Breaking the Idol Judges 6:11-35

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Brace Yourself

During the dreadful days of 1940 Winston Churchill, in summoning cooperation and support for survival, declared, “Let us … brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.’ ”

-God is calling us to courageously cast down some idols for the good of our families

I. The Mighty Man of God vv. 11-26

Gideon is living in a terrible spot:

He is under attack, at the hands of an enemy

He is living in fear. All that he does is marked by the dominance of a culture that does not know the Lord

This is true in his own family

This is true of the broader culture as well

Gideon Has a Personal Experience with God

Gives boldness- God is making a big ask of Gideon and it is going to take courage to do it vv. 11-13

Gives power- God is going to proclaim His power over Gideon and give him the strength to take on the task vv. 14-16

Gives clarity- God gives Gideon a very specific calling, to tear down an idol! vv. 25-26

Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped.

Augustine.

What other gods could we have besides the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the Canaanite Baals, those jolly nature gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony, drunkenness, and ritual prostitution. For us there are still the great gods Sex, Shekels, and Stomach (an unholy trinity constituting one god: self), and the other enslaving trio, Pleasure, Possessions, and Position, whose worship is described as "The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Football, the Firm, and Family are also gods for some. Indeed the list of other gods is endless, for anything that anyone allows to run his life becomes his god and the claimants for this prerogative are legion. In the matter of life's basic loyalty, temptation is a many-headed monster.

James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.

II. The Reality of Idols

The Authenticity Idol

“I just want them to be themselves”

This parent cannot say no to anything. They are afraid of how their child will respond to suffering or negativity of any kind

This is a self-indulgent approach to parenting

The Anxiety Idol

“Everything rides on me”

This person is afraid that everything is going to harm their children; they keep their kids way too close and don’t give them the opportunity to fail

If your child never fails, they’ve probably also never really succeeded!

This parent is struggling to believe that God can really care for their child; they draw a line between their child not making the all-star team to a life time of drug abuse! It’s an issue of self-centered thinking

The Apathy Idol

“None of this really matters”

This person is completely passive in their parenting

Frequently they are too self-involved to pay much attention to their kids

The Arrogance Idol

“I can do it all on my own”

This person believes that they have the “secret sauce” of parenting and, as a result, they don’t have to worry about their kids going astray

They have a problem with self-sufficiency

Hideyoshi, a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500s, commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a rage Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. "I put you here at great expense," he shouted, "and you can't even look after your own temple."

III. The Fruit of the Fight

A Community of Support

Joash, Gideon’s father is part of the problem. It’s his idol! However, he will also become a part of the solution

Further, other men from his father’s house join in with casting down the idol and they stand with him against the Midianites

The revolution spreads and many other tribes prepare to do battle v. 35

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Good Courage

Second Samuel 10 records a seemingly impossible impasse for the armies of David. David’s commanding general, Joab, “saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear.” Then he and his brother, Abishai, vowed to support each other and to leave the results in the hands of God. Joab reinforced Abishai with these courageous words:

If the Syrians are too strong for me, than you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good to him (2 Sam. 10:9, 11–12).

A Spiritual Hope

The idols get revealed for what they are: Completely powerless v. 31

The Holy Spirit fights for you v. 34

Gideon:

Sees God’s Word to him fulfilled. He becomes exactly what God promised He would be

Experiences transformation. He becomes Jerubaal, the one who fought against the idol

Changes the lives of a generation

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 112: Courage

Charles Colson, in Loving God, tells the story of Telemachus, a fourth-century Christian.

He lived in a remote village, tending his garden and spending much of his time in prayer. One day he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome, so he obeyed, setting out on foot. Weary weeks later, he arrived in the city at the time of a great festival. The little monk followed the crowd surging down the streets into the Colosseum. He saw the gladiators stand before the emperor and say, “We who are about to die salute you.” Then he realized these men were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowd. He cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!”

As the games began, he pushed his way through the crowd, climbed over the wall, and dropped to the floor of the arena. When the crowd saw this tiny figure rushing to the gladiators and saying, “In the name of Christ, stop!” they thought it was part of the show and began laughing.

When they realized it wasn’t, the laughter turned to anger. As he was pleading with the gladiators to stop, one of them plunged a sword into his body. He fell to the sand. As he was dying, his last words were, “In the name of Christ, stop!”

Then a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at the tiny figure lying there. A hush fell over the Colosseum. Way up in the upper rows, a man stood and made his way to the exit. Others began to follow. In dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum.

The year was B.C. 391, and that was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again in the great stadium did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd, all because of one tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the tumult. One voice—one life—that spoke the truth in God’s name.