Weak and Strong

I've got a little bit of an exercise for us today.

Hopefully you guys are game.

I want you to bring to your mind something that you would consider a uh a strength of yours, whether it be a character trait or something that you've learned, some sort of skill, something along those lines.

So bring bring those to your mind.

And then I also would like for you to think about what would be your biggest weakness.

So something that maybe you haven't really cultivated as much, or potentially something in your character that you would say is potentially a weakness.

As you're thinking, are you guys thinking with me?

Okay, as you're thinking through those things, I'm gonna ask you now to turn to your neighbor and divulge both of those things.

I'm just kidding, you don't have to do that.

I just wanted to see what your reaction would be, and yours was the same as the first service.

He's gotta be kidding, I'm not doing that.

You don't have to do that.

But I want you to keep those things that you thought of in your brain.

I want you to I want you to keep those close to the front.

I want you to think through those things and have those things readily available as we go through what we're gonna go through this morning because I think the Lord has something for us.

Now, we are going to go through uh uh chapter six, seven, and eight this morning.

So we're gonna go quickly.

There are uh rabbit trails that I would like to uh run down, but I won't be able to run down them uh this morning.

But I just want to give you guys kind of, we're gonna put our seat belts on, we're gonna go kind of fast.

Uh so I want to make sure you're you're with me and you're with us.

But this morning we're gonna fall further down the rabbit hole, so to speak.

We're gonna fall further down.

We've seen here in Judges that what we're dealing with here is a cycle of uh of rebellion and retribution and uh rescue and then relapse, but it's not really a flat circle, it is a downward spiral.

Things just things the same things keep happening, but it's to a worse and worse degree as we keep going further into this book.

People would rebel, God would hand them over to the surrounding nations, that's the retribution, then God, out of his grace, would raise up a judge to rescue them, and unfortunately, as soon as that judge passes away, there would be relapse into rebellion again.

And we just saw that as our scripture reading this morning, the setup for what we're going to see for three chapters here, six, seven, and eight.

We have this idea that again, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

They cheated on him, they committed adultery, they committed themselves to lesser gods, they served lesser gods, they worshiped lesser gods.

They would, maybe they'd still keep Yahweh in mind, but they'd add other things into it.

So they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

And this time God hands them over to Midian, an old, we've heard of Midian before back in Exodus.

But he hands them over to Midian, and Midian treats them the worst that any people have, any, any overseer or oppressor has treated them before.

To the point where they're taking all of their food and their animals, everything, and they are hiding up in the in the mountains to they're trying to they're hiding their food from Midian because Midian comes in like a swarm of locusts, kind of like hint hint, the Exodus.

We're gonna go through a little bit of an Exodus thing here.

They're hiding their food because they're gonna starve because Midian and the Amalekites come in and take all of their food.

And they cry out.

They cry out to the Lord, and there's been debate on whether or not this is their real repentance that's happening here, but most people don't believe so.

And I think Keller helps make a very helpful distinction.

This is regret, not redemption, not repentance.

They have sorrow over their consequences, but not of the actual sin itself, and how the way that they're acting is an actual affront to God.

So, as we we read already one through six, we're gonna jump in here in verse seven.

When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on the account of the Aminaites, the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel, and he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 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 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 they cry out.

They're hoping for a judge, a rescuer, a savior, and they'll get that in due time.

But first, God sends a prophet with a sermon.

He sends a preacher first.

And this prophet comes and says, Listen, look at all these things God has done for us.

He took us out of slavery, he handed us every battle we've ever faced, he's won for us.

Let us not be let us not forget what God has done for us, and but we have not obeyed.

They need to fully understand what is going on.

God is a jealous God, and he is alone to be worshipped by them.

But they have not obeyed, he says.

Now, verse 11.

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terebinth in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Azorbite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.

And Gideon said to him, Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then uh why then has all this happened to us?

And where do and where are all his wonderful deeds about that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did he not, uh did the Lord not bring us down from Egypt?

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

This passage specifically, uh, is what's going on here specifically in these verses is pointing us towards a Trinitarian.

So one of the things, one of the rabbit trails I'd like to run down, we don't have time for, is this is a passage in the Old Testament that you can point to as evidence for a Trinitarian God.

Because what we have here is this passage, uh, the angel of the Lord is called the angel of the Lord, but it's also just called the Lord here in these verses.

So it's pointing to this encounter that Gideon has with this angel of the Lord, is actually the second member of the Trinity, a pre-incarnate Christ, a pre-incarnate Jesus.

And preincarnate Jesus is stepping into this story and he's calling Gideon specifically.

Lord shows up to Gideon working and hiding from the Midianites, and he tells them, God is with you.

And Gideon is like, well, then why is all this bad stuff happening?

No, the angel of the Lord doesn't answer that question because the prophet already did.

But he believes that God has left us, let God has left them.

Judges 6, starting in verse 14.

And the the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do I not do I not 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.

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

So the Lord tells Gideon, Go and save Israel from Midian.

Gideon is God's chosen judge, but Gideon has some thoughts.

This is supposed to remind us of Moses.

God speaks to him in the burning bush, and he's like, I'm gonna use you to save my people.

You're gonna go in and you're gonna rescue my people and you're gonna bring them out, but I'm gonna go before you.

And Moses is like, Yeah, but I'm not good at talking.

Yeah, but I don't really want, like, I and Gideon does the same thing here.

Ah, my clan is the weakest, and I'm the youngest, even in there.

Like, there's gotta be somebody better.

I can't do that.

I can't go.

And God says in verse 16, but I will be with you.

Now, for the sake of time, I'm gonna give you a brief overview here of what happens in verses 17 through 24.

Gideon still isn't sure who he's talking to, so he asks for a sign.

Show me that that's really you, God.

Then he does what any good host would do.

He goes and prepares a meal, a young goat with fresh bread, and which was costly at a time when all of your food is being stolen.

But the visitor doesn't eat it.

He has Gideon set it out on a rock, but then he touches it with the tip of his staff, and the fire bursts out of the rock and burns it up.

And so, and then the angel of the Lord leaves.

Gone.

Gideon set out to serve a guest food and ended up making an offering to God.

And now he knows exactly who this person is.

He knows that this is God.

And he says, Alas, O Lord God, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, and he expects to die, but then God speaks again.

Peace be to you, he says.

Do not fear, you shall not die.

And there Gideon builds an altar and names it the Lord is peace.

Before God made Gideon strong, he gave him peace.

Gideon now knows who he's dealing with, no doubt.

Verse 25.

That night the Lord said to him, So the Lord speaks to him again, take your father's bull and the second bull, seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the asherah that is beside it.

And build an altar of the Lord, your God, on top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order.

Then take the second bull and offer it as burnt offering with the wood of the asherah that you cut down.

So then the Lord comes back and says, That night, says, Okay, now I need you to essentially, before we go take on the Amenianites, before I save you, before we before I deliver you, we need to take care of these idols that are in your camp right now.

Your dad's idol to Baal, we need to take it down.

So he goes and he does exactly that.

Takes it down, builds the altar, does exactly what God tells him to do.

And in verses 28 through 32, the narrator gives us a reaction of the town and his family as they wake up.

So he does this in the middle of the night.

They wake up and they're like, wait, wait, wait.

That looks different.

Who did this?

And they're furiously trying to figure out who did it.

And somehow they figure out, oh, this was Gideon.

So then they go to Gideon's dad, Joash, and they're like, bring him out, because we need to kill him for what he's done.

Gideon's dad, Joash, has this response in verse 31.

But Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal?

Or will you save him?

Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by mourning.

If he is a God, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.

Therefore, on that day, Gideon was called Jerubbabel.

That is to say, let Baal contend against him, because he broke down his altar.

So his dad has this amazing response.

Listen, if this guy's actually God, if Baal is actually God, Baal can handle himself.

So maybe he's not.

Of course we know Baal cannot.

Now, next the Midianites and the Amalekites gathered together and crossed the Jordan from the east.

And in verse 34, we're told that the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon.

God is being true to his word and to his promise.

And he has clothed Gideon.

The Spirit of the Lord has.

And as he did, as the Lord did this, uh Gideon gathers up his own men, the Azabzites, to the tribe of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali.

So all those guys are gathering together, and now Gideon is gathering all of his guys together.

And here, before the battle starts, we have one of the most famous sections of scripture, probably in the Gideon story, if not the most famous.

And you will not be surprised to know that no one agrees exactly what's happening here.

Now I'm here to tell you exactly what's happening here.

Just kidding.

Verse 36.

Then Gideon said to God, 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 the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said.

And it was so.

And 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 only, and let the ground be dew.

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

Now, again, you will not be surprised to know, as I've said, that there are disagreements on this.

I feel like half the time when we go through the book of Judges, Joshua 2, there are disagreements on exactly what some of these things are happening that are hard for us to understand.

There are different ways to view it.

Now, I'm going to walk through a few briefly and then land on the thing that they all agree on.

There actually is one thing that they all agree on.

There are some that fully call this an act of unbelief, and even calling it insulting to God.

That what Gideon is doing here is testing God in a way that he ought not do.

Now, I don't know that we get that from the context because God keeps just doing what Gideon's asking him to do.

But there is a sense in which Gideon knows he's pushing it a little bit.

Please don't be mad, but I got one more for you.

There are others that say this is just actually a special case of God coaxing a hesitant leader.

He knows he's got a guy that is not very competent.

And he's gonna allow, God is gonna allow for this.

God allows for it, but it's not a model of how things should normally go.

There are others that see this as a caution of faith, not necessarily an unbelief or a weakness in Gideon's faith, and God is just willing to oblige.

Others see this as a request to know God's nature and as further example of God proving that he is greater than Baal, because Baal is in charge of the weather.

So do would have been under the purview of Baal.

So for God to be able to perform this kind of thing is actually him showing I'm bigger and better than Baal.

That could be the case.

There are some that actually see it as a mosaic type sign to encourage the army, that if this was done in front of the whole army, that it would give them kind of the confidence to know that what they're doing is serving the God that is more powerful.

All these things might be possible.

I'm not there the text isn't completely clear.

Now, here is the one thing that all commentators agree with that I do think is worth spending a couple minutes on this morning.

Not one have I read believes that this is a method that we should emulate in discovering God's will for our life.

Now let me unpack that for a second.

I've heard it said a number of times, whether as a pastor or even before, talking to a person about what they believe maybe God's will is for their life, and they would use this story as a proof text of so what I'll do is I'll just put out a fleece and see what God does with it, and then I'll know which way to go.

And I'll know what to do.

This is a silly example, but I actually heard it said once.

So I'll just give it to you.

If I get a flat tire but it doesn't need to get repaired, then I will know that I should take this job.

Oh, okay.

I heard somebody said that to me once.

He's like, I, you know, I just was thinking like I'm gonna get if I get a flat, I got a flat tire, but I know if it won't get repaired, then I know that it's God's will for me to take this job and not take that, not take the other one.

It's like so we're just gonna test God in this kind of way.

No.

That's not what's happening here.

And this is not a text for us.

We should not just be putting out fleeces to see what God's will is for our life.

Because look at even the context of this.

Gideon knows exactly what he's supposed to do and exactly how God wants to use him.

God has said it very clearly.

I'm gonna use you to deliver Israel from Midian.

You know that.

He knows that.

So he might be, I'm we don't know exactly what's happening here.

This could be a proof of shaky faith, or it could just be a way for God to show how powerful he is to Gideon or to all of the army, like it's possible.

All those things are possible, but one thing we know for certain is this is not a method that you and I as Christ followers should emulate and try to discover what God's will is for our life, because we know what God's will is for our life, to be faithful to him, to be obedient to him, to worship him above all else.

We know this.

So whether we go down this path or this path, whichever one we choose, we are faithful in it every step we take.

That's God's will for your life.

Gideon knows this.

Okay, that's a tangent, a little bit of a tangent, but I felt like it was worth it.

Okay, now we're gonna we're gonna read our biggest chunk here as we turn the page into chapter seven, as we keep going.

I gotta, I gotta, okay, here we go.

Okay.

Verse one.

Then Jerubabal, that is gid that is Gideon, and all the other people who were there with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod.

The camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Morea, on in the valley.

The Lord said to Gideon, verse two, the people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

Now therefore proclaim to the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.

Then twenty-two thousand of the people turned, returned, and remained ten thousand.

And the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many, take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there.

And anyone whom I say to you, This is this one shall go with you, shall go with you, and any one of whom I say to you, This one shall not go with you, shall not go.

So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps the water up with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself.

Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink.

And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men, and all the rest of the men knelt down to drink water.

And the Lord said to Gideon, with a three hundred men who lapped it up, will save you and the Gideon and the Midianites into your hand, and let all others go, every man to his home.

So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent the rest of them of Israel the rest of them of Israel, every man, to his tent, but retained three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

Okay.

Lots of stuff happening here.

But the first thing is, God says, Listen, I know that if this many guys go and take Midian, you guys are going to take credit for yourself.

So we need to thin this out.

So Gideon, just go tell everybody who's scared they can go home.

Hey, if you're scared, you can go home.

22,000 was like, sweet.

I'm out.

So we started at 32, now we're at 10.

Now God comes with this, God comes up with this other test that again, scholars and theologians have debated over what's happening here.

Is this like somehow proving that these guys are actually more alert with the way that they took the water bottle?

It's like all these different things.

No, no.

We're getting lost in the weeds.

Here's what this test was.

God wanted to get to 300, and this is how he decided to do it.

That's it.

So just so we understand, we're at 32,000.

Down to 300.

You want to know what that percentage is?

They took away, God took away 99%.

We're left with 1%.

Gideon was like, I just took all this time to gather all these guys together, and now I've got 300 dudes.

The key verse there, again though, is verse 2.

The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

Keep that one in your back pocket.

We're going to come back to that.

Okay.

Again, for the sake of time, I'm going to do some summarizing in the next section.

But Judges 7, verses 9 through 10 says this.

Judges 7:9–10

If you're afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant.

So this is God's giving him another opportunity, Gideon.

Down to 300.

Midianites are down in the valley, and God says, if you still need more proof, go down there.

Take your buddy with you.

If you don't want to be alone, take your buddy with you.

And you're going to hear something that you're going to like.

Okay.

Verse 14.

I'm sorry.

God tells them in verse 11 that they will be able to hear the Midianites and Amalekites talking, and that will encourage them.

So they go down, the text says the camp looks like locusts.

Okay, again, another reference to Exodus, but again, what it's trying to illustrate here is there's so many guys down there.

This army is so massive, you can't count them.

It looks like a swarm of locusts.

And he overhears this guy telling his buddy a dream that he had of a cake of barley coming into their camp and destroying their tent.

And his buddy that he's telling this to interprets it.

Verse 14.

And his comrade answered, this is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel.

God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.

Well, that's pretty good.

Gideon likes that.

So what happens?

Gideon, I mean, this is rocket fuel for Gideon.

Gideon, it's like, hey, buddy, let's go back up there.

Let's make our plan.

Let's take this.

So he goes up, verse 19.

So Gideon and the hundred men who are with him.

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to say this.

So he split him into three groups.

He gets back up there, splits them into three groups, the 300 guys, so 100, 100, 100, gives them trumpets and an empty jar and torches.

Verse 19.

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, so the middle of the night.

When they had just sent the watch, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.

Then the three hundred companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars.

They held in their hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow, and they cried out, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

And every man stood in his place around his camp.

And all the army ran, they cried out and fled.

Gideon calls Ephraim, the tribe of Ephraim, to head them off at the pass, so as they run, they can get the Ephraim can catch some of them, and they in fact do catch a couple, captured a couple princes, and killed them, and then delivered them to Gideon with their heads.

Delivered the heads.

It's quite a plan, pretty good.

But they didn't actually do anything.

300 guys surround the camp in the middle of the night.

Most of the guys are probably sleeping.

Midianites are probably sleeping.

Blows a horn, scares them.

Midianites come out, they don't know who's Midianites, who's Israelites, they don't know anything.

They're just like, this is terrifying for some reason.

And they just run.

That's it.

Again, we're gonna move here quickly.

I'm gonna summarize, we're turning the page now to chapter 8, and I'm gonna try to set the stage.

I'm gonna summarize the first 21 verses, and then we'll end our, and then we've got a couple things and we'll end our time.

But let's summarize verses 1 through 21.

So the battle is won, okay, but the story isn't over.

The men of Ephraim, they show up angry.

They're mad at Gideon.

So they come, you know, Gideon's like, you gotta head them off at the past.

They head them off at the past, they kill these two princes.

The guys from Ephraim come to Gideon with their heads on a spike, probably, and they're super upset with Gideon.

They're like, you should have called us earlier.

We wanted in on this.

Why didn't we get called?

We wanted to do this too.

And Gideon, he he he he calms them down, he handles it well, he flatters them, calms them down, and avoids a fight.

So far, so good.

That's good.

Just diplomacy.

Then Gideon does something he doesn't need to do.

And I'll actually argue something he should not have done.

He crosses the Jordan to the east.

The enemy has been driven out of Israel, but two Midianite kings have attempted escape.

And Gideon won't let them go.

So he and his 300 men, they are exhausted, they're chasing them.

Faint yet pursuing, and they stop before they cross over, they stop at two Israelite towns, Sucath and Penuel, and they ask for bread.

And both towns are like, I don't think so.

No, no.

They aren't convinced yet that Gideon's actually gonna win.

So like we don't want to choose sides because if those guys still beat you, they're gonna come kill us because we helped you out.

So we're not doing that.

Gideon doesn't like this, obviously.

So he threatens them.

Okay, well, I'm gonna go get those guys, and when I come back, I'm gonna tear your flesh.

I'm gonna tear down your tower.

So Gideon goes with his 300 guys, he goes beyond the Jordan River, catches the two kings, and on the way home, he keeps his word.

He flogs the elders of Succath, and at Penuel, he doesn't just tear down their tower, he kills the men of the city.

These are his own, they're his own people.

And we learn what's been driving.

Because the part of you is probably like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

And at me as I was reading it, it's like, why?

Is it like, what's his deal?

Verse 18.

Then he said to Zebiah and Zalmuna, this these are the two kings that they captured.

Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?

They answered, As you are, so were they.

Every one of them resembled the son of the king.

And he said, They were my brothers, the son of my mother, and as the Lord lives, if you have saved them alive, I would not kill you.

So basically, we figure it out.

They captured his brothers, and he wants them back.

And so he's gonna do whatever he can to do it.

Now, we need to notice something.

He it and as the story continues, he actually looks at his son.

Gideon looks at his boy and goes, kill them.

And his son's like, I'm kind of young and I don't really want to do it.

Gideon's like, fine, I'll do it myself.

And then he kills the two kings.

I want you, I want us to notice something.

Who has disappeared from this story?

Chapter 6 and chapter 7, God is all over the place.

We haven't heard his name this whole chapter.

We've heard a lot about Gideon.

And a lot about what he wants.

But should we be surprised at what happens next?

Verse 22.

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you and your son, and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of many.

And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you, the Lord will rule over you.

Okay, that's good.

That's good, Gideon.

That is what you should have said.

That was the good answer, that was the right answer.

And then he does something else.

Verse 24.

And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you, every one of you, give me the earrings from this spoil.

For they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.

And they answered, We will willingly give them.

And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in the earrings of this spoil.

Does this sound familiar?

Maybe like the foot of Mount Sinai with the golden calf?

Interesting.

Okay.

It tells them to grab all this gold, all these valuable things, and they they just got from winning, and then verse 27, and they all did that, verse 27, and Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, Ophrah.

And all Israel whored after it there.

It became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

An ephod is what the priests would wear.

As they entered into communion with God to see what God would have for them.

And Gideon made his own in his own town.

The thing that meant was meant to bring Israel to God led them from him.

It was not for Gideon to make.

God didn't ask him to do that.

Many believe, and I would be one of them, that is, it was a way for Gideon to keep some prominence, to continue to be able to judge, or maybe even worse.

He made an idol for himself.

But nevertheless, verse 28.

So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more, and the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon.

Covered a lot today.

Felt like it was wise to kind of take that whole story in one chunk, but we did go fast.

Thanks for thanks for riding the fast train with me.

But as I said last week, and as we could say every week, the main idea in many ways of every single sermon could be in all of judges, essentially, is God wins and all the glory belongs to him.

And this story displays it fully and beautifully.

God used an army of 300 men to take down an entire massive army.

God delivered Israel from her worst enemy yet and did so without any problem.

So in truth, we need to be reminded this morning, church, that God does win.

We need to be reminded that God wins now and in the end.

And because he wins, and because he created all things and sustains all things, all glory does belong to him.

And in some ways, I could just close up shop right there.

That's enough.

But there's a thread I do want to tug at a little bit this morning.

We've walked through three chapters, but I do think that there is a pinpoint of something happening right in the middle of everything that we read in Judges chapter 7, verse 2.

Judges 7:2

We've highlighted it before, I'm going to highlight it again.

The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hand.

God saves in a way that leaves no room for boasting.

God saves in a way that leaves no room for boasting.

That's the whole story in many ways.

God is going to save his people and he'll do it in a way that leaves no room for anyone, you or me, to say, I did this.

And notice where this verse sits.

As I said, right in the middle.

In the middle of the story, on either side of it is a man, in some ways, Gideon, getting in God's way.

Chapter 6, Gideon is in the way because he's weak.

In chapter 8, he's in the way because he's strong.

At the beginning, he says, I can't, and at the end, he said, I did.

Those sound like opposite problems, but really they're the same one, just looking different.

In both cases, Gideon is looking at who?

Gideon.

And Gideon isn't here as a hero for us to copy or a villain for us to avoid, as all of these judges are, but he is a mirror for Israel and for us now to look into.

Two things.

When weakness gets in the way.

Some of us live in chapter 6 in the wine press.

We are hiding in some ways.

And when Christ calls us to serve, our first answer is Gideon's.

Your weakness doesn't disqualify you, but God chose those 300 so that the weakness would be the point.

But weakness can still get in the way.

It tempts us to trust our own inadequacy more than God's promise.

I can't, quietly becomes the reason we don't obey.

I can't teach that class.

I don't know enough.

I can't talk to my coworker about Jesus.

I'll say something wrong, maybe.

I can't serve there.

Someone else would be better.

In some ways, that sounds humble, but notice who's still in the center: me, my ability, or my inability.

Gideon kept looking at his weak clan, his small army, his wet fleece, God pointing to him, saying, though, one thing, I will be with you.

And he says that to you.

But what about when strength gets in the way?

Some of us live in chapter 8.

Life is working.

You're capable, you're respected.

Maybe you're leading.

But look where Gideon actually fell.

It wasn't in the wine press, it was right after the biggest victory of his life.

Strength gets in the way by slowly moving the credit to ourselves.

The Lord has given what we ought to be saying.

We say we save ourselves.

God stops being the point of the story and becomes the name we use to back up our own plans.

We serve, but we want to be noticed.

We lead, but we start trusting our experience more than we fall on our face in prayer.

We do kingdom work with our own agenda, mixing in, settling a score, protecting our name, building something with our fingerprints on it.

That's Gideon crossing the Jordan.

It's still service, but it's about him now.

So whether you're weak or strong, the question is the same one Judges 7.2 asks, What are you boasting in?

What am I boasting in?

Paul answers it in Galatians 6.14.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

If you're strong, the cross means you have nothing to boast about.

Everything you have, everything you'll ever accomplish for him, rests on what he did, not what you did.

If you're weak, you might wonder where you fit in.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, he begged God three times to take away his weaknesses.

And Christ says to him, My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness.

So Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

It doesn't mean hiding behind your weaknesses either.

So what Gideon says is, I'm the least, send someone else.

What Paul says is this I'm weak, so watch what Christ can do.

Same weakness, different, but so this is how Jesus uses us.

Jesus is the one whose weakness never turned into unbelief and whose strength never turned into pride.

He was truly weak, crucified in weakness, 2 Corinthians tells us.

In Gethsemane, he was afraid and he had sweat like drops of blood, but he didn't ask for a way out.

What did he say?

Not what your will, but mine.

Not my will, but yours.

He was truly strong.

He could have called legions of angels.

Gideon said, The Lord will rule over you, but then he lived like a king.

Jesus was the king and he chose the cross.

Remember the ephod.

It was gold taken from the spoils of war, set up in his own hometown.

It became a snare.

When Israel's high priest, though, went before the Lord, he wore the ephod.

Twelve tribes engraved on stone on his shoulders and over his heart.

Gideon built a counterfeit, but Jesus is the real thing.

Jesus is our high priest.

He doesn't take gold from us to get near to God.

He gave his own blood to bring us near.

And right now it says in Hebrews that he intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.

So let us approach the throne with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace.

The cross is God's final answer to Judges 2, 7, 2.

It's the weakest-looking weapon there could be, the cross.

And through it, by it, God won the greatest victory in history in a way that leaves no one anything to boast about except the cross.

If weakness has been in the way, name the one thing that you've been telling Christ I can't.

Take one step of obedience this week, even if, like Giddin, you have to do it scared.

If strength has been in the way for you, ask yourself honestly where you've been taking credit.

And where your agenda has slipped into your service.

Tell someone of what he's done in your life.

And for all of us, bring your weakness, that thing that I asked you about earlier.

Bring your strength, that thing that I asked you about earlier.

Bring it to the cross and leave them both there.

Some of you came this morning thinking that you're too weak for God to use.

Some of you came in pretty sure that you've got it all handled.

Gideon's story says that we're both still looking at ourselves.

So let's look somewhere else.

Far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says.

So boast in him.