I’ll recap Judges.
Background: Before Joshua dies, Israel made a covenant that they will follow the Lord.
That lasts one generation.
God set up parameters so this wouldn’t happen. He warned them ahead of time. Make sure to tell your children what God did. Make sure to pass on the commands.
It’s almost painful to read in the beginning of Judges how the people failed to drive out the Canaanites. The Canaanites were determined to stay in the region. They even settled for less and moved in among the Canaanites who “controlled the land.”
Our temptations are determined to stay.
Will you drive them out? Or will you move in with them?
Angel of the Lord shows up and basically says: I brought you out of the land of slavery to give you this land. You were not to make any covenants with these people. You were to DESTROY their altars. So I will no longer drive them out. Their gods will actually be a temptation for you.
And so the roller coaster begins. Disaster comes and when it gets bad enough, the people cry out to the Lord and they’re good for a while. Then down the roller coaster again they go looking for the next thrill in a false god.
They did well with the Lord while that judge lived.
I think God is waiting for the day when we as Christians
don’t live for God only while someone else is watching.
What you are doing, when no one else is looking, in your spare time, in quarantine… I’m sure is deeply revealing.
Judges 3:1-2 These are the nations that the LORD left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.
God doesn’t just want one generation.
He wants every generation to know how to warfare.
Otherwise the enemy not only tempts you to sin,
you move in with him and prostitute yourself.
When we arrive at Judges 6…Israel is doing evil in the Lord’s sight.
You see, it doesn’t matter what law in America passes or what law encourages your sin…it matters what is evil in the Lord’s eyes.
The Lord handed them over to the Midianites.
The Midianites took all their food.
So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites.
When you go to something other than God to feed you, you will find yourself lacking.
The very thing you went to for sustenance will starve you. It can never be satisfied.
Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
When people’s false gods run dry…they get thirsty and cry out to the One they KNOW can satisfy their thirst.
The Lord responds and send a prophet. He reminds them of what He did by driving them out of slavery. What He warned them not to do. But they didn’t listen.
The angel of the Lord comes to Gideon. “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
Gideon should have been like “Dang, REALLY?” Instead he said: “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”
Man, if that is not us in the face of suffering. The Good God who warned us, who we choose not to listen to, is the very One we blame for desertion when disaster strikes. In reality, WE ARE THE ONES WHO LEFT the scene.
We are so backwards….I pray we can get turned around. That’s called repentance.
Gideon: And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.
We are always looking for a sign like God’s tract record isn’t sufficient.
Lord: “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
Gideon: “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
We question what the Lord told us to do based on our human understanding.
Lord: “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
Gideon: “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”
This shows me the fact that Gideon was unable to trust God. It comes down to trust.
Lord: “I will stay here until you return.”
Gideon hurried home and prepares a sacrifice. God didn’t ask for a sacrifice. He just wanted obedience. Gideon still, unable to comprehend that God could work with such a small tribe felt like he had to offer something.
Then Gideon realizes it was an angel of the Lord and builds an altar.
God tells Gideon to pull down his father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.
So God tells Gideon….you know your papa who didn’t pass on to you how to follow the Lord….that one…yep, topple his false idols. Then use the false idol as fuel for the fire of the sacrifice I want you to burn.
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.
The fear of man keeps us from seeing freedom in our families.
Yes, you might be the child….and God may use you to topple the false gods set up in your home by your parents.
The people wake up the next morning MAD. They wanna kill Gideon for destroying their false gods.
People might want to kill you for righteousness’ sake. It’s okay. They did it thousands of years ago and will continue to do it. Jesus promised us this.
Thankfully Gideon’s dad had the wherewithal to say if that piece of wood getting burned in flames currently can save himself, he will. Like you don’t need to defend baal.
Soon after that, an army formed an alliance against Israel. Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power.
Though Gideon was clothed with power by the Spirit, his flesh kicks in and he lays not one but two fleece to see if it’s God.
The lack of trust is almost painful to read, but I am sure my journals will be the same a hundred years from now.
Then it’s as if God is like “Okay, you still don’t trust Me….so I am going to make this really silly, so you make sure not to give yourself any credit.”
Love this part. “Now announce to the troops: ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'” So twenty-two thousand of the troops turned back, but ten thousand remained.”
22,000! LEFT. IN. FEAR.
I wish I could lead like this. “Hey ya’ll, first things first….if you’re scared and gonna intoxicate people with fear like grandma and grandpa did….get outta here.”
Even with the 10,000 the Lord was like: There are still too many.
God has Gideon dwindle the army down to 300 men who drink water like a dog.
Then God’s like: Perfect, let’s use the ones who are the most undignified and have them go to battle.
You see God wants “reckless abandon”….and I’ll-be-more-undignified-than-this type warriors who only will bow down to drink His living water….
Gideon puts trumpets and empty jars with torches on the inside in the hands of the warriors.
Gideon gives them something to worship with and to carry their light with into battle. The jars of clay that we are.
They blew those trumpets and smashed the jars….they gave glory to God and smashed their pride….I’d like to think of like this….they smashed their feeble, easily breakable containers.
They kept pursuing the army. It says “exhausted yet pursuing.”
Have we exhausted ourselves in pursuing the very thing that is destroying our promise land?
And they defeated Midian. Then they wanted to worship Gideon. Naturally. shaking my head
Gideon caught on after experiencing God as trustworthy and said basically it won’t be me or my child that will rule over you BUT THE LORD WILL RULE OVER YOU.
Well done Gideon. You got it. Until 2 seconds later.
He tells people to take off their earrings. And you’re reading this like “nooooooooooooooooooo!”
Sounds familiar? Yep, Moses took too long on that mountain where he was getting that covenant…so throw your jewelry in the pile. Let’s make a cow to worship.
Did we not just see God do a sign that you requested Gideon and yet that sign wasn’t enough? Our railroad tracks to idolatry are deeply engraved in our hearts and minds.
Instead, Gideon gets creative and makes an ephod and they whore after it. Seriously?
As soon as Gideon dies, they go back to baal.
The roller coaster doesn’t stop there. It goes on through Judges and comes all the way up to April 26, 2020 in our current pandemic of defiance to God’s ways.
When will we repent and turn back to God, America? Parents, start teaching your children God’s decrees. Children, teach your parents. Let us return for lasting generational impact. Let’s start reading the Bible and doing it. Let’s smash every idol that sets itself against God. Let’s take that idol and use it as fuel to burn something pleasing to the Lord. Otherwise, we are on this roller coaster until Jesus comes back. I’m not one for roller coasters. They freak me out, shake me to death and I usually have a headache afterwards.
Call it a thrill, but these thrills are destroying our land.
