WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.700 Let me read from Judges chapter 6. 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:11.500 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:15.300 and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years, 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:18.300 and the hand of Midian overpowered Israel. 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:22.900 And because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens 00:00:22.900 --> 00:00:26.100 that are in the mountains and the caves in the strongholds. 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:31.800 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites, 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.299 and the people of the east would come up against them. 00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:38.000 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.500 as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, 00:00:41.500 --> 00:00:43.799 and no sheep or ox or donkey. 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:47.000 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.400 They would come like locusts in Numbah. 00:00:49.400 --> 00:00:52.700 Both they and their camels could not be counted, 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:56.300 so that they laid waste in the land as they came in. 00:00:56.300 --> 00:00:59.400 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:02.800 And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:06.799 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:09.599 the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel, 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.100 and he said to them, 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:14.100 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:18.300 I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage, 00:01:18.300 --> 00:01:20.800 and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:23.099 and from the hand of all who oppressed you, 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:26.099 and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:29.399 And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. 00:01:29.399 --> 00:01:33.700 You shall not fear the gods of the Emirates and whose land you dwell, 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:36.399 but you have not obeyed my voice. 00:01:36.399 --> 00:01:41.099 Now the angel of the Lord came and said under the Terabinth at Ofra, 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:44.400 which belonged to George the Abiyah's right, 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.200 while his son Gideon was beating out weed in the wine press 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.099 to hide it from the Midianites. 00:01:49.099 --> 00:01:51.899 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 00:01:51.899 --> 00:01:55.000 The Lord is with you, O mighty man of Vala. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.000 And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.899 if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? 00:02:01.899 --> 00:02:05.599 And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:09.000 saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.799 But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. 00:02:13.799 --> 00:02:16.299 And the Lord turned to him and said, 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:21.100 Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. 00:02:21.100 --> 00:02:22.900 Do not I send you? 00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:27.500 And he said to him, Please Lord, how can I save Israel? 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.500 Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:33.000 and I am the least in my father's house. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.100 And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you 00:02:36.100 --> 00:02:39.600 and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:44.300 And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, 00:02:44.300 --> 00:02:47.800 then show me a sign that is you who speak with me. 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:50.300 Please do not depart from me until I come to you 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:52.900 and bring out my present and set it before you. 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:55.900 And he said, I will stay till you return. 00:02:55.900 --> 00:02:59.200 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:02.600 and unleavened cakes from ephah of flour. 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:06.000 The meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.600 and brought them to him under the terribinth and presented them. 00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:13.300 And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes 00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:16.900 and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them. 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:18.300 And he did so. 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:21.800 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:26.400 that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:31.300 And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. 00:03:31.300 --> 00:03:34.100 And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:38.000 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.900 And Gideon said, Allas, O Lord God, 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:44.900 for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:48.800 But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.700 Do not fear, you shall not die. 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:57.400 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord's peace. 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:03.099 To this day it still stands at Ofra, which belongs to the Abiyahs' rites. 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:06.300 That night the Lord said to him, Take your father's bull 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:08.300 and the second bull, seven years old, 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:11.700 and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, 00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:14.400 and cut down the Asherah that is beside it, 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.400 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:21.100 with stones laid in due order. 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:24.300 Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:28.500 with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down. 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:33.699 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. 00:04:33.699 --> 00:04:36.300 But because he was too afraid of his family 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:40.100 and the man of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.600 When the man of the town rose early in the morning, 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:46.100 behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:48.600 and the Asherah beside it was cut down, 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:52.500 and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:56.699 And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? 00:04:56.699 --> 00:04:58.600 And after they had searched and inquired, 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:03.100 they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.500 Then the man of the town said to Joash, 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:07.699 Bring out your son that he may die, 00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:12.500 for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:15.399 But Joash said to all who stood against him, 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:19.300 Will you contend for Baal, or will you save him? 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:22.800 Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.500 If he is a God, let him contend for himself, 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:28.399 because his altar has been broken down. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:32.500 Therefore, on that day, Gideon was called Jerubal. 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:35.600 That is to say, let Baal contend against him, 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:38.199 because he broke down his altar. 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:41.000 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.500 and the people of the east came together, 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:47.399 and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.000 But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.500 and he sounded the trumpet, 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:54.800 and the Abir's rites were called out to follow him. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.699 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, 00:05:57.699 --> 00:06:00.100 and they too were called out to follow him. 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:03.600 And he sent messengers to Asher, Zabalon, and Naftali, 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.300 and they went up to meet them. 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:08.100 Then Gideon said to God, 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:11.500 If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:15.600 Behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:17.800 If there is dew on the fleece alone, 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:19.600 and it is dry on all the ground, 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:22.400 then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:24.000 as you have said. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.500 And it was so. 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:29.200 When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:33.199 he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.099 Then Gideon said to God, 00:06:35.099 --> 00:06:37.599 Let not your anger burn against me. 00:06:37.599 --> 00:06:40.000 Let me speak just once more. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.300 Please let me test just once more with the fleece. 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:46.099 Please let it be dry on the fleece only, 00:06:46.099 --> 00:06:49.199 and on all the ground let there be dew. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:51.300 And God did so that night. 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:53.800 And it was dry on the fleece only, 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:56.399 and on all the ground there was dew. 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:00.199 Amen, this is the word of God. 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:03.799 We're carrying along in our series on the book of Judges tonight, 00:07:03.799 --> 00:07:06.699 and we'll briefly, before we celebrate the Lord's supper together, 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:10.299 look at this passage and see what it has to say to us. 00:07:10.299 --> 00:07:12.199 This is about Gideon. 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:16.899 He's the sixth judge, and we've said every week that in the cycle of judges, 00:07:16.899 --> 00:07:19.899 we're getting pictures and images over and over again 00:07:19.899 --> 00:07:23.299 of what God is up to in the whole of redemptive history. 00:07:23.299 --> 00:07:26.000 And that's very true here, because this is a story 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:27.600 that's all about grace. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:29.399 It's all about the grace of God. 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.899 And when you ask, what is the grace of God? 00:07:32.899 --> 00:07:34.100 What is God's grace? 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:35.699 Very important word. 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:36.800 Grace is not a thing. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:39.699 It's not something you touch or taste or anything like that. 00:07:39.699 --> 00:07:45.899 Grace is just God's love for us at exactly the points we don't deserve it. 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:46.699 That's God's grace. 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:49.100 It's his disposition towards us. 00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:52.899 And here in this passage, like many other places, 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:55.000 you learn that grace is multifaceted. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.600 So grace, God's grace, the way he expresses that love toward us, 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:03.500 that do not deserve it, is in so many dimensions, so many aspects. 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:08.199 And there are four ways, I think, in this passage of God demonstrates grace. 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.500 Four sides of grace, many more than that you could talk about. 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:13.899 But let's just look at the four that are here. 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:15.500 God is gracious. 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:18.500 We learn in judgment. 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:23.399 He's gracious in the fact that he confounds the strong. 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:28.500 He's gracious in the fact that he gives us the gift of sacrifice or substitution. 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.899 And then finally, he's patient. 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:34.600 So God's grace, so many dimensions, infinite amount. 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:38.000 But let's just look at these four quickly and we'll celebrate the Lord's supper. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.699 First, God's gracious in how he judges. 00:08:41.699 --> 00:08:45.299 There's real love in God's judgment. 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:48.899 And that's not a popular thing to say in the modern world. 00:08:48.899 --> 00:08:53.100 But there is, and that's one of the things that the Book of Judges teaches you over and over again. 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:58.500 And in verse one, we read about that because the people of Israel are back in the cycle of idolatry. 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:00.600 They do what's evil in the sight of the Lord. 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:05.600 And because of their idolatry, curse and oppression comes on them from the Midianites. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:10.600 And so for seven years, they're oppressed under the hand of Midian. 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:16.700 Seven years we learn later, they're continuing to worship false gods, bails and asherah poles. 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:19.800 These are images of wood and stone that they're continuing to worship. 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:26.099 So seven years oppressed, seven years still stuck in the cycle of idolatry while they're being oppressed. 00:09:26.099 --> 00:09:31.899 And one of the interesting bits is that this is the most detailed account of an oppressor 00:09:31.899 --> 00:09:36.399 and how exactly an evil nation that's oppressing Israel does it. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:40.199 All the little details, it's the most detailed account we have except for the Samson story. 00:09:40.199 --> 00:09:44.599 Exactly what Midian was up to and how they were crushing Israel. 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:54.399 And Midian is one of the sons of Abraham. Abraham and the bondservant, the maidservant of Sarah, Ketura. 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.200 Midian is one of their sons. 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:01.700 And so a whole people group come out of that relationship and then they're nomads, they're nomadic. 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:07.399 We learn the Midianites here are moving across the lands, they'll leave, they'll come back. 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:12.200 Now, the way to understand what's happening here is to think about a bug's life. 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:14.500 Have you ever seen a bug's life? 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:15.500 It's a great movie. 00:10:15.500 --> 00:10:23.299 And a bug's life, remember if you've seen it, what happens is that the grasshoppers come every single year 00:10:23.299 --> 00:10:29.700 and they demand the ants flick and all of his companions to bring a tribute. 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:35.799 And so you got to, the ants work all year to get all these crops and the grasshoppers come once a year 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:37.500 and they take every bit of it. 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:41.200 And that's exactly the way the Midianites were oppressing Israel. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:48.900 So the Midianites would come about once or twice a year and all the work that Israel had done, they would just take it. 00:10:48.900 --> 00:10:55.500 And so it's that we're told here that Israel is living in caves, they're raising crops and then all of it's getting taken away. 00:10:55.500 --> 00:11:01.600 We learned that in this passage Gideon is hiding the wheat that he's threshing on the threshing floor, 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.700 trying to keep Midian from finding it because they're just going to take it. 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:10.700 And that's the condition there and it says the quote, Israel was very low, 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:15.000 which is a Hebrew word for feeble, meaning physically they were starving. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:21.500 And one commentator says that Israel is living the life in this passage of eating rats in caves. 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:27.200 That's the kind of condition that the people are in, very poor, very weak, very feeble. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:37.100 Now the Lord comes to Gideon in verse 13 and Gideon says to God the question of the passage really and it's this. 00:11:37.100 --> 00:11:44.200 He says, why Lord, if you are really with us and you've done all these great things for the people of our past, 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:48.300 why are we in this position? Why are we suffering like this? 00:11:48.300 --> 00:11:52.100 And that's the question of the passage. It's such an important question. 00:11:52.100 --> 00:11:55.600 It's probably a question you've asked before. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:00.600 Lord, if you are for me, then why am I going through this right now? 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:02.700 It's a question that every single one of us faces at times. 00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:11.500 And one of the very important pieces of this passage is to say the nuance and the wisdom and understanding how suffering comes into our lives. 00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:18.500 So if you read the book of Job, very quickly in Job, you learn that Job was not suffering, 00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:25.000 all the pain he went through and the loss he experienced, Job was not suffering for a specific sin he had committed. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.900 And his friends are trying to tell him that, no, this is because you've been such a bad person. 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:36.299 And the wisdom of the book of Job is, no, sometimes suffering comes into our lives and it has nothing to do with our behavior. 00:12:36.299 --> 00:12:40.699 It's just the condition of the world we live in. It's a test. It could be any sort of thing. 00:12:40.699 --> 00:12:48.199 But one of the hard things that is very true that the book of Judges teaches you in this passage in particular 00:12:48.199 --> 00:12:56.399 is that sometimes suffering, oppression, does come as a result of our choices. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.600 Does come into our lives because of the things we've done. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:01.299 And that's exactly what's happening here. 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:06.399 You know, Gideon says, why, Lord, if you really are for us, are we being oppressed? 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:15.000 And he's ignoring the very visible thing that he and all of his friends are continuing to bow their heads before asherah pulls. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:20.899 And the answer is that they chose idolatry and God gave them over to Midian. 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:23.500 But this really is something that they brought into their lives. 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:31.600 One writer says, in this passage, we learn that it's particularly important to see that God has built into the pattern of reality 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:37.299 that sin, patterns of sin, really do beget consequences. 00:13:37.299 --> 00:13:44.200 And that the more we break the order of the world as God made it, the more it breaks us. 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:48.799 That there, in other words, that there really is a law in order to this world. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:54.099 And when you read the Ten Commandments, when you read the Sermon on the Mount and you see this law throughout the Bible, 00:13:54.099 --> 00:13:57.000 it's not there to be rules for the sake of rules, not at all. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:03.399 Instead, it's there to say there's an order of existence in which human beings really can flourish. 00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:10.299 And when you push against that and you choose idolatry, the more you break and push against the order, the more it pushes back. 00:14:10.299 --> 00:14:15.799 The more it breaks you, the more sometimes that causes real consequences of suffering that come into your life. 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:23.399 Life really is built on truth. And so we think about things like the Ten Commandments, honor the Sabbath. 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:25.500 And that's not there for no reason, honor the Sabbath. 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:31.199 Because if you work and work and work every day, seven days a week, it'll kill you. It'll crush you. 00:14:31.199 --> 00:14:38.299 God's actually giving you something to say, the rules are there to provide life, not just to be rules for the sake of rules. 00:14:38.299 --> 00:14:41.299 We break God's order, it pushes back. 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:46.599 Sometimes that is very much the truth. And the way to respond to this is just to look at verse six. 00:14:46.599 --> 00:14:54.199 It says in verse six that in the midst of all this, the people of God were feeble and they cried out to the Lord. 00:14:54.199 --> 00:15:01.199 And some of them recognized that the idolatry that they had chosen had broken their lives. 00:15:01.199 --> 00:15:04.899 And they cried out. And that really is the very simple answer. 00:15:04.899 --> 00:15:15.199 You could be in a place tonight where there are ongoing patterns of sin in your life that are breaking you, that have caused real trouble. 00:15:15.199 --> 00:15:18.299 And we see here what to do. You cry out to the Lord. 00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:25.199 And Paul says in Corinthians that when you do that, you can either be doing it in a state of regret, 00:15:25.199 --> 00:15:28.299 or you can be doing it in a state of true repentance. 00:15:28.299 --> 00:15:33.899 In a state of regret, you say, you know, I really hate the pain that this has brought into my life, the consequences. 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:41.699 But in a state of true repentance, you say, I can see that God has really has made this world in a way that's ordered, 00:15:41.699 --> 00:15:45.899 in a way that I'm pushing back against the things he's made in a way that says, I need grace. 00:15:45.899 --> 00:15:48.600 I need the help of the Lord, or I'm not going to be able to get out of this. 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:50.600 That's the difference in regret and repentance. 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:54.299 And what we learn here is that God really loves to answer that. 00:15:54.299 --> 00:16:00.100 So when you cry out, when you're in the pit of maybe decisions that have brought real consequences into your life, 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:04.899 God loves to hear the cry that says, save me. 00:16:04.899 --> 00:16:07.399 And he will. He'll come. And so that's what happens. 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:10.800 Secondly, the angel of the Lord comes in. 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:14.500 The second aspect of grace here is not only that there really is grace and judgment. 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:18.700 Judgment sometimes, discipline is there to bring us back to the Lord. 00:16:18.700 --> 00:16:25.300 But the second thing is that God loves to save us, and he loves to raise up a judge, a deliverer. 00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:30.699 And the way that he does that in this passage is with a principle. 00:16:30.699 --> 00:16:32.799 We could call it the Gideon principle. 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:41.799 And the Gideon principle is that God loves to deliver us and make us into people who are not strong but weak. 00:16:41.799 --> 00:16:46.699 You see, God loves to raise up the humble in order to confound the strong. 00:16:46.699 --> 00:16:50.599 And that's oftentimes how he does it throughout the Bible in many, many different ways. 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:56.300 And so you can see, if you jump down to verse 15, when it comes to the life, when it comes to Gideon, 00:16:56.300 --> 00:17:03.000 the Lord is talking to Gideon, and he says, you in the power and strength that I've given you are going to deliver Israel. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:10.799 And Gideon in verse 15 says, please, Lord, please, he says, please, sir, how can I save Israel? 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:19.299 My clan is the weakest, the weakest clan in Manasseh, which was one of the last tribes, one of the weakest tribes. 00:17:19.299 --> 00:17:27.299 So he's saying, my clan is the weakest clan in the weakest tribe in Israel, and I'm least in my father's house. 00:17:27.299 --> 00:17:33.599 Now, there are, you think of David who would come later, you know, in other words, Gideon saying, you want me to do this. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:40.000 And I'm from the weakest people group, the weakest little clan in the weakest tribe within Israel. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.200 And I'm the weakest in all my family. 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:48.299 I'm at the very bottom of strength in the midst of all these people that you could have used to save. 00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:52.700 And it's just a simple principle, but it's there when God raises up delivers, 00:17:52.700 --> 00:17:56.099 he loves to take weakness to confound the strong. 00:17:56.099 --> 00:17:57.200 And it's all over the Bible. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:59.700 Now, here's where it really comes home. 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:04.599 Because when you realize who exactly it is that Gideon is speaking with, 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:11.000 who exactly it is that Gideon is being called by, boy, then you really see the principle at work. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:21.400 Because if you look down at verse 14, verse 14, Gideon says to the one talking to him, sorry, it says, 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:27.400 and the Lord turned to him and said, now the word Lord there in verse 14 and the Lord said to Gideon, 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:34.000 is the divine name that we get from Exodus chapter three, the name Yahweh in the Old Testament. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:35.799 It is God's holy name. 00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:43.599 And the reason that is so important is because this whole conversation between Gideon and this other person 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:48.799 is Gideon speaking to what's called the angel of the Lord. 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:53.200 And then you get down to verse 14 and it says, and the Lord said to Gideon, 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:59.099 and just before that in verse 12, Gideon had called him, as Simon said, it's sir or master. 00:18:59.099 --> 00:19:01.500 He hadn't used the divine name to address him. 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:03.599 He had used the lowercase l Lord. 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:05.500 It's lowercase in your Bible. 00:19:05.500 --> 00:19:10.799 In other words, Gideon thinks that this is just some guy at first. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:12.400 That's what Gideon thought. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:19.500 And then all of a sudden we're told in this conversation, but it was the Lord God himself speaking. 00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:25.900 And what we realize is that the angel of the Lord in this passage is God himself. 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:32.200 And the reason that Gideon doesn't see that is because the angel of the Lord has taken on a human like form. 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:36.700 He's presenting himself in front of Gideon in a way that appears like a human being. 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:43.100 And so Gideon thinks this is some messenger of God, an angel perhaps taken on some type of form I can see. 00:19:43.100 --> 00:19:49.900 But no, the first 14 says this is the Lord speaking, the angel of the Lord is the Lord. 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:52.700 And that means that the principle of Gideon is so important. 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:59.700 This is grace at work because the angel of the Lord in this passage is the commander of the Lord's army. 00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:05.000 The army that will ultimately deliver Israel. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.900 This is the Son of God. 00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:09.500 The angel of the Lord is the Son of God. 00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:13.600 This is the one who will one day become Jesus. 00:20:13.600 --> 00:20:16.900 And he is standing there before Gideon in every power. 00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:21.000 He is the commander of the army of the Lord, the angel of the Lord. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.200 Come to save Israel. 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:30.100 And the principle of Gideon is God loves to save his people through weakness. 00:20:30.100 --> 00:20:41.000 And that means that Gideon is staring at the one, the Son of God, who will one day, the commander of all of God's army, make himself absolutely nothing in order to save. 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:48.900 See, the principle is so at work in the man in front of Gideon's face because the angel of the Lord will become a human being in Jesus Christ. 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:52.000 And he will become ultimately weak in order to save. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.200 He'll confound the strong and utter weakness at the cross. 00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:56.799 And it's right here. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:57.799 It's the principle of Gideon. 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:04.099 God says, I will take the weakest of the weakest of the weakest and deliver my people. 00:21:04.099 --> 00:21:09.799 And it's the angel of the Lord that becomes week, week, week, all the way to the bottom in order to deliver his people. 00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:13.099 God's grace, he loves to take what is weak and confound the strong. 00:21:13.099 --> 00:21:19.900 Now, when you experience that gospel, when you see that, all the more it gives you a possibility. 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:28.700 When you look at the Judge Redeemer, Jesus Christ himself, the true and better Gideon, it gives you the power over time as a Christian. 00:21:28.700 --> 00:21:39.100 When you experience that gospel to become a person that my, this phrase I first heard in seminary from our practical ministry class, the lecturer said, 00:21:39.100 --> 00:21:45.900 what Christianity offers is the ability for you to become humble and confident simultaneously. 00:21:45.900 --> 00:21:52.800 You see, God loves to take what is weak, humility and confound strength. 00:21:52.800 --> 00:21:54.200 And he did it in Jesus. 00:21:54.200 --> 00:22:00.200 And then when you follow Jesus, you have the power and ability to more and more become like that, humble confidence, 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:07.700 shockingly, shocking humility in the midst of a right side up world that promotes power at every turn, shocking humility, 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:09.700 and yet utter strength at the same time. 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:15.800 You become more and more like Jesus, utterly humble and yet clothed in the warrior's armor of Ephesians six. 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:16.799 Like Christ. 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.000 This is exactly the message of Judges. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.000 God takes what is weak, humility, and he makes it strong. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:27.000 The more you become humble, the stronger you become. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.500 The more humility you take on, the more you become a warrior for the Lord. 00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:34.000 You become like Jesus. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:35.500 You put on his armor all the more. 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:36.799 It's humble confidence. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.000 It's something, it's an ethic. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:45.700 It's a way of life that only Christianity can really offer because it's bathed, it's soaked in the reality of the meaning of the cross. 00:22:45.700 --> 00:22:49.200 Humble confidence, weakness, and power. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:53.000 Now thirdly, let me give you this Bonhoeffer quote. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:54.400 Don't want to pass that over. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.400 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this is what he says. 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:04.100 He says humility is when the Christian faith switches from talk to reality. 00:23:04.100 --> 00:23:06.000 Third, third of four. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:14.700 The third aspect of grace we see in this passage is that God's grace is so in display here because we see another principle that's so important across the Bible 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:21.000 that God loves to receive a substitute on our behalf for us. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Every single religion in all of world history has always included some component of sacrifice. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:32.400 Every single religion, and that's not to say that all the religions are the same. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:40.700 I think it's to say something more like every single human being knows that they need to offer something in their place for what they've done. 00:23:40.700 --> 00:23:43.700 And so every religion has always included some element of sacrifice. 00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:50.200 Now Gideon says to God here, the angel of the Lord, the son of God, he says in verse 13, 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:55.200 are you not the God who brought our ancestors out of Egypt? 00:23:55.200 --> 00:24:03.700 And he says, and so if that's you, if you are so big and so powerful, why are we under the yoke of oppression like this? 00:24:03.700 --> 00:24:11.500 Now Gideon in that statement has entirely condemned himself and shown the truth about where his heart is. 00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:19.000 Gideon's been living in a pagan world, in a pagan land, worshiping false gods, and he thinks mechanically about God. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:24.000 And he says, look, if you're our God, then why, and you're the strongest God, then why have you not saved us? 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:28.000 And he completely fails to see where his own sin is in all of this. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:30.000 His own idolatry is in all of this. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:39.000 And then in verse 23, after all these sacrifices take place, the angel of the Lord shows up to Gideon and Gideon says, 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:42.000 it really is God, this is God. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:47.500 And the angel of the Lord turns and says to Gideon, that's right, and you will not die today. 00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:49.500 Now, why does he say that? 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:56.000 And he's saying, you know, Gideon, you showed up here and you said, why are you not doing your job? 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:58.500 That's what Gideon said to the angel of the Lord. 00:24:58.500 --> 00:25:02.500 Lord, if you're so strong, why aren't you being strong for us? 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:06.500 As if it was God's fault that they were in this predicament. 00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:12.000 And that's why the angel of the Lord says, today you're not going to die. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:13.000 What's the implication? 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:18.000 The implication is Gideon deserved to die in the presence of the Lord. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:24.000 Gideon did not deserve the grace he had been given to even stand in the presence of the Lord. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:30.000 And the reason that he's able to is because God, the angel of the Lord does something really important, 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.500 that's subtle and hard to catch. 00:25:33.500 --> 00:25:42.000 And that's in verse 19, Gideon says, okay, I'm going to, this is an important person, I'm going to make you a meal. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:44.000 So Gideon goes and prepares this meal. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.000 He wants to sit down. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:48.000 He wants to be a good host, show hospitality. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:49.000 And what happens? 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:53.000 The angel of the Lord does not eat the meal like it's a meal. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:58.000 Instead, the angel of the Lord takes his staff and touches the meal like it's an altar. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:01.000 And the meal burns up. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:06.000 You see, Gideon thinks I'm hosting the angel of the Lord in a meal. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:12.000 And instead, the angel of the Lord flips it upside down and says, no, I'm receiving this as your sacrifice. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:20.000 You see, the reason that Gideon is able to stand in front of the angel of the Lord is because the Lord takes Gideon's offer and fixes it. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.000 He makes it a sacrifice. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.000 He says, you need something in your place. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.000 You need a substitute. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.000 You need a sacrifice to come and stand between me and you or otherwise you can't be here. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:34.000 You can't be in the presence of the Lord. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:42.000 There can be no life, Gideon, of you of true humility without being cleansed by God's atonement. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:44.000 And this is exactly what happens. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:55.000 This is Old Testament justification that Gideon right then is being pronounced clean by a substitute in a way that he does not deserve it all. 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:57.000 It's justification by substitution. 00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:08.000 And it's not just about him because right after that in verse 25, then God, the Lord says, now you need to go do that for everybody else in Israel as well if they're going to be saved. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:11.000 And so they take two bulls. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:15.000 And one of those bulls is seven years old. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.000 How long has Israel been under the oppression of Midian? 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000 Seven years. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:25.000 And how long has Israel continued to serve the idols, the Baals and the Asherahs? 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.000 Seven years. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.000 And how old is the bull that's going to stand in the place of Israel? 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:30.000 Seven years. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:39.000 And you see, God is saying, every single bit of idolatry that you committed under the Midianite oppression, I will forgive. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:42.000 I will look at this substitute and I will stay justice. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000 But there were two bulls. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:54.000 One seven years old, taking on representatives symbolically the sins of the people's idolatry, the other bull, it's implied, went free. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:01.000 This is just like the day of atonement in Leviticus 16, where it's saying, what's it saying? 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:06.000 The day of atonement, one lamb takes on the sin of the people, the other goes free. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:12.000 This day, one bull takes on the sin of the people, seven years full, the total, but another goes free. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:15.000 And the one that goes free is a sign. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:21.000 And it's a sign that says, lambs and bulls cannot take away your sin. 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:23.000 It's a sign of waiting. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:35.000 This bull, this lamb has to go free in the wilderness until the one day that the true and better substitute would come once and for all and get rid of the sacrificial system. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:46.000 You see, these bulls, this blood, this sacrifice, this substitute is all about pointing to the fact that the angel of the Lord himself will one day come and become the substitute. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000 It'll be his blood. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.000 He will take every bit of it. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:56.000 You know, I love that Jesus in the Gospels comes and says, do you know how many times God loves to forgive? 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:00.000 Seven times seven times seven times seven times seven times seven times seven times seven. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:02.000 It's all in sevens. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:06.000 He says the bull is seven years old because your sin is sevenfold. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:07.000 It's full. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.000 That's the number of fullness. 00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:14.000 And he said, your sin is so complete, but the sacrifice will also be complete. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.000 And so I'll give you 70 times seven forgiveness. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:23.000 Now, thirdly and fourthly, and finally, God's grace is multifaceted. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.000 God's grace has dimensions that we will never reach the bottom of. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:31.000 God's grace has things that we don't know and will never understand, his love. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:35.000 And it's that he does indeed love us even through discipline and judgment. 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:42.000 He does indeed love us by confounding the strong and raising up weak people, humble people. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:46.000 And he loves us by accepting a substitute in our place. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:52.000 And then lastly, and this is so good, he loves us by being patient. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:00.000 And so at the very end of this passage, after Gideon had experienced all this in the front of the angel of the Lord, 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.000 in verse 36, you know, God's called him. 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:09.000 He's raised up all these other tribes to come alongside him for an army to defeat Midian. 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:16.000 And in verse 36, Gideon says, Lord, I still need you to show me that you're really for me. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:23.000 And he says, so if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, will you please give me a sign? 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:26.000 Now, God has done so much for him. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.000 And God has raised up an army, there's an army already encamped around him. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.000 And he says, I just, I'm not sure. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:36.000 And he says, will you, will you please give me a sign? 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:41.000 And the amazing thing about this is that God does it. 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:49.000 This is completely unlike the mechanical gods that Gideon had worshiped, where, you know, you bring your tribute X 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:53.000 and you say your magic incantation Y and you get rain. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.000 That's the way he thought about it. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:04.000 But this God, the true God comes along and when he's in relationship with his man, his person, anybody, 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:11.000 he says, you know what, you got fear, you got doubt in your life, you got struggle, your faith is really weak. 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:14.000 And I've got time for that. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.000 I've got patience for that. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:22.000 And so Gideon says, look, Lord, if you're really going to be for me, I want you to show me that by, 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:26.000 I'm going to put a fleece out, wool. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And in the morning, when the morning dew comes, I want the fleece to be wet and the ground to be dry. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.000 And God does it. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:39.000 Wow. Nobody can do that but God, right? 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:43.000 And then Gideon says, okay, one more time, please one more time. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:46.000 And you say, he's still is weak in faith. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.000 He's still doubting. 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:48.000 He's still fearful. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:50.000 He doesn't have strong faith. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:53.000 This is the man of God, the deliverer, Gideon. 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:54.000 And he just doesn't. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:57.000 And so he says, now, can you reverse it? 00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Then I'll really believe. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:02.000 And God says, okay, I'll reverse it. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:04.000 And he does it. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.000 And you know, this is a once in a life, this is a once in redemptive history moment. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:11.000 We are not Gideon. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:14.000 God was delivering his people through Gideon to point to Jesus. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:26.000 But I do want to say, it's important to say that God's grace is so multifaceted and God loves to show patience and love towards fearful people, towards doubting people. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:28.000 He's patient. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.000 And the difference in what do you do with your doubts? 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:33.000 What do you do with your fearfulness? 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:35.000 What do you do when you say, I just don't know? 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:38.000 You take it Godward. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.000 You know, that's what Gideon did. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:41.000 He says, I'm not sure. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Give me another sign, please. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:44.000 But you know what he was doing? 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:45.000 He was taking it to God. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Cast every single anxiety upon him because he cares for you. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.000 He wants to be patient with you. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:52.000 He wants to show you, don't bottle it up. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:53.000 Don't keep it in. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Look, if you're here in this church and you're struggling, don't bottle it up. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:32:59.000 Let it out. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.000 Go talk to somebody. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:10.000 Who in your life are you talking to right now about your fearfulness, about your doubts, about your struggles, about the concerns you have about a lack of growth, maybe? 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:13.000 And right here we see that God loves that. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:15.000 He loves to show patience. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.000 He loves to show patience to the doubting and the fearful. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:20.000 James chapter one. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:21.000 He did it for Gideon. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:22.000 He'll do it for every one of you. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.000 He loves to come and work in the midst of our weakness. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:32.000 He came and Jesus Christ and said, I am for you all the way. 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.000 And we're going to see that as we celebrate the supper tonight. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:37.000 Let's pray. 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.000 Lord, we thank you for multifaceted grace. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:46.000 We thank you that you are patient, that you love us enough to provide a substitute. 00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:54.000 We thank you that you love to take what is weak in this world and confound the strong. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:01.000 We love, Lord, that even in the midst of discipline and judgment that comes into our lives through our own choices, you still speak words of love. 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:02.000 You draw us back. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:03.000 And so thank you. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:05.000 Thank you, God, for all the ways you're gracious. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:12.000 We just pray now that as we come to celebrate the Lord's supper, we would see that and believe it and be encouraged and renewed. 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:14.000 And we pray that now in Jesus' name. 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:36.000 Amen.