The Call of Gideon

I want to give you a background of the book of Judges, so you understand where we are. It is believed that the book of Judges covers 300-450 years of the history of Israel. It covers the time between the end of the leadership of Joshua and the anointing and appointing of Saul as king of Israel.

As other books of the Bible also show, Judges shows us the faithlessness of man—what’s new about that!—and the faithfulness of God. As you go through every chapter of the book of Judges, you’ll see man’s faithlessness, but you’ll also see God’s faithfulness; God’s mercies are highlighted throughout Judges. It’s a wonderful book.

I’m saying this to stir you up to study the book of Judges and especially this story of Gideon, beginning in chapter 6. We will learn some valuable lessons from this story.

By the way, this book is named Judges not because the individuals in the book were necessarily judges in black robes in a court system; it’s because they were leaders chosen by God, but some of them actually did judge.

There are three, main divisions in chapter 6. The first division is the disobedience of the people—no surprise!—in the first half of verse 1. The second division is the discipline of God, from the second half of verse 1 through verse 5. The third division is deliverance by God when the people call out to Him, from verses 6-40. This is the same cycle throughout the book of judges: disobedience, discipline and then deliverance.

Verse 1, “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” And per the book of Judges, it wouldn’t be wrong to add the word “again” at the end of this portion of verse 1. This is no surprise, because we know that people do “evil in the sight of the Lord.”

And in the second part of verse 1 we see the discipline of God: “So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years.” We will see who this “Midian” is and what he does in this chapter. But I want to make it clear that it was the Lord who delivered His own people “into the hand of Midian for seven years.” The goal of God doing this was to get His people back to a place of humility and submission, where they were willing to surrender themselves to God and make a recommitment.

Verse 2 continues, “And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.” God was going to discipline His people in two areas, in this particular case. The first is regarding peace, which we see in this verse.

This is a valuable lesson, because we all know that when we disobey God, the first thing to go is our peace. We separate ourselves from God; God does not separate Himself from us. We look around and say, “Where did God go?!” God didn’t go anywhere; He’s still faithful, He still remains, He’s still there, He’s still waiting. In Nehemiah 9:17, it says, “But You are God, ready to pardon.” If there is a space between me and God, it’s because I have drifted. And along with that, the first thing to go, every time, is my peace—peace of mind, the peace that is in my heart, the peace I have from knowing God. They all vanish. I surrender those things in exchange for my disobedience.

And notice, in verse 2, that the people are retreating to and hiding in the mountains like animals, hiding in dens and caves. They are living like this because of their terror of the Midianites.

The second area in which God disciplines the people is in their provision or safety and sustenance, verses 3-5. “So it was, whenever Israel had sown…” or “planted” “…Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.”

Where did these other people come from? You know that when you’re down, others want to show up and kick you when you’re down. So as the Israelites are down, being oppressed by the Midianites, the Amalekites catch wind of it and show up. Then “the people of the East” would join in.

Here’s what they did, in verses 4-5: “Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.”

So these groups, the Midianites, the Amalekites and people of the East, apparently knew when planting season was. So at harvest time, these invading armies would show up and bring so many animals of their own that would feed on these crops, and the armies would wipe out the rest of the crops that were left. That left nothing for the Israelites.

This was all part of God’s plan; He delivered His people into the Midianites’ hands.

God did the same thing throughout the Old Testament to discipline His people. In the book of Haggai, which has only two chapters, Haggai was one of the minor prophets, and God spoke to His people through Haggai. He told them that they were making money but putting it in a bag that had holes in it. It was cold, so they were piling on clothing, but they were still cold. They were gathering in crops, but it was barely enough to sustain them (Haggai 1:6).

Then God asked the question, through Haggai, “Why is this happening?” He answered His own question by saying, “Because I blew it away.” Why would God do that? He told them. It was because His house, talking about His temple, was in ruins, while all of them had paneled houses. “Shiplap; we just need more shiplap!” DIY projects.

God doesn’t dislike shiplap or DIY projects. But the people were up to their eyeballs in DIY projects, while God’s temple was literally a slab of stone. So what God did was He struck their peace, their safety and sustenance.

Now starting in verse 6, we move into the third and final division of Judges 6, God’s deliverance. It comes in two ways. The first way He starts this deliverance is with a message. “So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” What God had set out to do, by disciplining His people, He accomplished. He had gotten them in a place where they were now willing to turn to Him and humble themselves. It’s always best to stay in that state rather than become prideful and not humble ourselves, so then God has to humble us. That’s where these people were. So because the people were impoverished, they were crying out to the Lord.

Verse 7 says, “And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord….” See how that works? In other words, in response to their new attitude of humility, God responded. “…sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them….” Notice the prophet is not named. That’s great! This individual didn’t need his name in the Bible; he just came to do a job for God. “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage.’” What God is going to do is to remind the people of who He is, what He has done, that they belong to God, He belongs to them and He is going to rebuke them.

But the great news is that the people are back on speaking terms with God. There is nothing like having some kind of disagreement, some sort or relationship that has been broken, but then things begin to mend and you again speak to one another. Just the fact that you’re speaking to them is so sweet, so comforting! And God was speaking to them, and they were listening!

Verse 9, “And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.” So He was telling them, “This is who I am and this is what I’ve done. And I could have done this for you.” This could have been us.

Verse 10, “Also I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God…’” great news! “‘…do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed My voice.” This is the rebuke: they had not obeyed God’s voice. God was saying, “I could have done all these things for you; I am capable. Look what I have done before this for your people. But you didn’t obey My voice.” They were specifically disobedient in the area of the gods of the Amorites. By them not fearing or by them worshipping “the gods of the Amorites,” they were disobedient.

But the great news was they got this message from God, and they were back on speaking terms with Him.

The second thing God uses to deliver His people—this is where we meet Gideon—is this “mighty man of valor.” Verse 11, “Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.”
Now from verses 11-15, He is using Gideon, and we will see the call and the questioning. God will call Gideon into service and then his questioning of that call.

Verses 12-13, “And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’” which means “mighty man of strength.” “Gideon said to Him, ‘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, saying, “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.’”

This sounds like a son talking. Some of us have prodigal kids. Your kids have questioned the Lord. You’ve tried to tell them, “You don’t understand who I was; this was how I was living. And this is what God did!”

“Aw, come on! Fairy tales! If ‘the Lord is with us,’ where is this and where is that?! Where are the miracles?!”

I’ve got great news for you: Gideon starts by questioning God, but eventually he is changed and his heart surrenders to the Lord. We’ll see how that happens.

First a quick note: in verse 11 we see “the Angel of the Lord,” in verse 12, “the Angel of the Lord” and now, in verse 14, He is called “the Lord.” This is believed to be, by many good Bible teachers, a Christophany or an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament before His birth through the womb of Mary.

So Gideon asks questions. Starting in verse 14, “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?’” Gideon does not yet know who this “Angel of the Lord” is. So my assumption is that this “Angel of the Lord” appeared to Gideon as a man, as a person.

Basically Gideon is talking with God and arguing with Him. And God has an answer for Gideon when he questions Him with such boldness. God was telling him to use that same boldness and go, and then he would save Israel.

Verse 15, “So he said to Him, ‘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.’” There is the call and the questioning.

I know this is not familiar to any of you, because we are all godly, obedient people! When God calls us to do something, we immediately do it. So Gideon questions and comes up with excuses. “I can’t do that! What are you doing bothering me? Leave me alone! I’ve got nothing to do with that!”

Others had tried the same thing; most notably, Moses. God told him that He was going to send Moses to Egypt. God would rescue His people, and through Moses, He would lead them out of bondage. But Moses said, “No, I can’t go!” He kept coming up with excuses, and God kept shutting him down. God said, “That’s not going to work, because I’m going to be with you.” Moses finally said he couldn’t go because he couldn’t talk; he had a speech impediment. God said, “No; I’m going to send Aaron with you. You’re going.” So Moses went and became, as many believe, their greatest leader.

Gideon here was coming up with excuses. He was presented with this call by the Lord and came up with excuses why he couldn’t do the job. “I’m not fit for this job! I don’t have the ability to do what you have called me to do!” And God would agree with him; he did not have the ability to do what God had called him to do. But God was going to tell him that He would be with Gideon.

We don’t have the ability to do what God has called us to do on our own. But if God is calling us, He will equip us to do what He has called us to do.

Now where did God find Gideon? He found him threshing wheat in the winepress. Because of that, Bible teachers oftentimes chastise Gideon. When one grew wheat, the harvested wheat was coated with chaff. So you would take it to a place that was windy, scoop it into the air, and the wind would separate the chaff from the wheat. At the end, you would have a pile of chaff that you would burn up and a pile of wheat that you kept.

It’s somewhat comical, because Gideon was inside a winepress, a structure made to be filled with grapes and crushed in order to make wine from the juice. So people chastised Gideon, saying he was afraid and a man of fear. But I don’t think he’s so different than us.

Have you ever been on the way home after a long day at work and you just want a taco before you get home? You just want to sit in your car quietly and eat a taco. But if you called your spouse and let them know you’re stopping for a taco, he or she would say, “Great! Bring me six and some for the kids and neighbors. In one of my tacos, have them put some cheese, but in the other one, I don’t want too much cheese. And could you have them put a little bit of onion in—but not too much!” So forget it! I’ll just stop secretly and buy myself a taco.

Why? I don’t want to take my tacos home, because I have Midianites living at my house. You know what’s going to happen. So instead, you stop and get one taco. Done. But then you get home, and everybody smells that taco on you. Now you’re in trouble.

So we are not any different than Gideon.

I don’t think Gideon was very fearful. He was afraid; yes. But he was also afraid that he would lose the crop he had. He wanted to be able to bless his family with it. So he was just not out there in the open to be seen. To me, that was wise. Where he was must have made the job much harder, but he was protecting it from the enemy.

Now beginning in verse 16, we see a confirmation. It happens in four, different ways. “And the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you. And you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.’” There’s the secret to his success: God would be with him. In Colossians 2:10, it says, “You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

Would you consider yourself to be complete? We would probably say, “I am so incomplete! I do not have it together. I struggle as a Christian. I stumble and fall.” Yet, His Word says that we “are complete in Him.” It’s a promise of what you are, but especially of what you will become.

So when God called Gideon a “mighty man of valor,” He wasn’t necessarily talking about Gideon’s present condition; positionally, yes, but not practically. But Gideon will be a “mighty man of valor.” And that will be true, because of verse 16: “Surely I will be with you.” When God is with us, when He’s doing the work, He could speak with that authority.

You may say, “I’m not a ‘mighty man of valor.’ I’m afraid. I’m scared. I’m weak.” You can come up with all the excuses you want, but God wants to do a work, so He will make you who He needs you to be, in order to accomplish that work in you, with you and through you.

Now He gives Gideon signs. There are going to be a couple of signs. There will be confirmation through safety and through support. Gideon is speaking in verses 17-18: “Then he said to Him, ‘If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.’” Gideon was saying, “Prove it to me that this is really going to happen. Stay here. I’m going to go get an offering and come back.” “And He said, ‘I will wait until you come back.’”

Verses 19-20, “So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And he did so.”

I like this. I’m not crazy about soup. I need sustenance. Give me something to eat! Chicken!

Verses 21-22, “Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.’”

Gideon thought he was going to die, so in verse 23, “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace,” or “Jehovah Shalom.” “To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”

What did God do here, in verse 24? He gave Gideon “peace.” What was it they were lacking? What was the first thing that they surrendered? They sacrificed their peace. So God is on the move, working. He started with what they had been lacking. Right now it was just one man, one son. But God was moving.

The second thing God uses to confirm this to Gideon is his safety, in verse 25. “Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, ‘Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has…” his dad was an idolater “…and cut down the wooden image that is beside it.’” There’s no reason to believe that Gideon wasn’t following in his father’s footsteps, but we’re not told that. His father is idolatrous.

Verse 26, He tells him, “And build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull…” from his Dad “…and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” So he was to destroy his Dad’s idolatrous altar, use the pieces and build an altar to sacrifice to God. “So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.”

Again, Bible teachers chastise Gideon for being fearful and doing it at night. But he did it! When God told him to take the two pieces of the meal and pour out the broth, he did it. It’s obedience, in the small things and in the large things. God didn’t tell him to do it during the day; He just said to do it, and Gideon did it. He did it by night because he was afraid. Okay.

Which one of you hasn’t taken your Dad’s car, messed it up and then made sure you stayed out all day long and came home at night, so he wouldn’t see the scratch or dent? Gideon’s no different from us.

Verse 28, “And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, ‘Who has done this thing?’ And when they had inquired and asked, they said, ‘Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.’ Then the men of the city said to Joash, ‘Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.’ But Joash said to all who stood against him, ‘Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!’” Joash was saying that they had to plead the case for their god?! They had to save their own god?!

Fear is contagious. It doesn’t take much; it only takes one person to become fearful. It infects everyone around that person. But there is something else that is contagious: faith. And it only takes one individual and their obedience to the Lord to positively infect everyone around that individual.

Now the tables have turned. This is what God does. He took the son who was filled with questions and doubt and now He transformed that young man and used him to turn the heart of his father. His father was now on board. He said, “Let Baal plead his own case. If he thinks he’s stronger than God, step forward.”

Joash actually named his son, verse 32. “Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, ‘Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.’” Jerubbaal means “let Baal plead.” Joash was saying, “Let Baal fight his own fight! Let’s see if Baal can stand up to God.”

The third thing God used to confirm His word in the heart of Gideon was His support, verses 33-35. “Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.” You’re not leading if no one’s following. You may make a stand, you may lead the way but only if others are following. “And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.”

When God first spoke to Gideon, he was hiding inside a winepress, and God called him a “mighty man of valor.” And the critics stepped forward. “Mighty man of valor?! I think the Angel of the Lord took a wrong turn at the terebinth tree! He picked the wrong person!” No, He didn’t. God knew exactly who He was looking for. He knew who Gideon was. He knew what Gideon would become, because the Lord was with him doing the work.

This is what God does: He takes a person, breaks a person and then makes a person. That’s the process. And God had already started the work in Gideon. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

There is a fourth thing that God uses here to confirm His word in Gideon’s heart, verses 36-40. It is with a miraculous sign. God started with a sign and finishes with a sign. “So Gideon said to God, ‘If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.’”

“And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.” So God graciously answered his request.

If you have been a Christian for more than five minutes, no doubt you have heard the phrase “laying out a fleece before the Lord.” But I say to you that Christians misuse this story all the time. The idea is that I’m going to put something out there, in order for God to tell me what to do. But that’s not how it was used here. Gideon already knew what he was supposed to do. But because of his fear, he requested that God give him a sign. He was looking for confirmation. He said, in verse 36, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said….”

Don’t get caught up, church, in looking for mysterious signs—dew on the ground and dew on the fleece. We have God’s Word. God speaks to us from His Word. He confirms from His Word. We know this. Pastor Miller has taught us this week after week, service after service, year after year. God speaks to us from His Word and confirms it from His Word.

So enough with the excuses. There are some of us who know that God is calling us to some task. But fear is holding us back. And God is using His Word—His Word—to speak to you. And He is telling you that you are out of excuses. You were asking for confirmation and clarity. He has spoken to you in His Word. You have valid fears. You have valid reasons for not wanting to do what God has called you to do. However, God will be with you. And whatever it is that you are lacking, you will get.

So stop. Surrender. Like Gideon, find yourself in that place. “I’ll do whatever You want me to do. You want me to pour out the broth? I’ll pour out the broth. What do You want me to do? I’ll do it.” Doing what God has called us to do is always going to result in glory for God and in good for us and growth for you and me.

So stop digging those heels in. Stop kicking against the goads (Acts 26:14). Surrender.