Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Probably along with Samson Gideon is the most familiar character in the book of Judges.

3 chapters and 100 verses are devoted to Gideon and 4 chapters 96 verses to Samson.

This time, God “gave them into the hands of the Midianites” (v1). It is the worst oppression yet - Israelites are forced to leave their homes and “[prepare] shelters for themselves” in the inaccessible mountain ranges (v2).

The Midianites were not interested in Political control but rather economic exploitation and complete domination. They did not spare a living thing for Israel (v 4) - the people were starving and the land was ravaged (v 5). Eventually, “Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord” (v 6).

Their tactics were very different from those used by the Canaanites (described in the previous chapters); instead of invasion and conquest they chose to use a form of terrorism. The Israelites would be allowed to attend to their crops and maintain their livestock. And just at the crucial time, when the crops were ready to harvest and their livestock had become strong and healthy, the Midianites would launch an attack (see vv. 2–5).

The scope of their reign of terror expanded when they made an alliance with the Amalekites and ‘other eastern peoples’ (v. 3). The Amalekites had attacked the people of Israel when they first left Egypt (see Exod. 17:8–16). And ‘other eastern peoples’ is a general description of people who came from the desert region to the east of the Promised Land.

NOTE: Have you noticed yet that things have to get into a desperate state of things before the Israelites, cry out to God. Now we expect God to get us out of the desperate situation that we find our-self.

Big Idea: God chooses weak people to do mighty things for the glory of God.

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Calorie Labels Don't Change Eating Habits

In November 2014, the Food and Drug Administration released its rule for calorie counts on chain restaurants. The final rule is pretty tough: it even requires movie theaters, pizza chains, and grocery stores to include calorie counts on their products. The premise of calorie counts on food items is obvious: If a person sees that the hamburger has 800 calories and the chicken only has 500, maybe that person will choose the chicken.

Most Americans like this idea. Nearly 75 percent of Americans support menu labeling. After New York required labels in 2008, 84 percent of residents said they found the labels helpful, and 93 percent of people in a public health clinic sample saw menu labeling as important. A majority of Americans also said they would choose lower-calorie food items if they had more information at their disposal.

Unfortunately, there's one big problem with food labeling: it doesn't seem to change what we eat. Researchers reviewed 31 studies published between January 2007 and July 2013 that explored how calorie labeling influenced consumer choices at cafes and restaurants. One of the researchers concluded the results of this review: "The best designed studies show that calorie labels do not have the desired effect in reducing total calories ordered at the population level."

APPLICATION: Just like putting calories on the products we eat do not necessarily change our eating habits, many times with us true change doesn’t happen just by knowing or acknowledging the sin.

6:7-10

1.Real change takes place when we experience Godly Sorrow.

WHAT IS GODLY SORROW?

Quote:

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C. S. Lewis, from the sermon "The Weight of Glory"

1st Reply by God was not to send a Savior, but to give them a Sermon!

Here God does the strangest thing; in fact, it appears ludicrous. Israel cries out for relief, ‘and Yaweh sent a prophet to the sons of Israel.

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This would be like a stranded motorist calling a garage for assistance and instead of sending a mechanic they send you a philosopher.

Why did the Lord send a Sermon first? So that they will appreciate the rescuing.

NOTE: The prophet comes and tells them why they are in the situation that they find themselves. God wants them to understand where their idolatry has gotten them.

God sends the prophet to convict the people of sin before he sends the Savior God sends the prophet to point the difference between Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

2 Corinthians 7:10

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Both are characterized by very deep sorrow and distress. But they are completely different. First, “worldly” sorrow or regret does not produce any real change, while repentance does.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORLDLY REGRET AND REAL REPENTANCE

WORLDLY REGRET: is sorrow over the consequences of a sin, but not over the sin itself. If there had been no consequences, there would have been no sorrow. There is no sorrow over how it grieves God, how it violates and rapes us of our relationship with God.

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Anthony Bourdain Reflects On Battling Hedonism

Celebrity chef, writer, and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who wore a tattoo on his arm that read in ancient Greek, "I am certain of nothing," committed suicide on June 8, 2018, at the age of 61. In an interview for Men's Journal from 2014, Bourdain was asked: What are the benefits of hedonism, and what are the risks?

Bourdain replied, "Look, I understand that inside me there is a greedy, gluttonous, lazy, hippie—you know? I understand that. … there's a guy inside me who wants to lay in bed, and smoke weed all day, and watch cartoons, and old movies. I could easily do that.

When asked: How should a man handle regret? And what's your biggest regret?

Bourdain replied, "Regret is something you've got to just live with, you can't drink it away. You can't run away from it. You can't trick yourself out of it. You've just got to own it. I've disappointed and hurt people in my life, and that's just something I'm going to have to live with. … You eat that guilt and you live with it. And you own it. You own it for life."

As soon as the consequences go away, the behavior returns.

REAL REPENTANCE: After real repentance and restoration to God, we do not hate ourselves, and we do not hate our lives.

NOTE: Regret is all about us: How I am hurting, how my life is ruined, how my heart is breaking - Repentance is all about God: How he has been grieved, how his nature has been violated and trampled on.

What must we learn from this?

We must first check what we are sorry about: the consequences of the sin in our lives, or the sin itself; the loss of the pleasure an idol offered, or the damage to our relationships with God. Here are two implications.

We must listen to God’s word.

Note: if Someone comes to me and is struggling with falling back into sin over and over again. I will bet, if I ask how much time they spend in the word it would tell the whole story of the their failure to overcome sin in their lives.

We need to discern the difference between normal lapses and getting stuck.

The road to Christian maturity is going to go through ups and downs, getting stuck is a repeated pattern of sin, which is a sign of no progress. If you are continually falling into the same pit, and your falls are not decreasing in numbers or intensity, then you may be responding in regret rather than repentance.

NOTE: you may be regretful of the sin or the idol under the sin which is still attractive to you. The big problem here is that we often cannot get a good perspective on our hearts all by ourselves.

Many people who are making progress fell they are not, and many people who are not making progress are in denial about it.

NOTE: This is why all Christians need accountability, you need several strong Christians around you who can help us tell the difference. Call us out when we need to be called out about the sin in our lives.

2.Real Change takes place when we see Grace before Repentance.

6:11 Does not tell us that the response of the people was to tear down their idols and burn the false God’s.

God does not wait for us to repent before he begins to save us.

Romans 5:8

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 1:4-5

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

God does not begin to save us because we repent.

GOD IS BOTH MORE HOLY AND MORE MERCIFUL THAN WE ARE

God will never compromise His Holiness or His Grace....

Cultural Note: We tend to sacrifice one for the other. God would never accept me or them after doing that or God is pure love and accepts everyone no matter what. In our day to day life we tend to run back and forth between the two.

The two hold together in perfect unity as the standards and his endless compassion is to grasp more deeply the cross of christ, where the two meet.

The fundamental failure of the Israelites was their forgetfulness of the implications of the covenant-relationship, the God who had done great things for them required loyal obedience, which they failed to give.

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When grace introduces us to repentance, the two of us become best friends. When anything else introduces us to repentance, it feels like the warden has come to lock us up. But when grace gets involved, the truths of repentance reveal a fabulous world of life-freeing beauty.

3.Real Change takes place when we are weak and He is strong.

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In the beginning of the movie Spider-Man, Peter Parker undergoes a transformation. Bitten by a spider that's been subjected to genetic experimentation, Peter develops superpowers. Beneath his lycra union suit beats the heart of a hero who nightly swings between the skyscrapers, looking for some endangered soul to rescue.

One evening he rescues M.J. a woman who secretly loves him from a would be mugging. Latter Peter meets up with M.J. to discuss her experience with the mysterious hero.

Peter searches for the right words; "I said, um, 'Spider-Man,' I said, 'the great thing about M.J. is when you look in her eyes, and she looks back in yours, everything feels not quite normal, because you feel strong—and weak at the same time. You feel excited, and at the same time terrified. The truth is you don't know the way you feel, except you know the kind of man you want to be. It's as if you've reached the unreachable, and you weren't ready for it.'"

What Peter describes is the same phenomenon we experience when we come to know Jesus Christ. Looking at the God-Man, we feel weak, but he makes us strong; we are terrified, and at the same time more exhilarated than we've ever been in our lives; and in him we see the person we want to become.

We live in a world full of people struggling to be, or at lest to appear, strong in order not to be weak; and we follow a gospel which says that when I am weak, then I am strong. And this gospel is the only thing that brings healing.

6:11-24

The angel greets Gideon with these words. “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of Valor.” (6:12)

I’m sure Gideon did not feel anything like a man of valor. Israelite farmers are no longer free to winnow their wheat in the open air, where the breeze can catch it and separate chaff from grain. For seven years it has been that way. For fear of marauding Midianites, Gideon has taken his wheat into the winepress, a hollow in the ground, to winnow it, and as he crouches there the sudden voice must make him jump out of his skin. Who is the stranger siting under the oak? And more to the point, what is he saying.

If God is with us, Why?

God Says:

You are the Salvation I am sending. You are my mighty warrior. You are the Moses for this generation of people.

2 Different understandings of Israels Problems and Gideon’s Ability.

1. We see our troubles as evidence that God has left us. (instead of asking how God is working in and through us for our Good.)

2. We are waiting for God to do something to us or for us. (we are simply saying Lord, why don’t you remove our problem.)

God doesn’t judge a book by it’s cover.

To judge by appearances Gideon is anything by a ‘mighty man of valor’. Gideon needs only to have his natural courage coaxed out into the open. God doesn’t look at the outside of a person to decide who he will use for his greater purposes. The angels message was not where Gideon was right at that moment, but where by God’s grace and power Gideon will eventually end up.

2 Reasons that Gideon should be confident in what God will make him in the future.

Gideon represents Israel. The Parallel between Gideon and Moses

Just as Israel has been brought very low (6:6) so Gideon really is the least member of the weakest tribe (6:15). The central theme of these chapters is that God will work out his purposes in those who truly are helpless.

NOTE: notice how his courage grows so gradually; the angel is speaking prophetically about what God intends to make of him.

God is perfecting His strength in our weakness.

Remember that Moses was hiding out after fleeing his murder off an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite slave. Moses was also reluctant to believe that God could use him for such a monumental task.

NOTE: Just like with Moses/God and Barak/Deborah, Gideon’s valor is not in himself but in what God is going to make of him.

4.Real change takes place when we recognize the enemy in our camp.

The enemy among us. (6:25-32)

The Lord had given them into the hand of Midian. The foe for Israel has been brought about by God, and is, as we have seen, a foe of a new kind. The sin inside of man is man’s doing. The God’s have not changed, for our human nature has not changed, and these are the gods of humanity.

So the life of Ophrah revolves around these Baals. We put our money into this one, and vote for that one, and spend all our free time on the other one, expecting worldly benefits to be produced by human efforts.

WE HAVE BROUGHT THE ENEMY INTO OUR CAMP

NOTE: We, God’s people, do know the Lord, but how much of the world around us has crept among us! It seems to have taken over out thinking ins such a way that we can hardly see how we can live without it.

STEPS TOWARD OBEDIENCE

First, we are called to stand up against the enemy

So we—that is, Gideon—have taken the first step of obedience, and thereby our faith is confirmed. Our God is the real God.

The enemy around us. (6:33-35)

So, once the enemy among us has been dealt with, the enemy around us must be looked to. The first was the subtle influence of Canaanite thinking; the second is the more obvious evil of Midianite action.

First, the enemy is not only allowed but brought by God. Second, we are called to stand up against the enemy too.

6:33 “Now the latest invasion party arrives”.

Second: We are called to stand for what is right.

The enemy within us. (6:34-40)

Even now the weakness of our own character remains within us. This reveals itself in our doubts and fears. What do we do with doubts and fears when the come.

6:33-35 - Gideon Rallies the fighting men.

“But the spirit clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet..............”

Gideon showed his resourcefulness and metal as a leader, even while still fighting the enemy withing which is doubt and fear.

6:36-40 Gideon seeks reassurance by putting out a fleece.

It was common practice in the ancient world to seek last-minute confirmation of divine support before a battle was joined (cf. 1 Ki. 22:6–28). But given the assurances Gideon had already received, his action was more an expression of unbelief than of faith, as Gideon himself virtually admitted by his opening words, ‘If you will save Israel … as you have promised …’ (36). Cf. also v 39: ‘Do not be angry with me …’.

God’s positive response to Gideon’s repeated experiment with the fleece was a gracious concession to his weak faith rather than an indication that God was pleased with him for seeking reassurance in this way.

NOTE: Similar actions by Christians today should not be necessary, but God in his mercy sometimes responds to such calls for reassurance..

Note. 39 Making the fleece dry was a greater miracle, since, supposing dew fell on both, the hard floor would ordinarily dry more quickly than the fleece.

Should we test God?

We must be careful, remember when Satan asked Jesus to “test” God by asking for a “sign,” Jesus rebuked him. So what is going on here?

Gideon was very specific in his request.

Gideon was seeking to understand the nature of God.

Gideon’s request was for the purpose of building up his faith.

When we find ourselves like Gideon doubting God’s promises, or God’s presence we can ask him to point us again to His Son, saying: “I do believe help my unbelief.”

CLOSING

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Most of us long for a place somewhere between make believe and reality. If you have ever been to Disney World or Disney Land it is a place that is said to make your dreams come true. It’s a place of fantasy and make believe that has no discriminator of age. You can imagine yourself in the places and characters that you visit at Disneyland.

Somewhere in each of us there is a desire for such a place of imagination. In God’s kingdom you and I were created to reflect the image of the invisible God to the world. God did not choose someone else to express his creative presence he chose you and me. We are the means, the method, the object, and the delivery system. God can use anyone, for sure. It doesn’t matter if you have the greatest beauty, or are the most talented at shredding on a guitar, or you have the most pleasing personality, God chooses ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary things for the Glory of God.

Gideon was one such individual in the Bible among many more, that God uses to point to the Amazing Grace of the Cross of Christ.

Closing Questions

Are you daily experiencing Godly sorrow over your sin?

Is the grace of God daily becoming real for you leading to repentance?

Are you currently experiencing God’s power in your weakness?

Are you daily identifying the enemy among you, around you, and inside of your camp.

“My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do for you, my God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God cannot do for you. The mountains are his the rivers are His the stars are his handiwork to, my God is so Big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God cannot do, for you.”