights not important, but a person who is available to God can be used in ways that are unimaginable. Stop thinking about what you are not able to do and start asking God what he wants you to do!
• At this point, the story always immediately goes to the person appointed by God to give his people relief, but in this case it is different ...


Judges 6:25-32 (NIV) That same night the Lord said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."


27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.


28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!


29 They asked each other, "Who did this?"


When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."


30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."


31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." 32 So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal," saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar.


• So, instead of dealing with the Midianites, what does God call Gideon to do first and why?
• Destroy to areas of idol worship and build an altar to God
• The bull is used to tear down the altar and is used as a sacrifice
• The bull is seven years old
• Gideon does accomplish the task but with one proviso, what is it and why?
• He does it at night
• The mighty warrior is fearful
• But he did not do it completely in secret, did he?
• His ten servants would have probably told
• Nor does Gideon defend himself, who does and why?
• His father
• He probably told his father
• APPLICATION: Why is this story significant?
• Because idols and sin which must be destroyed first in our life before God can use us in others
• Our own house needs to be in order
• In fact, we can't worship God until we stop worshipping other things
• Also, ultimately, Gideon must take a public stand for what he believes. While his father defends him (rather well I might add), Gideon is not associated with an act against idolatry
• And, Gideon may have saved his family from idol worship as well