Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction.

Gideon is a Bible name and story that is well known.

But did you know that there is a story before the story and a story after the story?

Most often, when we speak of him, it’s really only the middle portion, the highlights of the game if you will.

But there is a story before that and after that!

And if you read your book and read the prestory and the post story, you can learn from Gideon and avoid much heartache and loss.

Pay attention and you can learn: “When to Build and when to Burn!”

Judges 6:1-10, Is where we see the problem and the prophet:

The Problem then the Prophet

The children of Israel had established a pattern.

A cycle in which they would turn from God only to be victimized by the inhabitants of the land who they should have driven out in the first place but didn’t.

Things would get so bad until they cried out to the Lord and he would send them a judge a prophet, a leader, sometimes a man and sometimes a woman.

God would then bless that leader, give them a plan and deliver the people.

Everything would go great for a while until the people would fall back into their sin and the whole cycle began again.

By the time we reach our text, they are on the fourth such cycle!

And like those of us who are being honest, they realize that their own behavior is the source of their problems and their suffering!

The midianites and the Amalakites would come in like locusts!

They waited until Israel gathered their harvest and then the Midianites came in!

The classic bully, the classic thug extortionist.

Waiting till payday to rob you!

Not willing to work at all, but only rob others once the harvest has been brought in!

So bad was it, that when the Midianties came, Israel would flee to dens and caves in the mountains so that they might survive!

Knowing that when they returned, everything would be destroyed!

You can’t fight a horde of enemies without number!!!

The situation was bad!!

But friend, we serve a God who is rich in mercy!

aren’t you glad: Even though our mess is a mess we made ourselves, when you finally get honest and desperate, He still reaches down to you!

And just before your head slips beneath the miry clay, he pulls you up to put your feet on solid ground!

Our God is Mercy!!!

Why don’t we just thank him for that right now!!!!!!

(Give God thanks!)

He loved you when you didn’t love yourself!

The Protagonist

Our narrative began with a problem then came a prophet and now we meet the protagonist:

Gideon!

Judges 6:11–16(KJV 1900)

And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

I know it might sound cowardly, he’s hiding and all that, but notice that Gideon has not run to the mountains like a lot of others have.

He is trying to feed his family.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?

behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

Gideon is in awe of this angelic being!

He then gives the angel his sob story: “Why are we in such bad shape?

Where are the miracles?

Where is God in all this?

The angel does not comment on that.

He could have said: “Get a clue Gideon, this is the fourth cycle where you guys have turned your back on God!”

Perhaps he didn’t becasue the problem was obvious to all and Gideon was just processing outloud.

Whatever the reason, the Angel does not go into the failure of Israel.

He’s not a prophet or a preacher, he is a messenger on a mission!

He tells Gideon: “Go, destroy the bad guys, I’m with you!” (the angel speaking for God.)

In verse 22-35, see see Gideon at his best!

Here is the pre story if you will!

Before the lamps and the torches, before all of that.

A decision had to be made.

Somebody in that hometown and that family of Gideon had to make a choice!!!!!

We are going to serve God!

Judges 6:22–35 (KJV 1900)

And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.

And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

(There comes a time in every life, where you have to build and altar!

And if you will listen, God will even tell you how!)

And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

(The groves were stands of trees where Baal worshippers would hold thier child sacrifices and orgies that they called worship!

God told Gideon to cut them down and burn them!) Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.

And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing?

And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.

Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.

Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.

(This behavior is an example of why God punished the people!

The whole town was caught up in this Baal worship!

And even Gideon’s dad Joash who seems to be a decent sort, seems to have been desensitized over the years, or perhaps even intimidated by the prevailing sin of his age.

Listen, if change is ever going to happen, somebody has to be willing to burn a few things!)

Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.

But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abi-ezer was gathered after him.

And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

To each of us, there comes a time to build and a time to tear down that which was builded!

In the defining moments of his life, Gideon built an altar to God and tore down a false altar that had been status quo!

When Gideon build his altar to God, the BIble tells us that he sacrificed on that altar a seven year old bull!

A fortune!!!

And you say, “ Wait a minute, I thought the Midianites had stolen everything?”

Everything they found!

This bull was hidden!

The bull represented the length of Midianite oppression!

According to the Law (lev 4:13) a bull was to be offered when all Israel had sinned.

That’s exatly what Gideon did!

Then he tore down the false altar to Baal!

He used the trees from the grove where they worshipped Ball to fire his sacrifice!

He did it at night because if the townspeople had seen him tear down their altar, they’d most likely have killed him then and there!

Did you know this was in the BIble?

Did you know that before God can use you, he expects you to build some things and to burn some things?

Next morning, everyone wakes up to see the smoking ruins of their false altar!

And on that altar is the charred remains of a bull, the animal that represented Baal!