Judges 6:1
In Times Like These
I do believe the days that we are living in are unique, but not
because we are the first nation of people to turn against God. We
aren’t. Neither do I think they are unique because we are going
alone. We are not. The whole world is going with us. I think the days
that we are living in are unique because of where they are taking
us—to the return of Jesus Christ. However, we should remember that
there have been times like this before.
So what does God do in times like these? Does God resign Himself to
the fact that nothing can be done? Does God write off generations
like these as hopeless and bound for hell? Does God grant that sin
can become greater than His grace?
Let me answer those questions one at a time. No. NO. NO!
In times like this, God looks for a person. I use the world person
on purpose. Most of the time, God uses a man; but the Bible
documents that God uses women too. Most of the time, God uses
adults; but the Bible documents that God uses youths today. So in
times like these, God is looking for someone, someone like Gideon.
Before we get started, I will tell you that I will not get finished.
I have more thoughts than I even brought with me today. I hope to
return to this text, perhaps next week, to finish; but I will share
with you two major thoughts this morning.
I. A Nation Gone Under
Former President Ronald Regan once said, "If we ever forget that we
are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
A. Israel was a nation that had forgotten their power, purpose,
and Protector were God, and they had gone under.
1, In the first verses, God outlines the path Israel took
to go under.
2. I suspect Israel’s path in their downward journey would be
similar to the path any nation would follow making this
journey; but if they did not step on all of these bases,
they would probably step on most of them.
B. The conditions:
1. They were sinful.
Judges 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil
in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered
them into the hand of Midian seven years.
a. Sin is what separates mankind from God.
b. Interestingly, the depth and quantity of Israel’s sins
were NOT the FIRST indicators that separation exists.
c. A single sin, deemed minor by the human race, causes
the same rift between God and man as the worst sin in
mankind’s arsenal.
d. However, the depth of our sins and number of sins do
indicate how long we have been separated from God and
how much we have missed Him.
e. By looking at the sins most nations commit today, I
would guess that we have been separated from God for
a long, long time; and that we have not missed Him at
all.
2. They were conquered.
Judges 6:2 And the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel…
a. It is interesting that God uses one sinful nation to
judge another.
b. Midian was no more righteous than Israel.; however, at
this moment in time, they were more blessed than
Israel.
c. This is one of the most baffling characteristics about
God, that He will seemingly bless one wicked nation
over another.
(1) God also blessed the Philistines, the Amorites,
the Moabites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians,
the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans over
His own people on numerous occasions.
(2) I suppose there is an unwritten law of nature
somewhere that says if someone is going to be on
the bottom, someone is going to have to be on
top.
(3) I think that means that while being on top is not
always an indication of God’s approval, being on
bottom is could be indication of the lack of
God’s approval.
3. They were hiding.
Judges 6:2 …and because of the Midianites the
children of Israel made them the dens which are
in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.
4. They were hungry.
Judges 6:3 And so it was, when Israel had sown,
that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites,
and the children of the east, even they came up
against them;
4 And they encamped against them, and destroyed
the increase of the earth, till thou come unto
Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither
sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
5 For they came up with their cattle and their
tents…
5. They were outnumbered.
Judges 6:5 …and they came as grasshoppers for
multitude; for both they and their camels were
without number…
6. They were oppressed.
Judges 6:5 …and they entered into the land to
destroy it.
6 And Israel was greatly impoverished because of
the Midianites…
a. When God’s people are left hiding, fearful, hungry,
and oppressed, you can mark it down that sin’s in the
camp!
b. By the way, God’s people need to understand that it
can happen again.
c. Let sin come in—not just into a nation, but into the
Christians’ camp—and we may all be living in the
dens and the caves again.
(1) In \\#2\\, some think that the fact that man
from his earliest days lived in caves is a sign
of evolution.
(2) They are wrong.
(3) It is proof of man’s sin, God’s judgment, and
devolution!
(4) Mankind had to flee to the caves because they
sinned, got booted out of the Garden, and with
their diminished intellect it took a while to
figure out to build houses.
7. They were sorry.
Judges 6:6 …and the children of Israel cried
unto the LORD.
a. This was their repentance.
b. Sometimes it seemed like Israel was only sorry for
the problems they had gotten themselves into.
c. I say that because it also seemed that every other
generation turned to false gods, leaving the next
generation to deal with it.
II. One Among Them
Judges 6:11 And there came an angel of the LORD,
and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that
pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son
Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide
it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him,
and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou
mighty man of valour.
13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the
LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen
us? and where be all his miracles which our
fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD
bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath
forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of
the Midianites.
14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in
this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?
15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be
with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as
one man.
A. The man’s name was Gideon.
1. Gideon was going to be a great hero for God.
a. He will lead Israel in a great deliverance—an
impossible, supernatural deliverance.
b. His name will be mentioned in Hebrews 11, the great
Roll of Faith chapter.
2. However, Gideon was not a hero here.
3. Rather here, we see what kind of people God looks for.
B. What kind of people does God look for.
1. God calls for common people.
a. \\#15\\ He was a poor man.
b. He considered himself to be the least of those like
him. (Either Gideon was a humble man, or he was
one of the poorest of the poor.)
c. \\#11\\ He was threshing wheat and hiding it just
like everyone else. (His belly got hungry and his
knees knocked together just like everyone else’s.)
d. Yet the most common condition that Gideon had with
others is the fact he MAY have been lost when God
called him!
(1) I do not want to mar Gideon’s testimony because I
can’t prove it, but there is A possibility.
(2) I say that because of God had Gideon to do.
Judges 6:25 And it came to pass the same night,
that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s
young bullock, even the second bullock of seven
years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that
thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is
by it:
26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon
the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and
take the second bullock, and offer a burnt
sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou
shalt cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and
did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was,
because he feared his father’s household, and the
men of the city, that he could not do it by day,
that he did it by night.
e. Notice there was a problem and there was an urgency.
(1) Notice the urgency first.
(a) \\#Judges 6:25\\ "the same night" - The
urgency was that something needed to be
done right then.
(b) God spoke to Gideon the SAME night that He
appeared to Gideon while he was threshing
the wheat.
(c) God was not messing around.
(d) If Gideon was to be used of God, the time
was right then; and some business needed to
be done right away.
(e) If we are going to be used of God, I believe
the time is right now, and some business
needs to be done right away.
(2) The problem was sin.
(a) Gideon’s father (and perhaps Gideon as well)
had been worshipping false gods.
(b) Listen, everyone has a past and it is always
sinful.
(c) Before God could use this man, three things
needed to happen:
i. Gideon needed to PUBLICALLY renounce
any affiliation he may have had with
false gods.
ii. Gideon needed to PUBLICALLY declare
his allegiance to Jehovah.
iii. Gideon needed to offer a sin
sacrifice.
(d) So God had Gideon take one of his father’s
bulls, tear down his father’s false altar,
and use the wood from it to make an
offering to the Lord.
i. Wait a minute!
ii. Offer his father’s bull? Tear down
his father’s altar? Build a fire
with his father’s wood?
iii. What good would it do Gideon to offer
someone else’s sacrifice?
(e) There are three implications in this action:
i. Most likely, Gideon lived at home.
ii. Most likely Gideon was the heir to his
father’s wealth.
iii. AND most likely, Gideon had at least
been complacent with his father’s
idol worship and maybe even complicit
in it.
f. This would make Gideon very much LIKE all the other
people of his day.
(1) By the way, Gideon would not be the first lost
person God called straight into His service.
(a) In the Old Testament, God called one of the
most evil men of all times into His kingdom
and into His service, Nebuchadnezzar.
(b) In the New Testament, God did the same thing
with a man called Saul—better known to us
as the Apostle Paul.
(2) God calls people with a bad past and even a bad
present because He is not calling us for what we
are.
(a) God calls us for what He can make of us.
(b) God’s grace makes amazing servants out of
exceedingly bad sinners.
2. God calls cleansed people.
a. While God may have called Gideon as a common sinner,
God did not leave him that way.
b. That same night God told Gideon to renounce his past,
to atone for his sins, and to make a change.
c. Understand, no one can move forward with God until
first atonement is made for our sin.
(1) In that day, atonement was made by offering a
living sacrifice for a sinner.
(2) Today, it is done by offering the sinner as a
living sacrifice.
(a) It is NOT enough to quit sinning your worst
sins.
(b) It is NOT enough to start going to church.
(c) It is NOT enough to give lip service to God.
(3) Every person must repent of his sin and place his
trust in Jesus Christ to be saved.
(4) God uses cleansed people, and I’m afraid we need
a new harvest of them because it doesn’t look
like the last batch took.
(5) Those who are Christians in name only are not
Christians at all.
(a) Someone says, "All that preaching about
selling out, being changed, becoming a new
creator in Christ turns people off."
(b) I suspect that was the same response Jesus
got when He spoke about picking up your
cross and following Him.
(c) He probably got it again when He said no man
putting his hand on the plow and looking
back was fit for the Kingdom of God.
(d) And James probably felt a little of it when
he said a double-minded man is unstable in
all his ways.
(e) But everyone needs to understand that
Christianity is not a doorway event.
(f) With Christianity, you are either all the
way in or you are all the way out.
There is more to say, but I am out of time. Let me close by saying
you and I have been chosen for this time and for this hour. God is
the omnipotent and omniscient God. He has all power and knows all
things. That means you are where God wants you to be and when God
wants you to be there. You were placed here for now and equipped
with what you need to influence this place for Jesus. The question
is, "Will you?"
To do so, you must be saved. There are more things you must be, but
this is the first. Are you saved?
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