Gideon:A Faith that Challenges
Judges 6-8
“The Hall of Fame of the Faithful”.
Hebrew writer records his name; Hebrews 11:32
There are 7 listed;
Judges 6:1 tells that disobedience brought Midianite
invaders
A 300 year period of self rule and unfaithfulness
produced a cycle of freedom and captivity to various
groups who would cry out to the Lord and He would raise
up Judges who brought them deliverance.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did
what was right in his own eyes...” (Judges 21:25 ESV)
Does that sound familiar?
The Israelites were forced to hide in caves to wait them
out. Well, after seven years this was getting a little old,
so the people cried out to God for deliverance, and God
called Gideon.
In Judges 6:11 we find him threshing wheat in a
Winepress. A pit in the ground used for stomping the
juice out of grapes.
Gideon was a bitter, disappointed man, But God saw him
as much more. The first thing in this process is our need
to See Ourselves as God Sees Us
“The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor..”
(Judges 6:12 ESV)
Listen to Gideon “Who am I? How can I save Israel? I am
the least in my father’s house, and my father’s house is
the least in Israel.” (Judges 6:15 paraphrase)
Far too often we see ourselves through the eyes of
worldly standards. We see ourselves as not good
enough, or that we’ll never amount to anything.
But God sees us through His own eyes and sees the faith
that lies hidden within the winepresses of our souls.
Next, we need to understand that God isn’t calling us to
big things, God Starts Us Off Small.
God tells Gideon to start at home getting life in order.
Judges 6:25
The Jews had all but abandoned the Lord and as a result
built for themselves alters to the false gods of the
nations that surrounded them. And then they wondered
like we wonder today why they were in such a mess, and
where was God.
This is what we see in Gideon’s question earlier to the
Angel of the Lord. Judges 6:13
God doesn’t ask us to do the big things until we first take
care of the small thing which leads to another point. God
wants us to Take Care of Present Business
God will never reveal any new truths until we obey the
truths He has already given. Until we do what God has
already told us, He isn’t going to take us any further into
His kingdom purposes.
The Axiom is, don’t expect God to reveal greater projects
until we’re busy with what he’s already revealed to us.
The bible is full of those instructions.
The sad reality is that fewer and fewer people are
walking in the ways of God.
From 2010 to 2020, among U.S. born-again Christians
their belief in the core doctrines of the Christian faith fell
from 47% to 25%.
A more recently Barna research reveals that only 6% of
all American adults have a biblical worldview.
Next, God makes this call of faith to each one of us
individually.
God Always Begins With Me
God was saying to Gideon was, “I’m not going to deal
with the Midianites, rather I’m going to start working on
you and the idolatry that you have set up in your heart.”
So, God sends Gideon home to first take care of his own
spiritual business before God can use Him for His greater
purposes.
Another point is that God Tests Our Faith.
“now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—
may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and
honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6,7 NIV)
God doesn’t test our faith to see how badly we can fail,
but to see how He can encourage us to succeed.
When Gideon was told to knock down the altar and idol
of Baal in his father’s back yard, God knew how weak his
faith was, I mean, he’s hiding out in a winepress.
But, to encourage Gideon, God tells him to make an
offering, and then the Angel of the Lord, which was none
other than the Lord God Himself, touched the sacrifice
with His staff, and up it went in a puff of smoke, and the
Lord was gone. Gideon then went and tore down the
altar of Baal.
Judges 6:36-40 Gideon tests God’s call by “Putting His
Fleece before the LORD” The answer was not a matter
of circumstance but a genuine miracle
Then God tested Gideon’s faith by whittling down his
army from 32,000 to 300.
And so, Gideon wasn’t all that sure about how God was
going to make it all happen. How can 300 defeat an
army of over 100,000?
Truly bringing Gideon to a clear understanding of who
was the power and strength at work, it gave him
confidence to carry out God’s instructions.
“The sword for the Lord and for Gideon” (Judges 7:20
ESV), and the Lord threw the Midianites into confusion
and Gideon won a great battle by faith.
And so, we come to our last point, and that is God
Offers Us A Choice
God gave Gideon a choice in the beginning, run and hide
or by faith believe God’s promises and move forward in
the will of God.
God is testing our faith through the choices we make.
And so, we need to have our faith built up, otherwise,
these problems will steamroll us, and like Gideon we’ll
start to wonder, “Where is God? Did He abandon us?”
Conclusion
What we need to realize is that in God’s Hall of Fame if
the faithful, there are not only those who succeeded by
faith, but there are also those who weren’t victorious,
but their faith was still rewarded by God. Look at what
the writer of Hebrews says about them.
“Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were
chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were
sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword…
persecuted and mistreated…These were all commended
for their faith.” (Hebrews 11:36-39 NIV)
The secret of faith is that God may put us in
circumstances and a miracle may happen, but it may
not, but our faith should still remain.
“The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor..