Judges: God great gives grace to the Faint of Heart to Accomplish His Great Purpose (Judges 6-8)

Great Grace For the Gideons of the World

I was having a tough week, and it was only Tuesday. I remember sitting in Chapel at SBTS on the brisk morning in March 30, 2010. I had just come from the bookstore I worked and was in a melancholy mood, so much so, that I hesitated to go to chapel. I was year into seminary. My family and I were broke, sick, and had just welcomed our new born son, Abram. Moreover, I had come to realize that I was not as smart, as gifted, or as sanctified as so many of my other classmates. It seemed like every class and conversation I had I was behind the eight ball, struggling to keep up, or lamenting how I did not know as much as I thought I knew. Looking at myself in the stockroom mirror, I questioned if I was really a good fit for ministry. Did God really call me to preach and teach his Bible? Would I even graduate from seminary? How can God use such a sinfully ignorant man to joyfully advance his kingdom? My heart was broken and I was unsure if God would use me for His work.

I would imagine there are some of you in here right now wondering the same thing. Some of you might be wondering, “How can God use someone who is so anxious about the world and the what if’s of life, who lacks courage to proclaim the good news, to do anything good for heaven? How can God use someone so weak in the faith? I don’t as much as the others. I can’t read like the others? I don’t comprehend like the others. How can God use someone who comes from such a crazy family background and still has a lot of crazy in their life? Who has such glaring flaws in their life? Who keeps giving in to besetting sins that dominate so much of my thoughts and prayer life? Maybe you look at our church and you say,”We are not what we once were. Where are you Lord? We are so small and riddled with problems? We are the least of these in our community? Lord, will you use us to accomplish your purpose in Litchfield?

On March 30, 2010, at 10am, I make way to Alumni Chapel to hear Dr. Bryan Chapell preach on Judges 7. The title of his sermon was,

“Use for Useless Heroes” Bryan Chapell

As he preached from Judges 7, I found myself melting in my seat. He said things like, God uses sinful people throughout scripture, sinful people like you and me. And then he said,

“If you are in a position that whether by your failures or faults that you think God can't use you, then accounts like Gideon are for you.” Dr. Bryan Chapell

It was as if Dr. Chapell read the monologue right out of my heart. I never looked at Gideon through the lens that he preached him before. In Sunday school, whenever, I was able to attend it, Gideon was always a moral hero who courageously fought for the Lord. When you dig into the story a bit more, as Dr. Chapell did, you find out that Gideon was not the hero championed in Sunday School class. He was, however, a man God used to deliver his people from a great enemy. I left chapel that morning with a new perspective on my life and ministry. I left believing that:

God gives great grace to the faint of heart to accomplish his great purposes.

Great grace is what the Gideons of the world, like myself need if we are to be used by God to accomplish his great work. Great grace happens to be God’s forte. In two sermons, we will see God’s grace on the faint of heart. First, we will take a deeper look at Gideon. Next week we will look more at how God’s grace clothes Gideon with His Spirit to accomplish his work.

There is a sequence of God’s grace poured out in the life of Gideon, and it starts with God confronting Israel’s apostasy once again.

God confronts Israel’s apostasy (Judges 6:1-6)

God’s people, once again, forsake his commands and lust after the Canaanite gods. In response, God gave them into the hands of Midian for seven years. Midian is a descendant of Abraham. He was the son his concubine Kuturah. The people of Midian also aligned themselves with the kings who sought Balaam to curse Israel.

The Midianites forced Israel into famine and poverty. In verses, 3-4, Midian would come down during harvest time, likely sometime in April and May, and raid their land of food. The author says in verse 4-5

Judges 6:4–5 (ESV)

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.

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.

With no food in the Spring, Israel would be left with nothing, or very little for the rest of year. Poverty and famine plagued Israel to such a degree that they were forced to leave their homes and live in caves and manmade dens, holes, in the earth.

I cannot help but think of Israel in the wilderness when God made them hungry to test them, to show them how man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the Lord (Deut 8:1-4). In Judges, God is using starving hunger to humble Israel toward a repentance lives on every word of the Lord.

I’ve found it humbling over the last few weeks of lent as we have fasted, especially food, to see what has come out of my heart. An empty stomach has a way of exposing a heart full of deceit, bitterness, and unkindness toward your neighbor. But God’s grace his word has compelled me to confess my sin, repent, and eat the Bread of Life. I hope it is doing the same for you.

Israel’s poverty and famine reaches its fever pitch ion verse 6, and Israel cries out the to Lord in grief, not repentance.

As we’ve discussed before, there is a difference between worldly grief and godly repentance. Paul says,

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Godly grief expresses sorrow for sin. Worldly grief expresses regret for the sorrow of suffering the consequences for sin. Repentance’s sorrow turns you to the Lord for salvation. Worldly grief drives you deeper into shame and self-centered solutions. R. B. Kuiper, in his book “God-Centered Evangelism explains the difference between repentance and remorse. He says

“There is a great difference between repentance and remorse. When Judas Iscariot had betrayed the Lord, he was overwhelmed by remorse and hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). When Simon Peter had denied the Lord, he wept bitter tears of repentance (Matthew 26:75). The remorseful sinner hastens from Christ; the penitent flees to him.” R. B. Kuiper, God-Centred Evangelism (Banner of Truth, 1966), 153.

Israel was expressing remorse for the grief their sin was causing them. They were grieved to not be able to eat and enjoy a meal in their home. They were grieved by their children crying from hunger pains. They were grieved to bury their dead daily from starvation and exposure.Their grief, however, had not moved them toward repentance. Israel had not figured out the correlation between their human poverty and famine and their spiritual poverty and famine. A false god cannot provide for you. That is why idolatry is worthless. God knew they did not understand this truth, so he sent them a prophet to explain things to them.

God clarifies Israel’s suffering: disobedience (Judges 6:7-10)

God sends an unknown prophet to explain to Israel why they are suffering at the hands of Midian. God explains his great work of redeeming Israel from Egypt with power and might. The Exodus is a reminder how God provided food and water in the wilderness, and how how drove out the people of the land filled with milk and honey; he gave the land to his people. God is good and mighty to save. There is no God like him, and he deserves to be trusted and worshiped. Furthermore, Israel had to learn, that just like trusting in a false god who does not exist to house and feed you will lead you to poverty and famine, so will it lead you to God’s condemnation. Halfhearted devotion leads to disobedience, poverty, and famine.

God’s grace prevails on Israel. Even though they do not repent, he hears their cry of suffering and raises up a judge to deliver them. Once again, however, God raises up the most unlikely person to deliver his people. He does not raise up a Joshua, or even an Othniel. He raises up a fearful, frail, flawed man to accomplish his great purpose; Gideon.

God calls the faint of heart, Gideon, to His great purpose (Judges 6:11-32)

What is God’s great purpose for Gideon (Judges 6:14)?

Judges 6:14 ESV

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?”

God reveals his great purpose for Gideon in verse 14. Gideon is going to save Israel from the hand of Midian. That is, Gideon is going to attack and overcome an enemy that has oppressed his people for seven years, and has an army that is almost ten times larger and more advanced than his army. It is an extraordinary undertaking, and God say Gideon is the man for the job.

In verse eleven, you are introduced to Gideon. The angel of the Lord comes to visit Gideon and finds him beating out wheat in a wine press. Usually beating out grain is done in the open. It requires oxen or horses to run a sledge over the beat on hard ground. A winepress was a somewhat small circular area that was dug out. To make wine one had to stomp the grapes with their feet. Gideon was crouched over beating wheat in a wine vat. Why was he doing this? He was hiding from the Midianites (Judges 6:11). You can understand Gideon’s hesitancy to be out in the open, but hiding is not out of his character. The Bible describe Gideon as a man who was faint of heart.

How is Gideon faint of heart?

When Bryan Chapel spoke at Southern Seminary about Gideon, he described him in three ways. I find these three characteristics descriptive of being faint hearted.

Gideon is fearful (Judges 6:11-13)

As you know the angel of the Lord finds Gideon hiding in a winepress. When the Lord commends him and says, “The Lord is with you man of valor,” Gideon throws it back in his face. Gideon says,

Judges 6:13 ESV

And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, 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.”

Notice that Gideon does not acknowledge Israel’s apostasy. Instead, he says that is God fault. If God has the power to lead my fathers out of Egypt, why doesn’t he do something now? According to Gideon, God has abandon his people; forsaken them.

Whats more, the Lord encourages Gideon that God is with him (Judges 6:16). Gideon says, “Prove it. Give me a sign (Judges 6:17). This is Gideon’s profile for the rest of his time with the Lord. God promises that the Midianites will be delviered into his hand. Gideon demands a sign from a fleece; not once but twice (Judges 6:36-40). After God whittle’s down his army to 300 men, God tells him to go and take the Midianites. God, however, knowing Gideon’s heart says,

Judges 7:9–11 ESV

That same night the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp.

It’s not enough for God himself to tell Gideon that he will deliver the Midianites into his hands. Gideon needs to hear it from a Midianite himself through a dream. This is not faithfulness. This is fearful cowardice. How much more does God have to lay it out for Gideon for him to see God’s got this?

I cannot be one to criticize Gideon. I know Gideon’s fear because his fear is my fear; the fear of man.

William Gurnall speaks to my heart when he says,

“We fear man so much because we fear God so little..” William Gurnall

I have to be reminded over and over in God’s word, Joshua 1:9

Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Like Gideon, I do not always take into account the power and might of God. Like Gideon, I fear man like He feared the Midian army. And like Gideon I need to understand , although my fear is understandable, it is the sovereign God of His fathers, the One who delivered Israel out of Egypt promises His deliverance.

Gideon is frail

When the Lord calls Gideon, Gideon’s first excuse for why he shouldn’t be the one to deliver Israel is because he is of the smallest tribe of Israel, his family is the weakest in Manasseh, and he is the youngest in his father’s house (Judges 6:15). Gideon is not only cowardice, but he is frail. He is weak. As divine Irony would have it, God would make him weaker before the battle.

When Gideon gathers his army, God said that 32,000 soldiers was too much to take on Midian’s 135,000 soldiers. God eventually selects 300 men to go with Gideon (Judges 7:1-8). The Midian army outnumbered Gideon’s army 450 to 1. There was no chance of victory for Gideon.

In 2006, Gerard Butler stared in the movie 300. The movie was based on a somewhat true account of battle of Thermopylae between King Xerxes of Persia and King Leonidas of Sparta in 480 B.C. King Leonidas of Sparta leads 300 of his warriors against a massive Persian army, much like Gideon verses the Midianites. The 300 hundred soldiers are men of valor and courage. They are Spartan Nationalist who use brilliant war tactics to take on such a formidable enemy. Although their demise is certain, they sacrifice their lives to inspire the rest of Greece to rise up and defend their homeland.

King Leonides says to his men just before the final fight,

“The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many. And before this battle is over, that even a god king can bleed.” King Leonides

King Leonides encouraged his men to die in battle knowing they would receive glory and honor for such a valiant fight; a few good men stood against a tyrant of many. That is the pride of mankind, and God was not having any of that. God did not whittle Gideon’s army down to 300 so that Gideon and Israel could receive glory for such a feat, so the world would know that a few stood against many. He used Gideon’s frailty as a means to show the world how great God is against such a formidable enemy. Gideon was to frail to win. He only wins because God fights for him.

So, Gideon is faint of heart because he is fearful and frail, but is also flawed.

Gideon is flawed

After Gideon wins the initial battle, he pursues Midian in chapter 8. He comes across the princes of Succoth and asks for food for his army. Seeing that Gideon had not fully captured Midian, the princes of Succoth refuse to give them food (Judges 8:1-7). Gideon promises vengeance when he returns. The same thing happens in Penuel (Judges 8:8-9). God gives the princes of Midian into Gideon’s hands, over 120,000 warriors had been killed. When Gideon returns to Penuel and Succoth and kills the elders of the city.

The first flaw you see in Gideon is a spirit of revenge. The men of Succoth and Penuel were fearful, like Gideon. Although they should’ve fed Gideon’s army, they hesitated and lacked courage, just like Gideon. Instead of acting with compassion and understanding, the way God acted with Gideon, Gideon takes vengeance. It feels like the parable of the unforgiving servant in some ways (Matthew 18:21-25). The king had forgiven the servant of a massive debt because he pleaded for mercy, but then the same forgiven servant finds someone who owes him a small amount of money and refuses to grant mercy. Gideon was given so much grace and yet he refused to give the same grace to others who were fearful, frail, and flawed.

Gideon’s flaws do not stop there. When everything was said and done, the people wanted Gideon to rule over them, but he somewhat humbly said no (Judges 8:21-23). Instead he asked for their gold earrings to make an ephod. He collected 43 pounds of gold, worth about 1.2 million dollars in todays market. Collecting the gold earrings was a signal that something was wrong because it looked a lot like Aaron collecting gold to make the golden calf that led Israel into idolatry. Our suspicions are proved true in Judges 8:23-35.

An ephod was a kind of priestly garment that was worn by the High Priest. It represented the will and presence of God. Timothy Keller explains, “In making his own copy, Gideon essentially sets up his home town as a rival place of worship. He wants to encourage people to come to him for guidance, to see his home town as the place where God can be found. Gideon has used God to consolidate his own position, instead of using his position to serve and be used by God.” Even though Gideon rejected the peoples sinful call for him to be king, he in essence made himself a quasi king of over Israel with this ephod. It led Israel into more idolatry and halfhearted worship of the Lord.

The result of Gideon’s selfish flawed thinking was

Judges 8:27 (ESV)

And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

Gideon is a fearful, frail, and flawed human being. He does not look like much, as if the world should notice him. He’s small, weak, and inconsistent with his convictions. He’s not the kind of person, the kind of soldier, the kind of believer, you would expect God to use for such a great purpose as delivering Israel from an overpowering enemy in such a miraculous way. Yet, God calls him a mighty warrior (Judges 6:12). How can this be?

In Judges 6:12, 16, the angle of the Lord reveals how Gideon can be faint of heart on the one hand, and a mighty warrior for the lord on the other.

Judges 6:12 (ESV)

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

Judges 6:16 (ESV)

And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

“The Lord is with him.” That is the secret sauce. Gideon did not go into battle on his own strength, using his own cleverness, being his own man, based on his own merit. God was with Gideon, and it didn’t matter that Gideon was fearful, frail, and flawed. The victory was not up to Gideon. It was purely the grace of God in Gideon’s life to carry out God’s divine great purpose; and just as it was in Gideon so is God’s grace in your life given to you to carry out His great purpose.

God’s grace is his unmerited favor toward his undeserving saints.

Matthew Henry in his great work Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible writes:

“Grace is the free underserved goodness and favour of God.  Grace in the soul is new life in the soul.  Grace unlock and opens all, and enlarges the soul.” Matthew Henry

Consider the shear grace of God in Judges 6-8.

God’s grace chased after his people who had completely abandon him. God’s grace lovingly disciplined them to bring them back to him. And when his people cried out to him, not in repentance but remorse, Gods’s grace sent a prophet with his word to speak truth into their suffering. It was God’s grace that sent a judge, not to condemn them, but to deliver them from their oppressors. It was God’s grace that gave them undeserved rest in the land for 40 years (Judges 8:28).

God’s grace is further amplified in the man he raised up as a judge. Gideon a fearful, frail, flawed, faint hearted man who doubted God’s promise of deliverance is the one whom God used as an instrument of grace for his people. God showed Gideon grace in his patience and commitment to continue to work through Gideon even when Gideon goes off the deep end leading the people further astray. Even still, after all that, God still commended Gideon’s faith in the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11:32). The magnitude of God”s grace, his unmerited favor on his undeserving people in Judges is remarkable in its own self, but that it is nothing compared to the grace he has shown you and I.

J. I. Packer in his book Knowing God describes grace this way:

“In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘(God) hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him’” (2 Corinthians 5:21).” J.I. Packer knowing God

The most remarkable act of God’s grace, his unmerited favor toward undeserving people, is his salvation of fearful, frail, flawed, faint hearted people through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. God shows you and I grace by saving us-a people who do not deserve to be saved, in the most unimaginable way-by sending his perfect Son to die on a cross, to reconcile us to the Father. He came to earth and he was despised and rejected. No one looked up him as if he were anyone to boast about, and yet, Jesus overcame your frailty by becoming frail, putting on flesh. He overcame your fearfulness by taking the power of death away through his own death. He overcame your flaws by becoming sin so that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. All of this is by grace. Have you experienced God’s grace?

You need God’s grace. You can only experience the grace of God’s deliverance from sin, death and wrath by accepting God’s way of salvation through Jesus Christ by faith. Listen to how Paul describes salvation by grace:

Ephesians 2:4–9 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

You cannot boast about your salvation in the same way Gideon or Israel could not boast about their victory over Midian. It was God’s work by His grace. Gideon had to believe God and walk by faith, even a weak and flawed faith. So you must believe God, that is trust His Son Jesus to save you from God wrath by his death and resurrection. Have you experienced the grace of God? Do you trust in the Lord Jesus to save you? Are you living and walking by faith?

This is paramount to receiving the rest of Gideon’s message. It is paramount to you understand that God loves to use fearful, frail, flawed people, like you and me, through the power of his Son and his Spirit, to accomplish great things. You have to understand, apart from Jesus you can do nothing.

Speak to the men-mens breakfast- God is calling you to greatness.

He clothes you with his Spirit, which you receive upon salvation, empowers you toward victory, and ensures you complete His great purpose.

God clothes the faint of heart for His great purpose (Judges 6:33-8:3)

The Spirit clothes Gideon (Judges 6:34)

God completes His purpose in spite of the faint of heart (Judges 8:4-21)

Gideon’s failures.