“Mighty Warrior: The Story of Gideon”
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION.
1 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.
2 The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
3 For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them.
4 So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.
5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.
6 So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.
MESSAGE.
1. God SENDS Oppression.
1. God SENDS Oppression.
(6:1-6)
A. God delivered Israel from Egypt.
A. God delivered Israel from Egypt.
B. Israel sins by worshiping to Baal.
B. Israel sins by worshiping to Baal.
C. Israel attacked by Midianites and Amalekites.
C. Israel attacked by Midianites and Amalekites.
2. God CALLS a deliver.
2. God CALLS a deliver.
(6:11-18)
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
15 He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”
16 But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”
17 So Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me.
18 “Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You.” And He said, “I will remain until you return.”
A. Smallest Tribe.
A. Smallest Tribe.
B. Smallest Family in tribe.
B. Smallest Family in tribe.
C. Smallest child - youngest.
C. Smallest child - youngest.
3. God EMPOWERS a deliver.
3. God EMPOWERS a deliver.
A. God’s Promise to Gideon.
A. God’s Promise to Gideon.
22 When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”
23 The Lord said to him, “Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die.”
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
B. Not Gideon’s power but God’s power.
B. Not Gideon’s power but God’s power.
32,000 Men to many.
2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’
3 “Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.
300
6 Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.
4. God GIVES victory.
4. God GIVES victory.
A. God showed Gideon He had already given him victory.
A. God showed Gideon He had already given him victory.
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
21 Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
22 When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
B. 40 years of Peace.
B. 40 years of Peace.
28 So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads anymore. And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon.
Sequal
33 Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.
34 Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;
35 nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.
CONCLUSION.
Overcoming fear and insecurity.
Overcoming fear and insecurity.
God’s strength in our weakness.
God’s strength in our weakness.
