From Fear to the Fight by Faith | Sunday, March 10, 2024

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years... whenever Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up... and they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth... So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. (Judges 6:1–6)

When the locusts have stripped your life bare, the Lord may be sitting closer than you think—calling a reluctant heart into the fight by faith.

A Bug's Life in Judges 6

I love Pixar movies. After Toy Story came A Bug's Life in 1998—the story of a colony of ants who harvest food all spring and summer, only to have an evil gang of grasshoppers led by Hopper show up and take it all. That is exactly the story of Judges chapter 6.

Verse 1 says, "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." If you've been with us over the last six weeks, you knew that was coming, because that is the basic storyline of the Book of Judges. About 3,400 years ago, a generation or so after Israel came into the promised land, they followed God only as long as they had a good leader. Soon after that leader died, they would quickly return to sinful idolatry and end up under the thumb of their enemies. As long as they had a good judge—Othniel, Ehud, Deborah and Barak—they served God. But as soon as the judge died, "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." Later, in chapter 17, we read that everyone did what was right in their own eyes—and when they did what was right in their own eyes, they did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Israel's History With Midian

So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and like grasshoppers the Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the East came up and consumed the produce, leaving no sustenance—neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. They came as numerous as locusts, with camels without number, to consume the land.

What's striking is that Israel had a long history with these people. Moses had lived in the land of Midian for the forty years leading up to the Exodus. He married a Midianite woman, Zipporah, and his father-in-law was the priest of Midian who became a counselor to him. After the Red Sea, Israel came into Midian and received the law at Mount Sinai, which is in Midian. They also knew the Midianites by blood. Go back to Father Abraham: after Sarah died, Genesis tells us Abraham remarried a woman named Keturah, and one of her sons was Midian. So the Midianites were distant relatives of Israel. Yet now, a century and a half later, these relatives come up like locusts and strip Israel of everything.

The Locusts of Life

It's worth considering what the Midianites might represent in our own lives. They came in and consumed the fruitfulness and produce of God's people. What in your life is like that? If you take time to think about it, you probably realize there are things that rob your time, sap your energy, consume your resources, and grip your focus, bringing you under a kind of bondage.

Point number one: the locusts of life are lying in wait to lay waste to our lives. If we're not on guard, the chewing, swarming, crawling, consuming locust will decimate our time, energy, resources, and attention. The Apostle Paul calls us to pay attention. In Ephesians he says, "See then that you walk circumspectly"—eyes wide open, ears attentive—"not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time," or as another translation puts it, "making the most of every opportunity, for the days are evil." Many people I talk with sense we are living in difficult, evil days. Israel was not on guard, and the Midianites impoverished them for seven seasons—until they cried out to the Lord.

The Lord Sent a Prophet

"It came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel" (v. 7–8). Underline those words—the Lord sent a prophet. This is the first time in the Scriptures we read that God sent a prophet to Israel. In studying the Bible there's a principle called first mention: trace a concept back to where it originates, because that often gives a clue to how it appears later.

When we hear "prophet," we tend to think of someone predicting far-future events—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, dreams and visions, the tabloids in the checkout line at Vons. But the word prophet means spokesman or speaker. And notice the circumstances of this first sent prophet: Israel is under the thumb of an oppressing people, having turned away to idols and immorality. That's when the prophet shows up. More often than not, the prophets came in exactly these circumstances—to a people who had departed from God—for one clear purpose: to call them back to faith and faithfulness. The primary calling of the prophet was not to predict the distant future, though some did, but to call an unfaithful people back to God.

Experts in Deuteronomy

The prophet says, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage... and I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed My voice" (v. 8–10).

Notice he simply speaks the words of Deuteronomy. About 150 years earlier Moses had said in Deuteronomy 18:15, "The Lord shall raise up unto you a prophet like unto me; him shall you hear." Here at Cross Connection we began our Old Testament study in Deuteronomy rather than Genesis because Deuteronomy is the key that unlocks the rest of Israel's story up to Jesus. There Moses laid out exactly how God would relate to His people in the land: "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse" (Deut. 11:26)—blessing if you obey, cursing if you turn aside to other gods. We call this the deuteronomic principle.

When you study the Old Testament you discover the prophets were not so much amazing predictors of the future as experts in the book of Deuteronomy. This unnamed prophet echoes Deuteronomy 5:6–7: "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt... you shall have no other gods before Me." And Deuteronomy 6:10–14: when you come into the land, beware lest you forget the Lord; you shall fear Him and serve Him and not go after other gods, for the Lord your God is a jealous God. He is not predicting the future—he is reminding them of something they already knew.

An Ordered, Orderly Creation

These words reveal that the world we live in is an ordered and orderly creation of God. The principle of cause and effect is clear in the cosmos because God made it that way. Isaac Newton, the father of physics, understood cause and effect—but he was also a theologian who understood it practically and theologically. The New Testament calls it sowing and reaping: "If you sow to the flesh you will of the flesh reap corruption, but if you sow to the Spirit you will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Galatians). In the Old Testament we call it the deuteronomic principle—a simple "if this, then that." Israel is oppressed by Midian not because the Midianites were big brutes, but because Israel departed from faithfulness to the Lord.

Point number two: God has made clear how the world He created works, and He's given us minds to reason and understand it—and we would do well to observe and live accordingly. Too often people fail to realize simple cause and effect. Someone may say through tears, "I just don't understand why this is happening to me," and in your mind you think, "I kind of know how this happened—if this, then that." You don't need a degree to grasp it. But may we not just recognize it; may we live accordingly. Most of the prophets' predictions were conditional predictions: if you keep doing this, this will happen; but if you repent and turn to the Lord, He will bring blessing in obedience.

Gideon in the Winepress

"Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah... while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites" (v. 11). It was the wheat harvest, between May and June. Today we harvest with great machines, but 3,400 years ago they cut the wheat with a sickle, dragged something heavy over it to separate grain from chaff, then threw it into the air—winnowing—so the wind carried away the lighter chaff while the grain fell to the ground. For that you need an elevated, windy place. Gideon is in a low-lying winepress—the wrong place entirely—because he's hiding from the Midianites.

Imagine his frustration: covered in sweat, wheat husks stuck to his face, angrily tossing grain into still air, the words of the prophet still ringing in his ears. And the Angel of the Lord says to him, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" Gideon answers, "O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about? Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites" (v. 13).

Who Is the Angel of the Lord?

This curious title has puzzled commentators for centuries. It doesn't say "an angel" but "the Angel of the Lord," and as the story unfolds, verse 14 says "the Lord turned to Gideon," and verse 16 says "the Lord said." So this Angel speaks as the Lord. I suggest this is very likely a christophany—a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. You may ask how that's possible before Bethlehem, but Jesus is the one "who was and is and is to come," the image of the invisible God. He existed before He was born. We have precedent: about a year ago in Joshua 5, before Jericho, Joshua met the Commander of the army of the Lord and took the sandals from his feet and worshiped him—that was probably Jesus. Here again He shows up.

He tells a frustrated, fearful Israelite, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." Gideon surely didn't feel like one. Maybe the words sounded almost mocking. Have you ever felt like Gideon, where it seems God is distant and powerless? And yet at that very moment the Lord was sitting a short way away.

Point number three: God is often closer than we realize, and ready to hear and respond. But He doesn't always respond the way we expect.

The Wrong Man for the Job

"Then the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?'" (v. 14). Gideon responds the way many of us would: "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (v. 15). God, You've got the wrong guy.

I've certainly thought that when I sensed the Lord setting an open door before me. But God's choosing is not like our choosing. As I shared a couple weeks ago, the Lord chooses the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised to accomplish His mighty acts. Why? Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "so that no flesh should glory in His presence." Through us—the weak and despised—God gets great glory when He accomplishes great feats. He wants to show Himself mighty in your life so people say, "That wasn't really from them, was it?" And you say, "No—it had nothing to do with me; it had everything to do with the Lord." That's exactly what happens in Gideon's story.

Surely I Will Be With You

"And the Lord said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man'" (v. 16). Gideon was a hesitant, reluctant leader—and he was in good company. Moses was reluctant. Joshua was reluctant. Barak was reluctant. Jeremiah was reluctant. In the New Testament, Timothy was fearful and hesitant. God calls hesitant and reluctant individuals and says, "Surely I will be with you." That's the key.

When we see the task in light of our own abilities, strategy, or strength, we seem as small as grasshoppers, destined to be consumed. Apart from Him we can do nothing. But "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." God sees the end, not the beginning. He sees what He can do by His strength in the life of an individual yielded to Him.

Show Me a Sign

When God said He would deliver an enormous army—later we'll see it was about 150,000 men—into Gideon's hand "as one man," that sounds absurd. So Gideon says, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me" (v. 17). This is where we get the phrase "putting out a fleece before the Lord."

Point number four: God is abundantly gracious and faithful even when our faith is lacking. Gideon prepares a young goat, unleavened bread, and broth and brings it to the Angel. "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth," He says. The Angel touches them with the end of His staff, fire rises out of the rock and consumes the offering, and the Angel disappears (v. 19–21). That the Angel receives this offering clues us in again that this is no ordinary angel—this is the Lord.

Gideon perceives that he has seen the Angel of the Lord face to face and cries, "Alas, O Lord God!" From his study of the Torah he remembered, "You cannot see My face and live" (Exodus 34). But the Lord says, "Peace be with you—shalom—do not fear; you shall not die" (v. 23). So Gideon built an altar and called it Yahweh Shalom, "The Lord is Peace."

Judgment Begins at Home

That same night the Lord gave him a task: "Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it... and build an altar to the Lord your God... and offer the second bull as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down" (v. 25–26). Gideon's own father, Joash, was an idol worshiper, with an altar to Baal and a wooden image to Asherah—the two chief deities of the surrounding peoples.

So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord said. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, he did it by night rather than by day (v. 27). Gideon was fearful and reluctant—but he still obeyed. That's the key: you might be a reluctant follower, but you can still obey. And notice God did not rebuke him for doing it secretly. God didn't demand it be done in broad daylight; He simply wanted it done.

Here's an important principle. We see the idolatry and immorality of our time and think, "Someone needs to do something." But the first step usually happens in your own home. Before God could deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon had to tear down the idols in his own household. God desires to bring deliverance—He wants His people to walk in liberty, free from the metaphorical midianites of our day—but the first step toward freedom is removing the strongholds of idolatry and immorality in our own house.

Contagious Obedience

In the morning the men of the city found the altar of Baal torn down, the image cut down, and the bull offered on a new altar. When they learned Gideon had done it, they demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die" (v. 30). Sadly, sometimes the people around us don't respond rightly to our repentance and obedience. Sometimes people love their sin more than God—sometimes even the people of God are more devoted to idols than to the Lord.

But Joash answered, "Would you plead for Baal? ... If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down" (v. 31). Sometimes our faithful obedience and repentance is contagious. So that day they called Gideon Jerubbaal—"Let Baal plead against him."

The Spirit Came Upon Gideon

Then the Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the East gathered, crossed over, and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel (v. 33). You can hear Hopper and his gang approaching. "But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon" (v. 34). Notice when: after he stepped forward in faithful obedience and repentance, and when the trouble arose. Then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites, Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali gathered to him.

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." Point number five: God looks and longs for willing vessels into which He can pour out His power and strength. That's what He's looking for today—hearts that are loyal to Him, even if those vessels are reluctant and hesitant. God doesn't always need bold, unwavering faith; He can use weak, struggling faith. Jesus said even faith like a mustard seed can accomplish the greatest things, because it is not the greatness of your faith but the greatness of the One in whom you place your faith.

For Our Day

We live in troubling times. We may not have Hopper and his gang, but plenty of things are stealing away the produce of our lives. Maybe, like Gideon, you find yourself day in and day out laboring with sweat and frustration, asking why all this is happening. And the Lord says, "I want to use you. You're a mighty man or woman of valor, and I can use you for great purposes as I place My Spirit on you."

You may say, "I'm going to need a sign." We'll see next week that Gideon needs many more signs—because God will make it so impossible to win with what Gideon has that there will be no possible way it works by human strategy or strength. That's when God shows up. Perhaps we're at just that time in our culture, and would to God that He would show up. But first He says, judgment must begin at the house of the Lord. Maybe there's something consuming your attention or resources that needs to be cut down, purged, and burned away, so that God can pour forth His Spirit, His might, and His power to bring victory and liberty once again.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would move in and through us. We are in so many ways insufficient and weak, despised and base and foolish. But Lord, it is not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves; our sufficiency comes from You. You are the One who enables us by Your Spirit, by Your power, by Your word at work in us. I pray, Holy Spirit, that You would work in us, Your people—that You would fill us to overflowing. Identify anything in our lives that is distracting or consuming our attention, stealing away our joy or our resources; help us to see it, that we might give it over to You, that You might remove and purge it, so we can be fully filled in every respect by Your Spirit and empowered by You. Pour out upon Your church and empower us, we pray. In Jesus' name—and all those that agreed said, Amen.