Gideon’s Commission

September 13, 2009

Lesson: Judges 6:1-14

Key Verse: Judges 6:14

Introduction

For forty years after their deliverance through Deborah and Barak, the children of the Lord found peace. Deborah’s prayer was “O Lord; but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might” (Judges 5:31). But again the children of Israel turn from their Lord, doing those things which are evil in His sight.

Gideon (he who cuts down) was the fourth judge who would be God’s instrument in delivering his people from the plunder of the Midianites, Amalekites and Bedouins. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12). “This address contained the promise that the Lord would be with Gideon, and that he would prove himself a mighty hero through the strength of the Lord. This promise was to be a guarantee to him of strength and victory in his conflict with the Midianites” (Comm., Keil & Delitzsch). God does not choose Gideon because he is a man of strength and courage. He chooses Gideon and makes him to be a man of strength and courage. Paul admonished us to turn to the Lord for victory when he wrote, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might” (Eph. 6:10).

Our Lord does not require of us that which he does not promise to give. In other words, God enables us, by his power and strength, to do those things which he commands. This is seen clearly in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20:

1. Christ presents himself as the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. This authority is confirmed in the fact that God the Father has given Christ this authority.

2. By his authority, he gives the command: “Go therefore and teach all of all nations … Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded.”

3. Then Christ adds this truth which tells us that we are not to obey his command on our own strength: “and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

In the Sight of the Lord—Judges 6:1-6

There is no record of what happened during the forty years of peace after the conquest of Jabin. The Spirit again warns us that the battle for truth and righteousness is ongoing, even in times of peace. A time of peace is a time that the Lord affords us to gain strength, a time when our ears and hearts need to take special attention to the Word of our God. The armor of God is not to be laid aside during these times of peace and quiet. The words of Paul acknowledge the need to make useful these times of peace: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11). The peace which Judges speaks of is that peace which the Lord alone gives, the peace which alone strengthens the Church: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jesus, John 14:27).

However, “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Midianites.” The “wiles of the devil” never rest, though congregations which claim Christ seem to think that if we gain a measure of peace with one another, things will work out in the long run. The children of the household of the Triune God are not makers of peace, they are given a true peace that will nourish their souls, which is and will ever be the time to find victory over whatever temptations come our way. The children of Israel took for granted a peace which the Lord had given, and looked to their deeds to sustain that peace. They were like Peter who walked on the water, whose faith wavered when he took his eyes off of Christ and began to sink. The children of Israel took their eyes off their Lord and did that which was evil, transgressing the law of the Lord.

They were delivered into the hand of the Midianites that they may know the debt they owed to their Lord. The Lord delivers his people from their transgressions by way of punishment, that repenting they may acknowledge such a grace: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7); a pardon which is not without cost: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s … ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men” (1 Cor. 6:19-20, 7:23).

The children of Israel forgot that they belonged to the Lord, who delivered them from Egypt, and from the wilderness of sin. Thus the Lord brought the Midianites against them, “And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites: and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.”

Discussion: How is Christ alone our peace? What is our responsibility during times of peace?

The Lord Sends a Prophet—Judges 6:7-14

To put it mildly, Israel was impoverished and in trouble. The people of God had sinned against their God [they did this evil in the sight of the Lord], and the Lord had delivered them into the hand of the Midianites. For seven years they hid in caves, hoping that their crops and sheep would sustain them. However, the Midianites came during the seasons of harvest. Like locusts, they swept through their fields and took the products of their labor for their own. Finally the people of God cried out to their Lord. When the children of Israel had kept covenant with their Deliverer, acknowledging that it was the Lord who owned all that they had, that they were stewards of many blessings, the Lord assured them that they would keep their land, cattle, etc. Now they were losing the productivity of their hands.

When the children of the Lord cried unto the Lord, the Lord sent a prophet, saying, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,  I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land.”

The Lord sends a prophet to the children of Israel, promising them deliverance from their afflictions. His message is one of hope, reminding them of his saving work with their fathers. It was by the Lord’s authority alone that they were delivered: “I brought out of the hand of the Egyptians … I am the Lord your God.” It was by the Lord’s covenant promise that victory was theirs: “Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” It was by the Lord’s justice they found themselves in captivity because they had not obeyed his voice.

Gideon, the son of Joash, threshed wheat in a wine press, in order to hide it from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, saying, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour!” Gideon asked, “O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” The Lord looks upon Gideon, not as a man of war, but a chosen servant that would find victory by the power of God: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have I not sent thee?”

Would it not be easier to sit in the pew and look for a miracle of God to deliver us? Yet the Lord would take ourselves to be used as his chosen servants, that we might find victory in him alone. How many times has the Christian gone to the Lord and wondered if there would be deliverance from trouble, only to forget that the answer from God may include himself?  Have we not prayed for someone, or the church, and forgotten that we may be chosen as part of the answer?  When we pray for the Lord to send missionaries, we may be praying, by the Spirit, that the Lord send us. How many of us consider prayer as a possible call to serve?  When we pray for the growth of the congregation, or for a blessing to come upon a brother or sister in Christ, we need to consider that we are being called upon to be a blessing.

Discussion: By what authority does the Lord speak to the people of Israel?