THE RISK OF FAITH, PART 5: GIDEON'S FALTERING

Judges 6, Selected (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
16 January, 2005
All Rights Reserved

A famous book called Lorna Doone tells the story of a an aristocratic, rich, and powerful family in old England which gets dispossessed of its lands. They take up residence in a small valley and take up rude farm life. To make up for their loss of income they turn to robbery and pillaging. Periodically they ride into a village with swords, guns, and black leather, terrorizing the people, taking everything of value, and brutalizing some. At the beginning of the book and film the father of a young farm boy is killed for protecting a village woman right in front of the son's eyes. Imagine what it would be like to be one of those villagers, or even that young boy, in the face of such periodic invasions. They were utterly helpless. That's what it was like for God's chosen people Israel during the time of the Judges. When the people would forget God and turn to idolatry God would temporarily turn them over to the pagan peoples among whom they lived.

1. LIFE UNDER OPPRESSION

The sixth chapter of Judges begins such a time period: "Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it. So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord" (Judges 6:1-6).

How do you even live under such circumstances? Verse 11 shows what Gideon did: "Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites" (Judges 6:11). Gideon was the picture of a man living under oppression. Instead of threshing his wheat out on a rocky outcropping where the wind could easily blow away the chaff, he was threshing in a cistern and throwing the wheat up through the hole so his work would be hidden from the invaders.

In some way we are all under oppression because we are living in a world which hates God and has organized everything to resist him. Even religion has been raised up against the knowledge of God, and some of us have been oppressed by religion in our lives. We may be oppressed by mental defect, emotional instability, or physical ailments. We may have relationships which are strained or even spiteful. Some are oppressed spiritually by evil spirits. In other parts of the world, such as Sudan, the believers actually have hordes of invaders which strip the land of everything valuable and brutalize the people.

Because the people of Israel cried out to God for help he sent his angel: "The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior'" (Judges 6:12). Who is this angel of the Lord? Without doing a huge study suffice to say that there is every reason to think that it was not a created angel but a visitation of the uncreated Christ in human form before the incarnation. This can be seen in the story of Gideon because when he is talking to the angel of the Lord he is talking directly to God, not to a representative.

We might be surprised that Gideon was less than excited to see such a personage and immediately began complaining: "Then Gideon said to him, 'O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian'" (Judges 6:13). This is the sound of a man under oppression. Have you ever talked like that right in the face of some good manifestation of God? I have. Gideon had three complaints:

a. If the Lord is with me, then why are these bad things happening?

b. If the Lord is with me, where are the miracles of the Lord?

c. If the Lord is with me, why have we not been rescued?

I will tell you that in the past I have been guilty along with many commentators in criticizing, even ridiculing, Gideon for such faltering of faith. How naive! Did we think that oppression would never do its discouraging and binding work on us? Did we think that our faith would never falter in the face of ruthless hordes of Ammonites and Midianite invaders? Let us be honest and admit that Gideon is not the picture of a single cowardly man of faith but the picture of every one of us under the relentless oppression of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

2. THE VENTURE OF FAITH IN THE FACE OF OPPRESSION

The angel of the Lord went on to deliver the most remarkable, impossible-sounding challenge of faith to Gideon: "The Lord looked at him and said, 'Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?'" (Judges 6:14). Based upon our fresh understanding of Gideon's experience of oppression we can now predict what he said in response: "He said to Him, 'O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house'" (Judges 6:15). He says, in effect: "You must be kidding!"

While Gideon faced a special case of overwhelming odds, I think we have the same reaction to the regular commands of Christ. Tell me you haven't said: "You must be kidding!" at times when faced with the following commands:

a. "'Be holy, even as I am holy,' says the Lord."

b. "Love your enemies." It's hard enough to act loving toward those for whom we have affection!

c. "Do all things without grumbling or complaining." Typically I find myself grumbling and complaining about the command not to grumble or complain!

d. "Make disciples of all nations." We all struggle with our own discipleship--how can we help another, much less the whole world?

e. "Keep yourself only for your spouse, come what may" (conflation of several texts). The story of Robertson McQuilken, former president of Columbia Biblical University, is instructive. Do you know what happens when you give up your career to take care of your ailing wife? First, you lose your career. Then you discover things about God which most people will never know. McQuilken said: "Lots of people can run a Christian university, but only I can take care of my wife."

You can see that the risk of faith must be faced not only when God asks us to save the nation but every single day. The day will come when we have to stand up to the Doones or the Midianites. In the mean time we have our hands full trying to keep our faith from faltering. And we all want to know what the Lord will do for us in the face of our own risk of faith.

3. WHAT GOD DOES TO HELP US EMBRACE THE RISK OF FAITH

Believe me, God knows what we are like better than we do, and he has a huge program of encouragements designed to help us embrace the risk of faith. I cannot promise that he will do all of the following things, but here's what he did for Gideon:

a. The personal affirmation of the Father: "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior." Jesus affirmed Peter this way by naming him "Rock."

b. The clear guidance of a direct command: "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian."

c. The promise of the trump card of God's presence: "Surely I will be with you..." (Judges 6:16a).

d. The encouragement of a word of prophecy: "...You shall defeat Midian as one man" (Judges 6:16b).

e. The confirmation of a sign: "So Gideon said to Him, 'If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You.' And He said, 'I will remain until you return.' Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God said to him, 'Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.' And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight" (Judges 6:17-21). I cannot promise you any sign other than the resurrection--but that should be enough!

f. The impartation of "the peace that passes understanding": "When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, 'Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.' The Lord said to him, 'Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die'" (Judges 6:22-23). When God speaks peace to you it is not merely a word of encouragement--it happens!

What you see here is that God knows what we are going through when he presents us with the venture of faith. The story of Gideon is proof that God is more willing to work with us on this than we are with him. If we give God a chance to encourage us by taking the first few steps on the path of faith we will unleash for ourselves God's program of support for the faithful. If we take no steps on the road of faith we qualify for nothing. James wrote that "...the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:6b-7).

Now here is the brutal question: Does God's doing of these wonderful things remove the risk from faith or our questions about the outcome? No! Gideon still had to go fight a war. People were injured, killed, and emotionally scarred for life during the process of Israel's victory. He did not know what the victory would look like, or what the cost would be. So why embrace the risk of faith at all? Because the alternative to the risk of faith is missing God in your life completely.

CONCLUSION

Are you faltering in the face of the risk of faith? Christ knows all about it. He knows that the Doones have been terrorizing your village for years. He knows they killed your dad. He knows the Midianites have stolen the work of your hands for years and beaten your family.

With what specific venture of faith has God commissioned you? What form of frightening resistance is in your way? Know this: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

And if you look at your life and see nothing at all of God, you may not yet be one of his children. The first step of faith for every person is to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior--and God knows you need one! He knows you are afraid of what it will mean and what he will ask you to do. But the risk is greater by not taking that first step and carries the consequence of missing God altogether. Choose God! By doing so you cannot ultimately lose.