St. Paul's United Methodist Church
“Gaining by Subtraction”
Rev. Richard W. Gray
April 17, 2005
Judges 7:1-8
Last week we left Gideon hiding in a winepress. The Midianites and their allies had been raiding the Israelites' land every year for seven years at harvest time. What they could not steal they destroyed.
The Israelites cried out to God for help and the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and told Gideon that he, Gideon, would put an end to these raids. The angel of the Lord was Jesus. This is called a theophany, when the Lord takes on the appearance of an angel. Gideon immediately protested, saying he had no ability to do this. The Lord said He would be with him.
Gideon asked the Lord, if this were true, to give him a sign. Gideon went off to bring a food offering to the Lord, and the Lord waited for him to return. The Lord is patient with us.
When Gideon brought back the food offering for the Lord, the Lord touched told him to put the food on a rock and to pour the broth over the bread and meat, which Gideon did. Then the Lord touched the food with the tip of his staff, and the food burst into flames and was consumed by the flames. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared. Gideon was convinced that this messenger was from God.
Later that night the Lord spoke to Gideon and told him to go to his father's and tear down the altar his father had built to the pagan god Baal, and build an altar to God in its place. And he was to tear down the pole made for the pagan goddess Asherah.
For a nation to get right with God it must begin in the homes. Gideon went to his father's at
at night with ten servants to tear down the pagan
altar. It was so big it took all of them to tear it down and to build a new altar to God.
Gideon did this at night for fear that his father and the townspeople would attempt to stop him if they knew what Gideon was going to do. He did not want anything to stop him from doing what God wanted done. Gideon was not afraid of the people or afraid of lifeless idols. He was afraid he would not be able to do what God wanted.
When the people of the town saw that Gideon had destroyed their pagan altar and built a new one to God, they demanded that Gideon be put to death. Gideon's father said he would let Baal, the god they worshiped, punish his son. Of course there is no such god as Baal, so nothing happened to Gideon.
Now the Midianites and their allies crossed the Jordan River into Israel to plunder the land. Gideon asked God for another sign that the Lord would be with him as he went to confront the powerful enemy. This is the part of Gideon's life that people know, if they know anything about Gideon.
Gideon took a wool fleece and placed it on the ground. If in the morning the fleece was wet from the dew and the ground around it was dry, Gideon would know that the Lord would be with him as he fought to save Israel. The next morning the fleece was wet and the ground around it was dry. But Gideon was not satisfied. Perhaps the fleece soaked up the moisture from the ground around it.
So Gideon asked the Lord not to be angry with him, but he needed more reassurance. This time he wanted the fleece to be dry and the ground to be covered with dew, then he would know the Lord would be with him as he fought for victory. If the ground was wet, the fleece should be also. The next morning the fleece was dry
dry but the ground was wet.
The story of Gideon and the fleece is often improperly used to discover God's will. I remember someone telling me how he and his girlfriend decided to put out a fleece to God. If she could find a wedding dress that she liked in her size, it would mean God wanted them to marry. She did and they married, only to have years of misery in their marriage.
We have the Bible that Gideon did not have to find God's will for our lives. And we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us into God's will for our lives. We do not need a fleece to know God's will.
Actually, Gideon knew God's will. God wanted Gideon to defeat the Midianites, and God told Gideon that he would help him do it. Gideon was not really testing the Lord. He was looking for assurance that God really would help him. He needed confidence; he needed assurance. God gave him what he needed. God is a great encourager.
In a hospital in Minnesota some men were waiting in the waiting room just off the delivery room . Soon a nurse came into the waiting room and said to one of the men, “Congratulations! Your wife has presented you with twins.” “Twins!' the man said. “What a coincidence. I work for the Minnesota Twins baseball team.”
A little while later the nurse entered the waiting room and said to one of the men there, “Congratulations! Your wife has presented you with triplets.” “Triplets!” the man said. “What a coincidence. I work for the 3 M Corporation.”
Just at that moment another man in the waiting room fainted. The nurse helped revive him and asked him why he fainted. The man replied, “I am afraid.” “Why are you afraid?” she asked. He replied, “I work for 7-11.”
Seven to eleven children is too many all at once. Gideon put out a call for volunteers to fight
fight the Midianites. Thirty-two thousand men responded. The Midianites and their allies had one hundred thirty-five thousand men.
God looked at the thirty-two thousand men and said to Gideon, “You have too many.” They are outnumbered more than four to one and they have too many?
The Israelites are going to win this battle, but they will do it God's way so that everyone will know that God gave the victory and He will be given the credit for it.
There are times in our lives when we face big obstacles. We are to go to God and say, “Lord, this is bigger than I am, but it is not too big for you. I don't know how you are going to solve this problem, but I am trusting you to do it.”
God had given encouragement to Gideon, now Gideon was going to have to trust God. The Lord told Gideon to announce to the thirty-two thousand men gathered to fight for Israel that all those who are afraid and wished to go back home may do so. Twenty-two thousand men went back home, leaving ten thousand men to fight.
God said, “That's still too many. Take them down to the water and I will sift them there.” The Lord told Gideon to have the men drink from the water. Those who cup water into their hands and lap it like dogs will be the keepers. Those who kneel down and put their faces into the water to drink will be sent home.
Only three hundred men are left. Three hundred men against one hundred thirty-five thousand. They will be so inadequate. This is the place where God wants each one of us. He wants us to feel inadequate without Him. He wants us to come to the place where we know we need God.
Then God did something wonderful for Gideon to reassure him again. God told Gideon to go to the outskirts of the enemy camp and listen
listen to what the enemy was saying. Gideon overheard a man telling another man about a dream he had the night before in which the Israelites defeated their enemy.
When Gideon heard about this dream, he worshiped God and then went back to his three hundred men ready to do battle.
Gideon divided the three hundred men into groups of one hundred each. He gave each man a trumpet, and an empty pitcher with a torch in it. He then instructed the men to follow what he does. When they get to the edge of the enemy camp, they are to blow their trumpets, break their pitchers, and shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon.”
Armies rarely fought at night in Gideon's day. When they did fight at night, only a small number of men would carry a torch in order to light up the battlefield. When the Midianites awoke to the noise, and saw the torches, they could only assume that they were being attacked by many thousands of men.
The trumpets would signal the call to battle, and the breaking of the pitchers would sound as if the battle had already begun.
In their confusion and fear the Midianites and their allies began to fight each other, and they killed each other in the many thousands.
Israel's enemy defeated itself and ran away. Gideon's army of three hundred men easily disposed of the remaining enemy. God gave them the victory.
What do we learn from this?
We learn that God has a plan for everything we face in life, and we learn that God is with us every step of the way. We are never to depend just upon ourselves.
We learn that God's ways may be very different from our ways. His ways are always better.
We learn that it is very easy for us to take credit
credit for what God does, instead of giving Him the credit and thanking Him for what He does in our lives.
We read in Judges 8:22 that the people wanted to make Gideon their king saying, “Rule over us…for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”
By the grace of God, Gideon answers, “I will not rule over you…the Lord will rule over you.” God is to rule over us.
We learn that fear in life is not uncommon among God's people.
We learn that God understands our fears and encourages us.
We learn that God's people may become discouraged and that God encourages us.
Gideon was given promises by God, but Gideon struggled with believing them. There are many times when we hear the promises of God and think they apply to everyone else but us. God's promises are for us, too.
We can live in His strength and face the enemies in our lives victoriously.
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