Gideon 2 – Judges 6:36-7:25
The Bible, from almost beginning to end, is the story of God rescuing or saving people. And Judges 6-7 is no different – the word “save” appears repeatedly in our passage. But saying that immediately raises two questions. The first is: what are we saved from? And the second: how are we saved from it?
We actually considered the first of these questions two weeks ago. Israel, nationally, was in a desperate situation – ravaged by Midianite invaders, left with scarcely anything to eat. But we saw how that was just the outward symptom of a much deeper problem. Israel, you see, had turned from following the LORD, the God who’d delivered them from Egypt and slavery. They’d replaced him with false gods or idols. In doing that, they’d rejected God’s blessing and protection. So, at a much deeper level, Israel’s real need was to be saved from her own idolatry.
An idol, according to the Bible, is anything that takes the place of God. And while most of us don’t worship statues of Baal and Asherah, we’re all guilty of making other things the most important thing in our lives – whether money, or success, or just ourselves. The Bible uses the word “sin” to describe these wrong priorities, and it’s something we all do. Our biggest need as humans – regardless of whether we’re outwardly prosperous or destitute like Gideon’s Israel – is to be saved from our sin.
Judges 6, then, told us what we need saved from. But today’s passage addresses that second question – saved, how?
If I asked you the New Testament’s answer to that question, you could do no better than the verse we took as our call to worship. Ephesians 2 declares: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this [that’s faith] is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Two things in that verse. First, we’re saved from sin by God’s grace. It’s an undeserved gift. In other words, it’s something God does for us – not something we achieve ourselves. Then, second, the way we receive grace is through trusting God – that’s what the word faith means. But even the ability to trust him is something God has to give us. Faith “is the gift of God.”
Well, if that’s the New Testament’s answer to how we’re saved, the Old Testament’s answer is exactly the same. God saving Israel from Midianite oppression is a picture of how God still saves us from our sin. And the story insists firstly that it’s God who does it – he uses people, but they don’t actually do it. To prove it’s God, not people, he deliberately chooses the very weakest people to do it through.
And then secondly, the story shows that God brings salvation by building people’s faith. It’s not as if faith’s our contribution to a partnership with God. Gideon doesn’t naturally have faith, as we’ll see. His default position, like ours, is to be doubtful or suspicious of God. God has to work in Gideon bring about his faith.
The very first verse of today’s passage, verse 36 introduces both these ideas. Gideon says “if you will save Israel…” recognising it’s God who does it. Then he asks for a sign with a fleece so he’ll “know that you will save Israel by my hand” – a request for God to do something to give him faith.
Our passage, of course, describes four distinct episodes. It starts with Gideon’s fleece at the end of chapter 6. Then there’s God whittling his army down to 300.
Thirdly, there’s Gideon’s infiltration of the Midianite camp where he overhears a soldier’s dream. And finally, there’s the battle itself. Four episodes, but each teaching this central message about God saving, through weak people to whom he gives faith. God saves, through weak people to whom he gives faith. So, let’s give these episodes some titles and explore them.
Episode one, then, we’ll call Faith – God gives it
Episode two Salvation – God gives it
Episode three Faith – God Continues to give itand Episode four Salvation – God gives it, through weak people
Sounds a bit repetitive, doesn’t it? But then, I’m not a very imaginative preacher. And actually, most of us are a bit like Gideon - we need things to be repeated. Faith is often something we don’t gain all at once. Because of our natural tendency to unbelief, it’s often something God increases in us gradually, building it brick by brick, layer by layer like a master builder. Just as he does here with Gideon.
So, the first episode in our story: Faith – God Gives It, from verse 36 to the end of the chapter. If you’ve been around churches for a while, you probably know the story of Gideon’s fleece. He’s asking for a miracle to prove God’s ability to do what he’s promised.
The fleece story often used to be preached as Gideon seeking guidance from God. But of course, it doesn’t have anything to do with guidance. God has already told Gideon what to do. It’s actually about Gideon’s need for assurance – his need for faith.
You’ll remember Gideon had already been “clothed” with the Holy Spirit as verse 34 puts it. But for all that, he still lacks assurance. Christians too have God’s Spirit. But we also can go through times of doubt or uncertainty, can’t we? Sometimes, too, we can start faithfully on some task, as Gideon did when he called the tribes to battle –it’s only later that doubt sets in. Like Simon Peter walking on the water with Jesus, if you know the story in the gospels.
When I was much younger, in the few years after I became a Christian, I went through periods where I questioned if I really had been converted, and even whether Christianity was true. Doubt can be devastatingly oppressive, and not surprisingly the Bible has a lot to say about it.
I want us to see two things about doubt from this first part of the story, though. And the first’s that there’s a right and a wrong response to doubt. The right response is to pray, and the wrong response is to disobey. Pray, or disobey.
So, at the start of verse 36: “Gideon said to God.” That is, he prayed. And verse 39 shows he doesn’t come arrogantly to God, demanding proof, as some modern atheists do. “Let not your anger burn against me,” he says, “let me speak just once more.” He comes humbly, recognising that God doesn’t owe us evidence – rather, God giving us faith is an undeserved kindness; part of his grace to us.
The second thing is that when we do come humbly to God and admit our uncertainties, he is wonderfully gracious. It’s when we use doubt as an excuse to disobey or disbelieve that we risk his anger. So, God answers Gideon’s request lavishly. The fleece wasn’t just damp – it had a whole bowl-full of water in it. And when Gideon prays for a second sign with the fleece – perhaps he was hoping for a different answer! – God again responds.
Faith isn’t contrary to evidence, you see. Or at least not the Christian idea of faith. Gideon’s faith, we’re seeing, is based on God’s confirmation. Of course, God doesn’t always answer prayers for faith with miracles. We, after all, have far more evidence than Gideon had. We have God’s Word, the Bible. And we have Jesus’ resurrection – the ultimate proof that Jesus is who he says. But if you lack assurance, a good place to start is by praying to God about it, like Gideon.
Episode two focuses on salvation. Salvation – God Gives It, verses 1-9. In verse 2, God explains exactly what’s going on in this episode, which makes a preacher’s life very easy. God says: “The people with you are too many… lest Israel boast over me, saying ‘My own hand has saved me.’” God’s making it clear that he will achieve salvation – not Israel. And he’ll do it in such a way that everyone’ll know it.
We Scots love an underdog story. It comes of centuries of being the underdog, I suppose! We had a great underdog story at this year’s Wimbledon - Arthur Fery, the British wildcard, who reached the semifinals. Of course, like most underdog stories, it didn’t have the ending we hoped. But we enjoyed his success while it lasted.
We often think of Gideon as the classic underdog story. Gideon’s 300 against 135000 Midianites. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it’s not actually an underdog story at all. It would be an underdog story if it were Israel who defeated Midian. But she doesn’t. The whole point of what God says in verse 2 is that it’s not Israel, but God. God does it – even if he does it though Gideon. And God is never the underdog. God always wins.
It must have been frustrating, though, for Gideon, having assembled an army of 32000, to see God dismantle it. Yet, impressively, he obeyed. I wonder if you’ve experienced something similar? Perhaps God has called you to some venture for the gospel. You’ve stepped out in faith, you’ve prayed. But what you’re praying for seems to get further away, not closer. Well, it’s right to seek God’s guidance, to ask if we’re on the right track. But sometimes, God has to make us weaker and more dependent on him before he can use us mightily. That was Gideon’s experience here.
People have come up with all sorts of explanations why God chose the 300 who lapped the water over those who knelt to drink. Some commentators suggest they were more vigilant than the others. I think that rather misses the point, though. God’s purpose was actually to create a weak army, not an elite army. And God still works through the weak, not the elite. I suspect if the numbers had been the other way round, if 300 had knelt and the rest lapped, God would have chosen the 300 who knelt.
This second episode closes with God himself reminding Gideon of the passage’s central point. “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand,” verse 9. God saves – he gives the Midianites to Gideon. But, do note that Gideon’s still to arise and go. God’s sovereignty isn’t an excuse for inactivity. We don’t say “I don’t need to do anything; God will do it anyway.” God’s sovereignty, rather, should motivate us, because it guarantees our work for him is never wasted. The result might be different to what we expect, but it’ll be exactly what God planned.
The third episode, Gideon overhearing a Midianite’s dream, has a sense of déjà vu. Gideon’s again, it seems, having doubts. So we called it Faith – God Continues to Give It. God continues to give it, verses 10-15.
Before we’re too critical of Gideon, let’s note it’s God who suggests to Gideon that another bolster to his faith would be helpful, not the other way round. Faith, as we saw, isn’t always something we come to instantly – sometimes it’s more of an ongoing process. And sometimes it needs to be repeatedly strengthened by God.
Last month, we had a children’s holiday club in Helensburgh. Its theme was “Deep Sea Divers” and we came across a wonderfully named fish living in the deepest ocean called the flabby whalefish. Amazing what you learn about in holiday clubs. The male whalefish apparently grows a huge liver while it’s juvenile, and when it becomes an adult, it’s jaws fuse. It never eats again, and just lives off the stored energy from its oversized liver.
Well, Christians aren’t flabby whalefish. We don’t have some spiritual experience we can live off for the rest of our lives. We need God’s word daily – reminding us he’s trustworthy, growing our faith. Just like Gideon in our passage.
There are a few things about faith to note from this third episode of the story. First, it emphasises yet again that it’s God who gives us faith – not something we can work up on our own. So, God told Gideon to go down to the camp. And it was God who just so arranged things that Gideon heard the dream and was encouraged in his faith.
Second, faith is important. God, throughout chapters 6 and 7 goes to considerable lengths to give Gideon faith. We’ve said God’s patient with our honest questions, but the point of his patience is to bring us to assurance of faith. We’re not to be satisfied with doubt, as if it were somehow virtuous. We need faith to be used by God, and we’re to seek faith from him, as Gideon did.
Gideon does what God suggests – he takes him up on his offer and goes down to the Midianites. It did require a fair bit of faith to go into an enemy camp. So, the third thing we learn about faith is that it’s often as we exercise faith in one thing, that God grows it for a greater task. Muscles grow through use. And so does faith.
And fourth, God gives us other Christians to help us in our doubts. Do you notice that God specifically told Gideon to take his servant Purah with him? Doubts and fears grow when we’re isolated. If you’re struggling with doubt, do ask your church fellowship, or a Christian friend for help.
Its interesting God gave the dream to a pagan Midianite, rather than an Israelite. If you know the story of Daniel, you’ll see lots of parallels to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2.
But the dream wasn’t, of course, just for Gideon’s benefit. God would use it both to encourage Gideon, and to sow panic among the Midianites. That panic was how God brought victory, as they started fighting each other later in the chapter.
But what Gideon hears has its intended effect. His fears are banished. His faith is deepened. And his response is twofold. He worships God – verse 13. No small thing, incidentally, in the midst of an enemy camp! And he’s inspired to action. He returns and exhorts the Israelites to arise and strike the enemy. That’s why faith is important. We need faith for genuine worship, and for effective service.
We called the final episode, the battle itself: Salvation – God Gives It Through Weak People. Salvation – God Gives It Through Weak People.
I call it a battle, but Gideon’s soldiers didn’t actually do much fighting, did they? They had a torch in one hand, and a trumpet in the other. Despite their war cry “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon,” the only people actually using swords were the Midianites. Verse 22 tells us very clearly “the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade.” Once again, we see the central point of our passage – it’s God who saves. Indeed, verse 21 tells us Gideon’s men merely “stood their place around the camp” – the Israelites’ standing being contrasted with the Midianites terrified running and killing each other.
There’s an important theological principle here. God often uses evil as the means of its own defeat. That’s a big theme in the Psalms and Proverbs. Psalm 7:15 is just one example. “Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made. The trouble they cause recoils on them,” it says. But the ultimate example is, of course, the Cross. Crucifying the perfect Son of God was the greatest evil in history. And yet, God brought through it the ultimate defeat of evil.
Given that this was so comprehensively God’s victory, you might wonder why he bothered with Gideon’s 300 at all. But, although our passage rams home the fact it’s God who saves, he so often does it through weak humans. It is, I suppose, part of his incredible grace that we’re given the privilege of being involved in his work of salvation. We thought about the Great Commission a fortnight ago. It’s the same principle there. God defeated sin and evil on the Cross. But he graciously involves us in taking news of it to the world around us.
Trusting God, therefore, doesn’t mean that Christians aren’t to use their brains and think strategically. Gideon’s actually quite astute, strategically. He breaks his company into 3, so the Midianites will think they’re surrounded. He attacks at night, timed to coincide with the changing of the watch for maximum confusion. The torches were hidden in clay pots to allow a surprise approach. And usually, only a few soldiers would be trumpeters. So, 300 men, each with trumpets, would have suggested a vastly larger force and contributed to the panic. Just in passing, you might notice the trumpets and the shouting have echoes of the fall of Jericho in the book of Joshua. That also was a victory that God himself had won.
The message of the final part of the chapter, then, is that God saves. We can’t save ourselves, let alone anyone else, by our own strength. But God graciously uses us to bring salvation to a needy world. Salvation – God gives it, but through weak people like you and me.
A fortnight ago, we thought about how there are certain distinctive features of God’s salvation that run through the Bible, finding their ultimate expression in the cross. And this principle, that we’re too weak to save ourselves, that God does it for us, is one such. So, Romans 5:6 says “while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Jesus, you see, did everything for us on the cross.“I hear the Saviour say,” we sang earlier,“Thy strength indeed is small,Child of weakness, watch and pray,Find in Me thine all in allJesus paid it all,All to him I owe;Sin had left a crimson stain,He washed it white as snow.”
Jesus, you see, didn’t die to help us achieve our own salvation. He didn’t die to give us a second chance. If I’m faced with something impossible, the last thing I need is a second chance at it – I need someone to do it for me. And that’s exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross.
People spend their lives trying to earn their own salvation, to be good enough to get to heaven. The essence of becoming a Christian is to realise we can’t, it’s beyond us. God does it for us. Our response is to trust him, to have faith. And even faith is something he gives us, if we ask him.
I wonder if you and I are growing in our faith? Often, it’s only as we use faith that God increases it. Perhaps, then, we should ask ourselves what we’ve done for the gospel recently that’s been risky, that’s stretched our faith. Have we stood up for Jesus publicly in some way? Have we taken on some responsibility that’s more than we’re comfortable with?
Or given more - time or money - than we can really afford? I think Grace Church did some evangelism in the town here with your American partners a few weeks ago. That, I’m sure, can be faith stretching, and something that we, in other churches, can be both encouraged and challenged by. And perhaps it will lead to you asking what you can do next, how God might be developing your faith just a little bit further.
As we finish, then, what has Gideon taught us about how people are saved from idolatry and sin? Well, we’ve seen firstly that God does it. He does it through weak people, but he does it. And we’ve seen secondly that God does it by giving faith to those weak people.
We started our service, and our sermon too, with Paul’s words to the Ephesians. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” That verse wasn’t just a theoretical truth for Paul. He’d spent his early life as a Pharisee vainly trying to achieve salvation by his own efforts. After his conversion, he never lost sight of the wonder that God should save us out of sheer grace, through faith alone. His response to God’s wonderful grace was to work harder, to suffer more for the gospel than anyone else around him.
Paul’s life, then, became a living embodiment of the idea that God’s salvation is seen most gloriously in our weakness. His Corinthian letters, especially, keep coming back to that theme. He summarises it in 2 Corinthians 4:7 where he says: “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Let’s pray that we too would grasp more deeply the wonder of God’s grace, given through faith to the very weakest of people.