THE RISK OF FAITH, PART 7: GIDEON'S FALL

Judges 8:1-32 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
20 February, 2005
All Rights Reserved

Gideon was an Israelite man who lived during the time of the Judges when the promised land was overrun by Midianites who terrorized the people and stole everything of value. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon to say, in effect: "Gideon, you are about to become the next judge of Israel, and you will be God's instrument to drive the invaders from the land." Gideon accepted this faith challenge but kept asking God for assurances. God swamped him with signs, wonders, peace of heart, personal affirmation, a confirmatory dream, and the anointing of God's Spirit. Armed with these things, Gideon faced the invading army with nothing more than 300 men, some torches, trumpets, and clay pitchers. The three hundred "surrounded" the hordes of Midianites with their torches hidden inside the pitchers. At Gideon's signal, they smashed the pitchers with a great noise, the torches were revealed, and they all shouted: "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" When they blew the trumpets the Lord turned the Midianites' swords against each other, and then Judges 7:23-25 records what happened next: "The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, 'Come down against Midian and take the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.' So all the men of Ephraim were summoned and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan."

Gideon faced the risk of faith, embraced it, and discovered that God is faithful! The battle still had to be fought and men were no doubt killed and injured in the end, but God was glorified. The enemy from without was thus defeated, but that was not the only threat to this work of faith. Gideon also faced threats from inside the people who were called by God's name, and then--worst of all--he discovered that threats to genuine faith were inside his own heart.

Perhaps God has tantalized you with some risky venture of faith but the resistance from the world has just seemed too great. This reminds me of the churches and Bible schools in Russia where government officials show up from time to time and insist they close due to some obscure regulation--which may have been written especially for them! Or perhaps you can accept resistance from the world, but you discover that there is resistance to a work of faith from inside the church. That's a bitter pill but that may very well be the risk which must be embraced to see that work of faith come to pass. And worst of all, when all other risks seem to be neutralized, we may discover that the poisonous seed of unbelief in our own hearts threatens what God wants to do! Gideon faced all of these things, and faced them down with varying levels of success.

1. THREATS TO A WORK OF FAITH FROM INSIDE THE CHURCH

The moment we accept the risks associated with any work of faith we automatically discover that many of God's people are not willing to accept those risks. While the men of Asher had indeed responded to Gideon's call to battle they had not done so for Deborah and Barak: "Gilead remained across the Jordan; /And why did Dan stay in ships? /Asher sat at the seashore, /And remained by its landings" (Judges 5:17). Anyone who imagines that all God's people automatically show up for faith ventures--even those which are obviously God's will--inevitably find that they are sadly mistaken. There--now I've warned you. You cannot say that no one told you.

But think of Deborah and Barak. Do you think they said: "Oh, well. Gilead, Dan, and Asher are not coming. Guess this work of faith is useless." No! Never imagine that God is limited by the human resources in fulfilling a work of faith. If indeed he has directed you, you must give every encouragement for people to engage their faith but you must not let them stop you. Your own faithfulness to God is at stake. And Deborah and Barak were not disappointed. God used them to bring peace to Israel for forty years.

Secondly, your venture of faith will face resistance from people who are inside the group called by God's name but who are actually playing for the other team. Gideon's very life was threatened by people who were racially Israelites but who worshiped the pagan gods of Canaan: "Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it'" (Judges 6:30). I remember meeting some resistance as a young pastor when I preached on the complementary roles of Biblical manhood and womanhood. The "resistance" often quoted this one woman writer who kept saying that there is no distinction in the Bible between men and women whatsoever, and that the church has been in the grip of an oppressive patriarchy beginning with the Biblical writers. Many evangelical seminaries embraced her work at the time, and she was often quoted in academic papers. The whole argument stank, and I wondered how this woman could call herself an evangelical. She later revealed that she had been a practicing lesbian all along. She was playing for the other team. If it smells like a wolf, walks like a wolf, and eats sheep--it's a wolf! Gideon did not let the "wolves" in his day shut down his venture of faith, and neither should you.

A third form of resistance to a work of faith inside the church comes from those who watch you launching it and then complain about how you are doing it. Gideon faced folks like these: "Then the men of Ephraim said to him, 'What is this thing you have done to us, not calling us when you went to fight against Midian?' And they contended with him vigorously. But he said to them, 'What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God has given the leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb into your hands; and what was I able to do in comparison with you?' Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that" (Judges 8:1-3). Gideon gets credit for following a proverb which had not yet been written: "A gentle answer turns away anger" (Prov. 15:1) But think of how weirdly self-centered these people were. Gideon was in the process of putting his life at stake and his faith on the line to drive the invaders out of Israel, and was succeeding. But he was not yet done! It's pretty easy to show up and criticize when the risks have already been borne by others.

You will find that there will always be people who will critique you when you are right in the middle of a work of faith. I remember when a retired missionary visited our church some years ago for one Sunday. We were having a nice conversation after the service and I thought that since he had been a colleague in ministry at one time that I could speak to him about the challenges facing our church at the turn of the millennium. His response was basically to say that I was doing it all wrong, then he got in his car and left. I was flabbergasted. He didn't say he had a better plan and would help us. He didn't even say why we were doing it all wrong. I don't know who he was and I have never seen him again, but this year we posted our third straight year of mild growth in a plateaued city. Gideon blew on by his false critics, we have done so as a church, and you should do so also.

A fourth form of resistance to a work of faith which comes from inside the church is from believers who are choosing to live by fear rather than faith. Gideon faced some folks who chose to starve the army of God because they feared that Gideon might fail: "Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing. He said to the men of Succoth, 'Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are weary, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.' The leaders of Succoth said, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?' Gideon said, 'All right, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.' He went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered. So he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, 'When I return safely, I will tear down this tower'" (Judges 8:4-9). People paralyzed by fear think only of themselves. Their whole world implodes and trusting God goes out the window. These Israelites committed treason. By starving the army of Israel they gave aid and comfort to the enemy even as the Israelites were winning! The rescue of God was already being seen, but they said: "We're too smart for this! We're not giving a single loaf of bread to our guys. We still might lose!"

I wish I could tell you that this does not happen in the church, but some people will always do this when a work of faith is in progress. I remember a time when we had canceled our contract with one radio station and we were trying to get started on another. Finances in our church were tight, we needed to help several people with ministries they were doing, and the spirit of fear began to permeate us. It threatened to shut down a work of faith that had already been going for five years! I take no great credit for realizing that if we were to give in to that fear that we would have no basis for trusting God for anything. And now we have been broadcasting God's word on the new station for years with never a threat of lack of funds. Gideon pushed by the treasonous Israelites and returned later to discipline them severely. Genuine treason must be disciplined in the church as well, but most of the time we simply exhort people to get on board with God and keep motoring in faith.

2. THREATS TO A WORK OF FAITH FROM WITHIN OURSELVES

Gideon succeeded by embracing the risk of faith. When the dust cleared the Midianites had been driven out and Gideon stood tall as a giant of the faith and a victorious general of the army of Israel. That is when he faced his most difficult threats to faith.

First, the people immediately wanted to enthrone him: "Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, 'Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son's son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.' But Gideon said to them, 'I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you'" (Judges 8:22-23). What a great answer! Gideon got it exactly right. Israel was supposed to be a theocracy--God alone ruling them. Later Israel would demand a king like all the Gentile nations and God accounted this as the worst failure of faith and an act of sheer rebellion. When our works of faith succeed, they become a great temptation to fall into self-glorification. Gideon passed this test with flying colors.

The second threat he faced after the main risk of faith was over was self-indulgence: "Yet Gideon said to them, 'I would request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil.' (For they had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) They said, 'We will surely give them.' So they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil. The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the neck bands that were on their camels' necks" (Judges 8:24-26). There are moments when you will be able to ask for anything you wish and get it. Gideon accepted a huge amount of spoil--a great heap of gold. He should have been more careful, because the subject of his life shifted back to him rather than God.

The bad trend continued as Gideon's faith fell into spiritual laxity: "Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household" (Judges 8:27). When the battle of faith was raging Gideon stood firm against every form of resistance but when times were easy and he was famous, rich, and powerful he slid into a foul abomination. He took the gold and made an ephod--an object of false worship. The Hebrew term "ephod" referred to a garment worn by a priest in true Israelite worship but in this false, self-centered form of worship it was a golden idol.

There are many reasons to think that this is the very position of the Western church today. We founded an entire nation on Christian principles, there are churches in every town, we have huge sums of money, and political candidates must reckon with us because of our voting power. Pretty impressive! In this situation it has become easy to forget our total dependence upon God and to "do church" our own way as Gideon did. Churches have been shutting down all over Europe and North America for a century because they became enamored of doing church their own way. It is the invisible idol which threatens the work of faith in every prosperous church. The moment our way of doing church begins purposefully to exclude blacks, Hispanics, crazy teenagers, rockers, Asians, or sophisticated urbanites we have become idol worshipers. By definition a venture of faith is something done God's way in total dependence upon him.

The final death knell for Gideon's work of faith in Israel was moral laxity: "So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads anymore. And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon. Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech" (Judges 8:28-31). Men, just because a woman agrees to sleep with you does not mean that you should do it. Women, just because a man promises to take care of you does not mean that you should sleep with him. Gideon had the financial power and the star power to collect women like trophies. I'm sorry, when did God change the definition of marriage? Please ignore all the anthropologists and armchair theologians who proclaim that polygamy was accepted in Israel. Of course--but not by God!

This was the final nail in the coffin of Gideon's work of faith. Somehow having the false ephod kept Israel from sliding right back into idolatry while Gideon was still alive, but the principle of self-styled worship was thus established in the minds of God's people. Gideon set the nation up to go right back into the same kind of oppression from which he had rescued them. And this is a frightening truth for the pragmatic Christians of our time. It is possible to do something that looks great and successful for the present and yet be planting poison seeds in the church which result in future devastation.

CONCLUSION

The risk of faith when things are going well is bound up in this question: What will my life be like if I deny my sin nature? Everything is going OK, so why should I not indulge my flesh and reap the earthly benefits which are available to me? What could there possibly be in the God stuff which is as good as these earthly pleasures?

The risk of faith changes when once the success of faith is achieved, but it is still there. You must take a chance on God and his blessings and refuse the self-indulgence. If you enshrine the self-indulgence in your life as Gideon came to do you may skid by yourself but you poison the souls of those who come after you. It makes everyone wonder if your venture of faith--even when you were walking with God--was really all about you after all. God did everything in his power to keep this from happening with Gideon and it happened anyway.

Do we love and seek God only when we need him to rescue us from something? Will you still give God the glory he deserves even after you already have what you think you need?

I invite you to take the "risk" of walking in faith and discover that the sweetness of the knowledge of God far surpasses any good thing this earth has to offer. I invite you to become a spiritual entrepreneur and launch the venture of faith which God has placed before you. I invite you to discover a future as a believer which would not exist without your work of faith. Finally, I invite you to learn that no venture of faith to which God guides you can fail because of a lack of earthly resources or because of human resistance. The motto of God's children ought to be: "The extremely difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer. Glory to God!"