Judges 6, 28 to 40 will be our reading. Continue to look at the judgeship of God's servant, Gideon. You remember that up to this point, God had visited Gideon or the angel of the Lord had visited Gideon, and we had mentioned that that figure is a pre-incarnate revelation or presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with his people. And he calls Gideon to destroy the pagan idol worship, the altars of pagan idols. Gideon does that, and this is the response of the people. 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 beside him or 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 Jerubbael. That is to say, let Baal contend against him because he broke down his altar. 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. This is the word of the Lord. This passage, especially the last few verses, is often used by people to teach how it is that we are to discern the Lord's will for our life. Should I make this significant career change? Should I marry this particular person? Lord, if you will make this miraculous thing occur, this unusual thing occur in my life, then I'll go ahead and do what you're asking. It's maybe something that you have heard before and maybe you've actually participated in an activity like this yourself. I know that one of the Wesley brothers, I remember he would throw lots or dice to discern the Lord's will on whether he should act in this way or act in another. The fact is, that's not what Gideon is doing here. He already knows the Lord's will. He's not trying to find out whether he should go up and fight or not. The Lord has made it explicitly clear to him that he wants him to save his people from their enemies. What is Gideon doing? Well, what he wants to know is if the Lord is going to be with him. in this endeavor. Yes, Lord, you want me to go. You want me to go to battle. It's overwhelming odds. Are you going to be with me? His concern was with the presence of the Lord. Now, we're in the same position as he is. We know the Lord's will for our lives. It's contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. That's where we find it. We know that we're to worship Him alone through Jesus Christ. We know that we are to fight against sin and we are to go out and evangelize the world. And when you think about that, particularly that last part, to go out and to evangelize our nation right now, that's an intimidating thing to do. Because the nation seems to be moving in a direction that is contrary to the ways of God. We feel overwhelmed by it to some degree. We need to know. that God is present with us as we move out by faith to do his will for our lives. You remember what Jesus says when he offers the Great Commission. He says, I will be with you always. And we've had a wonderful sign already today in the Lord's Supper, a sign of God's abiding presence, of Christ's abiding presence with his people. There's three things that I want us to look at as we move through this text. First, we see Israel's degraded state, and that's been a theme throughout the book of Judges, how the Israelites, have abandoned the Lord and have adopted the practices of the culture around them. They were supposed to set...they were supposed to be counter-cultural. They were supposed to reflect a heavenly culture and instead they had embraced the culture of the nations around them. So Israel's degraded state. Second, Joash takes a stand. And then third, Gideon's faith strengthened. Israel's degraded State, we read this in verse 28, 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? There is a price to be paid for obedience and faithfulness to the Lord. Earlier in this chapter, in verse 10, God sends a prophet to his distressed people. They...you remember the Midianites would settle in a valley where they lived, where they had set up their camp and their homes, and the Midianites would intrude upon them in the most personal way. They would take their possessions and all of the food that they had worked for and harvested during the year, the Midianites would take it and they cry out to the Lord for help. Now, what they thought was the Lord would just come along and destroy His enemies, but the Lord reveals to them or exposes to them... The real problem that they were facing, their problem wasn't the Midianites, their problem was in their own hearts. Their problem was that they had abandoned God and had started to serve foreign gods. And that's why the difficulties were happening. If they were faithful to the Lord, then they would be blessed. If they turned to false gods, as we read in the latter parts of Deuteronomy, there were curses that God was going to inflict upon them. It wasn't that they had a mighty enemy, it's that they had a God that they had provoked to jealousy. The diagnosis is seen in verse 10. The prophet says, on behalf of the Lord, and I say 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. Their problem was idolatry. And Gideon comes in, faithful to the Lord, and he applies the cure. The Lord says, hey, Gideon, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go in and I want you to destroy the altars of Baal. And I want you to cut down this wooden pole of Asherah, a pole that they would pray to. Gideon obeys the Lord's commandments specifically and faithfully and precisely. He boldly destroys the temple and he sets up an altar to God. And they even have a sacrifice burning on it early in the morning when the people of the town wake up. And we get this unexpected response. They ask the question in verse 29, they say to one another, who has done this thing? And it's interesting, when you think about it, these are God's people. These are the Israelites, the ones who God had saved from the hand of Pharaoh. They were supposed to worship him. They had all of his commandments, all of these teachings. And Gideon comes in and he provides some spiritual reform for them. We would expect, as we're reading through this story, when they say, who is the one that's done this? We're expecting a great celebration. Hoist Gideon up on the shoulders of the men of the city and carry him around and cheer for him because he's dealing with our problem. He's leading us spiritually. He's a faithful man. But we don't get that. Instead, the people of God burn with an overwhelming and an unholy hatred toward this man. Isn't that bizarre? That's not what you would expect of the children of God. I think there's a lesson for us to be learned about the cost of serving Christ and doing what pleases Him. Standing up to unrighteousness, seeking to put the church back on track spiritually and in terms of its doctrines and practice, we don't just concern ourselves with doctrine, but also practice. The two things are equally necessary. Standing up to unrighteousness, especially in the Christian community, often brings about some of the most severe persecution. And that's sad, isn't it? And maybe some of you have experienced that. You see, Gideon, he's treated here like the great reformer who was going to come to Israel, and that's Jesus Christ. He's treated just like Christ. in this passage because he's acting as a type of Christ to his people. Jesus comes to the world and to his own people to expose wickedness. We read about this in John 3.19 when Jesus says this, and this is the judgment. The light, that's who he is, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed." Isn't that a perfect commentary on what's going on here through the work of Gideon? He comes as light. And the people's hearts are so degraded, the power of sin is so strong, that they hate it. They can't bear the righteousness of God. Jesus talks of the result of his ministry and how it's going to be for all of his true followers. He says later on in John's gospel, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." What's going on here? How can God's people turn in almost a 380 from what they should be doing? Well, there's a demonic presence to be found in the nation of Israel. They're seeking the death of Gideon. He has challenged them and their belief systems. They're very comfortable with professing to be the children of God and yet having their idols. And their idols were their security blanket. Baal was primarily a god who ruled over the harvest and the fields, which they depended on to provide for their animals and also to provide for themselves. You start to challenge people at that level to trust in the Lord, and they begin to push back. Notice how far the nation has fallen. They've twisted the commandments of their God. The commandments teach, in the first commandment especially, that idolaters are to be put to death. You shall have no other gods before me." And they've twisted it around. Now, instead of idolaters being put to death, it's those who follow the one true God who are now subject to public execution. They're calling Gideon's father to bring him to the elders of the city, the leaders of the city, and to stone him to death as if he had broken a law of God. This rage that we see by the people, this deep hatred is a mark of the devil's presence. And we see it in 1 John 3, verse 11, when John is speaking about the necessity of love among God's people. John writes this, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. The people in the city should have loved Gideon for what he's done. He's done them a good thing. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous. So there is a demonic presence over the people of God during the days of Gideon. And here's the point. That being true, Gideon's whole purpose of existence is to save those very people. That's what he's sent for, to save the people that hate him. And again, it reminds us of Christ. He comes. and he brings salvation to us while we are still his enemies. The nation is degraded. The nation is under the power of the evil one. The nation needs salvation and God is sending it. The second thing that I want you to see in the text is how Joash, the father of Gideon, takes a stand. That's our second point, Joash takes a stand. Gideon is thrown down the gauntlet of a challenge to Baal. He's cut and destroyed his altar and he's used it to build an altar to the Lord. This battle, this divine battle is about to commence between Baal and the Lord. And what... Joash says is he confronts Baal. He says to the men of the city as they call for the head of his son, he responds in verse 31 with these words, but Joash said to all who stood against him, will you contend for Baal or will you save him? Whoever contends for him should be put to death by morning. If he is a God, if Baal really is what you claim him to be, let him contend for himself because his altar has been broken down. Why stand up for Baal? Does he need you? We're reminded in Scripture of how God acts very powerfully to preserve and to defend his own name. And he doesn't need anyone to act on his behalf. One of the most powerful Old Testament testimonies of that is the Exodus. when God brings his people out of Egypt. Now, there were these 10 plagues that the Lord performed, 10 powerful signs that we talked about a little bit this morning. Scholars believe that each of those signs relate to God's power over the natural idols of the nation Egypt. Each of the signs, God was showing his superiority over those things that they upheld to be idols. God does it, not Moses. God demonstrates who he is over the Egyptian gods. We also see God standing up for his people in military defeats without any of their aid. Right at the beginning of the campaign to enter the land of Canaan, we hear the story of Jericho. No human help was needed in that battle. God had his people march around the city for seven days, and on that last day, they marched around it seven times. They blew a trumpet and they yelled, and the city walls collapsed in a supernatural event. God... He doesn't need anyone to defend him. He can quite capably defend himself because he's the true and the living God. He's not imaginary. He's not created by man. We also see another story of this that's quite remarkable when the Lord of Israel defends himself against the Philistine God, Dagon. That's found in 1 Samuel. Remember, the Israelites go out to battle and they're using God in a way like a like a genie in a bottle. If we take the ark of God out to battle, then we have God's magical presence with us regardless of whether we love him and serve him and obey him. They take the ark into battle and they're defeated, not because God is powerless, but because it's an act of discipline upon them. The Philistines take the ark, and then they begin to triumph over God. They take the ark, which represents the presence of Israel's God, and they place it before Dagon in his temple in Philistine, in Philistine. And what happens? None of the Israelites come around. They're scared to death. Philistines wake up the next morning, and Dagon had collapsed and fallen. As if he was bowing to the Lord. What do they do? They prop him back up. Come back the next day, Dagon falls, and they prop him back up. What kind of God is that? Joash says, if Baal is what you say he is, if he's this mighty power who can provide for you, they're blinded to the foolishness of it all. He's the God of the harvest and their harvest is being taken from them. A challenge has been laid out. Joash calls the people to put their money where their mouth is. to practice what they preach. If Baal is such a great God, then surely he can defend himself. And this reminds us a little bit of the theology of idols. The Bible makes it very clear that idols are worthless, that they're powerless, that they're defenseless, that they're vain. because they're false. They have no true meaningful existence. God himself mocks the idols. We see in the book of Isaiah chapter 44, one of the most profound testimonies that God makes against the idols of his people. He's so grieved with them for their foolishness. And it shows the warped nature of the human soul that we blindly follow these things. It's irrational is what the Lord reveals to us. In Isaiah 44 verse 14, We read these words about the idols and the idol maker. The idol maker cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and he warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it. He makes an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns on a fire and the other half he worships. I mean, that just makes no sense. We're making it ourselves. The distinction between God and idols is this, the one true God creates everything. He stands outside of the created order, He creates it. Idols... are a creation of the human heart. They're made by men. God stands outside of it, above it, and over it. These things are foolish. So we move on now after Joash takes his stand against the idols to Gideon's faith being strengthened. After Joash takes up for his son, which must have been no doubt refreshing for Gideon, but we read that Gideon moves on. He's not going to be intimidated by his fellow countrymen. In verse 33, he begins to draw an army together. We hear that the Midianites and the Amalekites have entered the valley. They're spreading out. And remember what we read earlier in this chapter, they're like locusts. multitudes of these foreign invaders. They're coming in to enjoy the possessions of the Israelites. Then the spirit of the Lord closed Gideon, he sounds the trumpet, and he starts to collect fellow warriors from a few different tribes in Israel. There is a test of faith going on here with Gideon. The Midianites and Amalekites return in droves and they had some skill in warfare. The divine drama that's already been instituted by Joash, the drama between Baal and the Lord, is about to be played out in the history of human beings. The pagans representing Baal and Gideon and his men representing the Lord. We have a sign of hope. Already in verse 34, we're told that the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon. Gideon was a man of self-attested weakness. Back in verse 15, he talks about being from the weakest family in his tribe and the weakest tribe. in the nation. And we've talked already about how God in the book of Judges is using instruments of weakness to perform great things for himself. And this has really struck me over the last week or so. Oftentimes, we can get so discouraged in our weakness. When we feel spiritually drained, we feel unaffected, and that's often the place that God would have us to bring glory to his name. When we think we are on top of our game, When we think we are as close to God as we can be and as healthy spiritually as we can be, that's often when we backslide, when we fall into sin. But when you feel like you are just grasping for spiritual life, grasping for air and just clinging on, that's a good place to be. It doesn't feel like it. It's not comfortable. But that's where God most often brings glory to his name through his humble servants. Gideon is a man of weakness, and yet God empowers him by granting him the Holy Spirit, to fulfill his divine promise. He had already mentioned to Gideon that he was going to use him to conquer his enemies. There's a great lesson in this for us. God calls us to do humanly impossible things. He calls us to engage in spiritual warfare with the devil. He calls us to walk according to his commandments, to put to death sin. Now, if we really understand what those things are, we will feel the weight of the impossibility of them. If we know our hearts, we will feel the weight of that. But what we learn from Gideon, and this is true for us, this is true for anyone that God calls to fulfill His promises and purposes, God always gives power, divine power, to fulfill his requests, to obey his commands. Gideon had the Spirit of God. We have the Spirit of God. There's a moment of weakness for Gideon. Gideon says to the Lord, if you, in verse 36, 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. You can imagine it's the night before battle and he sees the vast army. Maybe he's up in one of the caves where they're hiding out. And the pressure is really starting to hit. I'm going to go to war with these people. I'm going to go to war. Bible heroes are often people we can relate to. because they're like us. They're weak. They're oftentimes, some of them, sinful in the way that they conduct themselves. But this man is particularly weak in his faith, and yet the Lord uses him to do mighty things. You see, Gideon needs assurance that God is with him. That's what he wants. He's not asking about the will of God. He knows the will of God and it scares him to death. He knows what God wants for his life. He wants God to walk with him through it. He wants to be assured that God is walking with him through it. He needs assurance. The Lord condescends to his request and we hear of this odd occurrence with this fleece. Gideon lays a fleece of wool on the threshing floor and he asked for there to be dew only on the fleece and everything else around it to be dry. He wakes up and finds that that indeed had happened. That's miraculous that God had done that. He squeezes out loads of water from this fleece. And the reality is wool absorbs water. So Gideon thinks about it for a moment and says, well, let's try this one more time. This time, we'll do something that is very miraculous and supernatural. You see, the fleece could have somehow absorbed all of the water from around it. Now, we're going to take that spongy fleece and God's going to put dew around it, but that thing that should naturally absorb the water is going to remain dry. And if God does this, then I will know that he is indeed present with me. And God stoops down to his level. God comes to him in his need and provides this sign. And God does that for us. Through baptism and the Lord's Supper, He condescends to us and He gives us that which we need to strengthen and to aid our faith. What is God doing? Well, He is proving to Gideon His divine nature and His divine presence. He's unlike Baal. Baal can do nothing. God acts in these supernatural ways. God stands above the natural order for His people. He stands above and outside of creation. Gideon knows now that the God who promised is also the God who walks with him in achieving that promise. Jesus never abandons us. He promises us life eternal, and He dwells in us to make sure that that promise is fulfilled. What a great testimony. What a glorious comfort that that was to Gideon, but it's a surpassing comfort that we have knowing that the Lord is with us. Let us pray. Our Father, we pray, Lord, that we would not neglect or despise your condescending grace to us by offering us signs For you tell us that we are united to Christ. You tell us that he abides in us. We can't see it and we can't feel it. And yet you give us the sacrament today of the Lord's Supper to remind us that Christ is with us. And we pray, Lord, for faith, that we would grasp those promises just as Gideon did. and that we would be strong to fulfill your will for our lives in our sanctification, in our witness to the world. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.