Gideon

[0:00] we've seen three four judges i don't remember um and uh we are coming into the a very popular judge um most of us have heard of him before and that's gideon we'll be in chapter six and we'll be going through verse eight six chapter eight not verse eight don't you wish but uh no this is another long section um the story is quite long um of gideon um and i was surprised when i studied it um the application of this uh story um stories inside of stories here what's happening um just like last week um there was some um things that came out that didn't realize that that was what was being told in the story of deborah and barack and so i'm going to see hopefully the same type of thing is going on it's almost like a hidden message that's going on here a hidden application for our life um i always thought that it was just about the fleece and gideon and about throwing a fleece before the lord or presenting a fleece so again i was surprised and uh see if you can uh see it as we read through it and then we'll look at it at the very end but we'll read through the scripture you don't have to stand again because it's quite long uh but i do uh one more time ask that everybody stand in their heart and keep attentive um because it's easy to um start letting your mind wander and stuff but stay engaged okay and let's see what the lord has for us i say that because uh this week has been particularly hard for me to um study this uh whole thing uh the whole two chapters um and i tell you when i every time i opened up uh god's word here i was immediately tired sleepy in fact i mean to where i couldn't i could barely keep my eyes open when i was reading this and trying to study it and just so difficult and just trying to press through it there were many times when uh i'd go lay down and i'll just take a nap for 15 minutes i mean and i had just gotten up from sleeping but i'll take a nap for 15 minutes and of course then it turns into an hour and then i wake up and go all right now i'm ready and i'm wide awake and i come to and all of a sudden just again that that drowsiness just over was just overtaking me this week very difficult week um and i don't know if you guys have ever been through that but um it happens and i try to be real with you guys instead of trying to be uh a something that i am definitely am not i am a sinner just like you i struggle just like you guys and uh it's just that i have the privilege to be able to come up here and present god's word and um i also struggled that sorry i struggled because of last week's sermon and uh that i just really wanted i want to speak god's heart and i don't want to misrepresent him and and to to make you think that he's angry at you or something he's not he loves and he loves us and he is so quick to forgive and all we do is have to cry out so i i really want to bring that across

[4:03] too and so even though there are times of uh exhortation and challenges that are given he's not mad he's just wanting the best for us and because he knows the how he created you and he just wants you to get involved that's all so with that um i even i don't even have any notes because of how things or i was scribbling in my bible in places so we'll see how this turns out today okay um and we'll pray for us of course we've already prayed quite a few times father i just agree with my brothers uh about that we're here to listen to you and we just ask you holy spirit that you would open up our eyes and keep us attentive and open up our ears so that we could hear what you would have for us this day and how we can grow in the knowledge and in our walk with you and we do say this in our savior jesus name amen so judges six um starting in verse one then the sons of israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord again big surprise and the lord gave them into the hands of midi in seven years i wondered about this and said because in the ending of uh chapter uh five and it said and the land was undisturbed for 40 years and that was while um deborah and barak was alive because while the judge is still alive the land has rest so i wonder how much time goes by um uh it's it does seem that as soon as the judge is gone they immediately go back into this whole thing of idolatry but then i wonder could it never says um anywhere that at least that i noticed of how long um that before god sent um and gave them into the hands of the enemy of the other um tribes that were out there um like the midian knights and the amalekites and on and on all the ites um but i just wonder how much time how how patient was god before he finally said all right i had enough now it's now i gotta get your attention again so i wonder if i just wonder that that's all i wonder is it right away or is it uh how much time he gives so anyway so he sold he gave him into the hands of the midian this time only seven years it it only took seven years for the uh israelites to cry out this time which is far better than last time when it was 20 years far better um so anyway uh verse two the power of midian prevailed against israel because of midian the sons of israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds for it was when israel had sown that the midian knights would come up with the amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them so the midian knights just see a little back history the midian knights they were from a guy named midian uh that's how you got the midian knights and i was surprised i i guess there's at times when i don't put two and two together takes me a minute uh i didn't realize that this was midian was one of the sons of abraham and it's like huh really he had five other kids um and they were through his concubine keturah and it was like i guess i've always skipped over that part of scripture because i never realized that it's like all right well this is where this guy came from uh you find that in genesis 25 1 just by the way in case you ever want to look it up um they were at the midian knights were were a nomadic people um and in this case they teamed up with the

[8:11] amalekites um to come against israel and they were like locusts and uh when they came in they took everything and that's why it says here that uh verse 3 for when it uh for it was when israel had sown that the midian knights would come up with the amalekites and go against them um they would come in as locusts um and if you're wondering how much devastation locusts can do um you can look in the book of joel and uh it's in it starts out in verse one or chapter one um and goes through the whole chapter there about what the devastation what locusts can do um and that's what the midian knights were doing to these israelites uh they were coming in raiding everything and in fact it got so bad that the uh israelites had to hide in the den the dens in the caves of the mountains just to survive uh that's pretty crazy when you get driven out of all that um so when it was harvest time that's when they would particularly come in and just take everything that you had sown and now you're reaping they come in just take it all and so you can imagine what you would do if that was happening to you you would be hiding of course you would you'd be trying to protect the stuff that you uh your hard labor and everything of sowing it and now reaping it um you got to live too i mean this is how you fed your cattle this is how you fed your family everything so uh verse four so they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth these are the um midianites um as far as gaza and leave no sustenance in israel as well as no sheep ox or donkey they just took everything for they would come up with their livestock in their tents they would come in like locusts for number um but they and their camels were innumerable and they came into the land to devastate it again they were nomadic they just traveled that's what they were marauders they just went around doing that um verse six so israel was brought very low because of i guess and the sons of israel cried out to the lord again this only took seven years this time um so the sons of israel cried out to the lord but they waited again this always astounds me they they waited until seven years at least it was sooner but at this point they're already driven into caves and dens and stuff why didn't they cry out in the very beginning it almost seems like um they're stubborn and they're just going i can handle it i can handle whatever i don't know what the reason is uh um and but they it's like they cry out to god as a last resort instead of the first resort like we know that we're supposed to do and we all do it uh it's not just the israelites here doing it we always think that in my power i'm going to fix this situation i'm going to correct this i'm going to do you know whatever i can handle it i can handle it instead of crying out to the lord immediately um as in doing prayer that's what crying out the lord is it's form of prayer so instead of doing it as the first resort we always wait till the last resort i've exhausted everything and now all right lord and you've heard it said uh well i guess all i can do is is pray or that you know what i'm saying so uh it just amazes me how that happens to human nature um we're all involved in that uh verse seven now it came about when the sons of israel cried to the lord on account of midian that the lord sent a prophet to the sons of israel at this point he's not sending a um he's not raising up a deliverer a

[12:16] judge he's first raising up a he sent them a prophet to the sons of israel and he said to them the prophet said to them thus says the lord the god of israel it was i who brought you up from egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery i delivered you from the hands of the egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors and disposed them before you gave before you and gave you their land so god raises up a prophet uh we don't know the prophet's name um and uh he's just his message is um from god and god saying hey i have delivered you from all these past calamities these past oppressions and everything and uh i just want to remind you of that i have been faithful i have kept my into the bargain i love you uh you cry out to me and i save you um but then in verse um 10 he says and i said to you i am the lord your god and you shall not fear the gods of the amorites in whose land you live but you have not obeyed me we get back to that over and over again that this is why god is sends the enemy to oppress them is because um they disobey in that they go and they um start worshiping uh the baals and asterisks and um that ultimately we understand what's happening because we're told in the very beginning of judges they were doing what was right in their own eyes in their own eyes they think it's okay it's no problem so um that's why the lord um he is saying that you have not obeyed me um okay you know it's funny that repentant repentance um that's all god wants he just wants repentance uh when when when he confronts you with something he doesn't just repent um easier said than done of course um verse 11 uh then story changes a little bit so now he sent the prophet prophet uh just simply said what god has done in the past and and uh then all of a sudden we don't hear the prophet anymore now a new person comes on the scene then the angel of the lord came and sat under the oak there was an ophrah um which belongs to joash as his son um as his son gideon was beating out weed in the wine press in order to save it from the midianites um i'm sure you guys have heard this before but um this says uh then the angel of the lord i don't know in your um version or not if it's the angel is capitalized or not but it should be um and the reason why it should be is because this is what they call a christophany where you have a pre-incarnation of christ um this is the angel of the lord in this case is christ this is jesus before um he uh took on flesh he's uh appearing as an angel of the lord um but anyway we know this and we'll we'll look at it here in just in a few verses how we know that this is uh jesus um and in many many places in the old testament that um it talks about the angel of lord and um it's again a christophany so jesus um the angel of the lord came and sat under the oak um and um he comes to gideon gideon was busy uh beating out wheat in the

[16:18] wine press and um what he was so he's sitting there beating on the on the wheat um to separate the chaff from the seeds or the kernels that's what he's doing because then from the wheat you're able to make bread and many other things um and so um he's doing that but he's doing it in a wine press rather than where he should be doing it was which is also which is up on a hill where you have a breeze because uh you would take the wheat and you would uh thrash it and then you would toss it up into the air and because you're up on a hill that a breeze would most most of the time be there and so you'd throw it up and the chaff would blow away and the seeds would fall to the ground and that's how you separated it the chief from the chaff from the wheat am i getting all that right um and so but because of the midianites that would come and swarm in they see somebody throwing up wheat and they're going hey look at that we're going to go over that place right there and take all of his stuff and so you can understand why he's now down in a wine press a wine press is just a big area that was opened up and and they it's where they press the wine but it's down it's not up on the hill and it's kind of hidden and so that's where he's doing this um he's just trying to protect his crop his his stuff i mean you can look at it it's funny when you read the different um commentaries on that stuff he says that they say that he's hiding they say that he is um afraid and scared i don't know to me i look at it i think it's smart it's survival um there's nothing wrong with this i think gideon gets a bad rap on some things here um as the story unfolds and how we've been taught about it um like i should say we me um and so i had to rechange my thinking as i was studying this stuff but anyway so he's in the wine press and he's um beating the wheat there and um separating it verse 12 the angel of the lord appeared to him see so he the angel is is sitting uh by the oak tree and he's probably just observing and then he's getting this doing this and so now he appeared to him now imagine that for a second here you got gideon uh thrashing the the wheat in the wine press and all of a sudden somebody comes up behind you or in front of you or whatever and he says the lord is with you oh valiant warrior it's like whoa what what what who is this what's going on that would scare the bejesus out of you i don't know anyway there we have it it's out there uh anyway surprise um and uh it's just funny what the what the lord says and so the this is also this is how we know that this is a christophany is right here the angel of the lord uh all in caps appeared to him and said to him the lord all in caps is with you oh valiant warrior you can just see so even though they don't if they don't capitalize the a in angel that's it should be capitalized because we're talking about god here anyway so uh the lord's with you oh valiant warrior now does gideon seem like a valiant warrior at this point of course not and this is where gideon gets his bad rap um and because he was hiding in the uh wine press and no he wasn't he was smart um but

[20:20] he also is not a valiant warrior either um nothing speaks of him to be a valiant warrior um he's he's done nothing but god is basically prophesying and proclaiming what gideon is going to be this is how god created him and now he's going to bring him into who he was created to be for such a time as this so i i just to me that that that's encouraging and so gideon at this point he needs to know what god already knows about him and so gideon's got to go through a process right now in order to learn what god means when he says oh valiant warrior verse 13 then gideon said to him oh my lord now that's probably a little l uh for lord in there and that's because at this point gideon doesn't realize who it is he is almost like saying oh sir um if the lord is with us so the lord is with you got to remember that's what uh jesus said the lord is with you and now gideon asking oh my sir um if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying did not the lord bring us up from egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of midian so first um gideon is proclaiming basically exactly what the prophet said about all the deliverances and stuff in the past but um i see in here that gideon is asking if why where but now he's asking all of them why when you know and and we do that too why is this happening to me why is um where's your miracles that i hear from the days of old or from other people where's my miracle where's our miracle uh that's needed greatly right now and what i like about this is gideon's being honest with god um he's not there's no pretense here or anything like that and uh but he is again he doesn't know who he's talking to yet and boy will that be a surprise to him when he could you imagine you're sitting there choosing god and where's god and all of a sudden you find out you're talking to god whoops uh i shouldn't have done that should have been a little bit more respectful but anyway i i like that gideon here is honest and verse 14 the lord looked at him that means he he looked he he knew who gideon was he looked at him and so the lord looked at him and said go in this your strength and deliver israel from the hand of midian have i not sent you what this is all news to me what do you mean have i i'm not understanding this at all um so gideon asked these questions why where um if you are you know if you say this and the lord's with us and and it's almost like god is saying um well i'm i'm glad you asked that question because i got the answer for you well you're going to be the guy that i'm going to use to uh bring deliverance verse 15 he said to him oh lord and now that's capitalized something clicked and now gideon realizes this is the lord that i'm speaking with he said to him oh lord how shall i deliver how shall i deliver israel behold my family is the least in manasseh and i am the youngest in my father's house

[24:22] and uh that's not like anybody you remember moses when he um i can't speak i stutter who am i um anyway same type of thing is going on here um basically he's saying you got the wrong guy you know nope you made a mistake i'm not him verse 16 but the lord said to him surely i will be with you he wasn't changing his name to surely um i always sorry i always read that into it because good old uh old days of why do you call her forget it surely i will be with you and you shall defeat median as one man so again he the god has just given him little clues here and there little things he's not telling him the full story he's not telling him how he's going to do it or anything at this point put yourself in gideon's shoes and this is he doesn't know the story he didn't read this story before and say oh i know what god's going to do no this is all brand new to him and it's what is going on here i would be scared i'd be shaking in my boots and not going on i'm not getting it verse 17 so gideon said to him if now i have found favor in your sight then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me in other words pinch me i must be dreaming something something's going on here if i found favor in your sight i don't know what's going on here but you got to prove to me that this is who you are um because i i can't believe my eyes i can't believe my ears um i again i have no idea what's going on and he says please do not depart from here until i come back to you and bring out my offering and lay it before you and he said and he said the angel of the lord i will remain until you return then gideon went in and prepared a young goat in unleavened bread from an ephaph of flour he put the meat in a basket in the broth in a pot and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them see i see an imitation of what abraham had done when the angel of the lord came and visited him um that he also does this very similar thing so um um like all good israelites they should the stories have been passed down so he's been told about this so hey i'm going to do that that makes sense to me so uh verse 20 the angel of god said to him take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth and he did so then the angel of the lord put on the end of this put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread bread and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread then the angel of the lord vanished from his sight would that convince you he he asked for a sign he asked for convinced me that this is you that i know it's you that's talking that would convince me be what was that all about and then all of a sudden he vanishes okay now i believe now i believe but am i fully convinced maybe not so the angel of the lord vanished from his sight verse 22 when gideon saw that he was the angel of the lord he said alas oh lord god for now i have seen the angel of the lord face to face the lord said to him so it seems like the lord came back again well no he didn't come back he just spoke at this point so the lord didn't come back physically to uh to gideon but he gideon hears his voice the lord said to him peace to you do not fear you shall not die because you got to remember we were told

[28:26] that if you saw the face of god you surely will die um we're told that in um exodus and so moses also thought that he would die and and um but anyway and so god is saying peace to you don't worry about it don't fear you shall not die and why would i kill you anyway i just told you you're going to save the people from the midianites so why are you worried you don't need to worry verse 24 then gideon built an altar there to the lord and named it the lord is peace so getting at this point must feel at peace i'm good i'm okay everything's all right to this day as of the writing of this book it is still in ofra um of abby abby is i writes um anyway i'm not going to try to do these names if you guys think you can come on up here and say them good luck um verse 25 now on the same night so just a little bit later just now in the evening oh i also wonder when when it says sorry i'm going off track here but a little bunny trail when when they when um abraham and then here when gideon said hey let me prepare a young goat and the unleavened bread and all that how much time did that take how much did you sit around and how long did you sit around waiting for the meal to be prepared it's like because they didn't already just have the goat slaughtered and ready for no he had to go or do all the stuff and it just things that my mind where my mind goes like anyway um so on the same night the lord said to him take your father's bowl and a second bowl seven years old and we find out something about his dad and pull down the altar of baal which belongs to your father and cut down the grove the groves that is beside it the asherah and so um if you remember from previous study um the asherah was the where they worshiped um the um astra um and they did it they they planted a grove of trees and within that grove is where they would have their worship um and uh it wasn't good things that were going on there um but anyway that's what it was so those are the groves that are planted and why he's saying tear those down or cut them down um and then so after you've done that and build an altar to the lord your god on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner because he's going to tear it down we'll now rebuild it but put it in an orderly manner and this will be an altar to the lord and take a second bowl and offer burnt offering with the wood of the asherah from the groves which you shall cut down um so god is saying here i think he's starting that process of of um preparing gideon to receive um power from the holy spirit you can't receive power if you're in sin uh in this sense where you're worshiping other gods and stuff um you need to tear that stuff down you need to get it out of your life and because it was in his father's he lived with his father and so that's um uh the influence i guess um and so he's he's giving um getting a um not a test but hey you need to start at home you need to get rid of the things at home first the things that are um pulling you away from me and you need

[32:28] to tear this down and so it is a kind of test in that are you going to do this are you going to do what i told you to do um so the the thing is to me that if you want victory you got to start with things at home first are the things in your household uh things that you need to get rid of things that tempt you and again that um um keep you from worshiping god or or keeping him in the forefront of your mind um anyway so you guys get it all so what does gideon do verse 27 then gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the lord had spoken to him and because he was too afraid he's back to being fearful again oscillating back and forth again understandable and what's happening here what he's doing i mean if you were to go against your dad and and do that and and confront something like that or tear it down yeah it would be scary um but anyway so uh he was afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it by day so he did it by night again understandable i i i think um kudos to him at least he was obedient and he did it um he could have made up excuses um and then the whole light the whole idea behind this um that as soon as he made this decision to do it and he tore it down and did what god told him to do there was no turning back at this point he was committed he couldn't turn back from he had done something that was um we'll see here in a second how the people fell uh verse 28 when the men of the city arose early in the morning behold the altar of baal was torn down and the groves which were beside it was cut down and the second bowl was offered on the altar which had been built they said to one another who did this thing and when they searched about and inquired they said somebody snitched on them get in the son of joash did this thing then the men of the city said to joash bring out your son that he may die for he has torn down the altar of baal and indeed he has cut down the groves which was beside it they're so angry about it it's funny because it says um bring your son out so that he can die this is the exact opposite of what god said back in deuteronomy 13 where if you build these things you will die it's just funny how it how it gets reversed um and uh we we we also know in isaiah and we also know in the end times of that um things are all upside down and backwards and uh that evil is good and good is evil and we can see that in our world today and how that is it's just that's this kind of stuff we live in this is what um getting was living into so tear it down he or he tore it down now he needs to die and this is pretty cool verse 31 but joash his dad said to all who stood against him will you contend for baal or will you deliver him whoever will appear whoever will plead for him he shall be put to death by morning who's ever going to stand up for baal yeah he's the one that needs to be put to death not my son all sudden joash has become emboldened by the actions of his son it's almost as if that needed to be an awakening for his dad you know so so what how would it be if we do that in our own households if we confront things we don't know um how they're going to react we think we're afraid we

[36:29] think they're going to react some way but you never know you never know it may waken something up in them and make them go wow i i i didn't realize i'm going to now defend my son all right so uh he should be put to death by morning if he is i love this part he's talking about baal if he is a god let him contend for himself because someone has torn down his altar so baal is truly a god let him try and put my son to death yeah it's just an image it ain't nothing therefore on that day he named him jerubba ball jerubba yeah something uh that is to say let baal contend against him he named gideon jerubba wall because he had torn down his altar now something happens here um because we're told in the next verse then all the midian knights and the amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves and they crossed over and camped in the valley of jezreel now either they were doing this because it was harvest time and they were just simply uh gathering together getting ready for their raids or and or they heard about this incident and they're not happy about it and so they're going to attack we don't know for sure but it could be both um uh so uh verse 34 so the spirit of the lord because the army is gathering against them so the spirit of the lord came upon gideon and he blew a trumpet and the aborites were called together to follow him the spirit of the lord came upon him that is an interesting phrase um um you can if you can picture this it's pretty cool it's a it's a it's a neat way to visualize and and understand what's happening and and how the holy spirit uses us when he comes upon us um that it it literally means that the holy spirit put gideon on as a glove he put gideon on as a glove you can imagine does the glove do anything in and of itself nope it's the hand inside that does it so it's the holy spirit so when you are um when the holy spirit comes upon you that's what's happening he's clothing you in his power but he's putting you you on him using you as the vessel but he is the one doing the work you can picture that right i don't know to me that's pretty cool to to get that visual and say when the holy spirit comes upon you that's what's that's what's really happening i i like that um so when the the holy spirit came upon him all of a sudden um gideon blows the trumpet and his clan um they come together and they follow him so now all of a sudden he is becoming a leader because the holy spirit came upon him that they can't they're just drawn to this guy gideon and they're pretty impressed with what he did oh he took his he he tore down the the baal altar and cut down the uh grove this guy something's going on here so they were they they are now following him then gideon sent messengers throughout manasseh and they also called together to follow him and he sent messengers to asherah zebulun and naphtili um and they came up to meet them so all these uh these other tribes are coming up they're gathering together and we learn that um the number is going to be uh 32 000 um people uh are fighting men and so uh 30 just keep that

[40:38] number in your head for a little bit um so 32 000 uh come together uh and they um so verse 36 and this is where people i think get um a little confused on stuff um verse 36 then gideon said to god if you will deliver israel through me not if you're going to do it but if you're going to use me okay i know you've said this as you have spoken so he believes god at this point he but he wants to make sure that he's not hearing wrong verse 37 behold i will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor if there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the crown then i will know that you will deliver israel through me as you have spoken um people look at this as um unbelief um that gideon is doubting um but he doesn't doubt he says right there you said you're going to do this but one more time i've got to make sure that it really is you that's asking of this that it wasn't some crazy dream i had or some vision because of the heat or something like that you know or i just got to make sure you know as time passes by even a single day even a few hours and your mind can start doubting things we all do it god has said something and now we start doubting and um so he's just i think again he's being honest he's just saying god i'm not sure i want to be sure if i'm going to step out in your strength and in your will and be obedient i want to make sure that it's really you that's calling me that's what i see here i don't see the other stuff where people say that uh he's just um you know uh again a coward and and whatever the different ways that you were brought up uh understanding what this means um so he's looking for confirmation and this is cool verse 38 and it was so god never spoke to him about it he just simply did what he requested when he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece he drained the dew from the fleece a bowl full of water then just making sure then gideon said to god do not let your anger burn against me that i may speak once more please let me make a test once more with the fleece let it now be dry only on the fleece and let there be dew on all the ground this tells me of that god's patient um you could see you could say that he's his faith is building yes so weak faith that it's um in the sense that um yeah up to this point again god is building me god is taking him down the path and building his faith building his resolve because we find out what happens not after this one but there's going to be another uh thing that god's going to show him um because of that fear it's still there um but he believes but now i mean i i got to know for sure i don't know if you've ever walked in that or in that has ever happened to you where you're just saying i don't want to take another step without making sure that it's absolutely you um i can give an example um my wife and i right now are um

[44:41] uh dealing with a uh possible situation with uh one of my grandsons and we um in talking about it and stuff we're um trying to decide do we need to uh uh man why does this stuff get to me should should we bring our grandson um to live with us for a while it would be a tremendous burden on sherry and i to do this um but if this is what the lord wants and it's not that we're throwing out a fleece but before we do it we want to make sure this is what the lord is saying to do not our flesh even though it sounds noble and wonderful and everything but is that what the lord wants and so um that's how i would liken this uh what's happening i just want to make sure that i'm doing what god wants me to do um so um i could see it as being weak faith and that he but god is building it he's being patient and that's the other neat thing that the god is being patient with gideon he's not getting after him and saying you why are you you so weak of faith and everything he's not none none of that stuff he said okay if this is what you need if this is what it takes absolutely i'll do this for you because i want you to be strengthened um no that's all right no i don't i don't mind that um uh so god did it got verse 40 god did so that night it was dry only on the fleece and the dew was uh and dew was on the ground so now gideon is strengthened he's more his resolve is better now something changes again now now god's going to throw a curveball out and remember all these uh different um tribes have been called there's 32 000 men that are available to him and i'm sure that gideon's going yeah yay 32 000 men and yay uh let's see how many do the midian knights have they have 135 000 men that's a four to one odds there that's not so good but hey god's with me you know so but again now god's going to throw a curveball chapter 7 verse 1 then jerubbabel that is gideon stop there for a second i find that interesting why did they give both names there then jerubbabel that is gideon i think it's because jerubbabel remember who jerubbabel is the one that contends with baal tore down his altar the brave guy and you still got gideon the doubtful guy the two are becoming one they're being meshed together and so that's why i think it's got both names in there and why it's saying that it's hey don't forget this guy gideon that's uh struggling a little bit or wants to make sure he's also jerubbabel he was the guy that tore down the that contended with baal and all the people who were with him rose early and camp beside the spring of herod these are pretty neat names if you look them up uh herod and what they mean and mora um and it's just it's interesting we won't get into that and uh anyway and the camp of midian was on the north side of them by the hill of mora in the valley then the lord said to gideon the people who are with you are too many for me to give um midian into their hands for israel would become boastful saying my own power has delivered me so again if you think i'm putting myself in gideon's shoes and i'm thinking yeah okay i i guess i understand that um and um i guess i also understand that man always

[48:48] wants to take credit for things and so you got to make sure that it's you okay so you're going to remove a few people all right that's what i'd be thinking you're going to remove a few all right whatever uh however that or maybe their army is going to build up i don't know um but uh verse three now therefore come proclaim in the hearing of the people saying whoever is afraid and trembling let him return and depart from mount gilead and again i think gideon's going okay who's ever afraid i understand no questions asked go home and all of a sudden people stand up and they start leaving and more leave and more leave and more leave and it's like what is going on here i thought maybe 20 30 people would leave or something like that and it's 22 000 men leave and gideon's i would be all a sudden fearful again go now what this is not how it's supposed to be at all and so 22 000 people returned to their homes but 10 000 remained so now the odds of being instead of four to one they're 14 to one not looking good and then and then and then what the lord said to gideon the people are still too many again we know the this story gideon does not know he does not know how this is going to play out at this point there are still too many bring them down to the water and i will test them for you there i will test them for you there interesting we don't quite understand what's going on here but somehow he's testing for some reason therefore it shall be that he of whom i say to you this one shall go with you and he shall go with uh he shall go with you but everyone of whom i say to you this one shall not go with you he shall not go i think gideon's going okay that's fine you're gonna thin the troops a little bit more and all right we'll go down to the um we'll go down to the water and and and we'll see what the test is all about so he brought the people down to the water and the lord said to gideon you shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps as well as everyone who kneels to drink first of all that speaks to me that we're all different in how we take in the word of god when i see the word water that's where my mind constantly goes is this is the water the word of god and refreshing and uh but we take it in different there's some of us that lap it there's some of it that uh kneel down um and it's just saying that we're all different that's all uh we don't look the same uh how we uh take in god's god's word um so anyway you're going to separate them and i'm sure that um uh at this point again that gideon is going uh to the seas um 300 people that lap it like a dog and 9700 people that uh kneel down he's thinking all right i can lose 300 people got that and what's another 300 when 22 000 left but instead the lord said to gideon i will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the midianites into your hands so let all the other people go each man to his home 32 000 i'm down to 300 now the odds are 450 to one that just does not make sense so the the reason why i say that the uh testing there's different um uh thoughts on this of who how did god test why did he test them there's some that say that when you lap it when you scoop it up and you lap it like a dog that you're an attentive person and

[52:49] so you're always looking around and so that's what god wanted was attentive warriors that would go out in everything um so they could have been brave they could have been alert um or were these just average people um and the reason why i say that is because when god says um the battle is mine would he need 300 alert people uh or battle ready people you know it's it doesn't make a lot of sense it seems like they were just ordinary people they just drink differently that's all um but that's neither here nor there um just an interesting thing to to ponder verse eight so the 300 men took the people's provisions the other 9700 he they took their provisions and their trumpets um in in pausing there for a second they took the trumpets that were in their hands um usually are what was customary is that you would for every um you would take an army and you would divide it into let's say a thousand men uh in each division well each in each one of those divisions you would have one person that has a trumpet and he would be the person that when he blows it it's leading the people um or directing the people and then you also have uh one person maybe it's the same person that also had a lamp and that's what they would follow is this person way up there and so that group would follow so anyway so um that's why each man now the 300 each now has a trumpet and each one has a lamp um in getting sent all the other men of israel each to a stand but retained the 300 men in the camp of midian was below him in the valley now the same night it came about that the lord said to him said to gideon arise go down against the camp for i have given it's a done deal i have given them into your hands but if you are afraid and this happens we slip we go back and forth if you are afraid to go down go with pura your servant down to the camp and you will hear what they say and afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp so he went with pura his servant down to the outpost of the army that was in the camp so he goes down there um and because god says if you're afraid i'll give you one more sign i'll give you one more um you didn't even ask for this one but i'm going to do it because i know you're afraid and we know that uh gideon's afraid because he goes down it said if you're afraid go down and gideon does go down uh verse 12 now the midian nights and the amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts and their camels were without number as numerous as the sand of the seashore when gideon um came behold a man was relating a dream to his friend so now one of the midian nights is saying to his fellow soldier uh behold i had a dream a loaf of barley which by the way a loaf of barley is a poor man's loaf um gideon described himself as poor in the least so god's just you know the vision that he's giving hey the poor lowly loaf of barley um that anyway uh a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of midian and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat um the tent what uh they're probably talking about

[56:51] is the royal tent the the head people's uh the commander's tent the the you know that's what white would say the tent and not all the tents anyway then verse 14 the friend who he was telling the story to he replied this is nothing less than the sword of gideon and the the son of joash a man of israel god has given midian and all the camp into his hand so the rumor has spread it's already out there that it's like wow these midian nights are afraid um and because spirit of the lord must have gone out there too and and now all of a sudden this uh story got told and they're all afraid now and gideon is so now he's been elevated to this high level of a he is a valiant warrior at this point in the eyes of the midian nights so again it's cool how god took him through this down this path through these steps to bring him to this because um when gideon heard the account of the dream in its interpretation he bowed in worship he returned to the camp of israel and said arise for the lord has given the camp of midian into your hands so he is fully 100 committed and convinced about god at this point and what god had told him there's no more questioning about it any longer he is ready to go and it's kind of cool when it says he bowed uh when he heard the interpretation he bowed in worship he didn't um he just simply bowed his head worshiped uh and i'm sure it didn't take long god you are great you are good you you know whatever however he worshiped him um but um i don't i don't know if that has ever happened to you um to where um god has shown himself and um you just he did any confirmed your doubts um uh that he is in control uh and you just when that comes that knowledge comes to you man you just can't help but bow and worship you just overcome you just wow god you are god if you haven't experienced it ask god to show it to you um let you let him open up your eyes to that verse 16 he divided 300 men into three companies and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them with torches inside the pitchers we're going to get back to this story in a little bit he said to them look at me and do likewise and behold when i come to the outskirts of the camp do as i do when i and all who are with with me blow the trumpet then you also blow the trumpet all around the camp and say for the lord for the sword um let's see a sword for the lord and for gideon um verse 19 so gideon and um the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch when they had just posted the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands when the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in the right hands for blowing and cried a sword for the lord and for gideon each stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran crying out as they fled so again imagine what's happening it's middle of the night um anywhere between 10 and 2 in the morning or 10 at night and 2 in the morning uh when the watch had just been changed out and uh anyway sleeping pretty good uh but they also told um um um um campfire stories um about dreams who's boogeyman's out there um and who so they're going to bed they're all scared

[60:54] already what's gonna happen and all of a sudden um the uh this trumpet noise and the uh lights and everything now remember what's going on here that um it's usually only one light and one trumpet per 1 000 men so there's 300 men and the uh midianites they get aroused and they're hearing all these trumpets and it's by the way it's surrounding them because that's how um getting had them move around the camp and so uh they break their their pot though um torch ignites because it's just an ember that's inside this pot and then they hit it the um oxygen comes in you know so just like it would blow on an ember and it lights up or flutters up anyway that's the torch they didn't come in carrying a torch obviously uh anyway so the the trumpet's blowing and there's you know so it seems like to the midianites that there's 300 000 men and they're going uh-oh we're in trouble and they're all dazed and confused and i'm sure the spirit of the lord came upon them to to confuse them and so what happens they start fighting each other in the confusion they're stabbing each other killing each other boom boom boom and um that uh we're told later on that um i forget i don't have it anyway we'll find out how many died a bunch um uh so um each to verse 21 uh each stood in their place around the camp and all the army ran crying out as they fled when they blew the 300 trumpets the lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army and the army fled as far as uh that place um toward another place uh as far as the edge of another place i'm not gonna even try um verse 23 the men of israel were summoned from naphtali and asherah and all of manassa and they pursued midian so now the rest of the army comes in and uh the israelites and now they're pursuing the people who are fleeing the the midianites that are fleeing the ones that are left we should say uh verse 24 gideon sent messengers through all the hill country ifram saying come down against uh midian and take the waters before them as far as that place and the jordan uh so all the men of ephraim uh were summoned and they took the waters as far as that place and the jordan um they captured the two leaders leaders of midian and these are princes these aren't kings they captured oreb and zeb and they killed oreb at the rock of oreb and they killed zeb at the wine press of zeb while they pursued midian and they brought the heads oreb and zeb to gideon from across the jordan all sounds great and everything but now there's some more confrontation that's happening um um what's also interesting in this story up above um about the um shouting uh the trumpet blowing the um torches is that there's no mention of a sword um that these uh 300 men are even carrying a sword so they're not even fighting they don't need to um it's the sword of the lord that's fighting and confusing the people again when you think about you go that's pretty interesting and they didn't even draw their swords and it was by the way 120,000 that died so there were 135,000 that means there's 15,000 left that are fleeing um so that's who uh these other guys are going after chapter 8 verse 1 then the men of ephraim said

[64:56] to him said to um gideon what is this thing you have done to us not calling us when you went to fight against midian and they contended with him vigorously but he said to them what have i done now in comparison with you is not the gleaning of the grapes ephraim better than the vintage of abbeys there or whatever um god has given the leaders of midian orb and zeb into your hands and what was i able to do in comparison with you then their anger toward him subsided when he said that that's a true leader huh being tactful uh the old saying you get more with honey than with vinegar uh proverb says it that a soft answer turns away wrath and that's exactly what gideon did instead of fighting words with words and you weren't there anyway that he just hey you guys come on you get you guys got a lot more than i got you should be happy and everything so they're they're satisfied with it verse 4 then then gideon and the 300 uh men uh who were with him came to the jordan and crossed over weary yet yet pursuing they're weary at this point but they're not stopping they're continuing so i think of my own life i'm weary and i'm told still pursue don't stop keep the race keep going i grow weary we all grow weary no press on go they crossed over weary yet pursuing they were weary in the battle but they weren't weary of the battle there's a difference there think about that verse 5 he said to the men of succoth please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me for they are weary and i am pursuing ziba and zalmuna the kings of midian so now they're going after the kings and the leaders of succoth said are the hands of ziba zalmuna already in your hands that we should give bread to your army they're not so sure that um hey i'm not giving you anything because if you don't defeat them they're going to come over and they're going to get us so nay nay i'm not giving you anything gideon said all right when the lord has given ziba and zalmuna into my hands then i will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars he went up from there to penuel and spoke similarly to them and the men of penuel answered him just as the men of succoth had answered so he spoke also to the men of penuel saying when i return safely i will tear down the tower now ziba and zalmuna were in car core and their armies with them about 15 000 men all who were left of the entire army of the sons of the east for the fallen were a hundred hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen getting went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of noba and whoever and attacked the camp when the camp was unsuspecting when ziba and zalmuna fled he pursued them and captured the two kings of midian and routed the whole army then gideon the son of joash returned from the battle by the ascent of harris and he captured a youth from succoth and he questioned him and the youth wrote down for him the princes of succoth and its elders seventy-seven men he came to the men of succoth and said behold ziba and zalmuna concerning whom you taunted me saying are the heads of ziba and zalmuna already in your hand that we

[69:01] should give bread to you to your men who are weary he took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and priors and he disciplined the men of succoth with them just like he said he was going to do yeah not give me any bread will you i told you this is what's going to happen he tore down the tower of penuel and killed the men of the city there's a lot more of this story uh if you uh unravel a little bit more uh the history of of uh succoth and penuel and what's going on here because it sounds a little harsh but there's more to the story there's the history of these places so if you want to do further study you can get into all that it is interesting then he said to verse 18 then he said to ziba and zalmuna what kind of men were they whom you killed at tabor and they said they were like you each one resembling the son of a king he said they were my brothers the sons of my mother as the lord lives if only you had let them live i would not kill you so he said to jether his firstborn rise kill them but the youth did not draw his sword for he was afraid because he was still a youth then ziba and zalmuna said rise up yourself and fall on us for as the men so is his strength so gideon arose and killed zeba and zalmuna okay and took the crescent ornaments which were on their camels necks now these crescent ornaments the crescent was a moon the crescent moon and um if you uh know who these are talking about these are um people who uh now call um god allah so anybody we know like that anyway this is this this uh religion this organization was even way back then this belief system so uh then the men of israel said to gideon rule over us both you and your sons also your son's son for you have delivered us from the hand of midian again um it's funny when when they were told that that god had delivered them and stuff and yet they want to gideon you rule over us i mean instead of saying god you rule over us um it's just funny how we we look to man the natural man we want to raise him up instead of giving glory to god um in letting him rule over us it's just funny um verse 23 gideon got it right but gideon said to them i will not rule over you nor shall my son rule over you the lord shall rule over you good job gideon up to that point yet gideon said to them i would request of you that each of you give me this is the big oops um he didn't stop with god alone should get the glory and rule over you but anyway what i want is an earring from your spoil for they had gold earrings because they were ishmaelites they said we will surely give them so they spread out a garment and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1700 shekels of gold besides the the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of midian that's about a thousand pounds i mean a hundred pounds of gold just so you in case you wanted to figure it out and besides uh the neck bands that were on their camel's neck verse 27 gideon made it into an ephod and that was for the priests strange that he would do that and placed it in his city ophrah and all israel

[73:01] played the harlot with it there so it became a snare to gideon in his household he wanted something as a remembrance whatever but um why he stepped over that line he should have stopped right there when he said let god rule over you but he didn't um just just stop at some point you know um don't try to make something bigger or whatever um anyway it became a snare and so the whole point of that to me is it's not how you start it's how you finish that's important um don't just don't blow it at the end verse 28 so midian was subdued before the sons of israel they did not lift up their heads anymore anymore and we don't hear the midian nights after this and the land was undisturbed for 40 years in the days of gideon we're going to stop there um so for 40 years after that um so brings me to the question again um just like last week what did you get out of this story what was there something in here that they um you were pricked in the heart about um that it said hey i need to um uh work on this whatever did did anything speak to you uh besides the the common one where um about um gideon where and he was raised up because god uh hears and responds to your cries we already know that we've read that in other things but there's something unique that's going on in this story um besides the point that god raises up ordinary people to be used even though they're scared um and also that god will be patient with you god wants you to be honest about your fears um and that he will take you down the path to deal with your insecurities he will be patient with you and and take you along and build you up um and also that he does not lay out his plan he does everything one step at a time he will also uh empower you uh ultimately that um to remember that he is to get all the glory we know all that we so these are applications that we can keep in the forefront of our mind but there's something else that's happening in here uh and i hope to go over this very quickly um because um i found it very interesting a seemingly minor detail which has a hugely significant application is back in chapter 7 uh verse 17 through 18 and 20 um so let's see 7 17 18 7 17 he said to them look at me look at me um there's something happening there because getting saying look at me do as i do does that ring a bell and how about where paul says look at me do what i do because i do what christ does so that should ring a bell and and and so um saying who are we to look to we're supposed to look to christ and do as he does um and we'll see what all that looks like here in a second um when i and all who are with me blow the trumpet then you will also blow the trumpet all around the camp and say a sword for the lord and for gideon uh when the three verse 20 when the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pictures they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in the right hands for blowing and cried a sword for the lord and for gideon do as i do for i am doing as christ blowing the trumpet what does that mean um it can mean when you blow a trumpet it can mean a

[77:08] warning of impending danger it can be the reminding god of his covenant promise to defeat the enemy and to save us you can read that in scripture it's in there uh it can be a manifestation of god's power and presence but i think in this case or for us blowing the trumpet is a proclamation of the gospel people stay with me let's get to the um pitchers or the earthen vessels in the breaking of the earthen vessels what happened when they broke the um earthen vessel what happened when they broke the broke the picture like the torches right they lit up so light came out well we're told in second corinthians that we are the earthen vessel in uh verse uh in second corinthians 4 for god who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ but we have this treasure in earthen vessels meaning us that the excellency of the power may be of god and not of us so if we are the earthen vessels who is the light jesus hey we're in sunday school it's okay jesus that's the answer to everything right say jesus in your okie-dokie jesus um so anyway jesus is the light the light has been placed in us but it cannot shine until we're broken when we're not doing what's right seems right in our own eyes when we're stubborn when we finally humble ourselves we humble ourselves because we have a king that directs us you know there's um to be broken you can take a what's right here you can take um a five dollar iron bar and you can pound it you can beat it you can smash it into um two ten dollar horseshoes i don't know when this was written i came across it so you can beat it into two ten dollar horseshoes or you can keep beating that same metal that iron bar and you can get 350 dollars worth of needles or you can keep beating that iron bar and you you can get 250 000 dollars a fine watch spring watch you know watch watch springs and it all depends upon how much pounding how much breaking how much pressure you know we all need to have pressure in our lives it's in our failures it's in our breaking that um we grow we learn so um but we earth we as earthen vessels need to be broken to let the light shine out okay you guys go with that you guys think about that the sword of the lord and for gideon the sword is the word of god um god has simply chosen us to be instruments for spreading his word we know that the sword that it's two-edged it's sharp it cuts through um and again there's so much more to explore and meditate on this concerning the trumpets the broken vessel and the sword and us i just um it was fascinating to ponder it to think about it because i think this is a huge

[81:13] part of what this story is about the way god conquers our oppressors um and that when we were to go out into the world and the world oppresses us we're to proclaim the gospel we're supposed to be humble and let christ shine through us and we are to use the sword the word of god and and and just defeat the enemy where needed and also bringing other people around right to the saving knowledge of christ with that being said um we know that jesus is our example uh he became flesh he became an earthen vessel he proclaimed the gospel he blew the trumpet um he came to help us in our time of need um he also can relate to us because he experienced and temp he was tempted in all things he was oppressed he became sin for us he was broken crucified on the cross the word of god applied to him the punishment for sin is death and he took our place