Good Thursday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been given an assignment or been challenged to step into an opportunity that simply seemed way too big for you? Do you remember how inadequate, perhaps ever fearful you were?
Now watch this my friends: for people of great faith in God, people who are followers of Jesus, the challenge of God inviting us into situations which seem far beyond our capabilities is an important and even strategic part of our development and God’s accomplishment of His purposes in our world.
Pause… did you get that? Do you understand it? Have you experienced it? Do you welcome those challenges from God or resist them?
In our “Grand Narrative” journey, we come today to Judges 5-8 and the story of a young man who faced exactly the challenge I’ve described. Gideon was an unknown man, living a fear filled life! You’ll recall the “Judges Cycle” is the phrase I introduced to you which explains the dismal, painful, too often repeated story of what the people of Israel were living in the three centuries of time following the death of Joshua and their inheritance of the Land of God’s Promise.
When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan river and entered the land which had been promised to Abraham and their ancestors 500 years before, (Gen. 15:18-21) it was populated by 7 different large groups of people who were idol worshipers, violent and had no intention of allowing the Israelites back into the land they had abandoned when they moved to Egypt to escape the famine so many years before. (Joshua 3:10)
The book of Judges, therefore, is a painful overview of several generations of Israelites who found themselves living the roller-coaster cycle of peace and prosperity turned to despair and decadence, followed by repentance, rescue and restoration.
Judges 6:1 sets the stage for Gideon’s generation: “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years God gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts and caves.” WHY? What terrifying event would cause Israelites to leave their homes, farms, and villages, running to hide in caves in the hills? The verses which follow in Judges 6 explain the annual invasion of the vicious Midianites and their pillage of everything of value, leaving nothing but destruction behind, year after year.
The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia more than three years ago, and the relentless bombing and destruction of towns and villages in Ukraine, is a modern-day picture of what was happening in Gideon’s day! Does that help us put ourselves in the story of Gideon and his people hiding in the hills watching the destruction of their homes and villages?
Please notice, however, in Judges 6:1 the God of the Israelites was PERMITTING this atrocity! Why? Because the Israelites had AGAIN turned away from God and been drawn into living the evil lifestyles of those neighboring wicked peoples, including worshiping their idols. I say ‘again’ because we’ve seen it twice before in Judges 2-5 in previous generations of rebellious Israelites refusing to live the Covenant their ancestors had entered into with God, as God’s people, rescued from Egyptian slavery so many years before. God had warned them, both through Moses and Joshua, that if His people turned away from their Covenant and embraced wickedness, God would no longer protect or provide for them and the fate they would suffer would be unbearable.
But God had also promised that if His people in their rebellious state, would repent and turn back to God, then God would hear their cry and enter into their desperation with His rescue. And that was the stories of both Othniel and Deborah which we saw in Judges 3&4.
But as time passes and generations pass away, each new generation has important choices to make regarding the lessons learned by previous generations. Gideon’s generation was no different from those which preceded his nor the generations of the 20th & 21st centuries when we have lived! Look closely… what has our generation done with the lessons learned by our parents and grandparents?
My father is 98 years old, and I cherish hearing his wisdom learned…some of it from his own experiences, some of it from the generations which preceded him. My Dad lived through the Great Depression as a child, so what do you think his financial attitudes are about saving and spending? Or about working diligently and valuing resources? His father, my grandfather, lived through WWI and my Dad spent a few months in the army in 1945 just before the atomic bombs fell, so what do you think Dad has taught me about the price and value of global peace; the dangers of tyranny and anarchy; the role of trustworthy government in a society, and the danger of unrestricted freedoms without accountability?
So, what are key life lessons you and I have learned and how well have we passed them to our children and grandchildren?
Gideon was apparently doing the best he could to stay out of the fray of his time and simply survive. But God heard the cries of Gideon’s generation and so called Gideon to rise up from his hiding place and let God use Him to bring great change, even rescue from the desperate situation! Naturally Gideon was skeptical and fearful but God’s promise to Gideon was the same as He had given it to Moses and Joshua: “I will be with you…” (Judges 6:12-16)
As we read Judges 6, we’ll see how fearful Gideon moved from fear to a willingness to trust God and take courageous steps of obedience in rallying thousands of men to fight the vicious Midianites. Once Gideon was sure God was with him and guiding him, then fear was replaced by courage! That’s a similar experience with EVERY person God calls and who steps out in great faith with God.
Has it been your experience? Have you moved from fear to faith? Have you shared those lessons learned with your children and grandchildren? Are they learning similar lessons of fear to faith in God?
But then Gideon’s faith was stretched even further as God told Gideon he had way too many soldiers! What, too many courageous men standing up to make a difference? Yes! In this case Israel needed to learn again that it was God rescuing them, as He had their ancestors in Egyptian bondage, it was not the huge army of Gideon men.
So, with only 300 men, God routed a huge army of Midianites and Amalekites described by these words: “they had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore!” (Judges 7:12) Now that’s a huge, terrifying army! But as 300 men did it God’s way, God sent a panic among that huge enemy army and they turned on each other and a great deliverance was accomplished! (Judges 7:22) I know you’ll enjoy reading of God’s remarkable military strategy and the victory described in Judges 7.
Judges 8:28 describes the years which followed that great God victory: “Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace for 40 years!” During those years another generation was born who had the same opportunity you and I have… learn wisdom from those who’ve gone before us! But this is the reality report of Judges 8:33 “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal Berith as their god and did not remember the LORD their God who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.”
We need to pause right here and look closely at our generation and the generations following us. What is God saying to us today about the dangers of disregarding HIM and the lessons HE has taught the generations before us? Do your kids and grandkids understand the story of Gideon and the danger of rejecting God’s generational wisdom offered to them?
More study notes are available at the “Grand Narrative” link below and then the worship song link below calls us to careful reflection on what God is saying to us in Judges 6-8 today! And I’ll meet you here again tomorrow!
Today’s Scripture: Judges 6-8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Judges 7
Judges 8
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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