Sermon Sunday...But on Monday.

Yesterday was a busy day! So busy that I totally forgot to share this week's sermon Sunday post! So, even though it's Monday, here it is. This post is the third in a series of sermons I have been preaching at church through the book of Judges.

As I read through the passage of scripture 3, 4 times, reading 3 different plans in the Bible app about this Judge and more, I actually found myself greatly identifying with this part of Gideon’s life. It’s so easy for me to see how God is leading me and for me, but I still question my life, I still doubt my call, I still doubt my ability to rely on Him enough to believe that I am right where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing for this precise moment. I can’t help but think this is what Gideon was doing. Many will say he doubted God. Maybe he did. But I think really it was more like Gideon doubted himself, which in turn is doubting God’s ability, I guess. Gideon just wanted to know in his knower that he was following God’s plan. And as you’ll see God doesn’t punish him for this.

Judges 6:33-7:25

Christian Standard Bible

The Sign of the Fleece

33 All the Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the east gathered together, crossed over the Jordan, and camped in the Jezreel Valley.

34 The Spirit of the Lord enveloped Gideon, and he blew the ram’s horn and the Abiezrites rallied behind him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all of Manasseh, who rallied behind him. He also sent messengers throughout Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who also came to meet him.

Can we just start this off right here? If something is enveloped, it is wrapped, covered, surrounded completely. Gideon was 100%, completely and utterly, wrapped up in the Spirit of God. Like, covered, smothered, not a single part of Gideon showing, all the way covered up! Imagine if you could picture that in the physical! Can you imagine being completely and utterly covered in the Spirit of God?

Friends, God equips us for what He calls us to. He gives us what we need through His Spirit for the work that is ahead of us. We don’t have to worry!

Next we see Gideon’s self-doubt rise up and he calls on God for confirmation and affirmation, not once, but twice. I am glad God doesn’t respond the way I would with my kids! Honestly, most of the time I don’t mind explaining things so that my kids have an understanding of what I am telling or asking them to do. Sometimes, though, it’s just a matter of asked and answered. You asked. I answered. That’s it. But God doesn’t at all respond this way! He takes Gideon’s request and responds with what Gideon needed to move on.

36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will deliver Israel by me, as you said, 37 I will put a wool fleece here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that you will deliver Israel by me, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water.

39 Gideon then said to God, “Don’t be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground.” 40 That night God did as Gideon requested: only the fleece was dry, and dew was all over the ground.

The request was for God to interrupt the natural order of things which, hello, is pretty much a miracle. We see a similar request in Mark 9:22-24. A man had come to Jesus for a miracle for his son who was demon possessed. He tells Jesus the whole story and then says, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

God can handle your questions and doubts. It’s when you don’t allow Him into those questions and doubts that things get rough. Take it to Him and watch what He will do.

I can’t shake this song from Cross Point church in Nashville, TN. It reminds me of this. “Bring your shadows and every shackle. And lay them all down, lay them all down at the empty tomb. Bring your stresses and every question. Lay them all down, lay them all down at the empty tomb. Watch what He will do! Watch what He will do! If He conquered the grave then there’s nothing too great! Watch what He will do. Oh just watch what He will do. . .You better get ready for a miracle. You better get ready for the joy. You better get ready for revival. Cause it’s coming, oh it’s coming! Oh just watch what He will do! Watch what He will do! If He conquered the grave then there’s nothing too great! Watch what He will do. Just watch what He will do!” (Watch What He Will Do, Cross Point Worship)

If we’ll turn it all over to Him, our doubts, our questions, our hopes, our fears, our will…oh just watch what He’ll do.

God Selects Gideon’s Army

7 Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops who were with him, got up early and camped beside the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them, below the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many troops for me to hand the Midianites over to them, or else Israel might elevate themselves over me and say, ‘I saved myself.’ 3 Now announce to the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the troops turned back, but ten thousand remained.

God issued a test of faith and trust. There is no way God is going to share the glory with anyone and He knew that if Gideon marched in with army he had, it would be too easy for the men to take credit for the victory rather than honoring and worshiping God for the promised outcome. So He tells Gideon to send home anyone who has doubts or fears. 22,000 men left and only 10,000 remained. From 32,000 to 10,000 in a moment. Still, God saw too many.

4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many troops. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one can go with you,’ he can go. But if I say about anyone, ‘This one cannot go with you,’ he cannot go.” 5 So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate everyone who laps water with his tongue like a dog. Do the same with everyone who kneels to drink.” 6 The number of those who lapped with their hands to their mouths was three hundred men, and all the rest of the troops knelt to drink water. 7 The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the three hundred men who lapped and hand the Midianites over to you. But everyone else is to go home.” 8 So Gideon sent all the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred troops, who took the provisions and their ram’s horns. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

FROM 32,000 TO 300! Don’t you know he was saying, “God…what?!?!” The men grabbed all the provisions and readied themselves. 300 men who trusted God! Not only does God equip but He empowers!

I read an interesting thought on this…you know, dogs are always alert. The purpose of using the men who lapped their water like dogs was because they were always alert, aware of their surroundings. In all the times I read this I never once considered that! How many of us know that God doesn’t always operate in what we would call convenience? It’s the middle of the night and God says, “Wake up! It’s time.”

Gideon Spies on the Midianite Camp

9 That night the Lord said to him, “Get up and attack the camp, for I have handed it over to you. 10 But if you are afraid to attack the camp, go down with Purah your servant. 11 Listen to what they say, and then you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the troops who were in the camp.

Oh friends. This is what I love. God equips, empowers and encourages! He knows that Gideon struggles with doubting himself and what God is leading him to do. He doesn’t make him feel awful about but instead, in His grace and mercy, provides an opportunity for Gideon to know that God is with them. The thing is, if Gideon had not obeyed and gone to the camp, I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different. Listen, God is the One who brings our victory but we have to take obedient steps of faith toward and into the battle.

12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the people of the east had settled down in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 13 When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Listen, I had a dream: a loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp, struck a tent, and it fell. The loaf turned the tent upside down so that it collapsed.”

14 His friend answered, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed the entire Midianite camp over to him.”

The revelation, confirmation and affirmation of Gideon’s assured victory could only come through the power of God and it was all Gideon needed.

Gideon Attacks the Midianites

15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship.

Isn’t this everything? The only way to respond to what Gideon heard was straight up worship! He bowed to his knees and worshiped! Don’t you wonder what that sounded like?

He returned to Israel’s camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord has handed the Midianite camp over to you.” 16 Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave each of the men a ram’s horn in one hand and an empty pitcher with a torch inside it in the other hand.

Strategy. Divide and conquer! From 32,000 to 10,000 to 300 and then groups of 100. Just because God says it’s so doesn’t mean we don’t have an active role to play in the process.

17 “Watch me,” he said to them, “and do what I do. When I come to the outpost of the camp, do as I do. (leadership) 18 When I and everyone with me blow our ram’s horns, you are also to blow your ram’s horns all around the camp. Then you will say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

Here comes the execution of the plan and there are immediate results!

19 Gideon and the hundred men who were with him went to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch after the sentries had been stationed. They blew their ram’s horns and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew their ram’s horns and shattered their pitchers. They held their torches in their left hands and their ram’s horns to blow in their right hands, and they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Each Israelite took his position around the camp, and the entire Midianite army began to run, and they cried out as they fled. 22 When Gideon’s men blew their three hundred ram’s horns, the Lord caused the men in the whole army to turn on each other with their swords. They fled to Acacia House in the direction of Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. 23 Then the men of Israel were called from Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh, and they pursued the Midianites.

Just the simple obedience of the men to blow their trumpets and God did what He promised and brought the Midianites down. No, they turned on each other and the men of Israel pursue and capture.

The Men of Ephraim Join the Battle

24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim with this message: “Come down to intercept the Midianites and take control of the watercourses ahead of them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they took control of the watercourses as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. 25 They captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, while they were pursuing the Midianites. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.

Conclusion

Judges 6:12 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.”

The Hebrew translation is literally, “mighty man of valor.” It is the same terminology used in 1 Chronicles 11 to describe David’s mighty men.

Gideon was a doubter, a questioner, small in status and stature. The transformation through the Spirit’s empowerment brought Gideon to become a confident, bold, leader who fully trusted in God’s plan and a warrior!

Priscilla Shirer has a study on Gideon. I pulled this from the Bible reading plan, “God doesn’t look at us as we look at ourselves. God’s perspective can be like a bolt of lightning to our senses, jolting us away from misplaced shadows of experience to God’s reality.” She goes on to say, “Without God, I am most likely all the things I think about myself. But with Him, everything-my purposes and possibilities-completely change.” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6

5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

At first, Gideon had no clear sense of his true spiritual identity. You may feel you don’t have what it takes, or maybe that your day has long come and gone, but God knows what He has equipped you with!

Ephesians 1:11-14

11 In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

Today, let God tug you out of the shadows and into the fullness of His light and power in and on you.