Mighty Hero in Hiding: Gideon's Unlikely Rise

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Welcome back, Chris, Hey, welcome back to you. Jeff.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, you are welcome. Always always really good goodness. I

think so.

Sometimes I walk in and I'm like, I wonder if

he's going to be happy of him here.

Today, always happy even when you struggle to get her

on time.

Yeah, I was late today, late today. It was I

should get a free pass on this one though, Yes.

Yes you should. Yeah. Okay, So today, actually we're going

to start out with something pretty fun.

Okay.

So Desiree has what she has listed as a fun

jobs draft list.

Oh that's cool.

Yeah, And so it reads this way. If you hadn't

pursued a career in ministry where they're enjoyable jobs, might

you have considered do you rock paper scisors to figure

out who gets the first pick? We'll do a draft

of three each. Okay, are you ready? Rock paper scisors? Ready?

Two?

Three? Oh?

He did rock? I did scissors all right, So I

was quick and easy.

So I've I've often said this, it's gonna be the

easiest one for me. But I like Graham Norton's talk show.

They actually in London they call it a chat show,

chat show, a chat show. So so I think that

I would do well with that. And I like that idea.

And you like the idea of bringing in like three

or four guests at a time and bring them all

at once.

Yeah, and then and then just get them to interact

and just have a good time.

So talk show host. Yeah, well then hey, we're helping

you lift some of your dream right here.

Yeah.

Well this isn't exactly why you're not interviewing people, but yeah, yeah,

all right, So a talking head, that's that's your that's

your dream job.

Talking head. Would you say, that's a talking head?

Yeah, that's what those people do. I mean yeah, yeah,

I mean yeah sure. Okay, So mine my first one,

my favorite job I ever had outside of ministry. I

love hospital so I love the like. I worked at

Marriott on Michigan Avenue just north of the river, you know,

magnificent mile, twelve hundred and eighty rooms. I loved serving.

I loved that whole hospitality hotel kind of environment. Was

a lot of fun. Yeah, So that was by far

my favorite job. I everhead, Wow, yeah, outside of ministry, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I would say my second it's going

to be pretty vague, but I would say being just

being a business owner in general, running my own business,

probably in sales somewhere. I think I could find myself

happy in another lifetime outside of ministry if I had

chosen such a thing with being the organizer of a

company that is able to get a product into somebody's

hands and meet a need and to so I think

that if it was involved, if it involved sales, and

it involved me running the company, I would that's what

I would do. It actually probably be my very first choice.

Sales. Yes, yes, I can see as a good salesperson. Well,

you've done well in sales in the past, so yes, yeah,

you're that guy. I think my fallback job, I always say,

is opening up a taco truck. So so yeah, that's

the I really like cooking. I like the fast pace

of the pressure of short order cooking. Yeah right, so

I've done jobs like that before. I also helped manage

a couple of little of restaurants and things, and I

like that experience. I like the pressure of it. And

then because it's a food truck. It's different places every day,

serving different people, and that'd be kind of fun. So yeah,

and I make good tacos.

Yeah, oh yes you do. There's no doubt about that.

Yeah, So that'd be fun.

And then I would say my third choice would be

movie critic.

A movie critic, Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I think

that you want to write or would you want to

be like another a talking head? Graham Norton arguing about movies.

No, I I think, well, I've had just a teeny

tiny sliver of experience with a couple of directors talking

about some movies, and uh, and from both directors, I

got back a really sort of positive response right where

people are like, hey, that's that's a good response. And

so I feel like if I can get an actual

legitimate Hollywood director to tell me that that that's good insight,

I think that there's something there and it's super fun

for me. Right, So I think I think, So would

you be writing as a critic or talking? I think

all the above. I think, Yeah, I just wrote a

script yesterday for a video that we're doing a church,

you know, and and I was imagining the shots and

you know, imagining. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm decently good

at it.

I think my last one.

Hey, by the way, whether I'm good at it or not,

I like it.

I think my last one, in another life younger than

I am now, Yes, would be like an adventure guide.

Oh yeah, right right, whitewater rafting, hunting out in the bush, camping,

that kind of thing. I love. I love that kind

of stuff, So that'd be fun. Yeah. So yeah, other

other than the hotel job, the other two make no money,

but sound like fun to me, right right. Yeah, Well,

I mean I've been in a ministry all this time. We're

not getting money anyways.

To be honest, I was going to say, to be honest,

I wasn't even thinking about the money part. Yeah, the

owning the own business and sales sounds like that's a

money grab, But that's not even really what I was

even thinking of, although I'm sure they'd be lucrative if

I was good at it. But well, hey, that was

a fun one.

And we got little insights as to How'sarba's mind works

and yours and what he daydreams about when he thinks

about it. If I ever get fired from here.

To be honest, I totally can see you the taco dark. Yeah,

I totally can see it. Jeff's taco truck, right, el

hefes elafes l hafes Taco supreme.

L hafe means the big Boss.

Yes, yeah, yes, yep, that's great.

Okay, so there you go. Hey, the other day I

smoked pork shoulder and made pulled pork sandwiches. Yeah, and

so if the taco truck doesn't work, maybe I'll do

pulled pork sandwich.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah yeah, or maybe I'll do both. Maybe I'll just

add it on my menu. Maybe it'll be like handheld stuff.

You got to do one thing, well, yeah, just do

one No.

That's the thing. All right, Well I'm conflicted now, that's

what I'm saying.

I take it back.

If the taco truck doesn't work, I'm gonna do a

barbecue truck. Okay, there you go. Okay, so today we

are talking about again another These judges have so much

character and uh such personality. Right, and so I hear

people say, oh, I read the Bible and I don't

understand it. It's because it get hung up on the

big words, like I couldn't hardly read yesterday. Right, But

if you just get into the story some of these things. Dude,

was it yesterday we read about some lady who nailed

the guy to the ground with a tend steak. That's

pretty interesting, right. So the Bible is very interesting. And

if you can then learn and go look at the

story and go, how does this apply to me? Or

what principle can I draw out that applies to me? Well,

then it becomes very dynamic, very exciting. So the characters,

especially through the Book of Judges, are so dynamic, and

they do such incredible things, and God does amazing things

through them. And here's another one. His name's Gideon. And

again one of my favorite stories to tell. So we're

gonna start off in verse eleven of the Judges, chapter six.

We're gonna read a few verses. Here says, then the

Angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great

trea Ophra, which belonged to joe Ash of the clan

of Beezer. Gideon's son of joe Ash was threshing wheat

at the bottom of the wine press to hide the

grain from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord appeared

to him and said, mighty Hero, the Lord is with you.

Sir Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why

has all this happened to us? Where are all the

miracles our ancestors told us about, didn't they say? The

Lord has brought us up out of Egypt. But now

the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to

the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said,

go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from

the Midianites. I'm sending you. But Lord Gideon replied, how

can I rescue Israel. My clan is the weakest in

the whole tribe of Manassa, and I'm the least in

my entire family. The Lord said to him, I will

be with you, and you will destroy the Midianites as

if you were fighting against one man. Giddeon replied, if

you are truly going to help me, show me a

sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking

to me. Don't go away until I come back and

bring my offering to you. He answered, I will stay

here until you return. Gideon hurried home. He cooked the

young goat, and with a basket of flour, he baked

some bread without yeast, and then carrying the meat in

a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought

them out and presented them to the Angel who was

under the Great Tree. The Angel of God said to him,

place the meat in the unleavened bread on this rock,

and the broth over it. Gideon did as he was told,

and then the Angel the Lord touched the meat and

bread with the tip of the staff in his hand,

and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all

he had brought. The Angel the Lord disappeared. When Gideon

realized that it was the Angel of the Lord, he

cried out, Oh, Sovereign Lord, I'm doomed. I've seen the

Angel of the Lord face to face. It's all right,

the Lord replied, do not be afraid. You will not die.

And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and

named it Yahweesh Shalom, which means the Lord is Peace.

The altar remains in Ophrah, in the land of the

clan of Abiezer to this day, Abbiezer, to this day.

That night, the Lord said to Gideon, take the second

bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven

years old, pull down your father's altar to bail, and

cut down the asher pole standing beside it. Then build

an altar to the Lord, your God here on this

hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones. Carefully, sacrifice the bull as

a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the

wood of the asha A pole you cut down. So

Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the

Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because

he was afraid of the other members of his father's

household and the people of the town. Early the next morning,

as the people the town began to stir, someone discovered

that the altar of Bail had been broken down, that

the Ashai pole beside it had been cut down. In

their place, a new altar had been built, and on

it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed.

The people said to each other who did this, And

after asking around and making a careful search, they learned

that it was Giddy and the son of joe Ash.

Bring out your son. The men of the town demanded

a joe Ash, he must die for destroying the altar

of Balen, for cutting down the Ashai pole. But Joash

shouted to the mob that confronted him, why are you

defending Bail? Will you argue his case. Whoever pleads his

case will be put to death by mourning. If Bail

truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy

the one who broke down his altar. From then on

Gideon was called Jerebale, which means let Bail defend himself,

because he broke down Bale's altar. Soon afterwards, the armies

a Median Amalek and the people of the East formed

an alliance against Israel and across the Jordan, camping in

the valley at Jezreel. Then the Lord took possession at Gideon.

He blew a ramshorn as a call to arms, and

the men of the Klan of Abbiezer came to him.

And he also sent messengers throughout Manassa, Asher, Zebulun, and Naftalai,

summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. Then Gideon

said to God, if you are truly going to use

me to rescue the Israel as you promise, prove it

to me in this way. I'll put a wolf fleece

on the threshing floor tonight. And if the fleece is

wet with dew in the morning, but the ground is dry,

then I'll know that you are going to help me

rescue Israel as you promised. And that is just what happened.

When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed

the fleece and wrung out a whole bowl full of water.

Then Gideon said to God, please don't be angry with me,

but let me make one more request. Let me use

the fleece for one more test. This time, let the

fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet

with dew. So that night God did as Gideon asked.

The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground

was covered with dew. So let's just decide tomorrow we're

going to do the rest of Gideon's story. Well, sure,

we are defeating the Midianites. Well, yeah, we weren't. We

were skipping onto another one. But let's let's deal with

the first half.

Oh, that's crazy of him setting up. And then if

we didn't read Gideon, I would be out right.

Well, we're reading Gideon, but you know the big battle,

big battles coming.

Yeah, the details of the battle, yes.

So we won't reference the battle much today. But yeah,

let's let's stick with this. God thing.

So the first thing that stands out to my mind is, uh,

you know, Uh, he said the Lord is with you,

and then Gideon immediately says, how can the Lord be

with me if bad things around me are still happening? Yeah,

and and and so you know, and yet at the

same time that that one verse, there's a sermon in

there somewhere, isn't there, Because sometimes we feel as if

God has abandoned us, God hasn't answered our prayer. The

bad things in our lives aren't going away. We go

through tragedy and uh, you know. And yet if God

were to appear in the room, he would say, well,

God is with you, and we would say, well, there's

no way that God is with us. You know. I

think sometimes in our heart we believe in our head

we know that God is with us, but in our

heart we feel like he's not. And so if that's

what people pray for, they pray that they would feel peace,

they pray that they would feel God's presence, and they'd say,

I just can't feel God being there. And in his case,

it was the midst of actual oppression from the Midian nights. Yeah,

So anyway, it's just a great encouragement to help us

realize that. You know, God promises to us as Christians,

he will never leave us, He'll never forsake us. God

doesn't promise an easy life, but he does promise through

every single thing we go through, he's going to walk

beside us and be with us every step of the way.

One of the themes in the Book of Judges, which we

didn't read this time, but if we'd gone back to

verse one in the chapter says, the Israelites did evil

in the side of the Lord, right, right, so the

Lord handed them over to the Midianites. So this is

a theme. They honor God. You know, they followed Deborah

for forty years, they honored God, held back. Then she

dies and they immediately go back to worshiping Bail and

putting up a share of poles, right, and so bail

represents power and fertility. The a share of pole also

represented fertility. It basically, they would always shift, They would

shift away from honoring God into some kind of sex

cult again and say, go back and forth, back and forth,

back and forth.

Were fact symbols.

Yeah, yeah, and so this is what's happened. They've gone

back and so there's a really amazing. Note for verse

thirteen in the Life Application Study Bible says, Gideon questioned

God about the problems he and his nation faced and

about God's apparent lack of help. What he didn't acknowledge

was the fact that the people had brought calamity upon

themselves when they decided to disobey and neglect God. How

easy it is to overlook personal accountability and blame our

problems on God and others. Unfortunately, this does not solve

our problems. It brings us no closer to God, and

it escorts us to the very edge of rebellion and backsliding.

When problems come, the first place to look is within

Our immediate response should be confession to God of sins

that may have created our problems. Right. So, so where we

have Gideon, who doesn't seem to be a guy who

is actively working against God. His family was, His family

had an altar to bail, had in a share a pole.

This is what God said is, Hey, if I'm going

to use you, go tear down that altar, go get

rid of that a share a pole, and then I'll

use you. Right. So, this is something that has permeated

all of the culture including even Gideon's own family. And

there's consequences to going against God, right, and so I

think a lot of times people play the victim like

somehow God's a bully instead of acknowledging, Man, my own

decisions have brought me to this point.

Yeah, there are many many times that's the case.

I had a person not long ago come and weep

and ask me why did God take my wife away

from me? After we just talked about he was he

had just got caught in his well in multiple affairs, like,

I'm not sure God took your wife away from you.

That's why I told him. I said, dude, don't let

me be I'm not being a jerk, but as your friend,

let me call it as I see it. God did

not go I'm going to take your wife away from you.

Your bad choices broke her heart and ruined your relationship.

That's what happened. So you're blaming God, like somehow God

could have stopped this. Should that you deserve to have

God supernaturally intervene and stop this as opposed to acknowledging

My sin destroyed everything that's important to me. And I said, dude,

you have no hope moving forward. In a successful life

until you step back and accept your own responsibility. He

sat there cried, this was quite some time ago. Cried

for quite a while. I went, you're right, and then

thanked me. He said, I needed somebody to be honest

with me and tell me because I'm willing to blame

everybody else. He said, that's been the habit of my life.

I blame everybody else my problems instead of accepting myself.

Oh wow.

So the second thing that I was observing to in

the story, because there's so much in here, is that

he says, Uh, isn't it interesting how he says, my

clan is the smallest among all the clans, and I'm

the smallest among my family. So God chose the smallest

clan and then the most the least insignificant person from

a from an insignificant family. So Gideon has, you know,

grown up to have this view of himself as obviously

somebody who's not a great war here hero, because you know,

you know, you know, so we grew up reading the

King James version. He and what does he say? He says,

Gideon now mighty man of Valley, and and He's like,

and Gideon's like, what He's like, I think you're talking

to the wrong guy, right, I don't know who you're

looking at. But that's not me. And we all know

that at the end, Gideon becomes a mighty man of

valor after the big victory. You know, people in history will.

Well, we told him there's going to be a battle.

We didn't tell who wins.

Oh yeah, that's right, Gideon dies.

That's not what happens either.

But but so anyway, yeah, he becomes a mighty man

of holor. So it reminds me then of you know,

Jesus when he looks at Peter and he says, your

name shall be Cephis or you know, rock, right Peter,

and and uh, but but yet when Jesus told Peter

that his name was going to be the rock or

the stone, really it was a stone that you hold

in your hand. His life wasn't really rock like yet.

But eventually, Peter, you know, especially through the you know,

Book of Acts, he becomes a solid rock, you know.

And it's because God sees in us greatness before we

see it in ourselves. And so here's the Angel calling, uh,

you know, Gideon a great hero. What does what does

this version say, mighty hero, mighty hero, and Gideon's like,

I think you got the wrong guy because I'm the

smallest of my clan and i the least in my family.

That was his immediate response. So again, that's just another

thing that we can look at too to apply to

our own lives.

So it's funny that he caused a mighty hero while

he's hiding in a wine press. You don't normally thresh

wheat right down in a wine press. You normally would

thresh wheat. They would thresheat up on hilltops, right, And

a wine press doesn't have to be some deep pit either.

I mean, did you see the little wine press area

in Nazareth when you were in Israel?

I think I did.

Yeah, yeah, it's first century. Very likely Jesus and Mary

would have been getting you know, crushing their wine grapes there, right,

but kind of neat anyways, you know, it's it's just

like a depression in the ground that can capture in rock,

that can capture the wine that's being pressed out, and

then there's usually a runoff spot to be able to

pour into bowls or something. It's not very significant, but

when you're threshing wheat, you want to be up high

where there's a breeze, because what you're trying to do

with threshing wheat is there's there's the kernel of wheat

on the inside and there's chaff on the outside. It's

like a protective Uh you ever have you ever chewed

on And this is kind of a weird thing to say,

you ever eat popcorn and then get the outside of

the seed stuck in your teeth? Yes, okay, that's kind

of what the chaff of wheat is, is that outside

covering of the seed. So when you beat the wheat right,

so they would thrash the wheat on the thing, what

it do is to begin to separate that outside part

of the kernel. And it's really light, and so the

grain would fall because it's heavy, and the chaff would

blow away, oops would blow away if you had a

reasonable breeze. So you're always up in the up in

the higher places. But he's afraid of the Midianites. The

midia Nites are get a bunch of roving bandits running around,

and so he doesn't want to be visible, and so

he's hiding and God shows up as a hey mighty

man of Valor. While he's hiding from the Midianites and God,

God sees in him while he doesn't see it.

I almost wonder if he's hiding, because had they seen him,

you know, a thrashing wheat, they would take his wheat.

Exactly, yeah, exactly. So he's not out there challenging the Midianites.

He's not out there going I don't give a rip

what you guys think. I'm going to go ahead and

live my life. Right, that's not what he's doing. He's hiding, right,

he's hiding. Please, I can't see him. And his work

is harder because of it, oh way harder, because of

his lack of courage to be out you know, where

there's a breeze instead of being down in the wine press.

His work is much harder, and he's you got to know,

in his mind, there's a little bit of defeatism. Sure, right,

he made the choice not to do the job where

he should have done it, where it would have been easier.

So now the job is harder. Have you ever done

a job and you know that the decision you made

made the job harder, but you have some reason why

it has to be harder, right, So he's you know it,

and you're thinking it through. I think he knows such

a loser. And that's when the Angelord shows him and goes, hey,

mighty hero.

Wow, Well that's that's a pretty to be honest, that's

a little bit of a harsher perspective than I was thinking.

I was thinking, when you're hiding, you're not being courageous,

well for sure, And I think that there's a little

bit of tongue in cheek here when he calls him

mighty no.

No, everything you're saying I agree with, but except for

the fact that like maybe maybe that's exactly what you'd

have done or what done it absolutely because because maybe

it's a known fact that you know, there's about a

ninety percent chance that if you're going to thrush weed

on top of that hill, you're not gonna have weed

by the end of the day, right, So it's like,

you know, and and if you challenge him, you're going

to die, right, there was a good chance, right, yeah,

really good chance, right, could be that way, you know,

it's it's it's the uh. It reminds me of that

the New Testament when they were being impressed by Rome,

and you know, they want to challenge them, but nobody

nobody can do it, you know, they can't. They can't

rise up against the forces.

Yeah. Well, so there's two kinds of well, multiple people

in the world, multiple kinds of people. But in my worldview,

there's two kinds. There's the kind of guy who hides

from potential struggle and like like a Gideon, and then

there's people like you know, Patrick Henry, who says, give

me a liberty, to give me death. I'm willing. I'm

willing to risk it all sure to go and and

and I'm going to go up against the mightiest empire

in the history of the world up to that point,

and we're likely to lose, but I'm willing to sacrifice

my fortune in my life for freedom. Right. So, so

that's not Gideon. Gideon's not Patrick Henry. I thought's hiding

in the I thought.

You use that opportunity to bust on me. For a minute.

You're like, there's two kind of people in this world,

and I thought you were going to say, like brave

and then you Chris.

No, no, really, no, that's mean.

No, I was just joking.

Yeah, So so for me, right, he's not He's not

taking a Patrick Henry kind of a mindset. Right, he

is hiding. Yes, And when you make that choice, when

you make the choice to not confront evil in front

of you, even you kind of know. I'm kind of

a sissy, right right, you know, you know. And so

that's why it's so funny to me that the angel

shows up and says, hey, you mighty man, I'm going

to turn you into great way. And then he's afraid. Right,

he's afraid the whole time, keeps testing God.

Well, that's what I was going to say, because we're

out of time. Let's at least through a couple of

sentences in there about the fleece. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what does he do is he is, you know,

he gets a word from God and he's like, okay,

that's great. I want to believe you, but do this

great miracle, got the police and the dow and then

God does it and he's like, oh, well that was great.

That's maybe it was a coincidence.

Yeah, maybe it was a coin said do it the opposite,

and so he does the police and to do the opposite,

and it's like and it's hilarious because that's what we want.

We want we see ourselves in him so much.

We want confirmation from God.

He's talking to God who when he fixed this meal

for the angel, he set it on fire with the

fire and then disappears, and then God's voice tells him,

don't worry, I'm not going to kill you.

Right.

The same voice right says all right, now you're going

to go and deliver the people of Israel from meting.

He goes, yeah, so how about you do this fleece

thing for me? Same voice, dude, how much more do

you need? If the dinner I just made turned into

smoke and the guy I made it for it disappears.

And then I hear God's voice from heaven talk to me.

I'm gonna remember that voice. It's gonna make it a point.

So Gideon is so funny. He's so unbelievably timid, and

so it's encouraging to me that, Hey, if you find

yourself kind of being consumed by timidity, just understand God

wants to use you to have the courage. Hear God's voice,

and tomorrow we're gonna follow up with one of the

most amazing stories in the Old Testament, and

We'll see you that hopefully on the Baba Gush