JUDGES The Mighty Weak Warrior

Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Again, it's this ongoing repetitive thing like a parent to a child.

How many times do I need to tell you?

There are three places for clothes.

Not in every room of the house, just three places.

That's all they need to be.

How many times do I need to say this?

My tools go back where you found them.

How many times do I need to tell you?

Not all over the backyard.

Your scooters go here.

How many times have I got to tell you this?

It's a repetitive behavior.

It's the familiar beginning of another judge's cycle as God's people fail to wholeheartedly serve their Lord and they keep forgetting Him.

They have failed to remember who the Lord is, what He had done for them.

They turned instead to the idols, which is what it means here to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

This time, for their rebellion, God gave Israel into the hands of the Midianites for seven years.

And this is the worst oppression yet.

Have a look at it.

Israelites, we are told, are forced to leave their homes and to live in the harsh and inaccessible mountain ranges.

That's because whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, Midian and his mates would invade the land, ruin the produce, take the produce for themselves and consistently pillage and plunder the land.

They would allow their livestock to walk through the crops that they had harvested themselves.

They took Israel's sheep and their cattle and their donkeys.

That's equivalent to not just stealing the mechanic's job.

They also took his tools as well so that he couldn't work again.

And so Israel is poor.

They are hungry and they are tired.

They are oppressed.

They are doing this constant run from their farmlands up into the hills to escape.

And that's why Gideon in this moment is threshing wheat in a wine press.

Because the Midianites wouldn't expect that.

He's hiding from them.

And they cry out to God in verse 6 for help.

And in verse 8 it says God sends them a prophet.

Now that seems like a ludicrous response, solution from God.

Imagine you're on the side of the road.

You're broken down.

Your car's broken down.

You're on the freeway somewhere.

You call the NRMA and the NRMA sends out to you a philosopher.

A philosopher.

Not helpful.

I need a mechanic.

And we have to marvel at what appears to be, at least at times,

the inappropriate answers that God gives to our urgent needs.

We want escape from a circumstance while God wants to interpret the circumstances for us.

Sometimes we need understanding, clarity.

More than we need relief.

Sometimes God must give us insight before he grants us safety.

Before they can appreciate the rescue that will come to them,

these people need to understand why they need rescuing in the first place.

Israel wants to get out of the bind.

God wants them to see their idolatry.

The prophet comes.

And the prophet comes and helps them understand why they're in the trouble they're in.

What that means is that the crying out to God that we see in verses 6 and 7

is not a sign of genuine repentance.

And the history of Israel tells us this as well.

Their sorrow was skin deep.

And so what God does, he sends his prophet along and reminds them of two things.

He reminds them about what he has done.

Have a look at verses 8 to 10 there in Judges 6.

That's what God's done.

What has Israel done?

Verse 10.

But you have not listened to me.

And so God sends his prophet to convict sin.

Convict his people of sin before he sends the judge to rescue them from oppression.

And so Israel, from what we can tell here, is regretful but not repentant.

And there's a clear distinction between the two.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10, it says,

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance and it leads to salvation and it leaves no regrets.

But worldly sorrow brings death.

Both are characterized by very deep sorrow and distress.

But they're very different.

Regret doesn't produce any real change.

Repentance does.

And the difference is that regret is sorrow over the consequence of the sin,

not over the sin itself.

If there was no consequences, then there would be no sorrow over sin.

There is no sorrow over the sin for what it is in itself,

for how it grieves God and how it violates our relationship with him.

And when the consequences go away, the behavior just comes back.

And this kind of sorrow stays regretful,

whereas repentance removes regret.

Real repentance focuses itself on the only real permanent result of sin,

and that is damage to our relationship with our God, with our Heavenly Father.

That's repentance.

Repentance makes us able to accept the failure and to move past it

because we realize that God has forgiven us

and we haven't actually lost him in the end.

Real repentance means we get God.

We get God.

And we don't end up hating ourselves.

When someone is inconsolable about a failure,

it means that they've made something other than God their real hope.

When you're inconsolable about a failure,

it means that something apart from God is your real hope.

And that thing is what judges would call an idol.

And its loss is therefore impossible to heal

unless its idol status is removed.

That is, regret is about me.

How I'm being hurt.

How I'm being ruined.

About how my heart is breaking.

Repentance is, on the other hand, is about God.

It's about how we have grieved God.

It's about how his nature as our creator and as a redeemer is being trampled on.

About how his saving actions are being trivialized in our life.

It's been made clear to us in Judges that the Israelites are idolaters.

And God's response to the crying out to him

shows that they are regretful for what they've lost.

And they want it back.

We want the Midianites gone.

We want our land back.

We want life to be back the way it was.

Like a married person who has committed adultery

wants the anger of their spouse to disappear.

They want things to go back the way they were before they were caught out.

And they even say things like,

tell me what I need to do here to make this right.

Or like the child who has been punished for whatever.

You take the iPad away.

And what they want to do is make up for it so they get the iPad back.

That's what they want.

They want it back.

They're regretful about consequences.

They're expressing regret, not repentance.

And so God's aim here in sending his prophet

is to move them beyond regret to repentance.

And I think we should take the time to let us,

let God teach us the same lesson.

Do a check on what it is that you are sorry about.

Do a check on what are your regrets.

Are you sorry for the consequence of sin in your life or for the sin itself?

Is it the loss of the pleasure of an idol that an idol offered?

Or the damage to our relationship with God?

Unfortunately, when you look at the text here,

there's no sign of Israel repenting at all.

And just at that moment, you would expect God's word of accusation

to move to a pronouncement of judgment.

But just when you would expect that to happen, God turns the table.

Instead of judgment, what he does is the very next thing he does is he prepares to save.

Instead, what we do here is we read the commissioning of the new judge.

No repentance.

The commissioning of a new judge.

Verse 11.

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abizarite,

where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

Even though the people, there's no indication of repentance,

God still sends his rescuer.

He doesn't wait for the repentance before he begins to save.

And this is the glorious news of the Christian faith,

which distinguishes the Christian faith from every other philosophical system and religion in the world.

Romans 5.8 summarizes it.

Why we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God doesn't wait for us to pull our socks up before he rescued us.

Doesn't wait for us to achieve before he affirms us.

God does not begin to save us because we repent.

We repent because he has begun his saving work in us

through the external finished work of Jesus on the cross

and the internal work of the Holy Spirit

to move us to see and savor the work of Christ on the cross for what it is,

the saving act of God on our behalf.

What that means is that God is significantly more holy and more gracious than we are.

He responds to a cry for help by sending a prophet to tell them about their sin

and explain why they're in the mess they're in.

But he still recruits and prepares his rescuer,

even though there's no evidence of change whatsoever.

This is a much more gracious response than we would give to someone who continued to hurt us

and show no sign of stopping.

My goodness, it's even a much more gracious response than I give to my children.

Don't celebrate me on Father's Day, for goodness sake.

And yet, in all of this, God does not compromise in his holiness or his grace.

The only way we can hold these things together

and appreciate God's, both his perfect holiness, his perfect standards,

and his endless compassion and mercy and grace

is to grasp more and more deeply the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The cross is where God's holiness, his perfect standards,

and his endless compassion meet together.

And so, right at the beginning of Judges 6, in the new cycle,

we see this cycle repeated again of sin and grace on repeat,

sin and grace on repeat, sin and grace, sin and grace.

The second thing we see is that this grace of God is a grace that calls us to himself.

The angel of the Lord opening light to Gideon in verse 12

is that the Lord is with you.

Gideon, on the other hand, is like, pardon me?

What?

What?

Gideon argues, how can God be with us?

Because he's put us into the hand of the Midianites

instead of rescuing them like he did with their ancestors out of Egypt.

Gideon seems to be implying here

that what Israel needs is another Egypt-style rescuer.

What Israel needs in this moment is another Moses.

God says, Gideon, that's you.

You are the salvation I am sending.

You are the mighty warrior.

Verse 12.

Now, we make the mistake here that Gideon does as well.

We tend to see any of our troubles as evidence that God has left us

instead of asking how God is working in and through it for our good.

And that is the promise of the New Testament in Romans 8, 28.

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.

And we also tend to do what Gideon does here

and wait for God to do something to us and for us.

We wonder why God hasn't removed a problem

rather than asking him to make us a person who's able to handle the problem.

God tells Gideon that you, Gideon, are going to be the solution.

You are going to be sent as the rescuer.

He's the one who God will use to solve this problem.

He is the Moses-like figure.

And this provokes Gideon's second disagreement with the angel of the Lord.

In fact, he reacts here in exactly the same way that Moses did

at the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Have a look at verse 15.

Pardon me, Lord?

Me?

I'm the solution?

And Gideon says, how can I save Israel?

My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my family.

Gideon is economically and socially the poorest member of the weakest clan

of a non-prominent Israelite tribe.

How on earth can I save Israel?

How can I be a saviour?

God, when we're picking teams for basketball,

I'm the last guy picked.

How can you use me?

And on the surface, you'd have to agree with him.

We know the angel of the Lord calls him a mighty warrior in verse 12,

but is that right?

I mean, potentially the angel of the Lord here is mocking Gideon,

but apparently he's not.

Gideon is crouching in a winepress in fear of the Midianites.

He's not doing what you'd imagine with a wheat crop

and threshing the wheat at the threshing floor.

He's taking it to the winepress

because it's not the season for grapes,

so they won't expect to find it here.

It's like hiding the chocolate from the kids under the soap.

They won't look for it there.

They just won't find it there.

We do need to take seriously both God's power and his word here.

If the angel of the Lord said to Gideon,

you are a mighty warrior, then he is.

And verse 14 indicates that Gideon will use his own abilities,

but those abilities won't be enough.

Those abilities need to be combined with the promise of God

because their abilities, their strength, Gideon's strength is not enough.

Verses 14 and 16 says that they must be combined with the promise of God.

Everything that Gideon needs for this task

is supplied in a very brief statement in verse 16.

I will be with you.

There's his strength right there.

The promises that God is sending him and will be with him

is everything he needs.

Basically, God has nothing else, nothing more to offer him.

There's nothing more coming up here.

And he can go through an enormous amount

just with that promise alone that I will be with you.

And it's enough.

That promise doesn't provide him with the details,

but it provides him with the essentials.

Nothing about the when, the how, the why,

just simply the who.

Me.

I will be with you.

So why should he believe the angel of the Lord?

And what we see in the rest of this text is that

Gideon needs the assurance of the word of the Lord here.

He's heard the word of the Lord.

He needs confidence that this word is true and it's right.

And so in verse 17, he replies,

if now I have found favor in your eyes,

give me a sign that this really is you talking to me.

He wants to know for sure that this is God's word he's hearing.

He's looking for assurance of God's promises,

but when the assurance comes,

it terrifies him rather than comforts him.

Gideon's reaction to the angel of the Lord

following the miracle in verse 21 is the key.

He now knows who it is that he's been talking to.

Verse 22.

Alas, sovereign Lord,

I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

What Gideon realizes here is that

he has seen the word angel in the original language

meaning messenger.

I've seen the messenger of the Lord face to face.

In fact, commentators would tell you this.

There are a number of factors here in this story itself

and in the rest of Judges

and in various parts of the Old Testament

that would indicate that Gideon came face to face

with the son of God himself,

as Daniel did in Daniel chapter seven.

That's who he's speaking to.

And he finally realizes that's who he's speaking to.

And he's terrified.

He's terrified.

And we struggle with this in our modern world

because we think a gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

We struggle with his response.

We have no sense of the terror

and the awesomeness of God.

We tend to think that intimacy with God

is an inalienable right of ours

rather than an indescribable gift.

But friends, there is nothing amazing about God's grace

as long as there is nothing fearful about his holiness.

There is nothing amazing about God's grace

while ever we think there is nothing fearful

about his holiness.

Verse 23, God reassures him that he's not going to die.

Gideon knows that according to Exodus 33 verse 20,

Exodus 33:20

no one can look at the holy God face to face and live.

And yet he's still alive.

And so he knows in that moment

that this God has provided grace for him

so that he can be at peace with him.

It is only God who can speak peace to the trembling.

And Gideon's response is one of enormous gratitude.

God's grace to him overwhelms him with gratitude.

In verse 24, he builds an altar to the Lord

and calls it,

the Lord is peace.

The Lord has made it possible

for me to be at peace with him.

And so we see sin and grace on repeat

and Gideon has been called by the grace of God.

And this grace is a grace that commits us

and commits him to live a life of obedience to him.

His grace calls us to commitment.

Now that he has built an altar

to the true living and saving God,

what's the very next thing that Gideon has to do?

Tear down the one that he's been used

to serving the false God.

These two altars,

the altar that he's just built,

the Lord is peace by his grace to me.

And the altar to Baal,

they cannot coexist.

You cannot serve the true and living God

and a false God,

an idol at the same time.

Gideon, you must destroy that other idol.

The demand is placed on Gideon here

is a paradigm for all the people of Israel.

It is for the follower of Jesus too.

When the rich young ruler came up to Jesus

and asked him the famous question,

Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus didn't hand him a card,

asking him to tick the box that says,

I follow you.

I choose to follow you, Jesus.

Didn't ask him to raise a hand

and pray a prayer of commitment.

Instead, what Jesus does

to the rich young ruler at that moment

is he exposes

this apparent moral man's

breaking of the first commandment

and called him to smash his idol.

Smash your idol,

then come follow me.

There can be no dual commitment,

no double-mindedness.

Not for Gideon,

not for Israel,

not for the rich young ruler in Luke 18

and not for us.

If God is to be their saviour,

then Baal must go.

And Baal may be tolerant,

but this God is jealous.

Baal may be tolerant,

but this God is jealous.

There can be no limping

between two opinions.

We cannot serve two masters.

The particular altar

that Gideon is called to smash

belongs to his father.

Have a look, verse 25.

That same night,

the Lord said to him,

take the second bull

from your father's herd,

the one seven years old,

tear down your father's altar to Baal

and cut down the Asherah pole beside it,

then build a proper kind of altar

to the Lord your God

on the top of this height.

Now, it's no surprise here

that Gideon's dad has an altar

and a pole for the worship

of the Canaanite idols,

the Canaanite gods.

The Israelites,

as I've said a number of times

through this series,

they didn't abandon,

they didn't abandon the worship of God

for idols.

They combined the worship of God

with idols.

And Gideon is essentially being told here

to make the God,

the true and living God

who has, by his grace,

called you into relationship

and peace with him,

to make him Lord

of every area of your life.

And Gideon

begins to do

what the Lord told him to do.

Although,

in verse 27,

he does it

in the middle of the night

out of fear

with a bunch of his helpers.

But he still did it.

There's an element of weakness

here in Gideon.

He's God's weak,

mighty warrior.

He still did it.

Obedience to God's call here

was essential.

Heroics was optional.

Obedience is essential.

Heroics is optional.

And the reaction

is swift.

Next morning,

it would appear

that one of the guys

who helped Gideon

kind of caved.

Not me,

it was him.

Gideon did it.

And you would think

from verses 28 to 30

that Gideon is not long

for this world.

Thankfully,

Gideon's dad

steps in

with a really wise suggestion.

Good on him,

Father's Day.

and suggests

that Baal,

if this Baal

is divine,

then he can pretty much

take care of himself.

We don't need to help him.

And his words

are in effect

a challenge

to Israel.

Israel

either continue

to prop up

Baal

or worship

the altar

of the true

and living God.

Worship at the altar

of the true

and living God

or continue

to prop up Baal

who cannot

help you

at all.

And the townspeople

at this point

give Gideon

a nickname.

Verse 32,

let Baal

contend

with him.

Jerobo

Baal

Baal

Baal

something.

That's his nickname.

Great nickname.

I'm not sure,

you know,

growing up,

this is an Australian

thing,

nicknames.

I think I've told you

before,

my nickname

when I was growing up

was Fox

because my hair

was like red

and so,

you know,

Bunsen Burner,

Match,

Fox,

all kinds

of different things.

I also had a nickname

a little bit

older in life

called Showbag,

which if you've ever

been to the Sydney

Royal Show,

you can buy a showbag

for not much money,

actually more expensive

nowadays,

but it's full of rubbish

and so that might be

a pointer as to why

they called me Showbag.

And,

but nicknames

carried something,

carried something.

There was a guy,

I remember years ago,

an electrical contractor

many,

many years ago

when I worked

in the National Parks,

we used to call him

Alternator

because he charged

while he was idle

and Pothole,

another guy

used to work with,

we used to call him

Pothole

because he always

got in the road

nicknames

mean something

and the nickname

here

means something

quite significant

for Israel.

It sums up

the struggle

of the whole

book of Judges.

It is the battle

between the real

God of Israel

and the idols

of Canaan

for the hearts

of God's people.

That's the battle.

contending

with Baal

for the hearts

of God's people.

And Gideon

has made his choice.

He is God's

mighty warrior

or more appropriately

as I said,

God's weak,

mighty warrior.

The power

of the Spirit

of God

on his life

is combined

with his real

genuine

human weakness.

Gideon desires

to wholly

trust in God

but he

constantly

needs

assurance

that this is

God speaking

to him.

These are God's

promises

are true.

And that's what we

get at the end

of chapter 6

with this fleece

thing.

Verses 36

to 40

is demonstrating

that he

is still

unsure

of God's

calling

and God's

promises

on his life.

He wants

to be sure

that this

is God

speaking to

him.

That this

God

is true.

What is the

character and

nature of this

God?

And so

he is hesitant

but he's not

unbelieving.

It's not an

absence of faith

here for Gideon.

it's the caution

of faith

that we see

here with

Gideon.

And he sets

out this fleece

and asks God

to confirm

his plans

by making

the fleece

wet

but the

dry

the ground

dry

around it.

And God

does it.

And then he

asks God

to you know

just one more

time God

you know

a little bit

of patience

with me here

to re-confirm

it by

reversing the

instructions

make the

fleece

dry

and the

ground

wet

and God

does it

both times.

Now over

the years

there have

been many

many

Christians

who have

imitated

Gideon's

actions

here

as a

sign of

a way

of

God

guiding

them.

That's

not what's

happening

here.

They say

things like

God if you

want me to

buy that

new car

then make

my car

break down

today.

And if my

car breaks

down

today

then I

know you

want me

to buy

that new

car.

Or God

if you

want me to

take that

job make

sure I

get a

call from

the company

today and

then I'll

know for

sure that

you want

me to

take it.

It's

your sign

of guiding

me at

this point.

That's not

what Gideon's

doing here.

He isn't

asking for

guidance from

God.

Gideon is

specifically

asking God

to show

him that

he was

not one

of the

forces of

nature of

the Canaanite

gods.

But was

in fact

the sovereign

God over

all the

forces of

nature and

therefore the

gods of

Canaan.

But he was

doing something

slightly more

significant than

that.

He was

checking that

the God who

he saw face

to face and

the God who

he has

been asked

to and

commissioned

to to

rescue his

people from

slavery from

the Midianites

is the same

God who

rescued his

people Israel

through Moses

out of Egypt.

And he did

it with a

powerful

sovereign

display of

sovereignty

over the

Egyptian

gods of

nature

through

ten

plagues.

Remember

right at the

very beginning

I'm the

God who

called you

out of

Egypt.

Gideon

here is

confirming that

the God

who sat

with me

and has

called me

to rescue

Israel is

the same

God who

did that

back then.

The God

who displayed,

who crushed

the Egyptian

gods,

which each

one of the

plagues

represented,

a crushing

of the

Egyptian

gods.

They were

not random

acts.

These were

ten key

gods the

Egyptians

worshipped

and God

sovereignly

smashed each

one of them.

And he

says,

can you do

that here

for me?

Can you

show me

that you

are sovereign

over the

Canaanite

gods of

nature?

Just one

more time,

just to

confirm that

you're the

same God

who rescued

your people

before.

Gideon was

not looking

for signs

here to

help him

make a

decision.

He was

seeking to

understand the

nature of

the God

who was

speaking to

him.

He was

looking to

get a

big picture,

a massive

picture of

who this

God is.

Is this

the God

who I've

heard about

from my

father?

the God

who saves?

The God

who was

mightily

sovereign

over the

gods of

Egypt?

If it

is,

can you

please

reaffirm

that for

me?

Now,

Gideon

did not

have the

Bible

like we

have it.

Living

where we

do in

history,

we have

this

advantage

over

Gideon.

We can

know

Jesus

Christ,

the

incarnate

Son of

God,

who came

into this

world,

who broke

into

history,

who controlled

the wind

and the

waves

and the

demons

and healed

the sick

and set

the oppressed

free.

He showed

sovereignty

over all

things.

He is the

God who

is sovereign.

And

Jesus,

we have in

his word

the Jesus

who revealed

the nature

of God

to all

of

humanity.

This

is the

Jesus

who calls

us by

his grace

and who

promises to

give his

spirit and

the Jesus

who promised

to never

leave us,

never forsake

us.

The Jesus

said,

even in

spite of

your

sinfulness,

in spite of

your weakness,

I will be

with you.

I will never

abandon you.

this is the

Jesus who

offers us

peace with

God,

who calls

us to

follow him

and calls

us to tear

down the

idols of

our heart

and align

ourselves

with him

alone.

And this

same Jesus

reveals himself

today in

his word,

the Bible.

We don't

need a

fleece,

we need

the word

of God.

Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1

1,

verse 1

says,

in the past

God spoke

to our

ancestors

through the

prophets

at many

times and

in various

ways,

but in

these last

days he

has spoken

to us

by his

son,

whom he

appointed

heir of

all things

and through

whom he

also made

the universe.

The God,

the son,

is the

radiance of

God's glory

and the

exact

representation

of his

being,

sustaining

all things

by his

powerful word.

And after

he provided

purification

for sins,

he sat

down at

the right

hand of

the majesty

in heaven.

Gideon's

request was

for help

in his

weakness to

build up

his faith

in God.

God in

his grace

responded to

him twice.

Twice.

You see,

this God

is not ashamed

to stoop

down and

reassure us

in our

weakness and

fears as

we seek to

faithfully

follow him.

He is

patient with

our

weakness.

He doesn't

even mind

humbling

himself,

even to

the cross,

in order to

bolster our

fragile faith

and our

wavering grip

on his

word.

He knows

our faith

in him is

feeble and

it is weak.

Our obedience

to him is

often in the

dark.

It is often

half-hearted.

It is

often fearful.

And when we

make the same

request of

him, he

graciously

responds.

And when we

like Gideon

find ourselves

doubting God's

promises or

God's presence,

we can ask

him again and

again and

again to

point us to

the majesty

of the

son.

And he

points us to

the fullest

final revelation

of his nature

and his

character and

his purposes

in the

Lord Jesus.

Again and

again and

again to

see God for

who he is is

what Gideon

needed and

what Gideon

received and

he will do

the same for

us.

In fact,

he is so

eager to do

it for us

that he has

provided

multiple means

for our

strengthening in

our weakness.

We have

his word.

It's where we

find God

revealing himself

to us.

And so as

we have a

core value

of this

church,

saturate

yourself in

God's word,

the Bible.

If you do

not have your

face planted

in the

scriptures,

your faith

will be

feeble,

it will be

weak and

don't guarantee

at all that

it will

survive.

The word

is essential.

So to

Timothy 3,

have confidence

in God's

word.

Everything

you need

for life

and for

salvation

is found

in the

word.

But

instead of

a fleece,

we also

have the

Lord's

Supper.

In

communion,

we are

reminded of

the nature

and the

character of

God,

the God

of grace.

Come to

commence

the

word

chapter

is

having

been

a

mythical

manada

in

song

with

Juli

快

div

are

right.

It can be

a

cant

going

and

trip

this

is

kn