Revelation and Peace

A teacher asked her Sunday School class to draw pictures of their favourite Bible stories.

She was puzzled by a boy’s picture which showed four people on an aircraft, so she asked him which story it was meant to represent. ‘The flight to Egypt,’ he replied. ‘I see…And that must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus,’ she said.’But who’s the fourth person?’

‘Oh, that’s Pontius – the Pilot!’

I just get a chuckle out of the things that little children come up with, especially as they are learning the Bible. This is how we all learn, sometimes we are spot on and others… well lets just say we leave it up in the air. Yet we do not have to leave it up in the air, God’s word is His revelation for us. One of the issues that we often run into is how do we bring these revelation to bear into our lives.

Intro - Before we start this next teaching series in Romans, we will have about 3 weeks before we have another teaching night, so I want to take an opportunity to preview our summer series “The Proverbial Summer” and connect the Bible to our lives that I pray you will find it helpful.

Where is Revelation?

The Bible is helpful because it is his revealed word. This idea of revelation is helpful, because at one point in time God’s people did not have His word in the manner that we do and this presented problems for them.

Proverbs 29:18 CSB

Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.

Revelation - Vision: Hebrew, describes a Supernatural, a communication from God to be communicated to others, with a focus on the visual aspects of the communication.

We can certainly see the struggle that we all face, we are looking for peace and joy and are not aware of where to find it or to we fail to follow it.

This was the issue that the Israel was facing in the Book of Judges. Revelation was dependent upon either prophets (unnamed) or through judges, and even when it was they failed to follow the divine instruction given to them.

Turn to the Book of Judges.

Who is ruling at this time? - The Lord (He uses 12 judges: 6 Major, 6 Minor)

What was the key issue in Judges? - They did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes.

A helpful tool for understanding the cycle of Judges is the acronym SWORD:

Stability Wickedness Oppression Repentance Deliverance

If you go to chapter 6 we will not read through all of 6-8 but I want to orient you to this story of Gideon and see why revelation is ignored or not received well it has consequences.

The Story of Gideon

The Story of Gideon is a story of God’s deliverance and it serves as a warning

Judges 6:1 CSB

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord handed them over to Midian seven years,

The Lord Raised up Gideon, but we see him hiding in a wine press threshing grain. I often think of this like a western, you have this open field and you see wheat being thrown in the air from a wine press and as the camera closes in you see Gideon threshing grain worried he would be found out, and this angel come to him and we’ll take a look at this interchange

Judges 6:12 CSB

Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.”

Gideons first response is to blame God for their issues.

The angel responds that Gideon is to deliver his people

Gideon makes excuses

The Angel Replies

Judges 6:16 CSB

“But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”

Gideon then asks for a sign

This process repeats for most of the story

God commands Gideon to do something

Gideon asks for a sign, sometimes more than once

Gideon carries out the task timidly and full of fear (alter at night, recon at night)

The rest of the narrative

Tear down an alter to and idol and build and alter to the Lord (hides behind father)

Take and Army of 300 against 130k (15k) ( reduced from 32k to 10k to 300, sucker leave, lappers stay) after routing the army Gideon goes off the rails and enacts revenge on the kings who killed his brothers, and punishes other Israelites for their lack of help. (much of this was beyond the Lord’s command)

In the end, Gideon was refused to be King and reminded people that the Lord was king

However, Gideon did request gold and made an ephod - a part of priestly garb- used to discern the Lords will, but what we are sure is that it became a snare for his family as all Israelites worshiped this item.Then Gideon died and the Israelites forgot God worshipping other gods.We see a man who is changed from experience when he first met God, but not necessarily in the manner that one would expect.

As the proverb said

Proverbs 29:18 CSB

Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.

The Israelites in Judges ran wild, each doing what was right in the eyes of God

And only found blessings when the Lord himself delivered them.

1 Sam 3:1 describes that in the Word of the Lord was rare (At the end of the time of Judges) The beautiful part about what we have today is that we have the full revelation of God in Christ and are not without the word of the Lord. (Heb 1:1-3)

Those who do not have Christ run wild (without restraint or authority)(Exodus 32, Aaron failed to lead people and they became a laughing stock for the enemy)

The proverb here states that those who do have revelation will be happy, another way to express this is to say they are blessed, state of joyful mind.

We Must Receive the Lord’s Revelation

What was Gideon’s response to the Angel? (Judges 6:13)

Blaming God

Doubting God

How do we receive God’s revelation?

Through Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4)

Through the Word ( 2 Tim 3:16-17)

We Must Respond to the Lord’s Revelation

How did Gideon Respond to the Lord’s Revelation?

Asked for signs (Judges 6:17, 33-39, 10)

Did not stand for what the Lord commanded him to do (Judges 6:27, 31)

How do we respond to the Gospel?

Do not ask for signs (Matt 16:4)

Take up our Cross (Matt 16:24)

Stand Boldly and in Love (1 Cor 16:13-14)

We Must Remember the Lord’s Revelation

Did Gideon and Israel remember the Lord’s revelation?

Kind of (Judges 8:23) The Lord will rule over you, However Ephod (Judges 8:27)

Israel did not remember the Lord (Judges 8:34)

Do you remember the Lord in your life ( Proverbs 29:18)

Running wild? ( your own rule)

Are you experienced blessed? (God’s rule)

Proverbs 29:18 CSB

Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.