Judges 6:1-27

Intro

It seems like everyone can share a story from their childhood of a time when they got lost in public. The fear that strikes a little one separated from his parents in a crowded area is intense, it even seems like a core memory for us.

I remember being at Comerica Park for a Tigers game with my dad and brother once, and we were walking around the concourse trying to get some hot dogs before we found our seats. I remember it was packed, and I was looking down as I was walking. I was following my dads feet, but after a few minutes I looked up and realized that the feet I thought were connected to my dad were actually connected to a complete stranger. It was instant panic. Within seconds I thought of every horrible thing that could happen to me because I was separated from my dad. Thankfully, after a few moments of frantically looking around, I saw my dad with his eyes on me just a few feet away.

But for a few moments that felt like an eternity, it seemed like there was a life-threatening separation there because I had allowed my eyes to wander and began following a stranger rather than my dad.

Israel has a lot of stories like this. They have once again allowed their eyes to wander, and their heart has followed suit. They have left their Father, and exchanged following him for following after other gods. As we will see, they are about to experience a world of hurt that you would expect for a child that wanders after strangers and away from their Father.

Forsaking the Lord deserves separation

The people forsake the Lord

Judges 6:1 ESV

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.

Right at the beginning of the passage, we see the cycle begin afresh when the people of Israel again do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Once more, the people forsake God. This is now the sixth time in the book of judges that the people have experienced the redeeming love of the Lord, only to then forsake him and worship the false gods of the pagans in the land. Six times in this book, not even counting the many other failures of God’s people leading up to this moment that we could read about in the first six books of the Bible.

We can’t look past this, because we’re seeing the root of everything that comes next. It would be too easy to read past this first verse and see everything else that comes next, but in this first verse we find the reason for what follows.

You see, forsaking the Lord is no trivial matter. We may be quick to look past it as something rather common, but this is to break the first commandment and is an offense aimed directly at the glory of God.

There is nothing trivial, nothing normal about forsaking the Lord and doing what is evil in his sight. It is heinous, an act deserving death.

Packed into this one verse is a shift in the people from the grateful disposition followed the redemption God gave them through Deobrah and Barak towards a cold indifference toward the Lord.

They have forgotten him, left him, and have committed themselves not just to other religions, but to evil itself.

The result of their forsaking the Lord is still not their just deserts; they are punished, but not destroyed.

They are given into the hands of Midian, which is not unfamiliar territory for them.

Israel and Midian go way back. In fact, Midian is a people who are descended from Abraham as well, although they are illegitimate children that were cast out. It was the Midianites that sold Joseph to Potiphar, for one example of their history together.

And what was life like being given into the hands of the Midianites? Imagine if there was a plague of locusts, only the locusts were wicked humans that killed more than just your crops.

Midian brings great misery

Judges 6:2–5 ESV

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. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 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.

Life under Midian was horrible. It was humiliating, taxing, incredibly difficult for seven years.

It altered life completely

It brought Israel to their knees.

The people cry out and the Lord responds

Judges 6:6 ESV

And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

As the cycle continues, the people cry out to the Lord in their desperation. But without taking the cycle for granted, take a moment to recognize that the response the Lord gives through the prophet is not an encouraging one.

Judges 6:7–10 ESV

When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 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. 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. 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.”

He reminds them, “I have already delivered you, I have rescued you once, and in fact it was more than once. In response, I have asked only that you do not bow down to the false gods of the people in the land I have given to you, and yet you have refused.”

There is a painful reminder here that the Lord does not owe anything to anyone. The misery that Israel found itself in wasn’t an uncaused misery; it was not simply an unfortunate circumstance that they didn’t deserve. When they cried out to God, they were not crying out as passive victims but as blood-stained covenant breakers.

Application: We rarely take our sin as seriously as we ought to. We often ask the question, “how could a good God send a person to hell,” but we will rarely ask ourselves the question, “why would God bring anyone to heaven?”

This is because we have much too high a view of ourselves and what we deserve, and far too low a view of the God we have sinned against.

God does not owe us a thing. In our sin against him, we have brought upon ourselves a world of misery, fearful separation; this is fitting considering that the lowly creature has rebelled against the almighty creator. It is to be expected.

Even if we do cry out to the Lord, it would be completely appropriate to receive a response that says, “I am only giving you what you deserve.”

So at this point, redemption would have seemed next to impossible.

they have lost their freedom, their food, their homes, their livestock, their dignity, and the prophets God sent are reminding them that this is exactly what they deserve.

Redemption has never felt further for God’s people, and they deserved the separation they were feeling.

but pay close attention to what the Lord does next.

The Lord draws near to redeem the undeserving

An unlikely redemption

Judges 6:11–15 ESV

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 wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 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.” 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?” 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.”

When the angel of the Lord appears, he comes with wonderful news for God’s people, but it doesn’t seem so wonderful or believable to Gideon.

Two reasons why redemption seems impossible:

first, the problem of evil. The belief that God either can’t or won’t save you from suffering

Notice here that although Israel had begun to call out to the Lord again here, it doesn’t seem like Gideon was among those who were calling out. In fact, he seems rather bitter when the angel of the Lord shows up to talk to him.

When he is told that the Lord is with him, he says, “yea right, the Lord, that ancient God who used to be helpful. Where has he been exactly?”

This is an understandable disposition to the suffering person. We are told that God is good and all-powerful, which can seem incompatible with the world of suffering we are faced with. Sometimes it seems like maybe the Deists were right, that God has wound us up like a toy and left us to ourselves.

Gideon grew up in the covenant community. He went to their version of Sunday School, he learned about all the stories of old where the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob delivered his fathers from horrible circumstances. But sometimes its hard to see past our own circumstances, and it can seem like that God would never step into the present.

For this reason, it is hard for Gideon to believe redemption was anywhere near Israel under the Midianites.

second, an unlikely victor. There seems to be a reaction here from Gideon like, “mighty man of valor, are you talking to me?” How am I supposed to experience any victory in this situation? I and my people are dominated by something that our mightiest men can’t take down alone, and now I’m supposed to take this thing down? There’s just no way. My clan is the weakest in Israel, and I am only a footnote among their number. How am I supposed to take down the Midianites? They own us. Victory is a pipedream, an impossibility, and I am resigned to secretly beating out wheat in the winepress for the rest of my life.

Two reasons that redemption seems impossible to Gideon: evil has too great a foothold in this world, and he was far too weak to do anything about it, and it doesn’t seem like God will either.

Now I want you to see the wisdom of God’s response. Without addressing either concern directly or giving specific answers to how or why these things have come to be, the Lord satisfies all of the doubts of Gideon with five words: I will be with you.

The Lord Gives the Victory

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 response Gideon gets doesn’t actually answer his questions directly. Gideon’s questions were focused on himself and his circumstances, but God’s answer was meant to redirect his focus to the Lord.

Rather than focusing on how bad things currently are and how incompetent he is, the Lord simply reminds him, “and yet I am with you.”

The God who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, from the countless oppressors in the promised land, will be the God who is with Gideon and Israel once more. Presence will be greater than answers in this case.

Apply: My friends, can you empathize with Gideon in this passage? Do you find yourself faced with the reality that you are incapable of saving yourself, and wondering whether God is able or willing to do it for you? This is a place right next door to despair.

Tragedy teaches you two things: it teaches you about yourself and it teaches you about God. It teaches you that you are not in control, and it teaches you that God is, though you may have complaints about his methods.

have you ever been told that God is with you when you were in the midst of awful misery? Did it make you cynical, causing you to scoff and say, “oh is he? Where was he when this thing happened to me?” I get it. That’s Gideon here.

But for all of you who are going through something miserable right now, can I step forward and offer you the same thing? The Lord is with you. And I know, you may immediately smirk and think there is no way that can be true given all that you’ve been going through; but hear me out.

Gideon was going to be asked to show faith, and it was based on stories from previous generations that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with the present he found himself in, but it was about to have everything to do with the redemption he was about to see.

And I am going to ask you to have the same faith, but with an even better foundation. Gideon knew about the redemption from Egypt, but we know about the redemption from sin. Gideon knew about the Red Sea, but we know about the empty tomb. To hear “God is with you” to Gideon meant judges and prophets sent by God, but we have seen God in the flesh, the true Immanuel, the God With Us

I don’t know why this misery has come upon you; I know it has its roots in sin, either yours or somebody else’s and I know that God is going to use it to sanctify you, but I won’t pretend to know all the details. But I can tell you with full confidence that it isn’t because God doesn’t love you, and it isn’t because he has lost his grip on your life.

Friends, do you believe redemption to be impossible? Is it something that only exists in the distant future in your mind, as a pipe dream? Have you become painfully aware of your impotence like Gideon was? Are you dominated by sin, opressed by guilt, overcome by depression, crippled by addiction, resigned to live a defeated and secret life without any hope of overcoming the thing you hate?

Can I encourage you that God is with you?

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Ephesians 3:16–19 ESV

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

You have an enemy that is going to do everything in his power to make you feel as though you are alone and that God has no plans for you. He is going to do his best to make sure you know that all your pain is wasted, that sin will dominate you forever, and that God is not interested in helping you.

You have an enemy that breathes lies and deceit.

You are not alone, but God is with us.

Sin has no dominion over you, for Christ has defeated it and has made you a conqueror over it.

God isn’t just interested in helping you, he has worked salvation for you through his son Jesus Christ.

Your enemy already lost and he knows it; but he wants to take down as many with him as he can. Don’t listen to the ramblings of a serpent with a bashed in skull.

Rather, listen to the words of your triumphant king, the Son of God who condescended to rescue you from the death that you brought upon yourself, The God who pleads with you, I am with you.

I know you have questions about your pain, I know you have questions about why God has allowed what he has allowed, or when he’s coming back to set everything right. I don’t know every detail to answer all of those questions, but I can tell you this: The Lord is with you.

Our God is one who draws near to the undeserving, our God is one who is with us in our pain, our God is one who remains strong even when we are weak.

If we call out to the Lord in our distress, we don’t have to wonder if he will answer the call. Our God is with us, and the person and work of Jesus proved it.

And how will we respond to this news? Here we should take some notes from Gideon.

The redeemed ought to Worship the Lord their Redeemer

Worship

Judges 6:22–24 ESV

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.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 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.

Gideon couldn’t help but worship the Lord when he recognized his presence.

There’s a poet I enjoy listening to who said something simple but impactful in one of his poems. He wrote a poem from the perspective of a teen struggling to cope with a mother that didn’t want her and abandoned their family. Through pain, she says to God, “maybe presence is greater than answers, or revenge. If you’re listening, I’d rather have you than all of my answers.”

Gideon didn’t get all of his answers. The pain was still there, but so was God. Gideon got to a point where he realized he would rather have God than his answers, and once he realized God was with him, he worshiped.

What of you? How will you respond to God’s presence in your life? How will you respond to his love and his deliverance? Will you continue to insist on your own way, or will you fall down and worship him?

Gideon began to tear down the altar to Baal and the Asherah in Israel, and we are going to read more about this next week, but will you do the same? Will you respond to God’s faithful presence by devoting yourself to him and him alone? Put your faith in him, and worship the Immanuel, God With Us.

True worship is free of idols

Judges 6:25–27 ESV

That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

FCF: we often forsake the Lord, which leads to great loss

CFC: Christ redeems what we have lost

Call: Worship God who has redeemed you

Forsaking the Lord deserves misery

God redeems the undeserving

Worship the God who has redeemed you