Today we come to the interesting story of a fellow named Gideon. . We are excited to be able to share the amusing story of how Gideon met Jesus.
Don’t you love how the Book of Judges has been so full of unlikely heroes? Gideon will not disappoint.
PAST JUDGES
We’ve studied Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar who ruled as the first three judges of Israel. These men all possessed godly qualities and showed great leadership.
Then we looked at Deborah who ruled and worked closely with another female heroine named Jael. Each of these women had personality traits that were noble and admirable. Their godly leadership greatly benefited The People of Israel as a young and growing nation in a time of unrest and uncertainty.
Because of all of these brave judges, Israel enjoyed many years of peace sandwiched in between other years of unrest and termoil from their enemies. The years that were chaotic were usually brought on by the sins of Israel against God.
MEETING GIDEON AT THE WINEPRESS
Now we come to the story which speaks of the leadership of a man named Gideon. His leadership teaches us some valuable lessons in following God’s ways when leading a godly nation.
Gideon lived during a day when the Israelites were doing terribly evil things in the eyes of the LORD. God was angry and frustrated with them, so much so that He turned his back away again and let them have their own way. Thinking only for themselves led them to fall into the hands of the Midianites.
MEET THE MIDIANITES
The Midianites were so strong and powerful in the land that the Israelites actually tried to disguise their dwellings and live their lives in a secret and hidden way which would not be obvious to anyone passing through the land. They lived in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds that were camafloged and hidden from sight in order to remain safe and out of sight to the Midianites.
Talk about cancel culture! They had it much worse than we do today.
The Midianites, Amalekites and whoever cared to join them in thier evil schemes allowed the people to plant, tend and grow their crops throughout the growing season. However; when the crops were ready to be harvested the Midianites and their alies would band together in camps, swoop down from the mountains, and claim their land.
While the Israelites were harvesting their enemies would throw parties of raids, take their harvests for their own use and destroy whatever was left of their crops. They mercilessly killed innocent families trying to harvest their fields and store the meals they would need for the coming year. Because of this, mere survival was hard and often impossible.
LIKE SWARMS OF LOCUST
The Midianites were extreemly destructive, killing everyone in sight. They even killed the sheep, cattle and donkeys that belonged to the Israelite farmers.
Whereever they appeared, they looked like swarms of locust setting out to devour the lands. There were so many warriors in their army that they could not even be counted accurately. The Midianites continuously invaded the tribes of Manasseh and ravaged their homes and crops.
ISRAEL RETURNS TO GOD
Finally, the poor, hungry, fearful Israelites living in the land realized why God wasn’t protecting them. They had been living for the wrong gods and the wrong reasons. After repentenance, they cried out to God for help.
It is to the shame of all cultures of humanity that we tend to wait until we reach a breaking point before we decide to turn and ask God to help us.
Do you think the ancient Israelites might have feared that God was not going to forgive them this time?
The Israelites had been terrible, breaking God’s heart over and over again and again. A worse sin than any is the sin of not seeking out God and asking forgiveness when you know you have been wrong and want to change. The longer you wait; the harder this becomes. This time Israel had waited far too long. The people were suffering the circumstances of their own stubborness.
OUR MERCIFUL GOD
Yet; God in his chesed love heard their prayers.
He sent them a prophet.
This heavenly prophet carried a message which He proclaimed to all of the people:
“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: “I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God, do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live, but you did not listen to me.”
GIDEON MEETS JESUS
Then we learn that The Angel of The LORD came down and sat under the oak tree in Ophrah which belonged to Joash The Abiezrite. This was where his son Gideon was threshing their wheat inside a winepress in order to hide their crops from the Midianites.
AN OLD TREE WITH DEEP ROOTS
Hmmmmm…..”an oak tree in Ophrah.” Where have we heard of this before?
We could get sidetracked right here and never stop with the stories. This is the famous tree that contains so much of the history of God’s people. It may shock you to know though; before Abraham arrived in this area, it was a pagan worship site.
The tree was known in Canaan before Abraham arrived in the land as a place of divination. When Abraham came to the land in faith and believing in only One God, he saw that many wrong practices were being performed before idolds here.
ABRAHAM HONORED THE ONE TRUE GOD
To honor God, and to make it known right away that he and his family believed in only one true God, Abraham built an altar in this spot and proclaimed his aliegence to The God of Israel. He pitched his tent not far from this old tree and faced the door toward the altar to God.
This brave move must have made the pagan worship stop for a long time because we don’t hear of it again for years and years.
You have to really read between the lines to realize what a brave move this was for Abraham to make. It is necessary to study both the history of Israel and Egypt to obtain all of the historical facts.
A PLACE PURGED OF PAGANISM
This actually was the place where the Egyptians had once worshipped Horus and Osirus.
They thought Osirus dwelled in the underworld and came to life through this old ancient tree.
After the sight was clean, sanctified and proclaimed an altar to The One God of Heaven and Earth by Abraham, the pagan worship stopped for many, many years.
THE OLD SACRED TREE
After the altar of Abraham to God was built in this place, the tree’s roots became deeper and longer and continued to grow and flourish in a much healthier state.
It grew strong and old and provided a wonderful shade for The People of God living in the area. The deep roots of the tree grew even stronger when Abraham’s decendants recieved the promise of the land from God in that very place.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshiped The Great God of Isreal in that place. Later it became the resting place for the bones of Joseph after the People of Israel left Egyptian slavery. Eventually, the place where this tree lived became the land inherited from God to the people of the tribe of Manesseh. The threshing floor we are studying today was part of that inheritance which belonged to Gideon’s Father.
GOD’S PEOPLE CAN’T HIDE
During these troubling days of the Judges, before the land was conquered from the Midianites again, Gideon was simply trying to make a living for his family by hiding his grain inside a winepress.
He was attempting to thresh the grain inside instead of outside. This was to keep the Midianites from finding and destroying his grain harvest.
Now anyone who knows anything about threshing wheat knows that a threshing floor needs to be outside in the fresh air where the wind can lift up the grain and separate the wheat from the chaff.
The chaff will blow away and the grain will pile up on the threshing floor as the wind blows through it. That just isn’t possible inside a wine vat where no wind blows at all.
GOD’S PEOPLE CAN’T HIDE AND REMAIN FRUITFUL
Not only was Gideon afraid of his enemies in the land, he was having a very hard time bringing about any type of fruitful harvest from his crops.
As mentioned before; the people of Israel had sinned greatly. Now they decided to seek out God and ask forgiveness for their lack of honor and respect for all that He had done for them. They had been very disloyal.
Yet; when The People of Israel prayed and tried to turn around, things began to happen.
God is always just a moment away from turning around to help his people. His ear is always listening for the sound of their prayers. He gave them an answer, but maybe not in the way that they expected.
Gideon who was simply trying to complete a fair day’s worth of work on the farm got caught right in the middle of the answer to Israel’s prayers and the mercy of God.
COMING OUT OF THE WINEPRESS
This poor farmer must have been very tired, hungry and thirsty. So, he came up out of the winepress and walked into the shade of the oak in Ophrah which belonged to his father. He might have stached water and lunch somewhere under that old tree.
It was there that Gideon encountered a visit from The Angel of The LORD.
If you have studied with us before, you will remember that whenever the Old Testament scriptures speak of “The Angel of the LORD” they are referring to Jesus incarnate. He came to the people in many different forms back in those days of the Old Testament. Jesus was always called The Angel of The LORD when he appeared to Old Testament people. He always seemed to appear out of nowhere, and just in time to solve the latest delima that Israel had encountered.
Today, He was going to solve the problem by calling upon Gideon.
BECOMING GOD’S MIGHTY WARRIOR
As Gideon walked to his water and bread in the shade of the ancient tree, The Angel of The LORD spoke to him saying; “The Lord is with you mighty warrior!”
The voice took Gideon by surprise. Of course, he didn’t usually encounter angels in the course of his working day. Most likely this “Angel of The LORD” looked like any other man passing through the land, stopping to enjoy the shade of the tree.
It was his words that surprised Gideon the most. He quickly replied with a “Pardon me?”
When the man he was talking with remained silent, Gideon went on with his logic. “If the LORD is with us, why has all of this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said ‘Did not the LORD bring us out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
GIDEON IS CALLED TO ACTION
At that point the LORD turned to Gideon and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
By now it must have begun to dawn on Gideon that he wasn’t talking to an ordinary stranger taking a rest from walking down the road. This guy seemed to be handing out a huge amount of authority.
“Pardon me, my lord, Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
HOW CAN I SAVE ISRAEL?
Isn’t that typical?
Would we not answer the same as Gideon if this happened to us today? What if a stranger approached you from the street and said “I am giving you the authority to save your country that is quickly going under. Just do what I say, okay?”
Would you not stumble around for awhile and make a few excuses just like Gideon did? Even if you had been deeply concerned and had spent some time in prayer before it happened, wouldn’t you feel totally inferior to do anything if a circumstance was presented to you totally out of the blue where someone said that you could make a difference?
I imagine that was how Gideon felt. After all, he did have a huge lack of self-confidence.
The LORD answered with an “I will be with you, and you will strick down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Whoa!
Now Gideon had to think about that possibility. Perhaps it was becoming very clear to him that he might be talking to an angel, or someone even more powerful.
GIVE ME A SIGN
He decided to find out just who he was speaking with by saying; “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I bring my offering and set it before you.”
And the LORD said; “I will wait until you return.”
Gideon must have felt very nervous at this point. The man he thought was walking down the road seeking shade had now accepted the offer of his sacrifices. He surely had to be an angel!
Or not.
How could Gideon know for sure?
He had been praying as he worked, but he needed to be sure that he was receiving help from God; right? He quickly prepared a young goat and made some bread without yeast from an ephah of flour.
Gideon put the meal in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out to the shade of the old tree with the deep roots and in the midst of its fine shade Gideon offered a meal to the man who stood waiting under the old oak tree.
GOD ACCEPTS GIDEON’S OFFERING
The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.”
Gideon did so.
In that very moment the Angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread.
In the twinkling of an eye, The Angel of the LORD and the offering of Gideon were gone.
SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE
Suddenly Gideon realized He had been in the Presence of God. He had seen God face to face! Most people who saw God face to face in those days did not live to tell the story. It occurred to Gideon that he might die before having to confront the Midianites.
As Gideon was pondering this terrifying thought, he heard the sound of a comforting voice that was very reassuring; “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
AN ALTAR TO THE TRUE GOD
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD on that very same spot where Abraham had built an altar to God so many years prior. Abraham and Isaac had worshipped God in this place many times before. Also Jacob and Joseph and Joshua. This place had become a very sacred place. It had been cleaned of all things pagan and dedicated to God again.
Best news of all was the fact that God was still there!
God had been silent while his people were committing spiritual adultery, but he still remembered his covenant with Abraham. He still intended to honor that Covenant in an unconditional way.
THE LORD IS PEACE
So Gideon called this new altar “The LORD is Peace.” The altar still stands today in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
As Gideon worshiped at this altar the LORD spoke to him again. “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD Your God on the top of this height, using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down after the second bull as a burnt offering.
Now Gideon understood clearly that God was speaking directly to him. He took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had told him to do. However, Gideon was still afraid of his family and the townspeople in the area who were into pagan worship. So he did these things at night instead of the daytime.
The next morning when the people of the town woke up and began their day, they saw that Baal’s altar was demolished and the Asherah pole beside it was cut down. They noticed the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar to God.
Of course all of their demons became active within their spirits and they began to ask “Who did this?”
LET BAAL DEFEND HIMSELF
As they sought answers they found out that Gideon did it. They went to Joash and demanded that he bring out his son. The mob wanted to kill Gideon for tearing down Baal’s altar and cutting down the Asherah pole beside it.
Joash thought cleverly and fast. He didn’t want to lose his son. Joash screamed back to the people that “if Baal was really a god, he could defend himself.”
It was because of this answer that the people began to call Gideon “Jerub Baal” which means “Let Baal contend with him.”
THE TRUMPET CALL TO ACTION
The Midianites, Amalekites and other people who fought with them were still loose in the land. They camped in the Valley of Jezreel.
The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon. He want out and blew a trumpet. This trumpet blast was to summon the Abiezrites in his family to come and follow him. He sent out messengers throughout the tribe of Manasseh asking them to join in with him. He also notified the tribes of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali. They all came to meet with him.
THE FIRST FLEECE
Gideon prayed; “God if you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.
The next time Gideon looked at the fleece, it was wet and the ground was dry. He squeezed a bowlful of water from the fleece.
THE SECOND FLEECE
Seems to me that Gideon had his answer and it was very clear. However, I did mention that Gideon did not have much self-confidence. He didn’t trust his own judgement. So Gideon prayed again.
“God please do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.”
Next morning Gideon went out to the threshing floor and looked at the fleece. The fleece was dry and the ground was covered with dew.
You can’t get more confirmation than that. There was no turning back now. Gideon had a calling and he needed to be living into that destiny.
WHAT IS YOUR CALLING?
What about you?
Are you putting all types of fleeces out whenever God calls you and asks you to step into your role in bringing about His Kingdom to this earth?
It seems to be so hard for us humans to let go of our own choices and decisions and logic and lean straight into the perfect will of God. If we can ever learn this lesson and live it out though; life can become one great adventure after another.
Now Gideon is about to have some adventures of his own. We will continue his story in our next lesson.
In the meantime, if you hear the voice of God calling, have the faith to answer without question. You will be amazed at how your self-confidence will improve over time. Try it and see.
God always keeps His promises.