It’s very tough, the battles we’re in right now. And I feel that the battle is only just
beginning. It reminds me of the times of
Gideon.
It says in Judges 6: 1-3,6, “The Israelites did
evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years
he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so
oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain
clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever
the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other
eastern peoples invaded the country. 6 Midian
so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.”
So things were bad in Israel during this
time. The nation had seen all these
great works of God, and had followed God faithfully, but then over the next few
generations, their children and grand-children had forgotten about God. They
had all their needs met, so they started to do evil, and practice sin. Troubled
times came as a result.
Gideon, this young man, was hiding in a wine
cellar, threshing out his crops, to try to keep them hidden from the
Midianites. So he’s hiding, trying to
keep his crops safe. And a messenger
from God appears to Gideon and declares to him, ““The Lord is
with you, mighty warrior.”
Mighty warrior? He’s hiding in a wine cellar from the
Midianites. He’s not a mighty warrior.
Not yet anyway. And that’s my
first message to you today, God sees what you can be in the future, and indeed
what you will be in the future, if you continue to follow Him faithfully.
I have many flaws, and many struggles in my personal life,
but one gift God has given me, is that I see what people will be in the
future. When I look at you here, I see
what you could be. And I want you to
begin to embrace this idea as well.
Because God sees what we can and will be. Do you see the same? Do you see how different you will be in a
year, or 5 years, if you continue steadfastly following the Lord? God saw Gideon, hiding in a cellar, and saw
the future in him, right at that moment, the potential, the victorious state of
being a mighty warrior of God. God saw
the same in me 8 years ago, when he whispered to me, while I was sick one
morning, before knowing Jesus, he said, “you will be a priest.” And I laughed outloud. I remember I was at my
dads house. But God sees what we can
be. Indeed, what we will be. Believe that God can take you from where you
are now, to a whole new dimension.
That’s what God does.
So Gideon is called a hero. God commissions and sends him to
defeat the Midianites. Gideon asks for a
sign and God gives him a sign. Then from
Judges 6:25-27: 25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take
the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.[b] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal
and cut down the Asherah pole[c] beside it. 26 Then
build a proper kind of[d] altar to the Lord your God on the top
of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the
second[e] bull as a burnt offering.”27 So
Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But
because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night
rather than in the daytime.”
So one of the chief reasons that God was so upset with Israel is
that they were worshipping false gods.
So the first task God gives Gideon is to tear down these false
gods. And Gideon does so.
And the towns people are very upset, they want to kill him, but
his father protects him.
My second point is this: You’ve got to cut down the Asherah pole
and the Baal worship in your life.
Some things in your life have to change, for you to proceed
forward into God’s glorious future for you.
Sometimes we try to march forward into that beautiful future without
cutting down the Asherah pole. We’ve got to start there, by dealing with the sin
and removing it. God helps us to do
this.
Next, Gideon sends word out to gather an army to protect
Israel. He’s planning, he’s setting
goals, and God is with him. So Gideon is
able to gather this massive army of 32,000 men.
So maybe we’ve realized we’re mighty warriors. We start planning.
We start working on our issues. We start to develop new goals and plans and
dreams. We start achieving victories, good jobs, college, service in ministry,
and so on.
So we expect, alright, we’re gonna gather all this strength and
intelligence and ability and conquer our dreams. We’re gonna overcome through our own
strength, our own abilities.
For me, I expected Owosso salvation army to suddenly burst forth
to have like 100 members, 200 members and more.
But God doesn’t work that way.
He says to Gideon, you have a problem Gideon, the problem is your army
is too big. Too big!? That goes against
everything we might think, and everything we would plan to do. We’ve
got all these ideas about what we’re going to do, and how we’re gonna do
it, and where we’re gonna serve and God walks over and throws all that
paperwork off the table, and says no, you’ll do it my way.
Why? Because if we did it this way, with force, and all these huge
numbers, we’d start to think we did it ourselves and become prideful, which is
destruction.
So God gives various instructions, for some of the men to leave if
they are afraid, others to leave if they don’t keep watch well enough, and
eventually Gideon’s army is down from 32,000 to 300.
Judges 6:8-12, 16-23 says, “Now the
camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I
am going to give it into your hands. 10 If
you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying.
Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his
servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The
Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled
in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be
counted than the sand on the seashore.”
“He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up!
The Lord has given the
Midianite camp into your hands.” 16 Dividing the
three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and
empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
17 “Watch
me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do
exactly as I do. 18 When I and all
who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow
yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and
for Gideon.’”
19 Gideon
and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of
the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their
trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The
three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the
torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets
they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 While
each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out
as they fled.
22 When the
three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men
throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army
fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel
Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from
Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued
the Midianites.
So
God worked in a mighty way through Gideon.
And Gideon’s part was to be obedient to God’s commands throughout the
ordeal. We might think God wants us to
balloon like a mega-church or gather great power and defeat the evil one, but
interestingly enough, God’s power is at work in weakness. Because that’s how
God reveals his glory. And we know then, 100%, that it wasn’t us, or our
brilliant ideas, it was the Lord, who granted the victory.
Our
part is to march out, and believe God, and trust God at his word. He calls you a mighty warrior, a hero of the
church. You may not feel that way now, but if you pursue God, and get to work
in your life. You will one day like
Gideon have those victories, and be that hero you dreamed you would one day be.
Dream
brothers and sisters. Dream of the day a year from now, 10 years now, when you
will be all up in shining armor fighting for the Lord, and watch the Lord
declare the victories in your life.
They didn’t even have to fight in the battle. But they did have to be faithful and God gave the victory. May we do the same in our lives as Christians.
