If you have your Bibles with you this morning, brothers and sisters, please turn with me to Judges 6. We're returning to the book of Judges, back to that downward cycle of idolatry before the Lord, oppression at the hands of the nations and the peoples around them, the cry for deliverance, the raising up of a deliverer, a savior. We've looked at Hothniel and Ehud, Quick look at Shamgar, Deborah, and Barak. Now to famous Gideon, who has been accused of cowardice, foolishness, the fear of man, and unbelief. And hopefully we can clear his name of a few things this morning and get our focus where it belongs, not on Gideon, but on the God of grace. We'll read most of this chapter. It is lengthy. We're taking a big bite today out of these chapters about Gideon and the people and then the Midianites. But follow, if you have your Bibles, I haven't been able to print the whole passage, but if you have your Bibles, we can begin at verse 1 through verse 10. Hear the word of God. 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. Let us pray. Father grant me grace. Grant me your spirit to be able to open your word this day that its truth its beauty and power might be set before us might stir our hearts might bring us to bow before you in wonder and praise. Hear us, I ask, in Jesus' name. Amen. I am not fond of books and stories and plays and things that are predictable. You know what's going to happen when. And you know right from the start, oh, who's going to end up with who? And you've got the whole thing figured out. I don't like those. I like stories that have twists and turns. I like mysteries that you're expecting one thing and suddenly something else takes place. And there are many of those. Some children's books are wonderful in that regard. And some children's books that really aren't children's books do that as well. We have been looking at a familiar pattern as we return to judges. They were fine under a judge. In this case, they had 40 years of rest. before this cycle started. The judge dies, and in verse 1, they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. That was, they returned to the idolatry of the past. They cry, they're brought under oppression, and they cry for deliverance. And God sends a deliverer, but wait a minute, this time it's a little different. This passage takes some turns, some twists that are totally unexpected. And in them, we see repeated demonstrations of God's mercy and graciousness. What's set before us is God's response. He is a jealous God. They did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they were brought into dire straits. Now, this time, it's economic oppression. It's not political oppression. They did evil. And we get the worst description of oppression that we have seen yet. in the book of Judges. The people were carving out caves and holes to hide in the mountains, to store anything that they could to keep them away from the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East, who would probably, with spies in the land, wait until everything was ready. Wait for them to do the threshing. Wait for them to gather in the crops and the produce. Wait till the land is really abundant. And then they would just sweep in like locusts. and their camels and the peoples and their tents couldn't even be numbered. And for years, year after year after year, they stripped the land bare. And so the people finally cry out. Now, the expectation, ours would be, since the pattern has been very consistent, and they cried out and the Lord raised up a deliverer, a savior for them. It's our expectation, it may very well have been their expectation, but what happens this time in verse 7 through verse 10? 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." They're expecting a savior. They get a sermon. These people didn't even know why they were being oppressed. And the Lord graciously sends them a prophet to describe to them their situation, their syncretism. What have they done? They have not obeyed the word of the Lord. They have turned to those gods, those idols of the nation. And so they're worshiping the Lord. We talked about this earlier. It's not that they abandoned Yahweh, but they're trying to satisfy the gods of the region. as well. And so what happens then is they fall into disunity as a people and they become an easy target for the people of the East, the Midianites and the Amalekites to just come in, take what they want and head on out. They don't even have to hang around to make sure that the work is done because Israel is going to have to plant something to try and stay alive. They hadn't abandoned Yahweh. We know a little further in the passage, Gideon knew the deliverance, knew very well of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. He cries out regarding it. And he knew of God's mighty works on their behalf. But he had an altar to Baal and an Asherah pole in his front yard at the same time. And so God sends a prophet. They hear a sermon. You ever done that with your children? You know, what they need is rescue. What they get is a sermon. One of my grandkids one time who was not supposed to be going up in the climber out in our woods, you know, about eight foot up, up the ladder, he's not supposed to be up there. And I turn around, he gets up and I hear this, well, of course, he had gone up and tried to come down false and God in his mercy allowed his foot to get caught between the rungs there. So he is hanging completely upside down with his foot hanging about seven feet off the ground. So of course I run to rescue him but the first thing he got before I even disengaged him was the sermon. But you've never done that with your children, I know that. So God comes to him in this message and in this messenger to say, thus says the Lord, and he recounts the blessings of God, how he led them, how he delivered them, how he cared for them and gave them the things that they needed, how he commanded them, fear the Lord, not the gods of these Canaanites. But you have not obeyed. They didn't even know what repentance was. This is a jealous God who is not content to be added to the pantheon of the gods of the nations. He is to be worshipped exclusively. Now, when you hear that message in the scriptures, what do you expect? But you have not obeyed. What do you expect? Therefore, go back and read Isaiah. In Isaiah 5, the people are not, they're walking in disobedience. Therefore, he says, I am driving you away. I am giving you into the hands of. Think of David and Nathan when Nathan finally confronts David. And he says, you are the man, this is what you have done. And he says, therefore, yes, God will receive your repentance, but that child is going to die. And when we hear those words of the prophet, but you have not obeyed my voice, what we expect is judgment. What we get instead is God's grace. They had cried out, not because of their sin and their offense. They had cried out because they were uncomfortable because of their oppression. But they didn't even know why they were being oppressed. Now the word comes, we expect judgment. Instead, God asks, God acts graciously. The angel of the Lord comes. This is printed for you. If you don't have a Bible, you can turn to our passage beginning at verse 11. Israel needed to give up the worship of the nations. But they hadn't actually repented yet. I'll get to my passage in just a section. I thought here I don't want to pass over. They hadn't repented. They regretted the situation that they were in. It was uncomfortable. But they hadn't yet turned away from that false worship. They haven't cut down the Asherah poles. They haven't torn down the idols, the altars built to Baal. No, they were uncomfortable and they cried out to the Lord. We have good friends of ours have a daughter who is in the wilderness right now, claiming Christ, but not walking or living in any way that affirms that quote-unquote testimony. And so over the Christmas holidays, she called and said she was going to come and join them for worship. Well, they were thrilled to have that. But the day came and went, and she called a little later and said, oh, I forgot. I'm really sorry. And of course, what she meant was, I'm really sorry. And mom figured out in a hurry, I'm really sorry I hurt you. And what mom said was, the problem is not the offense against me. The problem is the fact the offense against the Lord. I'm not so concerned about these horizontal relationships right now. I'm concerned about the vertical one. And of course, when God sends the prophet, that's exactly what his concern is about. There's no repentance on their part, but God acts in grace. Verse 11, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophirah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. with his son Gideon while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. Now, that explains the kind of oppression they're under. Everybody here I think knows you don't thresh wheat in a wine press. The object is to beat it, throw it up, the breeze catches the chaff and it blows away and the seed comes down. Now, if you're in a wine press, there might be a little circular, you know, breeze blowing through there but ain't nothing blowing out. So the bread you're going to make with that mix isn't going to be so good. But if there are spies in the land and they're watching, how in the world do you protect the little bit that you can get from here before you try and run to the hills and hide yourself? So he's in a wine press threshing wheat. And that's where the angel of the Lord finds him. And he appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you. Oh, mighty man of valor. Now, I do not believe that the angel of the Lord was mocking him. Not in the least. He sees him and declares him to be the man he is, if indeed God is with him. Here is grace at work. But Gideon has a question. And Gideon said to him, verse 13, Please, sir, 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, If I can save Israel, 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, now, if I now 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 bring out my present and set it before you. And he said, I will stay until you return. If you are with us, why has all this happened? Where is our deliverance? And of course, the angel says to him, you are the means of deliverance. It is you that I've chosen. And his response is like Moses. Well, why me? We are an insignificant clan, we're an insignificant house, Manasseh, we're the least in that particular house and I'm the youngest in my household. Why me? And the angel says to him again, because I am with you. How gracious of the Lord. A presence that he certainly doesn't deserve and what more could he possibly need? Now Gideon needs to know it really is the word and the work of the Lord. And so he asks for assurance. And again, I am not going to impugn Gideon in this. As we'll see when we come to the fleece, we have the word of God. We have the history of God's people. We have the spirit at work in us. We have the means of grace that the Lord has set before us in order to be able to discern these things clearly. Gideon doesn't have that. Where's the nearest priest who's opening the word to him? Nowhere to be seen. And he has probably heard some of the words of the prophet here. Gideon needs to know this is really the work and the word of the Lord. And so he asks for assurance. Will you stay here and let me prepare you a meal? And God graciously says, yes, I will prepare it. And he goes and pulls a roast out of the freezer and some broth, and he sticks them in the microwave. And ten minutes later, he's back to present the meal to the angel. No. No, it says he prepared a goat. Now, it started living. This is going to take a while. And so the angel stays. Finally, it's all prepared. He brings it. The angel of the Lord says, set it on the rock. Pour the broth over it. And he takes his staff, reaches out, and it says, the angel at verse 21 here, 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. Yeah, that might clue you in. And Gideon said, alas, oh Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. He knew, and this is helpful to us, Gideon got his answer. He knows he's seen God and he fears for his life because you cannot look on God and live. You cannot see God and live. It helps us to answer a question here. Who is this angel of the Lord? Well, the passage goes back and forth between the angel of the Lord and the Lord. For instance, verse 14 and verses 16, the Hebrew says, the Lord said to him, the Septuagint translates it as the angel of the Lord. But by the time we get down to verse 22, Gideon understands. I have been speaking face to face to the Lord, and I do not deserve to live. And he fears for his life. And what does the Lord say to him? But the Lord said to him, peace be to you. Do not fear. You shall not die. Again, the Lord in his grace speaks to, reaches out to Gideon. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day, it stands at Oprah, which belongs to the Abius Rites. How gracious the Lord is. Peace be to you. Do not fear. You shall not die. Do the people view or see Baal? Is it gracious? God? Hardly. They are constantly trying to cajole, to appease this God, God, this capricious God whose ways and whims no one can really understand, and they will bring sacrifices continually that cause terrible suffering for the people in order to try and win his help. No, he is not gracious. Not in any way. But Gideon would serve a God, a gracious God and Lord. And so the Lord makes himself known. And verse 25, now, and again, not printed, we ran out of, we couldn't print it all. After that experience, that night, it says, 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 have cut down. In other words, he's to consecrate an altar to the Lord burning up the false gods. So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord 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. Now, once again, we get this idea, you know, we're told that Gideon was just weak and fearful. Yes, he was, but he obeyed. Now, I don't know if it was that night or the next night. The text doesn't make it perfectly clear, but the Lord appeared to him in the night, and I think he got up and did it. Grabbed his servants, got the bulls, pulled it down, said, we're going to get this built. We're making this offering now. Burn that thing up. And of course, the next day, when the people of the town awoke, it didn't take them long to discover who had done such an atrocity. It was Gideon. And so they go out to Joash, his father. Bring him out. We're going to take care of him. And Joash basically says, why didn't Baal do anything about it? So if you want to contend for Baal, basically, he says, who will contend for Baal? Verse 27. 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. Now he was defending his son. You want to come get him? You come get him. You're going to be dead by morning. And how big is this God anyway? He drags it down, he burns up, he destroys the altar, he burns up the poles, he takes the very wood to make a sacrifice. Where is he? Isn't he big enough to defend his own altar, his own name, his own territory? If you want to take him, fine, you put your life at risk. Go for it. But why don't you let Baal defend himself? And so Gideon gets the name Jeroboam. Let Baal contend. Let Baal stand up. So now Israel, now the people have a choice. They can prop up Baal. What will Baal do, it seems? Nothing. So they can continue to run after a God who is impotent, who really can't even save himself, or they can rally to the one whom God has raised up, Gideon, Jeroboam. And so at verse 23, all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together. Here they come again. Round eight. 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 Adi-Ezrites who 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, Nephthi, and they went up to meet them. The choice is made. The call comes through the servant of the Lord. Are we going to follow Baal and try and prop him up and see if we can build him up again and make another pole and see how long that one lasts before that's ripped down and burned up? Are we going to follow the one who has the power and the glory to destroy all the others? Will they prop up bow or serve the Lord? They can join Gideon or they can go hide. There's their choice. And so the Lord affirms Gideon, this man who he called out of the wine press to lead them into battle. Gideon's got a question, a serious question. Is it really your voice? Is it really your command? 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's 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, that means he was up before the sun comes up and can dry everything up. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece he wrung out, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. And as I said to you, children, it doesn't work that way. It just doesn't work that way. You can put water on top, but it's not going to sink in. So when the dew can settle on top, it can settle on top. But getting a lot of water to stay in that thing, you're going to have to work pretty hard to do it. The ground is bone dry. God breaks into the natural order to affirm, to confirm, to support, to uphold Gideon in his request that it really is God who is speaking to him. 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. I worked on a farm cutting alfalfa, and that was 24 hours a day, they cut alfalfa. And I can tell you, every night, because we used to work swing shift, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., so there were plenty of nights when I was out there, And about four o'clock in the morning or so, things change because that's when the dew settles. And ain't nothing stays dry. Not the grass, not the ground, not the roads, not the tractors, not you, nothing stays dry. When the dew comes, everything is soaked. And so once again, God says, I can handle this and does so very simply and very powerfully. Once again, I think we need to be careful how we judge Gideon because what he was asking was no trivial matter. He was not saying, are you really calling me to do this? Should I go here or should I go to here? Should I take this job or this job? Should I turn left or right? Should I go to this college or that college or this school or that place? Should I marry this person? No, that's not what he was asking, not at all. Is God really who he says he is? Is it really God who said, you are my choice to deliver and to judge Israel? Now again, he doesn't have a Bible in front of him. He doesn't have the means of grace that we have. He couldn't test that word against some standard. So he didn't want to presume that he had it right. And how patient God is in our weaknesses. gentle and loving, and he reassures Gideon and answers to strengthen his faith, to show that he is gracious, a gracious God. Don't trivialize this test, I guess is what I'm saying. We have to be careful that we don't use the fleece in a manner that really puts God to the test. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, Jesus says in Luke chapter 4. He's quoting, of course, Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 16. This isn't an issue of, what will you do for me? Gideon wasn't asking for guidance. And that's where we get caught. We have choices before us, neither of them sinful, both of them possibilities. And in a way, I think sometimes we lay the fleece because we don't want to make the decision. Because if it's wrong, I want somebody to blame. Oh, be careful, brothers and sisters. that we aren't trying to lay fleeces like that so that we are exonerated from responsibility. You've got two choices in front of you. You can't say, this is the stronger by far, this is the weaker. This has elements of sin. I know it's done. I've got two choices. Morally, I can go either way. Two jobs, two schools, two whatever's. We're not asking God in a trivial way to make a decision for us. Gideon is asking for God to reveal himself as the God of creation. And that, I believe, is a legitimate question. He wasn't asking for guidance. God, you have commanded this. Are you the one who can fulfill it? Jesus said, not in terms of guidance. Which way should I go? Should I go left or right? Should I make this choice or that choice? In Matthew 7, he says to the people who need to know the living God, he says, ask, and it will be given. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened to you. Who's he talking about? Ask, seek, knock. In a sense, he's doing giving us permission to do what Gideon has done, to show himself as the God of the universe, the God of all creation, the God of all power and of all might, the God of all grace and mercy, as he has shown himself to be over and over and over again in this passage. God does make himself known supernaturally He came into the world taking human flesh and blood so that we could know him, so that he could be with us as he promised to Gideon. I am with you. How am I going to do this? Well, I'm with you. What do you mean, great warrior? I'm with you. Great in your own strength? Well, good luck with that when you can stay in the wine press. But I'm with you. And I will strengthen you, and I will guard you, and I will guide you, and I will set you on my path. and I will use you. And now God comes affirming that more gloriously than we could ever imagine and sending his son into the world so that he could be and is with us. He came to deal with the rebellion and the sin in the hearts of men and women graciously, gloriously, sacrificially taking the punishment and the weight of sin upon himself. And in that body, he showed us power over the created order, over the physical world, over the spiritual world. Again, children, water into wine, speaks and the forces of nature stop. Healings, mysteries, wonders, taking control of all of creation. This is the God who said, I will be with you. This is the Lord Jesus Christ who said, I will be with you. He was with Gideon in a way that allowed him, that empowered him to accomplish all that the Lord called him to do. And he wasn't with all the people, all his people in that same way. And we know that he wasn't on or with Gideon always in that way. Oh, how the people, we long for a day when we know that he will never depart. And how gracious our God is, he will never depart. For like those Israelites, we read about us and them in Ephesians 2, didn't we? When we were dead in our trespasses, when we were dead in our sins, God sent his son into the world. The point is Israel wasn't going to repent on their own. The prophet could come and tell them what they needed to do so that they would at least understand why the oppression was there. But he doesn't wait until they've repented and smashed down the idols to come and raise up Gideon and deliver them. He acted to deliver while they were still in their bondage to idols and God in His grace, acts while we are still in bondage, indeed dead in our trespasses and sins. And He raised up one to destroy those idols and false gods. He sent one who could deal with the consequences of sin. And it would take his life, but he would rise from the dead. You want to see supernatural power at work? Raised from the dead, the one who would rob the devil and his angels of their power of death. He doesn't wait for us to get better to show his kindness and his grace and favor. As the hymn says, if you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Such is the grace of God. Here set before us, in the midst of the misery of Israel, with the hand of God at work in the servant who would walk in faith and obedience. Don't wait until you're all better, if you've heard and know that you can turn from your sin to the living God, that you can ask and seek and knock, and he hears, and he answers, this God of grace. Father, set our eyes not on the flaws and foibles of Gideon. For Father, if I tried to match mine up, the list would be a whole lot longer. I am certain, Lord, I have no doubt. But grant us the grace to fix our eyes on the grace that you have made known in your Son, Jesus Christ, in your word of promise that you will be with us even to the end of the age. And Lord, give us grace and strength to so walk, hearts stirred by your gracious acts of mercy and favor and by your wondrous promise of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. And the one who you sent to be with us. Hear us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.