The Book of Judges (Part 6) : A Sign from Heaven
Pastor Rollan Fisher
As we move through this series in Judges, we will continually come back to a theme that runs the course of the book.
Judges was a time when “Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).
What we’ll see played out in Judges and reflected in our own lives are the repercussions of living before God as if he were not king, and living by simply doing what is right in our own eyes.
Our goal will be to return to a life of faith and love for Jesus that ultimately leads to God’s glory and our good.
Focus: God calls us out of our caves to tear down idols and experience the transformative power of Jesus’ resurrection life.
Working With Nothing to Show For It
Coming Out of the Cave
Tearing Down Idols
To See a Sign From Heaven
Working With Nothing to Show For It
All that we hold near and dear, that which we were actually working for, can be lost through sin.
Judges 6:1-10 ESV
“The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice."”
When we live a sin, the consequence is fruitlessness - where our enemies eventually steal and destroy everything that we worked for.
This can be in our marriages, our friendships, relationships with our children, our mental health, our finances, our careers and even our physical well-being.
God will always bring us back to his word to remind us where we’ve diverged and not obeyed his voice.
He is gracious enough to send people as prophetic voices in our lives to bring us back to his law, his commands.
Has there ever been a point in your life where the things valuable to you have been destroyed or stolen through sin?
Coming Out of the Cave
God calls us out of the caves to face our enemies of our souls that have plundered our lives.
Judges 6:11-24 ESV
“Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor." And Gideon said to him, "Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." And the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?" And he said to him, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." And the Lord said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay till you return." So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them." And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face." But the Lord said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.”
Before God calls us out, he is kind enough to find us where we’ve been hiding.
He calls us out of a place of oppression by declaring over us who we were created to be, as opposed to what we’ve become.
In Gideon’s case, the angel of the Lord says:
"The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor."
Like Gideon, we all have doubts and baggage that we need to work through to become who God has called us to be.
Yahweh’s response to Gideon is the same as it will always be to us, no matter if you think that your pedigree has been weak and your place in the world makes you feel like the least.
"But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man."
*Gideon’s success was in, and our’s will forever be, that God is with us and is leading us!
And because of this, and this alone, does he call Gideon a mighty man of valor.
This is the great comfort of the great commission as Jesus (Immanuel - “God with us”) sent us into all the world to make disciples of all nations promising to be with us always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:18-21).
Some doubt God and his goodness because of the experiences in their lives.
“Perhaps God permits my father, or my daughter, or my friend, or me to suffer in the most appalling way. I may then find myself thinking as follows: “No doubt he has all those dandy divine qualities and no doubt he has a fine reason for permitting this abomination — after all, I am no match for him with respect to coming up with reasons, reasons that are utterly beyond me — but what he permits is appalling, and I hate it!” I may want to tell him off face to face: “You may be wonderful, and magnificent, and omniscient and omnipotent (and even wholly good) and all that exalted stuff, but I utterly detest what you are doing!” A problem of this kind is not really an evidential problem at all, and it isn’t a defeater for theism.”
-Alvin Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief
Trial can be the result of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6) or God allowing circumstances to develop our trust in his sovereign goodness and glory (John 9).
However in many cases, trial can be the result of our own sin and we are slow to connect the dots.
In Gideon’s case, he made no such connection from the Midianite oppression to Israel’s sin, and simply questioned God regarding he and his people’s then present struggles without dealing with the root.
Before God calls us to do anything, he calls us to know his peace.
Gideon is given the opportunity to interact with Yahweh’s aide, known as the angel of the Lord.
As Yahweh was coming to confirm his call of Gideon, he first spoke peace over him.
In building his altar of worship and sacrifice, Gideon would continually reference Yahweh Shalom to know the Lord is Peace and makes all things well.
This Shalom from God is ultimately made available through the sacrifice of Jesus, who becomes our peace with God through his death at the cross for our sins.
Romans 5:1-2 ESV
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Through repentance and faith we enter into that peace that God initiates which we see as an ongoing theme in Gideon’s story.
Tearing Down Idols
God calls us into freedom by having us tear down the idols of our own hearts and the culture’s.
Judges 6:25-32 ESV
“That 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 that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down." So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And after they had searched and inquired, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing." Then the men of the town said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it." But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down." Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal contend against him," because he broke down his altar.”
God calls Gideon to begin the process of deliverance by tearing down the altars to the false gods that the Israelites had begun to worship.
In essence, God says, “the false masters that your family served, tear down and build the altar to Yahweh on top of it with the stones (the priorities of his word) laid in due order.”
Gideon attempts to tear down the altars at night, when he thinks the confrontation will cost him the least.
However, what God does with you privately must and will always impact your public life, your relationships with others, when you are obedient.
“Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal contend against him," because he broke down his altar.”
Gideon’s obedience helped bring his father to repentance, to side with Yahweh, and allowed Baal’s false power to be exposed.
The question is:
How do I know what has mastered me?
“The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.”
-Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
“An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”
-Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
Why it matters:
“If we look to some created thing to give us the meaning, hope, and happiness that only God himself can give, it will eventually fail to deliver and break our hearts.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
“An idolatrous attachment can lead you to break any promise, rationalize any indiscretion, or betray any other allegiance, in order to hold on to it. It may drive you to violate all good and proper boundaries. To practice idolatry is to be a slave.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
What are the masters in our culture that have been mastering you and your family?
How do we attempt to do what is right in our own eyes?
What are the Asherah poles, the visible images of worship, that you are trying to hold onto that God is calling you to tear down?
Don’t guise your idolatry in a vestment of religion and God’s blessing.
To See a Sign From Heaven
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection was the sign that we needed to prove that God can make all things in our lives truly new!
Judges 6:33-40 ESV
“Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. Then Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, 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 next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, "Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.”
The focus is not Gideon, but God and how great his grace is to propel us in the midst of our shortcomings.
God is obviously not demanding perfection or a self-derived sense of strength to deliver his people through a vessel like Gideon.
The Scripture says:
Judges 6:34
“But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.”
The Hebrew translation actually reads, “Yahweh’s Spirit clothed itself in Gideon”, meaning Yahweh was doing his work through Gideon.
Gideon in essence becomes the clothing.
We can not see God’s Spirit, but we see the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in Gideon as he is transformed with power from one who was too scared to confront his village to one who is going to take on the Midianites, Amalek and the easterners.
Matthew 12:38-42 ESV
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins, burial and resurrection was the ultimate sign that heaven is for us, is ready to forgive and redeem damaged, broken lives.
As we turn to Christ in repentance and faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross, we too are transformed, becoming the clothing of the Spirit of God to see bound people healed and restored!
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher