Sermon Archive
Gideon Trusting in God
Download Audio (MP3)

GIDEON: Trusting in God and His Unlimited Power
Pastor Tom Mitchell

It’s pretty easy to go through life expecting others to step up and do something. We love it when we see others doing the things that we want to see done. But maybe it’s time for you to step up and get more involved. This morning we focus on a regular guy named Gideon who stepped up, obeyed God and got involved. Gideon is a guy who teaches us what can happen when we obey and trust in God and his unlimited power.
 
The story of Gideon is told in the Book of Judges 6-8. Before there were kings in Israel, the people were governed by judges for 300 years. During this time the people were locked into an awful cycle of idolatry with a fertility god called Baal. The appealing thing about Baal is that he seems to make no demand and offers lots of promises. In response to their idolatry, God would allow the people to fall under the military control of a neighboring country.  
 
The Hebrew people would always repent when they were in trouble and call out to God. In mercy, God would then raise up a man or woman, called a judge, to free the people. Things would be fine for a while, until a new generation began flirting with Baal again. And so the cycle between idolatry, judgment, and rescue continued for 300 years.
 
At one point in time the Midianites invaded the country and ruled it for seven years. When they came, the text says, “they arrived as locusts, destroying everything in sight.” (6:5)So the people called out to God for mercy. After some time, God responded by sending an angel to talk to a guy named Gideon, who was busy at the time hiding in a wine press as he worked on his wheat harvest.
 
6:11-12“Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak .… Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said … ‘The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.’” The angel was telling Gideon what he could be (a valiant warrior) not reminding him what he was, a fearful man.
 
Get the picture. The angel finds Gideon hiding from the Midianites. He was not your typical hero. Gideon was fearful, just like we are at times in our lives. We find ourselves in a difficult place financially, medically, with our family or marriage situation. Try as we might we cannot seem to get ourselves out of our seemingly impossible situation and we are afraid.
 
Gideon was shocked that the Lord had wanted him to lead the Israeli army against the Midianite army. After all, he had not thought of himself as being a hero. His reaction tells a lot about who we are as human beings because often when God asks us to do something or go somewhere we say, “I can’t do that or I can’t go there!”
 
Gideon replied, “Sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” The angel essentially said, “Well, it’s interesting you should mention being delivered. Here’s what God wants you to do: “…..Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” (Judges 6:13-14 NLT)
 
Gideon was sharing his doubts with God and asking if He is so powerful, why are the Israelites in such trouble? This is similar to all of us at some point in our lives where we complain that our prayers are met with silence and we wonder why should we believe when God doesn’t seem to be helping. We all come to various times in our lives when we question God’s power or His love. Gideon also voiced his doubts to God.  6:15-16, “Gideon replied, “Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”  The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”  (Judges 6:15-16 NLT).  
 
Like Gideon, we may tell God about our limitations and weaknesses. Notice that the angel doesn’t argue the point.
The Angel doesn’t say, “Oh, you can do it, tough guy. Just have confidence in your abilities. If you can dream it you can achieve it.”  No, all the Angel says is, “God will be with you.” That’s usually not what we want, is it? What we want is for God to stay in heaven and to do something magical to fix these things down here apart from our direct involvement.  
 
But God is not a magician. He is a deliverer. And in the Bible, God usually asks men and women to make a difference by getting involved. You are not called to change the world, but you are called to be obedient and be willing to be used by God to make a difference in your corner of the world.
 
This is all too much for Gideon. He is wondering who this really is, so he says to the angel, “Show me a sign. (v17)” Gideon then goes into his house and grabs a lamb. He sets it on a rock. The angel touches it with his staff. Fire springs up from the rock, consumes the lamb, and then the angel disappears. Then Gideon is really terrified. (v22) But he is told not to be afraid and was given instructions on what to do. He is basically told two things:
 
1st - Obey God.  What Gideon is first told to do is to tear down the altar to Baal that belonged to his father. Before you are going to be able to do anything about the Midianites, or whatever problem there is out there, you are going to have to do some housecleaning in your own home. Too many times we want to look out there for the problem and Gideon is told to tear down the altars in his own back yard.
 
Too many times we think: “The problem isn’t us. It’s them.” And we blame the Iranians, the Taliban, El-caida, British Peterolum, the liberals or the guys on Wall Street. They are the problem!”
 
We think that if God just fixed “them,” then everything will be fine. Jesus Christ never allowed his followers to blame “them.” Instead, he pointed out that the problem was within their own hearts. The human heart is the first battleground, and it only takes one person, with God’s help, to make a difference. The second thing Gideon was told was to:
 
2rd - Trust God - If you have learned to obey God, then you are ready to—trust God and experience God’s power to make a difference.  Gideon asked for help to fight the Midianites and 32,000 men enlisted in his new army. He’s suddenly been transformed from a frightened man in hiding to a General of an Israeli army. Thirty-two thousand soldiers may sound like a lot until we find out the Midianites had 120,000 in their army.
 
Gideon does the math and then decides he needs to make certain God was behind this plan for deliverance. So he asks God for another sign. He laid some wool on the ground and said, God, “Tomorrow morning if the wool is wet and the ground is dry, then I’ll believe.” (6:36-40) The next morning the wool was wet and the ground was dry. Then we don’t know if he forgot which way he asked God to show him: Was it dry wool and wet ground or was it wet wool and dry ground? For what ever reason he asks for another sign: He said: “Tomorrow morning if the wool is dry and the ground is wet, then I’ll believe.” The next morning the wool was dry and the ground was wet. Gideon had already seen God toast a lamb on a rock, which should have been enough.
 
But in his mercy, God indulges Gideon, just as he is patient with you and me. You can keep asking for more and more signs but the issue comes down to obedience.
 
Now notice what God does. God wants to make it clear that this deliverance had little to do with General Gideon, and his 32,000 men. God said, “Gideon, tell all the men who are scared that they can go home. (7:1-3)” Gideon did it and 22,000 men headed for home. Gideon was left with only 10,000 men to fight an army of 120,00.
Gideon says: “God, I can’t fight the Midianites with 10,000 men!”
The Lord said, “You’re right. We’ve still got too many. Take all the men down to the water and separate the men who get down on their knees to drink the water from those who don’t.”  9700 of them got down on one knee and 300 of them did not. The army of 32,000, went down to 10,000 and now it was down to 300. God said, “Now take the 300 and let’s go get rid of some Midianites.”
 
That night, God led Gideon and his 300 men up to the top of the ridge of the hills that surrounded the valley where the Midianites were camped. He told Gideon to give each man a trumpet, a clay jar, and a torch. Notice what he didn’t give them - swords. In the darkness of the night while the Midianites slept, at the exact same time, every man blew his trumpet, smashed his jar that was hiding a lit torch, and then yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” (7:19-22)   In the confusion produced by darkness, the torches and the blasting of the trumpets, the Midianites began killing each other and they ran off, because they thought a much larger army was after them. Gideon, without a sword freed his people from the Midianites by obeying and trusting God. What are you trusting God for these days?
 
Gideon’s name is mentioned in Heb 11 as a man of great faith. This is the same guy who three times asked God for a sign. How did he eventually become a man of great faith? By obeying and trusting what God asked him to do. Faith is: Obeying God in spite of the circumstances and in spite of the consequences.
 
And after Gideon obeyed, then God showed up with his unlimited power did a number on the enemy. God hasn’t asked you to be strong or smart or fearless. He has asked you to obey him and to trust him. We access the power of God when we do what God asks us to do.