Gideon & Barak

v. 32 “And what more shall I say”

The writer feels as if he has made his point. He has given them plenty of faithful believers to look to for encouragement. Interesting to notice that he seems to have picked people from all the different historical eras of the Hebrews.

The first couple- Abel, their son

Before the flood – Enoch

The flood- Noah

The patriarchs- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob

The Exodus- Moses

The conquest of the Promised Land- Rahab

The text we are looking at tonight moves to the Judges.

This is intentional. No matter what place in history the Jews looked to, they could see examples of shing faith in God.

God always has a people. They may be small, but He always has a people.

“For time would fail me” He could go on. There is no shortage of stories of faithfulness. But he does not have the time to do so.

This reminds me of John 21:25:

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

I mentioned this morning that Rahab was the last individual account of faith. What we see now is a grouping together of people. He mentions six people together and doesn’t elaborate much on them at all. He does this so he can finish this section up. We will look at a couple of them tonight.

“Gideon”

In Judges 6 we are introduced to Gideon.

Israelites are under oppression by the Midianites. The people of God are living in caves and mountains out of fear. When Israel would plant crops the Midianites would steal them. Israel cried out to the Lord for help. God responded by raising up Gideon.

Gideon himself was hiding from the Midianites. The Lord came to him. The Lord told him He was with him.

Gideon is confused. If the Lord is with him why are so many bad things happening to God’s people. He questions the Lord:

Why are bad things happening to us?

Where are the miracles we have heard about?

Why have You forsaken us?

Why are the Midianites oppressing us?

God responds by telling him he is going to be Israel’s deliverer.

He doesn’t believe God. He asks how in the world he could do that. He said his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and he is the weakest in his father’s house.

Gideon asks for a sign to show that God is with him.

He brought out a goat, some unleavened cakes, and some flour. He sat it on a rock. The Lord consumed the offering with fire that came from the rock.

This was enough for Gideon. He believed the Lord had called him. Then the Lord gave him a difficult task. His father had an altar built to Baal. The Lord told Gideon to use his father’s bull to pull down the altar and destroy another idol that was there as well. Then Gideon was to offer a second bull as an offering to the Lord.

Gideon was afraid to do this during the day. He waited until night and tore down the idols and offered the bull to the Lord.

The next morning the townspeople were angry at him. They wanted to kill him. His father saved his life by saying “If Baal is a real god let him contend for himself.”

Gideon is most known for:

A judge God raised up to defeat the Midianites.

Started with an army of 32,000.

God reduced that number to 300.

The opposing army was 135,000 strong.

Gideon struggled with believing God would give him victory. He asked the Lord for a sign.

On two occasions God gave Gideon a sign using a fleece.

Once He wet it and made the ground around it dry.

The next time He made the fleece dry and the ground around it wet.

The amazing thing is that God gave Gideon the victory without the aid of any weapons at all. This is what happened:

Just the before the attack a Midianite man had a dream. In his dream a barley cake rolled down a hill and destroyed the camp of the Midianites. He shared that dream with some in the Midianite army and no doubt it set the people on edge. One of the soldiers said it was a sign that Gideon’s God would prevail over them.

The strategy was to attack the Midianites at the darkest part of the night (Judges 7:19). Each man was armed with a trumpet, a torch, and a pitcher.

When Gideon and his men approached the camp they:

Lifted up their torches

Busted their pitchers

Blew their trumpets

Shouted “A sword For the LORD and Gideon!”

This sent the Midianite army into a panic and they were so confused they began fighting one another. Then the Midianite army began to retreat. They were pursued by Gideon and his army and were defeated.

What would cause the Midianite army to act like that?

It looked as if they were surrounded by an army. The way Gideon positioned the troops was strategic.

They heard 300 trumpets blow at the same time. In a regular army not man men carried trumpets into battle because it’s hard to hold a trumpet and a sword. Hearing 300 trumpets made it appear the army was bigger than it was.

They heard the 300 crashing vessels. The torches were concealed in the vessels. The men held up these torches simultaneously. One can imagine what that must have looked and sounded like.

The men shouted.

This was psychological warfare and it worked.

Gideon is an interesting fellow. He did have faith but it’s clear he struggled with his faith as well. The good news is God can work through our little faith. Jesus said it only takes a small amount of faith to move mountains.

“Barak” His story is found in Judges 4.

Deborah was the Judge of Israel.

Israel was under the oppression of the Canaanites and had been for 20 years.

Israel cried out to the Lord and He raised up Deborah.

Deborah appointed Barak as her military leader.

The Canaanite King was Jabin and his military leader was Sisera.

Deborah chose 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight the battle with Barak leading them.

Barak refused to go unless Deborah went with him. His doubt led to shame. He was told by Deborah “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.”

By God’s grace Israel won the battle. Sisera was killed by a woman who put a tent peg through his temple.

Like Gideon, we can see some weakness in Barak’s faith. But we also see him as a man of faith.

He was willing to go into battle.

He was willing to go into battle knowing someone else would get the credit for the victory.

More than anything we see this: He knew he couldn’t win the battle on his own. He desired to have Deborah with him probably because of her position as a Judge. He believed God was with her but had trouble believing God was with him.

Thoughts to Consider

1. God will even use those who struggle with their faith.

2. Doubting God is never virtuous.

3. God is not required to give us a sign because He has already given us the ultimate sign in the resurrection of Christ.

4. In every Christians life there are things we can learn to imitate and things we can learn to avoid.