Bible Commentaries
Judges 6

Verses 11-40

Gideon's Call to Conquest

Judges 6:11-40

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

There come times of special exigencies when God speaks to special men calling them to special service.

Such a call came to Gideon, and there may come such a call to some who study with us today.

In. the days of Gideon the Children of Israel had turned aside to worship Baal. The Lord had given them into the hands of Midian, and they had, in their affliction, cried unto the Lord. When they cried, the Lord heard them and raised up a deliverer.

Several things may be suggested as steppingstones to the study proper.

1. The need of a leader. There are many faithful souls who are willing to follow, but are not endued with leadership. Such people need some strong and stalwart soul to lead them on. When France was suffering and fearful of heart, then the Maid of Orleans leaped to the front and led her on to victory.

We have one supreme Leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who is captain of the hosts of the Church. He is our Pile-leader, our Head, our Generalissimo. He has never lost a battle. He has passed through death and hades, and then passed up through principalities and powers.

How the words of Psalms 24:1-10 ring in our minds: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in." Then, as if in answer to the cry of the ascending hosts, there came from the Glory, a question: "Who is this King of Glory?" And back, from the hosts which had greeted the ascending Lord, and were hastening upward with Him, came the reply: "The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle."

Yes we have an all-conquering Christ as our captain.

2. The need of faithful followers. As the study proceeds we will learn that the battle is not to the many. The thirty-two thousand who first rallied to Gideon's call was cut down to three hundred, before God was willing for the battle to proceed.

The faithful few, eager for the fray, may be of much more value to the cause of Christ than the great crowd of halfhearted, who are certain to faint by the way.

Those who would follow so great a captain must not be of the milk and water caliber. We need men strong in the faith, and courageous. We need men who will not bend to every adverse wind that blows, and seek to compromise with the enemy.

There is a great verse in Scripture. It reads like this: "Quit you like men, be strong."

Had the early preachers and Christians turned back at every difficulty that arose, we had never known the victories of faith, which the early church obtained. Those saints were made of a fiber that knew how to stand and to withstand.

Had Old Testament saints been of the feebleminded kind, we had never had that great 11th chapter of Hebrews, which presents God's galaxy of heroes. The saints of that day, "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in the fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." God give us more saints of the same caliber!

I. THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS (Judges 6:11-12 ; Judges 6:21-23 )

One of the interesting studies of the Bible is the ministry of angels in the Old Testament Scriptures. That ministry will be openly renewed in the days of the coming Great Tribulation.

In our study for today, an angel of the Lord came unto Gideon. He sat under an oak, as Gideon threshed wheat by the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.

The angel did not say, "you are a scarecrow hiding away from the ravages of the Midianites." He did say unto him, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."

Gideon did not approve the angel's statement, nor comment upon it. He, perhaps felt, quite to the contrary, that he was the weakest of men. However, Gideon did desire his guest to tarry until he made an offering of food. When the food was ready the angel touched it with the end of the staff that was in his hand, and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the food; then the angel departed out of his sight.

The ministry of angels is a most beautiful study. Of old they frequently ministered in visible form to the needs of saints. Today they still minister, but invisibly. They certainly are not lax in their watching over the children of God. It will be most interesting in Heaven to learn more of the details of the angels in our lives, and how they kept their vigil. We may be surprised "over there" to find out how many deliverances they wrought and how much aid they gave us, in our daily rounds, as we moved among men.

We cannot but feel that even little children have their guardian angels. In death, also, the saints may find angels waiting to escort them to Heaven this was the case with the Lazarus of which Christ spoke in Luke 16:1-31 .

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14 ).

II. GIDEON'S GREAT QUESTION (Judges 6:13 )

When the angel first spoke to Gideon, he called Gideon a mighty man of valor and said, "The Lord is with thee." Gideon passed by the gracious words of worthy praise and said, "O 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?"

1. Here is a most remarkable case of self-forgetfulness. Gideon spoke not of his own welfare, but of that of his nation's. He turned from the "with thee" of the angel's word, to the "with us" of his own heart throbbings.

A deep lesson is imbedded here. If we want God to use us in behalf of others, we must have their welfare deeply rooted in our being. Gideon felt that what befell his people, befell him. Their fate was his fate; their pillage was his pillage.

Paul wrote, "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites."

Jesus longed for Jerusalem, and said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together." Their lot was His.

Jesus Christ went to the Cross bearing our sins, our sorrows.

Gideon rose to a close approach to this same sublime spirit of union with his nation. He reckoned their distresses as his own.

2. Here is a remembrance of God's past gracious dealings. Gideon was unmindful of how God had led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He said: "Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?"

Time and again the same spirit of inquiry, with a similar comparison fell from the lips of God's children. Here these words from Isaiah 51:1-23 :

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?"

All of this was a right procedure. We have a right to remind God of His past blessings. Indeed, we should ever praise Him for them.

3. Here is a question which expresses doubt as to God's dealings. Gideon seemingly failed to grasp that God's blessings rest upon His servants' faithfulness.

When, in Isaiah 51:1-23 , Israel called upon God to awake, as in the ancient days, God in turn called upon Israel to awake, and put on her beautiful garments. He said to her, "Shake thyself from the dust."

When Abah said to Elijah, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Elijah was quick to reply, "I have not troubled Israel; but thou and thy father's house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and hast followed Baalim."

Israel was in trouble because she had sinned. God could not help her, because she had, by her iniquities, curtailed His power.

III. GIDEON'S CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS (Judges 6:15-16 )

1. Gideon's confession. We have a second question from Gideon's lips. Once more he shows great emotion. He says, "O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."

What a contrast The angel had called Gideon a mighty man of valor. Gideon calls himself, the least of his father's house. It is quite possible that both were correct, and that we have before us one of God's paradoxes. Is it not true that when we are weak, then we are strong?

Moses was a great man, trained in all the wisdom and skill of the Egyptians, and yet Moses said to the Lord, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt?"

If we err, let it be on the Gideon and Moses side of boasting. We should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

2. God's promise. In response to Gideon's confession of weakness, the Lord said, "I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" When God links His omnipotency to our impotency, and His might is joined with our weakness, we have nothing to fear.

IV. GIDEON'S FIRST STEPS TOWARD VICTORY (Judges 6:24-26 )

1. Gideon builded an altar unto the Lord. When Gideon discovered that he had spoken to, and had seen the Lord, he feared for his life. The Lord, however, re-assured him and said. "Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die."

Then Gideon built an altar unto the Lord, and called the place Jehovah-shalom, "the Lord is there." Victory must come from the presence of the Lord. Victory comes particularly, when that Presence is with us as we stand at the altar of sacrifice.

If our churches would re-instate the prayer room, that in so many places has fallen down; and if they would once more stand close by the Cross of Christ and plead the merits of His sacrificial death, they would have reached the first step to real victory.

2. Gideon tore down the altars of Baal. This God demanded. No man can serve two masters. God was showing Gideon the cause for Israel's servitude to Midian she had turned from the Lord and His altar and had builded altars to the gods of the nations among whom they dwelt.

He, who would go forth to conquer, must cast down the sway of the world and of the flesh. Bending the knee to God must be followed by throwing down every high thing that would lift itself against the Lord. God must be all in all.

It must have been a great sight in the morning when the city awoke to find the altar of Baal thrown down, and the grove that was by it, destroyed. The men wanted to kill Gideon for his act. This was a confession that Baal had no power to avenge himself.

V. GIDEON'S TRUMPET BLAST (Judges 6:34-35 )

Each day Gideon was growing stronger in the Lord. He now felt a new power upon him, for "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." Here is always the secret of strength. Has God not said unto us. "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you"? We need to wait the enduement of the Spirit that comes to us when we have erected the Lord's altars and have cast down the altars of Baal.

This is a beautiful picture of the place and hour that comes to a life that is Spirit-filled. It was when Christ was exalted to the Father's throne that the Holy Comforter, the promise of the Father, was poured forth. It is when the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to the throne of the believer's heart, that the enduement of the Spirit conies. The river of Revelation 22:1-2 was a river of water of life, clear as crystal, and it flowed from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The river of blessing", the river of the Holy Spirit, which carries life and blessing wherever it goes, flows from the throne of that life where God the Father and the Lamb are enthroned.

Gideon now blew his trumpet, "and Abi-ezar was gathered after him." Gideon was ready to assume leadership, because he, himself, was led of the Spirit. He could take up the cudgel of God's conflict because he was anointed of God.

VI. GIDEON PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST (Judges 6:36-40 )

The true disciple should walk by faith and not by sight. However, Gideon was scarcely prepared as yet to undertake for God, wholly upon the plain of faith. He had heard a call from God. He had sent a call to men to rally to his undertaking. Now he hesitated. He wondered if, after all, the wonderful events of the past hours had been all of God. He wondered if he had rightly understood God. He knew that any attempt to go against the Midians, apart from Divine enabling, would prove sheer folly.

Thus it was that Gideon pled with God for a sign that might make him certain that God was with him. He asked that his fleece of wool might be wet, while the earth beside the wool remained dry. God accepted Gideon's challenge and by the morning light it was even so.

Gideon was not satisfied. He reversed his test and prayed that the fleece would remain dry, while the earth about would be covered with dew. Once more God accepted Gideon's test and proved His call to Gideon. Gideon hesitated no longer but prepared for the fray.

To test God may seem wrong, and perhaps it is a mark of a faith that shrinks, yet God was willing to be proved. God has even said, "Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, * * and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing." Another verse is to the point. This is a verse you know. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, * * be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed; * * that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

As with Gideon, so with us how often God has been patient with our frailties. He knoweth our frames; He remembereth that we are as dust. He deals with us, "Like as a father." Gideon might have said, what the father of the child, that had a dumb spirit, said: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

Gideon needed what the man borne of four needed. The palsied needed inspiration of the faith of the four to strengthen his own faith; Gideon needed the fleece of wool made wet, and then left dry, to strengthen his own faith.

For one thing we are glad; the name of Gideon appears in Hebrews 11:32 , among those who compose God's galaxy of the heroes of the faith. There we read, "Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, * * who through faith subdued kingdoms."

AN ILLUSTRATION

God not only gives victory over the enemy, but He gives protection from his power The following incident told by Rev. A. E. Glover in "A Thousand Miles of Miracles" is illustrative of the power and place of prayer During the Boxer uprising in 1900, in Shan-si province, Rev. Glover, his wife, two young children, and Miss Gates, all of the China Inland Mission, traveled through the heart of the most anti-foreign section of China, one thousand miles to the seacoast. Every day their lives were in imminent danger, but God spared them.

One day the little party had been set upon by a large mob, and imprisoned in a small inn. There they knelt in prayer. Mr, Glover prayed that God would not let a hair of their heads be touched by their captors. There was dead silence as the prayer went up. Five guards were lying about the room. At the end of the prayer one of the five spoke and said: "They have been praying to their God to deliver them. Aye, deliver them indeed! Too late for that now. What is the use of praying when everything is fixed?"

About midnight one of the men brought in a vessel of opium and lit it. The plan was to stupefy the prisoners first and then to murder them. At once the fumes of the narcotic began to fill the room to suffocation. Soon all were insensible, save Miss Gates.

The guard waited for her to be overcome before the bloody work began. The fumes had no effect on her, and she continued to pray throughout the night.

Weapons in hand, the ruffians passed the night. Finally they fell asleep. When morning came, all awoke; the prisoners recovering consciousness. The would-be murderers were heard discussing the events among themselves. They said: "These people have been praying to Shang-ti Je-ho-hua (Jehovah God) and we can do nothing against their prayers."

Such was the testimony of men who but a few hours before had mocked at the futility of prayer, and the idea of a God who could deliver. "Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."