Judges: Being Brought Low Into Rescue from God

So we're in Judges 6 this morning.

We've been going through the book of Judges.

So we're in chapter 6 this morning, and here's our text to start us off.

We're going to work our way through the entire chapter.

Verses 1 through 8a.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel.

And because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

Okay, so time out real quick.

So God's people go off, do what they wanted to do.

They pretty much went and worshipped Baal.

And so in this, these other people group begins to come in and devour them, take their food, take their land.

And so then the people of Israel, when these people come in, they'd have to head up into the hills and live up in the hills and uh live wandering around apart from any of their resources.

Verse 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Malachites and the people of the east would come up against them.

They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey.

For they would come up with their livestock in their tents.

They would come like locusts in number.

Both they and their camels could not be counted.

So that they laid waste the land as they came in.

And Israel was brought very low because of Midian.

And the people of Israel cried out for the help to the Lord.

When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

So in 2009, the Auburn Tigers, and I can just time out and say, this is my growth in grace.

That would even have a sentence that starts with that.

I mean, this is my Christian maturity on display that I could start a sermon with an Auburn sermon illustration, is how far I've come with my identity rooted in Christ and not Georgia Bulldogs.

But in 2009, Auburn Tigers under Gene Chiswick, they were Auburn fans.

Do you remember 09?

They were the worst.

Like literally, they were the worst in their in their conference.

There's three and five.

They went three and five in the SEC.

They were horrible.

It was a mess.

Amen, Georgia fans.

Amen.

Georgia fans said that.

Now, Auburn fans, what happened in 2010?

Everything changed.

Because of one, one, not even one it, one person.

Right?

Go ahead and say it.

Say his name.

Tim Newton.

I I thought about putting his image up on the screen.

I couldn't even get there as a Georgia fan.

I was like, I can't.

Like, I recoil when I see his face.

Like, that's what he did.

Like he came in and he changed everything, right?

A worst to first.

They go 14 and oh.

Aubrey Face, you all went 14-0.

The year after you were the worst because of one person.

You had the same coach.

It was just one person.

He was the best player on the field every time he stepped on the field.

He could have played any of the positions.

I'm convinced he could have been field goal kicker, and he would have been the best field goal kicker on the field.

He was that good.

14-0.

They win the national championship.

Auburn Fans, amen.

Amen, right?

Worst to first, weakest to strongest, all in one year, all because, all because of relationship with one person.

Now I recoil a little bit to use an Auburn illustration.

That's my growth in grace.

Recoil a little bit more.

That in the metaphor, Cam Newton is God, but well.

We know that, that's for sure.

But it does usher us into Judges 6, 7, and 8.

Because Judges 6, 7, and 8 are all about the weakest.

The weakest becoming strong.

Not because they are strong, right?

Not because, no, it's Gene Chiswick in 2009, Auburn is what it is.

But it's because of relationship with the one who is strong.

That's what this text is.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8.

That's what we're getting.

We're getting that pattern playing itself out over and over again.

The people eventually forget God, worship Baal.

The Midianites come in, seven years of hunger, poverty, they're on the run, exhaustion.

I mean, they're going and living up in the hills on the run.

I mean, can you imagine?

I mean, but you probably know what that feels like, right?

To feel like you're on the run.

I mean, at least in your heart, we can feel that so easily to kind of live hungry, to live wandering, to live weak.

We know what it feels like to be weak.

Of course we do.

So the story says that these people finally cry out.

Like in their weakness.

That's when they finally, because until we're at the bottom of the valley, we keep clinging on to the hope that we can get ourselves out of this.

And that's why it's at the bottom when they're brought low that they turn to God.

Point number one is this God will use our circumstances to guide us into relief of relationship with Him.

My mentor always says that God will have you cry uncle, so that you will cry Abba.

He'll use your circumstances.

I love verse six.

I mean, that's our story over and over again.

Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and then the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

Right?

I'm exhausted because of my sinfulness and selfishness and self-absorption.

I'm exhausted because of my self-justification.

I'm exhausted because of performances in the world and wanting approval unendingly, and all of that exhausts me and the white knuckling of that.

And finally, when I'm just brought low because of all of that, I cry out to the Lord for relief.

We need to be brought low as to see our need of the God who loves us without conditions because everything else is love with conditions.

Point number two.

We've said this before, we'll say it again.

Repentance is a collapse into God's forgiveness and freedom for us.

That's what we see these people doing eventually.

They're repenting, they're crying out to the Lord, they're falling back into God's forgiveness and freedom for them.

His sufficiency.

It reminded me of the movie in 2009.

Do you remember the movie Get Low with Robert Duvall?

It wasn't like it didn't, it didn't do extremely well.

It's a great movie.

Duvall plays this guy, Felix Bush, who's a he's a hermit.

He's been a hermit for like 40 years his whole life.

He's getting older, and all these stories around town had been just kind of going around about him because he pretty much didn't interact with anybody.

But something happened years, decades and decades ago.

And it was a secret, it was an unconfessed sin.

And out of that, a guilt trip that he took on himself.

He didn't know what to do with his guilt.

He never cried out to God.

Instead, he began to punish himself.

And then he says this a little bit of dialogue from the movie.

He says this to one minister.

He says, I built my own jail and put myself in it.

And I stayed in it for 40 something, something, years.

No wife, no kids, no friends, no nothing, no grandchildren.

I wouldn't even know how to hold a baby.

You hear me?

40 years.

Now that's not enough.

And then the Reverend replies, no, it's not.

Right?

He's what a great dialogue about our attempt to work for absolution and forgiveness.

There's no amount you can punish yourself while all of a sudden you're gonna feel like you're forgiven.

Forgiveness is received.

Right relationship with God is received from God to us.

Later in the movie, talking to a different minister, he says this.

Felix Bush says this about time for me to get low.

The minister says, get what?

Down to business.

I need a funeral.

For whom?

For me.

Right?

So we all build jails like Felix Bush.

Right?

And the jail may be just like him.

Like we love to have self-contempt, self-pity, punish ourselves for our wrongdoings until we feel like we're punished enough, but it's never enough, is it?

Or it could be a jail of trying to be enough.

A jail of trying to earn love, a jail of working out of guilt or shame.

The problem, of course, is the jail can only be kind of open from the outside, right?

The way that you get out is to cry out for help.

That's the way you get out.

We collapse into Jesus being enough for us, not us being enough for him.

That's why it's the weakest becomes strong.

That's why God finds us in our weakest.

And in him becoming the weakest on the cross, that's where our sin is put upon him and his righteousness is given to us.

Such good news.

Listen to the way of the gospel, this dying, this giving up into God's sufficiency.

King David did it in Psalm 32, verses 5 through 7.

Psalms 32:5–7

This is how he responds.

It's where Felix Bush in the movie Get Low was having to get to.

Here's what King David says: I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

That means just poetic language is a psalm, it's a song, is what it is, right?

It's just poetic language for us.

To see this dying into, this giving up into God's provision for us that we know in the Word of Christ.

So the story continues in Judges 6, and God sends a prophet to the people of Israel.

Here's what happens.

Picking up the second half of 6.8.

And he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you from, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you in their land.

And I said to you, I am the Lord your God, you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice.

So rightful conviction, right?

There's the law put upon the people.

Here is what was said, you did not do it.

So then this angel comes to Gideon, and Gideon says, I'm with you.

This is what the angel is saying.

Despite all that, I'm I'm with you.

And Gideon responds in verse 13.

Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?

Right?

Such a good, just human, this is how we react.

Like this is real, right?

Like an angel has spoken to you.

I'm with you.

This is, you know, we're going for it.

This is all gonna happen.

And his response is like, like if you're with us, then like what's been happening in the last seven years?

Like, why'd this happen to us?

Continuing in verse 13.

And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

So real, just a huge point here for us to grab hold of.

Point number three: relief is not found in enough answers, but an ongoing relationship with our ever-present heavenly Father.

Here's what I mean by that.

Gideon, his response to God's presence with him was a bunch of questions for God.

And the chapter is so interesting because God doesn't feel any obligation to answer.

Right?

Just like he hasn't been answering most of your questions or my questions.

He doesn't seem real interested in answering questions during this period of time for us.

That's what the world to come is for.

That we'll begin to understand and we will understand so much that we don't understand now.

And part of the reason is answers, they'll never answer, there's not enough answers to give you peace.

That doesn't exist.

There's no arrival because of answers.

Answers help solve some confusion.

But answers don't bring peace to a human heart.

Only coming alive to his love for you and surrender into a mysterious sovereignty that God has can bring you peace.

Everything else, you're actually, we're actually just building a jail of human control.

If I have enough answers, then I'll be at peace.

It's just another jail.

Here's the good news, point number four.

We'll read Judges 6, 14 through 18 first.

And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours.

Right?

So God doesn't entertain the questions, he just heads right into what he wants to say to him, anyways.

Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do not I send you.

And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

He's like, This is the weakest of the weakest.

And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.

And he said, I will stay till you return.

Point number four is this our victory is in relationship with God before being used by God.

And this is just a good time in the middle of this chapter that we can get all the focus put on what's about to happen.

Is this like Gideon in the fleece moment?

Like that's the way gets, you know, that's the way it gets played out in Sunday school, right?

It takes over the chapter for us.

And what we forget is that what we have going here is an ongoing relationship.

God interacting and relating with Gideon, the weakest of the weakest of the weakest.

So Gideon, out of this relationship he has with God, then he goes and he acts on what he's been called to do.

And he goes and he destroys all these altars of Baal that are in the area.

And of course, the men in the town, the next morning they want to go and they kill him and they go to his house.

And then Gideon's dad, Joash, comes out and says, You're not going to kill him.

Listen, like you're this God, Baal, doesn't even have any power.

If this is real God, let him stand up for himself.

So then eventually the Midianites and the Malachites, they're coming back into the area.

Gideon goes out, he gets this rage of confidence.

He goes out, he gathers an army of people to put an end to this rating.

And then we pick up in verse 36.

Then Gideon said to God, okay, so he's got these people, he's ready, he's been called, he's in relationship.

If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor.

If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.

And it was so.

When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.

Then Gideon said to God, Let not your anger burn against me, let me speak just once more.

Please let me test just once more with the fleece.

Please let it be dry on the fleece alone and on all the ground, let there be dew.

And God did so that night, and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

So that's the story that tends to take over this chapter.

An amazing story.

Really exceptional, it's kind of fantastical.

It shows that God is active, cares.

And I think one of the points coming out of this for me is thinking, obviously, like for Gideon, it's like we can associate with Gideon.

Like it sometimes you read about a leader and you're like, ah, I can't associate with that leader.

Like he's got his act a little bit too much together, or seemingly does.

Gideon, not so much.

Like every time he's called to try to do something, like it's just sort of like weakness, and like I need more assurance and more assurance and more assurance.

And point number five is this, and I think Gideon felt this, is just we all need a guide.

Like we're just all looking for that.

We all want that.

Last summer we went to Hilton Head for some time over at the beach, and one of the days we spent a day, we're gonna ferry over to Defunsky Island, Defalski Island, the island that's off the coast, Defowski, Defunsky, Defusky.

Defusky, that was the one I didn't say.

Brad, you don't know.

There's no way you know.

So we were gonna ferry, and then I realized, hey, like, we're in a pandemic.

We might be able to like private boat this thing, right?

Like, because of the you know, prices may be really down.

And so I call around, and sure enough, like the next morning we're on a private boat over to whatever this place is.

And we get on the boat, and Captain's 65 years old, he's not scared of anything, he's not scared of the pandemic.

I'm pretty sure there's coronavirus everywhere around us, and he's not, he's like, no, we're good.

We don't, you know, we can hug and kiss if we want to.

He's not scared of hurricanes.

There's never been a hurricane to come through there, mess with him.

He's scared of nothing.

He's low country for 65 years.

He's been boating.

He knows these waterways.

And when we take off, it's real clear he knows it because he is flying through all those little waterways and channels of that marsh and all those reeds.

He's he knows how fast he can go around every single corner, how close he can get so that he has just enough way uh on the other side to swing out before the next a couple of times he's headed right into the reeds, and you think that uh, you know, like do I need to say something?

You know, is he looking somewhere else?

And sure enough, right when you get up there, like a little channel shows up and he zips through.

He knows everything, he knows every sandbar, he knows where the dolphins are gonna pop up.

He shows where Justin Bieber got married.

That was the real highlight of the whole thing, was that moment.

He knew it all, right?

And what happened to me in that moment?

It's the same thing happens to you when you show up and you have a guide.

Like all those logistics of like, like, how are we gonna get over there and everything gonna be okay?

Like, like it just kind of fades, right?

Everything that we think we need to control, when you trust in a guide, all that gets to fade.

It's the same feeling when you go to Home Depot and you you end up over in the hardware section, and you're like, I'm pretty sure the plunger's not in the hardware section, but also don't know where the plunger is, and you ask the guy, hey, where are your plungers?

And he says, Oh, they're down on row 20, halfway down on the right, the bottom, and you're like, okay, thanks.

And you start walking, you're like, okay, 20, halfway, right?

Like, and you're doing that in your head, right?

And you're you're but you're still a little like anxious because you you know you've been in Home Depot for like 30 minutes before looking for one item, and so you're thinking like this may happen again.

Now that's real different than if you ask that guy and he walks with you.

You have no anxiety.

You're like, he's gonna find the plunger.

Like, I'm just walking with him, right?

It's a total different experience when we have a guide, somebody who's with us.

With us.

That's the promise Gideon keeps getting in all of his weakness.

I'm with you.

I'm with you.

Psalm 32, verse 8.

Psalms 32:8

This is just the the next verse in that Psalm 32 we already read.

This is King David's confessional, and it's coming into the Lord's response.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

So another translation I read this week says this I will guide you with my loving eye on you.

Isn't that wonderful?

That he is with us like that.

I've heard a lot of people talk about Gideon moments over the years, like I had a Gideon moment, or or you kind of set up a structure with a Gideon moment in your prayer, like, God, if you do this, then I'll do that.

Or, you know, God, if you don't do this, and like, and that's the way in which how we're gonna know how to make our decision.

And I would say, like, okay, like, I mean, you can do that.

I don't know how it's gonna work out.

Um, I don't know if that's a great, like, kind of like normative process for decision making.

I tried to get some words around how we seek God's guidance.

What would be some words for us to get around this?

Or kind of a handful of sentences here, I'll just read through it.

Be an ongoing relationship with the Heavenly Father through joyful repentance into Jesus.

Asking for the Holy Spirit to guide you in mind and heart, in accordance with the scriptures.

So it won't be not in accordance.

Like, so those things go together, right?

Like, so if you're wanting to God's leading me to in like the dot dot dot is like against the scriptures, well, like that's that's just you.

Like that's you, that's not the Holy Spirit.

So, in accordance with the scriptures and the wisdom of discerning friends and family around you.

Now you put all that together, that's really going to help your decision-making process.

And then you can beyond that, I think it's it's okay to say, like, maybe there's a Gideon moment or two out there for me.

But that's probably more exceptional than it is normative.

Today's Pentecost Sunday.

So it's the 50th day after Easter.

And the church, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

That God isn't just active in our world and around us, but we actually have God living in us, the Holy Spirit in us.

And that is such good news for us because the fleece moment, like the Gideon moments, it teaches us that God cares, God is active, and God does some really cool, amazing, strange, mysterious stuff in this world.

And that's good for us to embrace.

But living from fleece moment to fleece moment in faith, like needing that in.

In order to make the next decision, or needing that in order to believe enough, that's exhausting.

Like that's really exhausting to constantly need that.

And it can be really discouraging to always need the next fleece moment.

Fleece moments are inspiring, they're real, and they're exceptional.

But what's more profound is what the fleece moments are built upon.

That's what this story gives us.

What it's built upon is a foundation that God is in relationship with Gideon.

He's patient with Gideon.

He's present with Gideon.

This weakest man from the weakest tribe, an imperfect man.

Gospel faith lives astonished at the God who loves us and cares for us, while even being open to these types of fleece moments of God interrupting us in an incredible way.

When we pray and we sing something like, Come, Holy Spirit, you ever hear that?

That baffled me for a long time.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Does that mean that God wasn't with me?

Like, was He not with me?

And then I'm saying, Come to me.

Like, like what are we saying when we say that?

It's just a way, it's a poetic way to say, God, interrupt me, disrupt me in all of my weakness, in any of my sin.

Come into all of that, even while you live in me.

Come into any of the parts of me that I'm withholding from you and interrupt me and disrupt me in a way, in a way that draws me closer to you.

And out of that will come a life that is being guided by God.

The story gives us the good news that I need every day.

You need every day.

We need it.

We need it.

God doesn't use you because you're strong.

Isn't that good news?

The good news.

Such good news.

God uses you because he loves you.

God uses you because he's with you.

That's what the story of Gideon tells us.

And he does not love you because you're strong either.

So he doesn't use you because you're strong, he doesn't love you because you're strong.

He loves you because you're his in Christ.

And as we see that we are the weakest of the weakest, as we see that, we get to see that we are loved in all of that.

And in our weakness, we are made strong because Jesus is enough for us.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for this good news.

God, we come in this moment and we pray, come Holy Spirit.

That for so many of us in here, we need guidance.

We are like Gideon.

That we need guidance.

There's a decision to be made.

There's an intersection.

And God, would you help us to be in an ongoing relationship with you?

Joyful repentance, a joyful collapsing into you, seeking, Holy Spirit, that you would guide, searching the scriptures, of making sure what our decision is in line with the scriptures, seeking wisdom of those around us.

And God, we even open ourselves up to great interruption all around us for you to guide us in the right way.

God, would you give guidance to those here who need guidance?

For so many of us in here, we have ignored our own weakness because we think if we confess or admit or face our weakness, we would not be able to handle it.

We would be destroyed.

God, thank you that we get these stories, this gospel story, that you come straight into our weakness because we're already weak.

You have created us beautiful and yet we are imperfect.

We are sinners in need of your grace.

And thank you for this good news that we have, the hope we have, that you come into weakness.

And if you can show up for Gideon, you can surely show up into our lives and our hearts and the needs that we have.

Help us to lay them before you and the brokenness that's there, that you might give us greater wholeness in Jesus.

Thank you that we are already yours, already loved, already righteous, and help us to have open hands and open hearts and lives of surrender to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.