Judges 6:1-24 Out of the ashes

Fires ravaging California – destroy years of growth

Yet out of these fires at least one amazing thing occurs

There is at least one type of tree that desperately need these devastating fires.

These trees that only grow on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada need the unpredictable heat of fire to reproduce.

Small, green cones full of seeds awaiting germination grow near the crown of the trees, yet without fire or insects to crack open the cone, the seeds remain trapped inside. Green cones can live with viable seeds inside them for up to twenty years. Fire dries out the cones, enabling them to crack open and deposit their seeds on the forest floor.

The trees that we are talking about are Sequoiadendron giganteum that can ultimately stand up to 325 feet tall and live as long as 3,000 years. The giant sequoia trees imposing size makes seem remote and invincible. Yet they find their life out of the ashes.

Sometimes we run along in life and face serious struggles. We lose focus. We wander. We ease away from God. And we wake up to find desolation. But in the midst of this desolation, the Lord can bring new life out of the ashes.

Repeatedly this occurs in scripture. The nation of Israel, especially in the time of the judges, repeatedly cycle through their relationship with God. From victory and closeness with God, to wandering from God, to life without God, to devastation by the hand of God. But in the midst of the ashes, they call out to God and He brings new life.

We see an extended example of this renewal from the ashes in the life of Gideon. We will examine his life over the next few weeks. Through this examination, perhaps we too can begin the New Year afresh as we seek to emerge from the ashes and move once again into the place of blessing because of renewed relationship with the Lord. From the ashes to great blessing in 2016.

I. Out of the Ashes: From a cycle of defeat

A. Sin and consequences **

(ESV) 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.

1. Defeat

2. No longer free

3. Frightened

4. Limited in what they could do

5. Lack of prosperity

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

6. People overwhelmed

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

7. Personal devastation

8. Emotional hopelessness

9. Depression / fear

B. A return to the Lord

(ESV) Judges 6 6 … And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

1. Not an overnight solution – but the key to a radical turn around

C. The Lord provides a basis for faith in Him *

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

1. The Lord intervenes – providing what is needed for faith – the key to what is ahead – trust Him to deliver

a. Reminder of His redemption

b. Reminder of His previous blessing

c. Reminder of who He is

(ESV) Judges 6 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.”

d. Reminder of His active presence – greater than their gods

e. Reminder of the problem: sin – fear Him not them

II. Out of the Ashes: The Lord calls in the midst of desperation

When we think of culture, we might lose focus on individuals. These steps were a reality in the lives of individuals. Even people that God desired to use struggled as they were both directly influenced and were impacted by the results. Here we find a man who God desired to use - Gideon. He was suffering under this cycle of defeat.

To a man:

A. Living a life of despair Jud 6:11

(ESV) Judges 6 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 wheatin the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

1. The Lord Himself has come – not through a prophet – a big need

2. Alone

3. Hiding under an oak / within a winepress rather than on a hillside

4. Seeking only enough sustenance to survive

B. Feeling forsaken by God

(ESV) Judges 6 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.”

1. Questioning whether God was with him - “if the Lord is with us,

2. Felt undeserved trouble had come -- why has all this happened to us?

3. Had no power with God --Where are all his wondersEgypt?’

4. Felt God actively working against him - the Lord has abandoned us

C. Experiencing personal insignificance

(ESV) Judges 6 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.”

1. Tribe - Manasseh

2. Family - Poor

3. Himself - Least of father's house

III. Out of the Ashes: God’s offers a new future

God is not limited by what we are today. He sees what we can be, if we allow Him to have control in our lives.

A. A vision of how God can transform Him

(ESV) Judges 6 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

1. The Lord is with you – already / listen to Him

2. He will make you a mighty warrior

a. Encouragement – prophetic

b. Is actually a very important person in a very important family

3. Gideon – hacker / go from hacking wheat in the fields to hacking the enemy

B. A commission of purpose

(ESV) Judges 6 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yoursand save Israelfrom the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

1. Did not answer questions – but commissioned him

2. Already prepared - did not need anything else

3. Commissioned by God

4. Go in this your strength – the fact that God is with you / and has commissioned you

C. A promise of His presence and power and victory

(ESV) Judges 6 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will (certainly) be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

1. Bookends – begin and end discussion with “Lord/I will be with you”

2. Emphatic phrase

3. Becomes personal

4. Same promise as to Moses / Joshua ---- not more sufficient in self --- but more than sufficient when the Lord is with Him

5. Not a problem to use the weakest and least – preferred way

6. It will be as if the massive army of Midian was one man – an easy victory

IV. Out of the Ashes: A personal response to the Lord

Ultimately we must respond to God, if we are to break the cycle of defeat.

A. Offered Him worship

1. A mixed response

a. Mixture of Doubt and lack of faith - true worship and understanding

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

b. Ephah – 20 pounds of flour, 2/3 of a bushel – a specially prepared young goat / a pot of broth

c. Worship although unclear exactly who you are yet

B. Observed His power

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

1. Accepted the offering by consuming it / Vanished suddenly

C. Confessed His lordship

(ESV) Judges 6 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.”

1. Gets it totally at this point – Lord Yahweh

D. Understood His holiness & grace

(ESV) Judges 6 22 … And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lordsaid to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”

a. Recognized own sinfulness – no one can see God and live

E. Experienced His peace

(ESV) Judges 6 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.

1. But He will not die – he has peace with God

2. He has engaged intimately with God – like Moses before Him – the previous deliverer of Israel

3. The Lord deals with him in peace not with judgment