You Be the Judge

Gideon

Bible Passage: Jdg 6:1–40, Jdg 7:1–8:28

Summary: In these passages, we see God calling Gideon to rescue Israel from the Midianites, despite Gideon's doubts and insecurities. This illustrates that God equips those He calls, regardless of their perceived qualifications.

Intro:

I’m gonna tell you a true story and you’re gonna think I’m the most spineless guy ever. I was working with a girl who is now my wife. When we were friends, I always had a crush on her. Right from day 1. However, she didn’t seem to like me back. We became friends, laughed, hung out together and it was really fun! I asked her out over text one summer, she shot me down hard.

One thanksgiving I thought to myself, “Maybe she might like me? I wonder if I should ask her out” and when I was considering it, she saw a video of younger me being stupid as usual, and said, “Aww. That’s my best friend”… Ouch. Friendzoned. So I committed myself to the role of friend. After a couple people kept being like “I think you two would make a cute couple!” I was gonna ask her out. I devised a plan. I would ask her privately and only ask her out for a 2 week trial period. No weird committments so that when she shot me down, we could still be friends! Foolproof plan if I do say so myself. I know I’m pathetic. I’m too scared to be like “My fair companion, prithee lend me thine ear, for lo, I must confess: I hath always harbored a secret fondness for thee. Verily, my heart hath skipped many a beat at the sight of thy visage. Methinks Cupid himself hath struck me with his arrow. Pray, might we share a goblet of Starbucks and laugh at the foolishness of mine heart?" (I kinda asked her out that way funny enough) but lo and behold, she accepted! Guys, don’t use me as a success story, I’m pretty sure she only went out with me out of pity.

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You might feel like me (Not just in your love life) at some areas in your life. You feel afraid, you don’t think you have a chance to do something or acheive something you wanna do. Like you’re not qualified enough. We’re gonna look at a story of someone just like that. His name is Gideon.

1. Cry of the Oppressed

Jdg 6:1–10

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.

Israel, Israel, Israel. They never seem to get it do they? You’d think after slavery in Egypt, Judgment in the Wilderness, and multiple cycles of oppression for doing evil, they’d get it through their thick skull that maybe… JUST MAYBE, they should follow the Lord more faithfully? Nope. They know better. Idiots man.

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. 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.”

The Prophet here (A Prophet is someone who spoke God’s will to people. Not just someone who can predict the future) is encouraging Israel that God will deliver them… BUT! They’re in this mess because they haven’t been listening to His voice and are facing the consequences of their own actions.

You ever have these moments? Where you keep doing the same stupid thing over and over and over again? I always tell myself that when I go to Costco and get their $1.50 Hotdogs (May the Lord bless whoever made that decision), “Only order 1. Don’t order 2. Don’t order 2. You hate it when you order 2. You feel sick afterwards.” and guess how many I order? Yup. 2. I’m stupid. I never learn. And everytime I eat the second one, I immediately regret it. Anyways, that’s enough about our bad habits. Let’s get back to the story.

2. Gideon's Divine Appointment

Jdg 6:11–24

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 wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 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.”

The text gives us a bit of insight into the character of Gideon here. Midian had been stealing everything Israel had. So Gideon was processing the wheat (to make bread), in a winepress which if you never seen one, are underground. He’s a coward who’s hiding to make his food. To this coward, an angel comes and is like “Yo! O mighty man of valor!” This is actually hilarious. It’s basically presented as a comedy.

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

The Gen Z Translation literally reads, “Yo my fam mad broke.... I’m the smallest fish in my dad’s crib” (I think that’s funny)

If you’ve read parts of your Bible in the past, there’s another famous character who also started out with excuses. His name was Moses. Moses goes, ‘Dude, I can’t speak. I don’t sound very photosynthesis, find some other dude.’ Gideon is saying, ‘I’m weak, pathetic, and unimportant in society. There’s much better options.’ But he asks for a sign to really confirm if it’s God (other than the fact that a literal angel is standing in front of Gideon. (I don’t know if you ever googled what a biblical angel looks like… It makes sense why they usually start out with the phrase “Don’t be afraid” But let’s see what happens next!

3. Testing and Trusting God

Jdg 6:25–40

Gideon destroys his father’s and communities’ idols and totem poles which was a huge blow to the community. Like if someone destroyed the Broadway Church building.

Gideon brings an offering that God accepts and then makes more excuses. He gets this fleece out (like a blanket) and says, Let only the fleece be wet and ground dry. God does it. Instead of being amazed at this defiance of physics, he asks for the fleece to be dry and the ground wet. God does it. I’m not encouraging to ask God for 37 different signs but It’s okay to doubt and question. God can handle it.

This leads us to our first point.

Point 1: Overcome Fear with Faith

Gideon eventually overcomes his fear with faith once he was sure that God was on his side and wasn’t going to abandon him.

In the late 19th century, a group of women, who had never been allowed to vote, gathered courage to march for their rights. Despite their fears and the risks involved, they held onto their faith that change was possible. Their perseverance led to the eventual passage of laws granting women the right to vote. Their story reminds us that faith can empower us to confront our fears, leading to monumental changes in society, and it all begins with belief in a better future!

So what happens next?

4. Strength in Weakness

Jdg 7:1–14

At this point, Gideon’s name becomes Jerubbaal which literally means ‘Let Baal contend’ which would be a modern equivalent of “1v1 me bro”. God is giving Gideon a name that is literally calling out Baal. He musters an army of 32000 men. Not bad for a coward eh? But God has other plans.

2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

Gideon had 32000 men. Historically, it is believed by scholars that Midian had 135000 soldiers. For a ratio, that means Midian had approximately 4 soldiers for every 1 Israelite. Not good odds. 4 on 1? That’s insane

22000 leave. Now Gideon has only 10000. The ratio from 4:1 is now 13.5:1. That’s even more crazy. You’d have to be the best army in the world to win with odds like those!

4 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

Finally, if that wasn’t enough, God’s like “Nope, still too big.” He dwindles the number down to 300 men. Any Math people in here wanna take a stab at that ratio now? The ratio is now 450:1! 450! Imagine being by yourself and thinking ‘If I wanna pull my weight, I’m gonna have to take out 450 people all at once.’ That’s suicide! Can you see the point that God wants to make here? I’ll let you think about what our second point is in this story before we get to it.

God later sends Gideon into the camp secretely where people begin to worry and Gideon becomes strengthened.

5. Victorious Plan Fulfilled

Jdg 7:15–8:28

So Gideon gets into position, the army each has a trumet, and a torch covered by a jar. They surrounded the much more massive army. Keep in mind their numbers. They take their jars, probably like ‘Welp if God fails… We die’, and they smash them on the ground and blow their trumpets while letting out a war cry, raising their 300 torches.

Something miraculous happened, The army got confused on what was going on, they started freaking out, and they turned on each other, not being able to differentiate between enemy or friend. Gideon’s army just had to watch as they destroyed themselves.

From there, the rest of the Israelite army rallied and defeated them.

Have you had a moment to think about our second point? Our Second Point is...

Point 2: God Uses A Little to Do a Lot

God using a little to do a lot isn’t some new concept in the Bible. There’s a couple moments later in the Old Testament that might begin to make more sense in how God works!

When David faced Goliath, he had no armor, no sword—just a sling and five smooth stones. Most people would think, 'That’s not enough!' Yet, with faith, David used just that little bit to defeat the giant! This story shows us that when we rely on God, our little becomes a lot, and sometimes, all we need is a little faith to change the world around us.

There once was a woman and her son who were starving. They only had a little bit of four and oil to make a little bread. Elijah was instructed by the Lord to ask this widow for a meal! she responds y saying that she was going to use up the little flour for her and her son so that after, they’lll die. This is crazy! Elijah responds by asking them to trust God. So she presented it to Eijah, who took that small amount of flour and oil and it never stopped pouring! They had an abundance of food everyday! This story reminds us that God loves to take our little efforts and do incredible things with them, just as He did with this family’s oil So never underestimate what you can offer to God!

Bringing it Altogether

Some of you here might be familiar with Gideon. If you went to church as a kid, they probably read this story to you (Maybe not as much detail as we did tonight but stil) Now if this is where you remember the story ending, I have some bad news for you. It’s not the end of Gideon. Gideon will actually have a fall from grace, marry a bunch of women, becomes like a king, names his son Abimelech (Which means ‘my father is king’ I know that’s kinda narcissistic) and will lead Israel into the worst form of idol worship they have. Gideon is not a role model to follow. But it just goes to show that the people in the Bible aren’t perfect.

Now what should we take from this story? Obviously we don’t wanna be like Gideon 100% because then we become psychopaths. But we can be inspired from the wins in his life. Obviously, Gideon becomes a lot more confident if he can name his own son “My Father is King”, opposed to his beginning. We see the transformation of a coward to a hero. Someone who was orchestrated by God to do the impossible.

Jesus

This concept of God using a little to do a lot isn’t limited to this story. If you turn to the New Testament, (Which if you wonder why I do this all the time, it’s because the Bible isn’t a collection of stories but a grand story that connects itself over thousands of years. It’s actually fascinating! In the New Testament, Jesus is teaching a crowd of 5000 men (This number doesn’t include women or children), and they start to get hungry. Some little boy comes up with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. A nice lunch for himself. He offers it to Jesus and He takes it and multiplies it, feeding thousands and thousands of people until everyone had enough to eat! If you think this is a one off coincidence, Jesus later does it again with 4000 people! There’s nothing that’s too little for the Lord of the universe! All it takes from you is to be a little courageous and trust in the Lord, believing He’s going to do something that doesn’t make sense!

Conclusion

In school, you might struggle with peer pressure or the fear of standing out. Draw inspiration from Gideon's bravery and the way God empowered him to lead despite his fears. Try starting a Bible study group at lunch or invite friends to a church event. This helps you cultivate your faith while also encouraging others to explore their beliefs, just as Gideon inspired the Israelites. Use social media positively to share your experiences and observations about faith.

In your church community, you may feel like your contributions don't matter or that you're too young to make a difference, much like Gideon initially felt. People often refer to you all as a whole as the ‘future of the church’. Can I use a theological word to describe that? STUPID. You all are the church NOW! You matter just as much as everyone who attends Broadway! So this get involved, volunteer for a ministry you’re passionate about, whether it's in the nursery, youth group, or helping set up events. We’ll be launching our Student Lead program soon, I want to give you the opportunity to do the impossible, to actually make a difference in the lives of people! Wouldn’t that be awesome? For you guys to be the leaders of one of the largest churches in the country/ By taking this step, you show that God can use you at any age. Engage with your peers about their spiritual journeys, as Gideon rallied the people to trust in God’s deliverance, inspiring unity and faith.

Questions

How did Gideon initially respond to the angel's call to lead Israel?

How can Gideon's story encourage you to confront your own fears and insecurities?

How can we learn to trust God when His plans seem impossible or beyond our capabilities?