Judges - 6
Gideon (Part 1)
This section of the book of Judges, dealing with a leader called Gideon, is so full of interest and with many fascinating details that it cries out for explanation and application. It will be most instructive for us to look at the main events in his life and draw valuable lessons from them.
I have entitled the first section of this study of his life “The Call and Preparation of Gideon.” This occupies the whole of Judges chapter six. The very title reminds us that as Christians we are called by God to Himself and that He then shapes and prepares us to serve Him. Are you listening for his voice as you read his Word and hear Bible messages?
In this sixth chapter we are introduced to our unlikely hero, Gideon, who was from the tribe of Manasseh. He lived in a place called Ophrah near to Mount Tabor in southern Galilee. It was at that time when enemy raiders from the desert regions to the east and south were attacking the Israelites. Those invaders were the Midianites and Amalekites, who would cross the river Jordan and drive westward destroying and stealing crops.
It was a cruel and merciless warfare that was waged because in verse four we read that no foodstuff was left for Israel and their animals. It is a sore trial when food is in short supply. It is an even greater trial when spiritual food is hard to come by. We read in the prophecy of Amos chapter eight, verse eleven that there would come “a famine of the hearing of the word of God.” This means that there would be such spiritual desolation that the word of God would be scarcely heard anywhere. One of the greatest blessings we can have is a plentiful supply of Bibles and of men who will teach faithfully what the Bible says. Never take for granted the spiritual food that is available. It may not always be there so plentifully.
Why was it in Gideon’s day that such terrible suffering was being experienced? The answer is found in the first verse of the chapter: “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” God controls the destinies of all nations, raising up and putting down rulers in his sovereign will and allowing them to expand their empires or to see them crumble. In Daniel chapter four, verse twenty-five we learn that God gives rule and authority to whomsoever He will. In Psalm seventy-five verses six and seven, we are taught that promotion comes from God who puts down one and sets up another. All earth’s rulers are in his hand.
In this particular case the Midianites were allowed to be a chastening instrument against the Israelites because of their disobedience before God. At the present moment does everything seem against you? Are your plans going all wrong? Are you up against a brick wall, with your efforts seemingly thwarted? Can it be that God is chastening you and wanting you to seek after Him and turn away from yourself? Then “Seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near.”
We read that the Israelites eventually cried out to the Lord because of the oppression they were suffering throughout seven long years. Now God did a strange thing in response to their pleas for help. In verse eight we learn that God did not grant an immediate deliverance to His people. Instead, a prophet was sent to them to call the people back to their covenant responsibilities and loyalties. You see, they had been untrue to God and his laws.
It appears that their crying out to the Lord for help did not indicate a true sorrow for their sin and a turning from it. In other words, a genuine repentance was not evident among them. God saw that they needed to hear his word, accept the challenge of it and put away their disobedience.
It is still true today that mere crying to the Lord for help and deliverance may not indicate a true repentance for things that are wrong. In Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse ten, the apostle Paul says: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” A genuine repentance has definite effects in the life.
From verse eleven onwards of Judges chapter six, we are introduced to Gideon himself who was himself living under the conditions I have just described. We are told that an angel of the Lord appeared to him sitting under an oak tree belonging to Joash, the father of Gideon. It is interesting to note that in this passage this angel is also called the angel of the Lord and that Gideon addresses him as “Lord” in verse sixteen. Here we have another Old Testament appearance of the Son of God, as in the experience of Abraham and Joshua. How compassionate and patient He is with Gideon, gently encouraging him to go into battle for the Lord and his people. Still today, He gives to his people such encouragement saying, “I am with you always.”
Gideon, like so many of us, expressed doubts about his own ability. “How can I save Israel?” he asked. “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.” In answer to that the Lord’s uplifting words were: “I will be with you and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were but one man.” On that very same night Gideon, now emboldened and taking ten men who worked for him, destroyed the local altar of the false god Baal. On a new altar he offered a sacrifice to the Lord. He had made his first move, his initial stand for truth and righteousness. It was a call to the nation to have done with false worship and come back to God. He knew it would provoke a reaction and it did, but Gideon came through that immediate hostility.
Perhaps, like Gideon, you feel insignificant. “What could I possibly do for God?” you may be thinking. You can start by being true to Him, living for Him and shunning all evil. Everyone has to begin somewhere in this, and it is often in the small details of daily life that the start is made. Ask the Lord to help you make a beginning as He did with Gideon.
Shortly after Gideon’s first move for God the Midianites and Amalekites crossed the river Jordan and encamped in their thousands in the Valley of Jezreel. This valley leads north west from the river towards the Mediterranean Sea. Their forces seemed to fill the area, making the situation look hopeless for the Israelites. So it is that God’s children have often seemed a tiny minority, but God has been with them, upholding them.
What overwhelming odds faced the Israelites, yet in that very hour God acted to save them. In verse thirty-four we read that, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon”. This virtually means, “the Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon.” God’s Spirit completely possessed him. All through the Bible we see that when God intends to do a great work He mightily empowers the man or woman of his choice who is to do it. Great spiritual energy and understanding is imparted for a task that otherwise seems impossible. It is still true today, for God says to us that it is not by human power or wisdom that his work is accomplished, but by his Spirit.
Now this coming of the Holy Spirit on Gideon did not mean that he became superhuman. He was still an ordinary man and still a little hesitant. He wanted reassurance from God, so he asked for a special sign involving a fleece of sheep’s wool. On the first night he asked for the dew to be on the fleece, but not on the earth around it. On the second night he asked for it to be the opposite way round. God in his patience and kindness granted both signs to Gideon.
There is danger here to be avoided. We are not Gideon, and if we are true Christians then the Holy Spirit lives within us and will guide us through the Bible if we seek God’s guidance, approaching him through our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not for us, in our day, to put God to the test, demanding special signs for conformation. Rather it is our duty to walk humbly before the Lord, trusting in Him and his Word. If you are not doing that, ask God to help you to do it so that his blessing may be upon your life, as it was upon Gideon’s.