Last week in part two of our study about Gideon (Judges 6:10-16) we studied about how God saw Gideon and how Gideon saw himself and his situation.
First that the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and how he twice stated the true reality of Gideon’s situation from God’s point of view and not as Gideon understood it.
- Judges 6:12a, “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you”
- Judges 6:16 “The Lord answered, “I will be with you”
We also saw how the angel of the Lord stated how God saw him and what he would do having been commissioned by God to fulfill His purposes.
- Judges 6:12, When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, … “mighty warrior.”
- Judges 6:14 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?”
- Judges 6:16 “The Lord answered, ….and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
But Gideon’s eyes were on the awful situation his people and himself were experiencing caused by the oppression of the Midianites.
- Judges 6:13, “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.”
- Judges 6:15, “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
As with many believers in Christ, there are several different ways the Bible describes challenging situations that we may personally be confronting. The first is “trials”, James 1:2, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds…”. Then “sufferings” Romans 5:3-4, “3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Both of which can cause as we see in 1 Peter 1:6, “grief”, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
When confronting these situations many of us will have the tendency to only see the challenging and difficult situation from our point of view, forgetting God and what He tells us in His Word about who He is in our life and who we are in Him. This was Gideon’s problem; he did not see himself as God saw him. He needed to renew his mind to what the word of God said about who God is and what God does because of who He is.
Judges 6:17, Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
In this verse we again see Gidon’s spiritual insecurity by his asking for a sign in spite of the fact of all that the angel of the Lord had just told him previously. Gideon still does not believe and or is unsure who it is that he is talking to.
This is what happens to Christian’s who do not spend time with God getting to know Him intimately by prayer and reading His Word; they do not recognize when God is speaking to them so they ask for more confirmation in a sign.
Judges 6:18, 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.”
In this verse we also see the angel of the Lord complying with Gideon’s request to wait. It is clear that the angel of the Lord knew Gideon doubts and insecurities. Also, as with some of us, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He is lovingly patient, doing what is necessary until we begin to understand who He is and what it is He wants to accomplish in our lives.
Judges 6:19, 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.
We need to take into consideration the context of Gideon’s situation of the scarcity of grain and animals because of the Midianites. Judges 6:4, “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.” When Gideon prepared a “young goat” and used an “ephah of flour” which is 20 quarts of flour, this was a use of scarce food for the sacrifice. One point we can see in this action by Gideon was his sincerity by giving a sacrifice of the best and most valuable he had before he received the sign from God he was asking for.
Insecure and or doubtful Christians who ask for a sign from God for a conformation about something, almost never give first of or from themselves something valuable when seeking God’s conformation. What they promise to give or do is always after the fact and never before.
Judges 6:20-21, 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.
In these two verses Gideon receives the confirmation of his request from the Lord. We do not know what was going through Gideon’s mind while he prepared the sacrifice for the Lord, the Bible does not tell us. However, when he followed the instructions from the Lord of what to do by placing the sacrifice on the rock, it is very probable it was something he did not expect to do with the valuable sacrifice. Possibly in Gideon’s mind, in spite of the Lord’s seemingly irrational and unexpected request, he was obedient. As a result, he experienced the sign or proof that he had found favor in God’s eyes and it was the Lord who was really talking to him.
Judges 6:22 NLT tells us of Gideon’s astonishment seeing something that he did not expect. It was not how the sacrifice was consumed by fire from the rock that shocked him, but it was the realization of who he was talking to. “When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
We are all are different and God will speak to us in different ways and do different things in order for us to fully recognize His will for us. As with Gideon and the offering or meal he had prepared, sometimes God will ask us to do something that will seem illogical. But it is through these things we come to the realization that it is God speaking to us and He has a purpose for our lives.
- Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
- 1 John 5:14-15, 14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.”
What do we need to do in our relationship to know God and His word to be able to recognize, trust and obey Him when He speaks to us? What are the spiritual insecurities that are hindering us to be the child of God who He has created us to be in Christ Jesus, to do what He has called us to do for His purposes?
Pastor John
25 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.
33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew — a bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
