Sermon Tone Analysis
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Scripture
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Judges 1:1-7
Introduction
How many of you got to watch this movie.
What a great piece of acting by Gary Oldham, no?
The movie only covers a few weeks, but what a few weeks they were.
If England had asked for a settlement with Germany can you imagine what would have happened.
There is a scene in the movie where Churchill calls FDR for help and FDR refuses because of the neutrality act.
Of course we did go on to help.
But in that scene I though about the hoarding of resources.
What this movie doesn’t illustrate is that by World War 2 Churchill had become a man of faith.
His great grandson Jonathan Sandys writes about this in his book “God and Churchill.”
In the book the author talks about how Churchill felt he had a divine destiny.
He believed his whole life was a preperation for that moment in history.
In the book the story is told that at 16 Churchill told a friend that “that London would one day be attacked and that he would lead England to victory.”
The co-author, Wallace Henly, comments, "God was intervening through this man in that period of history, So God will intervene in our history.
He will raise up people like that."
This is the same thing God did with the Judges in the Old Testament and we’re going to take a look at Gideon this morning.
Contextual Background
The Book of Judges is written by an unknown author and the time of the composition is unknown.
The book covers the period of time, about 480 years, after the conquest of the land by Joshua to the coronation of Saul.
It was a time of uneasiness, fighting, and idolatry of the Israelites.
The nation was a loose collection of the 12 tribes that were supposed to have God as their King.
A kind of theocracy if you wish.
But even though they recognized God was their King they treated God like an absentee owner.
It says this in:
Judges 17
So we have a process of Israel falling away from God and the consequences of that and then God raising up a Judge to save his people.
In this case we have Gideon, a most unlikely choice.
Gideon, who’e name means hacker or slasher was part of the tribe of Manasseh the clan of Abiezer.
Gideon is visited by an Angel of YHWH in his hometown of Ophra.
The angel recruits Gideon and promises him that YHWH will be with him.
But Gideon calls for a sign.
YHWH then comes to him in person and tells him to destroy the idolatrous sites in his area.
Gideon complies even though reluctant.
And of course this need for assurance leads to the story of the Fleece when God recruits him to fight the Midianites.
The fleece is not a sign of faith.
It is a sign of weakness an indecision.
A sign that Gideon is not entirely sure of himself.
It is a sign of self doubt in the face of trying times.
Here are Gideon’s true colors:
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So we see Gideon is an unlikey character for God to raise up.
Exegesis
So now with that background we can unpack these 7 verses.
Gideon has received the sign of the fleece and recruits an army of 32,000 soldiers and God says that’s too many.
God doesn’t want this army to take credit for the victory.
God wants to make sure all Israel knows it was YHWH as warrior God that wins the victory.
So he begins to “thin them out” as the NIV says.
Poor translation though because the Hebrew uses language of metallurgy, god is really removing the dross if you will, or even better he’s smelting.
He first tells Gideon to let those that are afraid to go home (technically Gideon should have been one of these.)
Believe it or not this is actually a Jewish law.
if somone is going to desert or break rank it would be better for them to leave now instead of doing it in battle.
Here’s the law from Deuteronomy
So, the troops were reduced by 22K.
That left 12K.
But God is not finished, now he tells Gideon to separate the lappers from the kneelers.
This leaves 300.
300 to counter 125,000.
Sounds a little like Dunkirk 330,000 versus 800,000.
Dunkirk was a miracle , but so was this battle of Gideons.
He defeated 125, 000 with 300.
Now, let’s go back to Churchill.
The man chosen by God has the weight of the world on him 330,000 men are trapped on the beaches.
His government is falling apart because of his political foes that want to sue for peace.
He is afraid, and full of self doubt.
You can imagine, he saw himself as destined for this and it looks like he’s failing and the British will soon be speaking German.
A swastika to soon fly over Buckingham Palace.
Let’s take a look at this video.
Video
Application
Churchill from a teenager felt he was destined to lead England out of a dark hour was at his wits end.
The support of the King and later a ride on the London subway convinced him that God was with him, maybe it was his fleece?
Just days after this he gave his famous we shall fight them on the beaches speech.
Churchill was probably not as an unusual character as Gideon, but he wasn’t perfect.
He drank far too much, he had a volatile temper and had made scores of political enemies during his career.
Yet God used him in a pivotal point in history.
God raised up Gideon and God raised up Churchill.
And according to his great grandson, it was his faith in God that got him thorough it.
Sandy’s says, "Unlike Adolph Hitler, great grandpapa directed the hope of the people toward God.
Whenever he used God or used a Bible quote within a speech, it was always to push people's hopes toward God."
At one time Montgomery, a commited Christian asked Churchill,, “"'What do you think about Jesus Christ?'
And Churchill said, 'Jesus Christ was unsurpassed in his capacity to save sinners.'
Those were his words.
We quote them in the book," Henley said.
So what can we learn here from Gideon and Churchill?
Well first sometime we need all our confidence stripped away before we really can serve God.
We have to realize there is nothing we do on our own.
God was convincing the Israelites of that by smelting Gideon’s army.
Churchill too realized it was all God’s doing.
Sometimes God has to expose our fear and lack of trust in him.
He has to break down our egos so it all becomes about him.
Aren’t we the same?
Aren’t we all a little afraid to risk everything for God? That’s why Churchill was having second thoughts about peace.
He risked a whole nation to defeat evil.
Many were for peace at all costs because they felt the risk was too much especially after the number of young men killed during WW1.
When Churchill met with the King in that shabby room at 10 Downing Street he felt all alone .
Don’t we sometimes?
Isn’t that human when it seems we are up against unsurmountable odds?
Does God want to use you in some way? it could be mentoring a child, teaching Sunday School, or give more money than you thought possible.
But we are timid, can God really use us?
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