Gideon Pt 2

Intro

In the story of Gideon we read of how God uses us even in our weakness and failures. This is often the story we hear anyways. But we forget about the parts sometimes where Gideon had to be reminded so many times that God is who He said He is and would do what He already said He was going to do. In the second part of the story we continue on with this same theme God wanted to show Him the path of obedience in Him, That through obedience we realize that God brings us to a place of stripped away confidence where we sit in humble adoration of Him knowing that It is God at work in us, not anything that we can do.

Nick Vujicic,

born in Melbourne, Australia, on December 4, 1982, was born without arms and legs due to a rare disorder called tetra-amelia syndrome. Despite facing numerous challenges, Vujicic has become a renowned motivational speaker and evangelist, sharing his powerful testimony of faith and hope around the world. Vujicic's journey has not been easy. At the age of 10, he attempted to take his own life by trying to drown himself in a bathtub filled with only six inches of water.9 However, he survived and later came to understand that his hopelessness stemmed from listening to the world rather than God's word. This realization marked a turning point in his life. Vujicic credits his parents for instilling a strong work ethic in him from a young age. They taught him to earn his own money, which led him to start vacuuming the house weekly at the age of six.4 This upbringing, along with his faith, has been instrumental in his ability to overcome his physical limitations and pursue his dreams. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting and has since dedicated his life to sharing his testimony and encouraging others to find hope in their struggles. Vujicic believes that everyone is disabled in some way and that walking by faith and not by sight can lead to a fulfilling life. Today, Vujicic travels extensively, sharing his message of faith and hope in over 19 nations. He has reached millions of people and continues to inspire others to trust in God's plan for their lives.

Obedience to God brings victory, but victory for His glory not our own. and in this victory we learn that It is God at work in our weakness that is important. He wants us to know that in ourselves we will fail. Through the life of Gideon we learn more about this.

The Narrative

We will be working through Judges ch 7-8 today.

God reduces Gideon’s Army - 7:1-8

We meet Baal will deal with him or as we like to call him Gideon. remember all the times that Gideon failed to trust by faith in what God was going to do threw him. He constantly asked for signs from God. So we meet Gideon preparing a vast army to go take on the Midianites.

Gideon starts out with a respectable 32000 soldiers. The crazy part is that God says that he had to many soldiers. My reaction probably would have been like, umm no sorry I don't think we have to many soldiers thanks. But God’s plans are not always understandable, we are called to follow though in obedience. They where told that 32000 is to many people, because Israel might think they had a hand in what God had done. God wanted them to know for sure that it was God at work in them not anything that He had done.

We start out with all the scared people being told they could leave. 22000 people left. Imagine that. They where just reminded of all God had done for them, Gideon told them they where being called by God to get rid of the Midianite’s and even in the face of that the majority of them where scared.

We are too scared to follow the will of God sometimes as well. How often are we with fear and trembling following the will of God. We do not know, we do not understand maybe we are scared but in obedience we follow.

Even with most of the troops now gone, God told Gideon there where still to many. So God continued to thin out the heard by choosing. There is really no significance I believe in the way that they drank the water, just the way that God chose to work through. What I am trying to say is that this is not prescriptive of how God always works but descriptive of How God choose to work in this instance. So based on how the rest of the troops drank from the stream. 300 men they where left with to fight the midianites.

I wonder if this is where the story of the 300 Spartans came from. 300 soldiers taking on a vast army all by themselves. Though this story, though it is 2500 years old, is still not as old as the true story of Gideon and his 300.

The first thing we see running through this narrative is Obedience to God and His use of our weakness to show His glory.

We need to understand that though the victory that we achieve is for the glory of God the victory is only through obedience to God and realizing that we are weak, we cant do it on our own. In our weakness the Lord God is strong for then it leaves people beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the Lord at work in us. Keep this in mind as we keep going.

Gideon spies on the enemies - 7:9-15

God knew Gideon, knew what was going through Gideon’s head and knew how fearful the man was. Even after all the Lord had done, all the signs Gideon was still afraid. I mean I understand having to face the enemies with 300 people but it is not like he didn't have the signs from God.

God gave Gideon a choice Go attack the enemies, or if you are still afraid go and see what they are saying about you. He snuck up on the camp (He chose to seek for one more sign) He was weak but the Lord in His mercy is the strength that we end.

what He heard was this

Judges 7:13–14 CSB

13 When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Listen, I had a dream: a loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp, struck a tent, and it fell. The loaf turned the tent upside down so that it collapsed.” 14 His friend answered, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed the entire Midianite camp over to him.”

The Midianites where scared! And finally Gideon got the point he finally figured it out.

God wins the battle 7:16-8:3

We probably all know the rest of the battle. Gideon splits up the army into 3 groups of 100 people. They lit a torch and covered it with a pot grabbed a horn and split off into their 3 groups. It was the middle of the night Gideon shouted and blew his trumpet and every other group did the same thing and shouted “a sword for the Lord and for Gideon”. Being the middle of the night and waking everyone up from sleep seeing all the lights and the shouting and trumpets echoing across the valley would have been a thing to behold.

The prank at millar when the lower chalet started the fog machine and strobe light and played the loud music. Had to open my door a few times to make sure I was actually awake.

The Lord caused the army to turn on each other and Gideon and His army won the war.

In my hall at Millar though I was disoriented we didn't suddenly start fighting each other. And though what Gideon had done though it would have petrified the army, it was an interesting tactic it would not have in itself caused the Midianites to go crazy like they did. That was the work of God alone. though the faith of Gideon did play a part, as scared as he was through it all. Remember our success in this life as we walk in obedience to the will of God comes from God alone for the Glory of God alone.

The next thing we learn in this is that It is the word of God, His special revelation to us that enables us to have faith in Him If we lack faith we need to ask ourselves if we have a relationship with Him. We need to seek the word of God in our lives if we want to learn what it means to have faith and walk with God. We have no need to seek elsewhere for signs and wonders but go to God in prayer and seek His word.

The Ephod - 8:22-35

The next part of the passage that I want to focus on is kind of sad. The beginning of ch 8 deals with Gideon and the Israelite's routing the rest of the Mideonites as the Lord had said they would.

The Israelite's saw what God had done through Gideon and it seems they missed the part where it was God working through Gideon. They wanted him to rule over them because they thought it was he that delivered them from Mideon.

Instead of Acquiescing to the demands of the people to have him and his kids rule over them he got them to give Him a bunch of gold. He ended up with close to 50 lbs of Gold. He made an ephod with all the gold and stuff he gathered from the people.

An Ephod is a sleeveless garnet worn by Israelite priests at the time. we do not know exactly what it is though that he made. some people say it was an idol. The picture I found is what it possibly was. Though interesting it is not the main point of the passage here. Gideon and the rest of the Israelite's gave themselves over to this new idol, whatever it was. The word used here is prostituted.

The Israelite's forgot God soon after, they kept worshiping other gods.

They failed again and again. it didn't seem to matter how badly they screwed up, when they turned to the Lord to seek forgiveness God forgave them for all that they had done. We can remember that we sometimes fail, we do not always do what the Lord has called us to do. We sometimes fall to sin but even in our failure, when we turn back to God in repentance He is faithful to forgive.

So What?

Why do we go through these stories? what can we learn from the life of the israelites and what they have gone through. We can learn from those mistakes But we look at these historical accounts and often we put ourselves in the wrong place in them. Like the story of David and Goliath. We are told that like David we can slay the giants in out lives with the help of God. We can be like David. But a more accurate depiction is that Jesus is David, He is the one who has slain our sins for us, we are the cowardly Israelite's cowering in the corner. We need to remember who we are and who God is.

We are told in the NT that blessed are the meek, Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the peace makers. This flys in the face of what the world tells us, that we are supposed to be meek and humble and point others to Jesus at the expense of our own lives.

In our weakness God is glorified

Judges/Ruth, Revised Edition God’s Sovereignty

God must bring his servants to a moment when all human confidence is stripped away, when they sit silently in humble adoration of this God as the one who is totally sufficient against all odds to accomplish his divine will. Then and only then are they ready to move forward to taste God’s victory.

God used Gideon in His fear and cowardice. But even then He had to bring Gideon to the place where he had no choice but to trust in God and step out in Faith. God sometimes needs to brings us to the place where all else is stripped away and we have no choice but to trust in Him.

What Gopd calls for is obedience to Him. Knowing that it is God at work in us that makes us strong. Gideon had to be brought to the place where he would either reject God or trust in Him. So the question then is where are we at, do we realize that we have nothing to offer God but all that we are? This is the right place to be knowing that in our weakness God is made strong. When people ee in us that it is only through God that we do the things that we do.

Faith comes from a Relationship with God.

To trust in the strength of God in the midst of our weakness is no easy feet. I would say that without faith it is impossible to accomplish.

Judges/Ruth, Revised Edition Engendering Faith

It is extremely hard to trust someone that you misunderstand or are misinformed about. Gideon’s ignorance about the word of God was a strong factor in his inability to trust Yahweh, for he had misconceptions about Yahweh and misunderstood the very nature and character of God. If we do not inculcate the word of God in our lives (

God grants us forgiveness even in our failure.

But even as we grow, even as we strive to walk with God sometimes we fail. Look at Gideon, God used him in his weakness and did many great things through Him but even through that he still lacked faith and failed. and if that rings true with you then you must turn back to God before it is to late. God is a God of forgiveness and patience, but it will not last forever.

Maybe God wants to use us in some way. Maybe it is to teach a Sunday School class, or lead youth Group, or sing in church but you are timid, maybe a little scared, or maybe even wonder if God can use us at all. Maybe we want to demand evidence from God that He will really uses use. But He calls us to step out in faith in our insecurities and trust in Him t use us for His glory.