Gideon As Judge

Transcript

GRS 2-52
1/7/2007
Gideon as Judge
Judges 7-8
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Book of Judges together and I would direct your attention to Chapter 6 of Judges. We’ve looked at Chapter 6 but just to remind you a few things since the account of Gideon and his judgeship covers Chapter 6, 7, and 8 of the Book of Judges, very significant and prominent Judge and one of the more well known judges of the Old Testament.

When a judge raise it’s a sign that God is responding to the cries of his people for help because they are under the discipline of God for rebellion. And so we have that cycle of rebellion against God and God brings discipline in the form of surrounding people who are able to overcome the Israelites and put them into bondage.

And then after a period of years in bondage Israel turns to the Lord and asks for mercy. And God responds and send judge and delivers Israel from their oppressors and then soon after Israel returns to their old ways and the cycle begins of God discipline. And so we have Chapter 6 open up then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. And so here we have Israel under the oppression of Midian down in verse 6, the sons of Israel cried to the Lord and in the account here in the situation where Midian were told the Lord sent them a prophet, verse 8 and told them the cause of their problems.

Verse 10, I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me. You spend seven years of suffering and bondage, pain of loss because you rebel against me. Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah and here remarkable appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ as the messenger Jesus Christ never was an angel in the sense of we think of angels as created spirit beings. But he was the angel of Lord in the context he is the messenger which is what an angel is and here in the Old Testament the pre-incarnate Christ functions as the messenger of the Lord. And here he comes to appoint Gideon if you will to be the deliver, I will say that he will deliver Israel from Midian.

Verse 16, the Lord said him, surely I will be with you; you shall defeat Midian as one man. No big deal for God. A large opposing enemy but they are nothing to God be like one person who have no problem taking care of Midian. The Lord, angel of the Lord manifest himself in a supernatural way in accepting an offering from Gideon, he touches the offering with his staff when it’s placed on a rock and fire consumes the offerings and the angel of the Lord then ascends and disappears in the smoke of the offering. And Gideon is well aware that he has witnessed the Lord himself.

Now we are ready, where does the Lord begin you remember, say well send Gideon out, give a might victory then come in and on the basis of the credibility he has now established, you have to deal with some things at home, its just reverse. First thing Gideon had to do was destroy the altars to the false gods in his father’s house and that evidently was the center of worship for this area. You see here in Gideon’s home you have a center of idol worship.

Verse 25, the same night the Lord said to him, take your father’s bull and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it. I mean, here you have the center of worship; we know that it’s a center of worship because Gideon destroys it, it won’t only affect his father but the whole city is going to be ended up roar over it.

What a place for God to begin. You go and destroy the center of pagan worship in your father’s house as a first act. Well, now you have the potential to divide himself from the family they don’t need this abode of and from the city, seems the backward way to do it but God begins by making sure that Gideon is cut off and takes a stand against the pagan worship. The false worship that has brought the judgment of God on Israel in the first place, there is no compromise with God on these matters.

And the Gideon’s credit, to put it that way, he goes in desert but the end of verse 27 tells us he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city do it by day, he did it by night. And that is going to barge out there in broad day light and tear down these altars and destroy them or rather he does it under the cover of night.

And his fears were justified because the next day, remember the men of the city were ready to kill him for it. And Gideon’s father intervenes and says let Baal content for himself. And so verse 32, therefore on that day he named him Gideon, Jerubbaal that is to say let Baal content against him. Now remember that because Gideon will also be referred as Jerubbaal, let Baal content.

In other words right at the beginning Gideon will be identified by a name that places him on the side of a living God in a position to the pagan god Baal. So verse 34, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he assembles an army to go and do battle with the Midianites and then you have the account of the fleece as a further reinforcement of God’s will. Keep in mind they don’t have completed scripture in those days.

And the days of the opposition to the Lord and the Lord does give direct revelation, intervene in various direct ways and here with Gideon he confirmed his will. So we come to Chapter 7 and we have the people assembled and it’s a quite a sizable force until you compare to the size of the Midianite armies and then it’s just a fraction of the army that they have.

So Chapter 7 begins then Jerubbaal, and reminds that is Gideon and all the people who were with him, rose early, and camp beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. All right, here we are.

And Gideon has a sizable force over 30,000 men. Now he is going to go up against Midianite army that is over 130,000 men. So it’s more than four times as big. But was Lord on your side they may be able to get it done. And then you read verse 2, the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midian into their hands. Why? For Israel would become boastful saying, mine own power has delivered me.

How gracious God is. God is answering the cry of the Israel. Back in Chapter 6, verse 6, we read the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, he graciously response, now he is going to deliver and he knows in their heart. They use an army of 32,000 men to give them victory even over an army of 135,000 men; Israel will go away thinking we got it done. And he only swelled them up in pride because they will be thinking, look at, we did, vastly outnumbered, and we defeated them. And so they would become boastful saying my own power has done this. So we are going to reduce the size of the army.

And I say it is a testimony to the faith of Gideon that we don’t find an argument going on here. That’s why Gideon was Gideon and Gilead was Gilead because we would have three Chapters of arguments probably if I had been the man on the spot here. God tells Gideon, verse 3, now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, whosoever is afraid and trembling let him return and depart from mount Gilead, so 23,000 people went home.

If you are afraid go home. I like to think that I would have been brave but you know where I would have been, I fear out of been one of the 22,000. Who wouldn’t be afraid? Anybody in their right mind, there is army of 135,000 fighting men, swordsmen if they are going to go home.

We are only a little over 30,000, is it is. I mean, this is more than four to one in the enemies favor. And you want to say anybody afraid now can go home. You think you would have been danger of being trampled in the stampede. 22,000 men gather up their swords and head for home. So we are told 22,000 people return but 10,000 people remain.

In other words, God is not going to use those who don’t trust him. Think about it. There is 10,000 men here who said I am not afraid to go into battle now against the 135,000. We’ve to remove those who are afraid, the cowards, those that God wouldn’t use for the accomplishing of this great task.

That’s good. Then the Lord said to Gideon, verse 4, the people are too many. Again you think you have another four Chapters of discussion and argument. Too many, Lord, have you counted the Midianites lately. I mean, look over down in verse 12. Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east relying in the valley as numerous as locusts; their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

We will get into Chapter 8, we were told the number of swordsmen here going to number about 135,000. We got 10,000 men and now the Lord says to Gideon the people are still too many. Bring them down to the water; I will test them there for you. Therefore each of he who might have say to you this one shall go with you, he shall go with you, everyone I say to you this one shall not go with you, he shall not go.

I take the firm, the lame, whoever, I mean, a warm body would be a help, may be he can throw himself in front of a camel. I don’t know. But 10, 000 is too many; I will sort them out for you Gideon. So he brought the people down to the water and Lord said to Gideon. You shall separate everyone who lapped the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.

So here is the test, you are going to go down to get the drink. Everyone who down his knees, puts his face in the water and lapped up like a dog, you put them in one side. Everyone who get down in his knees and brings the water up in his hands to his mouth you put another group. You separate them out.

Now the number who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men. The rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, I will deliver you with 300 men who lapped; give the Midian I send to your hand. So let all the other people each go home, each of them go to their home.

You want to send, we have 10,000, you want me to send 9700 men home. Do I have this right? We are going to less 300 men and then we are going to go and hack the Midianites army of 135,000. I think we have a problem. We reduced; we eliminated those who were afraid. Now we eliminated the careless and I think that’s probably what in view here.

In other words, those who come and just put their face down in the water have one thing in minds, satisfying their thirst. Those who kneel down but bring the water to their mouth keep alert, watch, be aware. We are not told the reason but that may well be a reason. It doesn’t matter because the 300 is the men; these are the ones that God will use. They are the men ones that if you will can be trusted to do what God says.

They have demonstrated they are not afraid, they demonstrated that they don’t get occupied with their own concerns here and they remain alert. So now we reduced it to 300 men. Is there any problem here really? I mean, it’s the living God who says in verse 7, I will deliver you with the 300 men, let the others go home. Now when God says I will deliver you, do we care what the number is? 300, 3000, 300,000, it doesn’t really matter, doesn’t?

The key statement here is I will deliver you because we know the living God could do with no one. Later in Israel’s history he will slay 180,000 Syrian soldiers with no one lifting a sword. They woke in the morning, the survivor look around and no armies, they are dead men.

So it’s not like the Lord needs people if he doesn’t choose to use them, so a credit for the faith of Gideon. I say, well, I might be argue this but if I stop and put my focus where it ought to be when God says I will deliver you that’s where my focus is to be. He is going to use 300 men, well; whatever God choose us to do because he is already committed himself I will deliver you.

I am a great man of faith when I am studying the history of someone else. It’s to trust the same God with my life in my circumstances in the things that confront me day by day; I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what will do with this, its overwhelming, for who?

For God, if I ever confronted anything in my life that had the potential to overwhelm God, no. So what’s the problem? Well, you don’t know what I am going through. No, I don’t. You don’t even know for sure what you are going through. I don’t know for sure what I might be going through. But God does and he is sufficient, right?

So here we are 300 men ready to go. So the 300 men took the people provisions, their trumpets into their hands, getting all the other men of Israel to east end, retain 300 men and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley, quite a sight.

You can jump over to Chapter 8, verse 10, Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left in the entire army of the sons of the east: for they fell were 120,000 swordsmen. So we know here we had a 135, 000 as 120,000 will be dead at this point and there is still 15, 000 surviving.

So these are the swordsmen. Now with this would come a huge avenue because remember when the armies come in, they have to bring their own supplies, they traveled with all that’s necessary to sustain them. So we are not just talking about the fighting men here. So now you got the 300 men and here they can look out in the valley below as far as their eye can see, they see Midianites and I wonder what was going through their mind.

This is really going to be interesting. What do we are going to do? All charged down the hill, waving their swords saying here we come, wonder what’s the Lord is going to do. And the Lord is very gracious; he knows our frame that we are but dust. So verse 9, now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him. Arise; go down against the camp for I have given it into your hands.

So by saying, you can just go ahead down. Take your 300 men and go down if you want. But he also gives him another option. But if you are afraid to go down, go with your servant down to the camp. And you will hear what they say and afterwards you hands will be strengthening and you may go down against the camp.

I love God’s graciousness. Here he does give Gideon a choice. We can do this two ways, Gideon. You can just take of down the mountain with your 300 men and get this over with. But if that’s a little bit intimidating with you, for you, you can just take your servant and snick down at night.

And listen to some conversations and that will help strengthen you. I would have done what Gideon did. I would opted for a since you Lord you give me a choice, would it be right if I do option two. I will go down with my servant and so he does. So he went with Purah his servant down to the outpost of the army that was in the camp, verse 11. Now here you got these two men, they are going to seek down to the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites.

Now the Midianites and Amalekites and all the sons of the east relying in the valley as numerous as locusts, their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. I mean, you got to supply an army of 135,000 soldiers. I mean, you got numerous, numerous people here.

When Gideon came a man was relating a dream to his friend. So here they snuck up at night, they get close to the camp where they can hear some conversations at a tent and a man relating a dream to his friend. He said, behold, I had a dream, a loaf of Barbie bread was stumbling into the camp of Midian and it came into the tent that struck so that it fell, it turned upside down so that the tent lay flat.

His friend replied this is nothing less than sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian all the camp into his hand. Isn’t amazing? Here some Midianites having a conversation about a dream. One man is going to relate his dream, the other man is going to give the interpretation and its going to all be accurate. And you see the sovereign hand of God in what is being related here.

The barley bread refers to Gideon represents Gideon, the poor Israelites, barley bread the basic course that’s all the Israelites have. The good grain and everything is been taken by the Midianites, remember, they come in every year at harvest time. They have the course grain that been hit and left; you have this poor man’s bread represents Gideon, the poor of Israel.

Gideon being the leader of this host. The temp represents the tense of Midianites spread out here. I mean, God can use the most pagan of instruments. He gives this dream to a pagan Midianite, they he gives the proper interpretation to another pagan Midianite. The sovereignty of God. He produce the dream in a man’s mind. He is directing Gideon and his servant, I mean, we have got, I don’t know, quarter of a million people down here.

When you add the supporting group and everything here, I don’t know and it just happens that Gideon and his servant come to here these two men talking. He moves the man to sharing the dream he had just at this time. He gives the man listening to him the proper interpretation of the dream. And all of this to encourage Gideon and Gideon is encouraged.

Verse 14, his friend replied, this is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel: God has given Midian, and all the camp into his hand when Gideon heard the account of the dream, its interpretation, he bowed in worship right where he was. He bowed the God of Israel.

For that word of encouragement that he would hear from the enemy that so overwhelming that they know they are doomed to suffer defeat at his hand. Amazing how our God works. So he goes back to the camp of Israel, he tells Amorites, the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hand. He still doesn’t know how to do it, how it’s going to happen.

But God has a plan of how it’s going to be. Each of them is going to take a picture, not a picture, a picture and a torch and a trumpet. Now that’s really great, sounds like some kind of spoof. You got a torch that you light, a picture that they are going to put over the torch to cover the light. And then they are going to have a trumpet. And now we are going to defeat an army of 135,000 swordsmen.

But they are not. They are just perhaps if you will, these 300 men. God is going to defeat the Midianites; they are just going to be there if you will as obedient observers. See the hand of the Lord at work. So the instruction you are familiar with account, the 300 are set out and they have the torch covered by the picture and they have a trumpet.

At the given signal they break the trumpet, they break the picture and thus the torches light will be seen. And they blow the trumpet and here they all surrounding the Midianites they you are going to have 300 trumpets blasting and all these torches all of a sudden come to light and its going to appear the Midianites like there is a huge army that has surrounded them and they will be in panic.

So verse 18, when I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets and say, for the Lord, and for Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men who are with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. That’s from 10 pm to 2 am. So we are in the darkness here, at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

When the three companies blew the trumpets, broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hand, the trumpets in their right hand for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” Well, here you have this appearance of all of these lights and the sounding of these trumpets and hearing the shouting, the sword of the Lord for the Lord and for Gideon and nobody moves in Gideon’s.

They don’t charge down, they just stand there. Each student is placed around the camp and all the army ran crying out and they fled. I mean, you don’t want to go down there and get caught up in this mess. They blew, when they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord said the sword of one against another throughout the whole army.

And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah towards Zererah as far as the edge of Abel-meholah and by Tabbath. The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali, and so on at the moment here. So you see what happens. There is chaos in the camp. Now, remember, you don’t have electricity, you don’t have normal lights. So now you have these three companies strategically set around the camp of the Midianites, you have the trumpet sounding is cry that sound like a battle cry.

The torches that appear, you come charge and now you come with a sword and what do you expect the camps been attacked. So first person you come to, you cut off his head. This happens to be your fellow solider. There is chaos in the camp, I mean, you have thousands and thousands of soldiers running around in the camp, swinging their sword and fighting. But they are fighting against each other.

Gideon’s men are just waiting. Then the men of Israel summoned help. From Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. For the map up operation now additional Israelites are called in. Gideon send messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, take the waters before them. What they going to do see Midian is on the east side of the Jordan. So they are going to be running now and trying to get back home cross the Jordan get back into their own territory.

So you have Ephraim summoned to guard the crossing points of Jordan River. It was much as possible to prevent escape. They captured, verse 25, Ephraim did, the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. These places are named for these men because that’s where they are executed.

They brought their heads to Gideon. Okay, so we have – we are not done yet. But we have great victory in process. But there is trouble already. Pride, division among God’s people is not a new thing. And the men of Ephraim, verse 8, have a complaint. What is this thing you have done to us, not calling us when you went to fight against Midian. They contented with him vigorously, they are complaining.

You didn’t call us and give us the privilege of being part of the victory. We should have been there from the beginning. And look at Proverbs Chapter 15 verse 1, a gentle answer turns away wrath: but a harsh word stir up strife. And Gideon puts that Proverbs into practice here. Rather than stating I am the one to whom the angel of Lord appeared, I am the one appointed by God to be the leader, God didn’t intend you to be part of the initial army. So be quite.

He approaches differently, he said to them, what if I done in comparison with you, is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer, that’s Gideon’s family, the family of Abiezer. Now it’s the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim, in other words, what you have harvested is much better than what we have done, you got the leaders. You got Oreb and Zeeb. I mean, you are tough dogs, I haven’t done anything compare to what you have done, pride something.

I mean, I don’t know how God puts up with this; he is a God of great patience. I mean, here he is delivering them from the discipline for their sin and they are already bickering among themselves over pride of who gets the honor. Who gets the credit? Why didn’t I get more attention, why wasn’t I given the place of prominence in this?

God has given the leaders, verse 3 of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb; what was I able to do in comparison with you? You are right. That satisfies my pride. Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that, but you know we got to stop in the battle to pacify these arrogant people. But now we got to get on with catching up to the rest of the Midianites. The battle is not done. These two leaders Oreb and Zeeb, they are not the kings but they are key leaders over the force of the Midian.

But the kings have to still be chased down. So verse 4, Gideon, 300 men who were with him came to Jordan, and crossed over, we are yet pursuing. So they have to chase down the Midianites. This is exhaustive, I mean, here you are chasing after them 300 men trying to run down thousands of opposing soldiers and you know what where you are out, you get hungry, you get thirsty. So they crossover on the other side of Jordon, they are two cities, Succoth is the first and then Penuel will be the second.

And verse 5, he said to the men of Succoth, please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me; they are weary, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. The leaders of Succoth said, are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands that we should give bread to your army. In other verse, they said to Gideon, no. I mean, you haven’t crushed the Midianites yet. Those two kings are still alive and breathing.

I mean, as far as we are concerned you may yet loose the battle. And we give you help, where’s that leave us? Gideon said, all right, when the Lord is given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. Then he pass on the next city down and you can get an atlas if you got an atlas, you can see how they cross and go from Succoth to Penuel.

They said the same thing to the men of Penuel. They too agree with the men of Succoth and they won’t give help, I mean, Midian the power of this region. Why would we help you? Those two kings have fled by here, we know they are still living; they still got an army that vastly outnumbers yours. So he said, when I come back I will tear the tower down of Penuel. I mean, I am going to destroy your city and that will mean I am going to destroy the people of this city.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all were left to the entire army of the sons of the east: for the fallen were hundred and twenty thousand swordsman. They are down to fifteen thousand, but you understand this is fifteen thousand against Gideon’s 300. They are still pretty good odds in favor of the Midianites except for what, God is on Gideon side or Gideon is on God side.

Therefore it’s a done deal. So Gideon comes up on them when they weren’t expecting it. And when Zebah, verse 12, and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them, capture the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, routed the whole army. I mean, Gideon, the son of Joash returned from battle by the ascent of Heres. So these two kings are captured. Their armies are defeated. So now we have isolated the opposition, conquered the two kings, their armies are destroyed, now he is returning home but he has two cities, two Israelite cities, Succoth and Penuel to deal with.

That would not helped him in the conflict and battle. So when he returns, verse 14, he captured youth from Succoth and questioned him, thrown down him the princes of Succoth, its elders, seventy seven men. He came to men of Succoth and said Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, here the two kings, you said, I haven’t defeated yet, here they are. You taunted me saying Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand. That we should give bread to your men, he took the elders of the city, thorns of the wilderness and briers and he disciplined the men of Succoth with them.

Beats them with thorn bushes, the leaders are responsible. He comes to Penuel. He tears down the towers, he said, he killed the men of the city by refusing to come to the aid of Gideon they refused to join themselves with the Lord. Back up to Chapter 5. In Chapter 4 and 5, remember, about Deborah and Barak and deliverance brought under the prophetess Deborah and the military leadership of Barak and verse 23 in the song of Deborah and Barak.

Curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, not only curse its inhabitants because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the warriors. This city is cursed because they would not join the Lord in fighting against his enemies. Is this just the meanness of Gideon? No. This is just punishment for two cities of Israelites who would not come to the aid of the Lord in the sense of willing to do what God want to accomplished in destroying his enemies. There is no neutral positions.

Let not say these two cities helped the Midianites. They just would not help Gideon. But you can’t be neutral in God’s war. Jesus said he was not with me as against me. I think God just stepped back and observe, that’s not one of the options. Basically what Succoth and Penuel did was, they said, we are just going to observe it, we are neutral.

And for their neutrality they have to suffer greatly, the punishment of the Lord at the hands of Gideon. Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, verse 18, what kind of men were they that you killed at Tabor? Mount Tabor. We are in the – if you have looked at the map we are up towards the Sea of Galilee. Mount Tabor is up there, mount Tabor is up little south and west of the Sea of Galilee. So that’s the region where we are with this activity of Gideon.

What kind of men were they that you killed at Tabor? They said, they were like you, each one resembling the son of a king. Gideon said, they were my brothers, the sons of my mother as the Lord lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you. We know nothing about this incident that obviously these kings had killed the brothers of Gideon and it was evidently not in the battle because in battles lots of people get killed.

But this was – that kind of event outside from a battle that the kings of the Midianites remembered well. Perhaps they did it to terrify the Israelites during one of their invasions. Perhaps they did it to set an example of these men. We are not told. But now comes proper retribution and really Gideon here is going to function as the blood of injure as Deuteronomy 19 we talk about. And so he says to his first born in verse 20, you rise and kill them.

In other words, you are the family member, you take the proper vengeance here as the blood of injured and avenging the blood of our family. But this young man is afraid. He is obviously not battle tested, he is there with his dead but he not ready to step up with his sword and execute these two men.

So we are told he didn’t draw his sword, he was afraid because he was still a youth. So Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise up yourself, and fall us: for is the man is, so is his strength. They challenged Gideon to kill them and you would just assume that happened when you realize you got a young man, he is afraid to draw sword. If he does draw this could be a drawn out there, I just assume the warrior here finish me off, dispatch me quickly and so Gideon takes his sword, kills them, takes the crescent ornaments of their camels’ necks that mark these as the kings, the leaders and we have the completion of the defeat.

Verse 22, the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you, and your son, and your son’s son: for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. The Israelites want Gideon to establish a ruling dynasty. You be our first king, then your son, then your son’s son to Gideon’s credit. He said, verse 23, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.

Gideon recognizes Israel is a theocracy. Israel already has a ruler, a king. The God of Israel rules over Israel. This desire, turn over to First Samuel Chapter 10. We come to the last Judge of Israel, Samuel. And under his judgeship, Israel is clamoring for a king like the nations have. And so in verse 18, as God prepares to answer their request, he says to the sons of Israel using Samuel as his spokesman, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought Israel up from Egypt, First Samuel, 10, 18, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, from the power of all kingdoms that were oppressing you. But you today have today rejected your God who delivers you from all your calamities and distresses.

Yet you have said, no, but set a king over us. You see this clamoring for a physical king is a rejection of God rule. He says, I have served as your king, as your ruler. I delivered, I protected you, I defeated your enemies, you are not willing to have me as your king. You want a man. And so he is going to give them their request and he will give them Saul.

Now the kingdom is in God’s plan for Israel, in his time, with his appointment. He has used men. Obviously, Moses was a great leader of Israel by God’s appointment. But man in Israel taking the initiative here, they are rejecting God. And so Gideon answers wisely here. I am not going to assume this official position, neither is my son, the Lord shall rule over you.

In verse 24 to 27 back in Judges 8, Gideon says I do have a request, I don’t want to be king, I don’t want to be a ruler, I am not going to take to myself the trappings of kingship. But I would ask for payment from you. I would ask that each of you gives me earrings from his spoil. In verse 24, and then we are remind it they wore gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites and that was the practice, the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.

So obviously we’ve got a lot of gold earrings here. At last count they were 120,000 soldiers killed. They wouldn’t know how many of 15, 000 take up the majority of those died when their king was captured and may be a few escape but by and large you got a lot of earrings. So they bring their earrings and they spread out of garment, put a laid out of garment, big clothes on the ground so that they can put their all the earrings on that.

And verse 26, the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was seventeen hundred shekels of gold. And then he got the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple robes that were on the kings of Midian, beside the neck bands that were on their camels’ necks. Now if you are wondering seventeen hundred shekels of gold is 451 pounds. That’s a lot of gold, 451 pounds.

What Gideon does is he made it into an ephod and placed in his city, Ophrah. We are not told what his intention was here and why. There is no indication that Gideon initially intended to set up a center of false worship but that’s would it becomes. He may have taken the ephod from what God had told Israel to make for the high priest.

Back in Exodus Chapter 28. Exodus, Chapter 39, you have extensive description of the ephod that was worn by the high priest. Here Gideon fashioned of #, I mean, evidently they used like a statue, perhaps in initial talk would be just to remind us of the priest to it. We don’t know. But we do know what the result of it was, verse 27, all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

You know it becomes a stumbling block. Here we are back, we’ve turned around here, what has happened? Well, this is been turned into a center of false worship. How quickly, we gravitate, we like something physical, something tangible. God is a spirit and those who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.

But somehow fallen man we are drawn, we like something we can touch, we can see, we can handle. And so it becomes a snare and it becomes a center of false worship. They begin to worship this god #. It doesn’t remind them the greatness of God of Israel in his power and bring deliverance. It becomes their god, and even Gideon’s family stumbles here.

Now one person, one commentator wrote this, perhaps it’s easier to honor God in some courageous action in the line wide of a time of national emergency that it is to honor him consistently in the ordinary everyday life which requires a different kind of courage. Gideon who came through the test of adversity with flying colors was not the first nor the last to be less successful in the test of prosperity.

Talk about this, how do we as the people of God handle our prosperity? It’s hard to fit God in, isn’t it? We wouldn’t worship material things but somehow they have a way of diversity our attention and when God is moved from the central role in our life we have become idolaters because he occupies either first place, central place or we are idolaters.

And prosperity presents its own challenge; we think oh, we are so blessed with our prosperity. And it is a blessing which is a trap, when we remember Israel was warned of that one when they were coming into the land. That the danger for them would be when they prosper and have everything good they will forget Lord, their God.

And so here with Gideon, he and his house and their prosperity, you think the real problems are gone, now we can serve the Lord and worship him. Somehow now I am distracted. So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, they did not lift up their heads anymore; the land was undisturbed for 40 years and the land of Gideon.

This is the last period of peace recorded in the Book of Judges. There are going to be other judges, obviously, raised up in the Book and periods of time. But there is no other periods of peace recorded in the Book of Judges.

Jerob, the son of Joash that’s Gideon remember went lived in his own house. Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendents for he had many wives. His concubine who was in Shechem bore him a son and he named him Abimelech and that is mentioned because Chapter 9 will be about Abimelech. He has a key role to play, in fact, this man is going to kill his half brothers, the seventy sons that Gideon had by his wives, he is going to kill them and he will become a key player when we get the Chapter 9.

And Gideon the son of Joash died at the rightful age was buried in the tomb of his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. And it came about as soon as Gideon was dead; the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Is nothing learn, they not only have played the harlot with the ephod of gold that Gideon made, now we moved out, now let’s get back to the Baals, the gods of the land.

And so now we have made Baal-berith, our god. The sons of Israel did not remember the Lord, their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every sight, nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal that is Gideon in accordance with all the good that he had done to Israel.

Short-lived memories of God’s goodness. Out of concerns all was the passing of time. Scares means that I would forget the goodness of the Lord to me. The grace of the Lord to me. The abundance of his provision for me in every way. How can you forget the goodness of the Lord? God’s people do and when they do, they turn to other things which become their gods.

Let me just give you a summary of what we have looked at here. Several lessons kept in mind. I have listed six, may be I should have done seven. But somehow six seems to fit. The number of man here and the ending of this Chapter. Number one, God is concerned that we see his hand at work in giving us the victory in all our conflicts. God often doesn’t do the way we would think do because all we can think of is how we could accomplish it. How we could do it.

But God chooses to work in ways that give him the glory, give him the credit. And so he is concerned that we see his hand at work in giving us the victory and all of our difficulties and conflicts. Number two, numbers are of no significance in our warfare for the Lord. Numbers are of no significance in our warfare for the Lord. You know how often do we say, oh, if we had more people, if we had more money. But if you think of what we could do for the Lord if so on so God saved.

Think of what impact we could make if we could reach people in these positions. What are we talking about? Think about what we could do for the Lord if we could do it man’s way. I mean, does the Lord get the credit for that? The Lord will be honored in that? The Lord does it his way. That’s why I remember Corinthians in first not many might, not many noble, not many of the high ups, the wealthy, the well to do the prominent in our calls. God has chosen the insignificant nobodies so that he gets all the glory, all the credit.

We sit and scheme if we can do this, we can get this done. Gideon’s responsibility is to do it God’s way. And then God will do what only he can do. And there is no other way. When man does it his way, we no longer are doing God’s work, we are doing our work. We are no longer doing for God’s glory; we are doing it for our glory. So numbers are of no significance in our warfare for the Lord.

Number 3, fearfulness and indifference prevent God from using us in some of the greatest ways. I think what a great privilege to be part of the 300 that God is going to use vitally here. How sad that some gods’ people, I have to admit, I would rather go home. I would rather not be used if the Lord, thanks. I would rather not have the Lord use be, I would rather not to be part of what the Lord is going to do here. So give me a choice Lord, I would rather opt out. Life is short, why would I want to running coward with Paul say to Timothy God has not given his spirit of cowards. Step up, crank up the flame.

Number four, no one can remain neutral in the battles of the Lord. Discipline is severe for those who try, we care, we don’t confuse it to. God allowed some in Israel to go home. Therefore go the privilege of being part of what God is going to do here. But you can’t remain neutral in the battle. They could go home because God said they could go home.

But the members in the city of Succoth, Penuel, they have a choice. You can’t remain neutral in this battle. You can’t be on both sides and I am just going to wait to see who wins. There is no such position that makes you the enemy of the Lord.

Number five, important one, times of quite and prosperity can be very dangerous to the spiritual well being of even the greatest warriors. We get all cranked up for the battle when the pressure is on, when we were going through a time of great trial perhaps and I don’t know what kind of trial, any kind of trial. Whether it’s a physical, problem, whether its whatever the trial.

Somehow oh, Lord were up everyday in prayer we are – but it is the time when things are going well. Things are good, it become times of great danger. Then we are looking what, well, things are good and prospering, may be its time to quit. May be I should retire and enjoy the rest of my life. May be I should its time for others to do it, I am going on to waste the rest of my life.

I am done with my service or tell me when I am done. You have to careful, stumble. Then I loose my way and I said what’s your life about. Well, times of quite and prosperity can be very dangerous to the spiritual well being. Even the greatest warriors, Gideon. Then step out as a mighty man of faith to take 300 men and take on 135,000. When the battle is over and everything peaceful and quite and he is in the midst of great prosperity, we fall flat on his face.

And number six, the people of God are pruned to quickly forget his great lessons. That’s where the Chapter ended. The people of God are quick to forget his great blessings. What do I have that I haven’t received from the hand of the Lord? Everything that helps to be here today. The food I have had today. The house I live in, the breadth I take. I mean, the Lord is prospering with me. How sad that my prosperity would become my God. Instead of the God who gave me prosperity.

And I would keep the same focus I had when I didn’t prosper so well. But I would never forget God’s blessings because they are not what are important to me. The blessings are what are important, my God is what is important, my relationship with him, my service to him. I thank him for these other things that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy them. But they never better be put in the place of worship in my life and thus replace my God.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Gideon, thank you for the account of his life. Thank you Lord for his faithfulness. Lord, we are sat into see failure, Lord we realize he was but a man. Thank you for your graciousness in using him. Thank you Lord that we are warned the danger of our blessings and prosperity. Even if we serve a god, who uses us in great and mighty ways, uses us as instruments of salvation for the lost by bringing them the gospel. Instruments of blessing and encouragement and the help in the lives of your people.

Be instruments to bring glory to the living God. To testify of his grace, be able to experience your power sufficiency for us in every circumstance and every trial and every difficulty. Yet Lord, we would want to be careful in our prosperity. We are a prosperous people, a blessed people that we not become occupied with our blessings. Thus begin the worship the prosperity and the blessing that becomes the center of our live, to focus our attention that absorbed us and replaces you.

Lord we may be careful to remind ourselves again and again of your goodness, of your blessings, we might never seize to thank you that we be faithful in our service and we be willing to trust you in whatever you bring to our lives. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.