Fellowship Around the Table
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Fellowship Around the Table
The Book of Judges: Gideon's Faith and Doubt w/ Eric Johnson (Part 4 of 9)
Can faith coexist with doubt? Join Heath Casey and Eric Johnson as they unpack the intriguing story of Gideon from the Book of Judges, revealing how Israel's cycle of sin, punishment, outcry, and deliverance sets the stage for an unexpected hero. From Gideon's cautious wheat threshing in secret to his bold, yet fearful, destruction of his father’s altar to Baal, we examine the complex nature of Israel's repentance and God's deliberate approach to their cries for help. Discover how Gideon's subtle acts of defiance against idolatry begin his journey towards becoming a judge and deliverer for Israel.
What would you do if God asked you to lead an army with only 300 men? We explore Gideon's struggle with self-doubt and his need for divine reassurance through the famous fleece tests. Despite his uncertainties, Gideon's story is a testament to how genuine doubt can coexist with faith and purpose. Learn how God patiently reinforced Gideon's mission, leading to a miraculous victory achieved through divine intervention. The episode also delves into Gideon's diplomatic maneuvers and the misplaced gratitude of the Israelites who wanted him to rule over them, underscoring the true source of their triumph.
As we wrap up, Heath and Eric offer encouragement to those wrestling with doubts in their faith journey. Sharing personal stories and insights, they emphasize the importance of seeking God more fervently, even amidst uncertainty. Tune in next week as we continue the discussion on Gideon's legacy and introduce the intriguing tale of his 70 sons. Join us for an enriching conversation that will inspire you to embrace your doubts and strengthen your relationship with God.
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Speaker 2:Welcome back to Fellowship Around the Table where we endeavor to have great conversations about life, faith and the Bible. Heath Casey here, entering week four in the Book of Judges with Eric Johnson. Greetings, all right, we're into chapter six. Who is on tap today? Eric?
Speaker 1:We are going to talk about Gideon today. This is one of the stories that people actually do talk about in the book of Judges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had an old chart here and I pulled it up because one time I was nerding out and I was like, what percentage of Judges talks about who? And I think Samson and Gideon are probably the most famous, and it's about 17% of the content is on them. Sounds about right. Yeah, so they get multiple things where most of them it's just a little bit, you know, in some cases one or two verses. That's right. So let's get into.
Speaker 1:Gideon, before we start, let's let's go through the cycle of judges again.
Speaker 2:Okay, We'll have you spout that off and see if we can find out how much has sunk in so far of what we've done. Oh goodness, help me with the first one. So the first, the first step of the cycle is real sins. Yeah, the sin, the falling away. Then there's they basically get judged by a neighboring country, or taken over or conquered or enslaved or something like that, and then they cry out for help and then God sends a deliverer a judge and then the judge delivers them and there's, there's peace.
Speaker 1:The last piece Okay.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm getting there. I think by the by week seven of this I'll have it all down.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, but at the same time we are going to start introducing complications to the cycle now. Oh no, and that's that's. One of the things that interests me about the fact that the cycle is emphasized so heavily at the beginning of the book is that when you get little variations in it, later on it sticks out more.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So we'll see the first one of those here in a moment. All right, so starting chapter six, verse one, the people of Israel did what was evil on the side of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And then it goes into actually pretty significant detail about how the Midianites just severely oppressed the Israelites. They basically left them without livestock, without crops. They just swarmed over the land and took everything they could, and so by the time you get to verse six, israel was brought very low because of Midian and the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. So we've covered the first three steps of the cycle here, and what you expect to happen next is you have the sin, you have the punishment, you have the outcry and you expect God's just going to send a judge and everything will be fine, which he does eventually.
Speaker 2:But if you'll take verses seven through 10 here, Okay Now, it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on the count of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel and he said to them thus says the Lord, the God of Israel it was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land. And I said to you I am the Lord, your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me.
Speaker 1:So we've gone through this cycle a few times at this point. We've had sin, we've had punishment, we've had outcry, we've had deliverance. I think God's getting kind of tired of it.
Speaker 2:In my notes I'd gone back to Deuteronomy 28, 29, which is towards the end, and it's Moses prophesying about what's going to happen to them. And it says and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually and there shall be no one to help you. But it's in one of those. If you do not do what I say, this is going to be a result of the curse, and this is what's happening?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. They're very severely oppressed and constantly robbed of everything they have, and they cry out for help. And God says before we do that, cut it out. We've done this too many times. I'm going to send someone to yell at you and say stop messing around. Like it's clear at this point what the consequences of disobedience are, and the Israelites keep doing it, it, and so god sent someone to say stop it. I told you what would happen. It's happening. You need to pay attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, so we'll jump to 6, 11 okay now the angel of the lord came and sat under the terebinth at ophrah, which belonged to joash, the abiza right, while his son, gideon, was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. So beating out wheat. There's three parts to the harvest, the harvesting process, basically. You have reaping, which is cutting the stock of the grain. You have threshing, which is separating the actual good part of the grain from the covering and from the stock and everything else, and then you have winnowing, which is chucking everything up in the air and the wind carries off the stuff that you don't want and the grains fall to the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I was preparing to teach this, I went and kind of looked up threshing, because that's what Gideon's doing here. He's doing step two. Threshing was typically kind of a communal activity, like you would. Everyone would pile their grain kind of in the town square and then they would go and tromp around on it and they would have their animals tromp around on it and it's kind of a big open space activity that's done by a lot of people at the same time. It makes things easier. It kind of shares the work between people and that's not what gideon's doing. Gideon is in an enclosed space in a wine press obviously the wine press is enclosed so the wine doesn't leak out once you step on the grapes and he's doing it by himself and he's kind of in a confined space and he's doing a lot of hard work that would normally be shared between people and he's not having a very good day.
Speaker 1:The best analog I've been able to think of for this so a lot of times too, it could be stepping on the grain, but it could also be like beating it with a stick. The best analog I've been able to think of is from my own life, my grandmother, who lived in Chicago, illinois for a long time had a pool table in her basement and the basement was not really big enough to have a pool table in it. The table would fit, but it didn't have enough space. There wasn't a queue length between the table and the wall, so you would try and line up a shot and be like, nope, can't do that one because the queue just bumps into the wall. It's a different experience playing pool in a space that's not big enough for the pool table than it is playing in an actual open space. I've done this before.
Speaker 1:And so that's the closest analog I can think of Gideon. If he's using a stick or a flail of some kind to beat out, the grain is probably bumping into the wall all the time. It's probably hot, because the wine press is usually shaded and so it's kind of enclosed in the hot air. It's not getting out anywhere. He's probably not smelling the best and he's also, you know, he's hiding from the Midianites. He's probably scared they're going to find him, so he's not having a good day.
Speaker 1:It's kind of to set the scene as the angel of the Lord appears to him. And so the first thing that the angel of the Lord says to him in verse 12 is and so the first thing that the angel of the Lord says to him in verse 12 is the Lord is with you, o mighty man of valor. Wow, you think Gideon feels like a mighty man of valor at the moment Hiding? I suspect he does not feel like a mighty man of valor.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you kind of see some of his frustration leak into his response.
Speaker 2:If you'll read verse 13 for us. Then Gideon said to him O my Lord, that's lowercase. Oh 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.
Speaker 1:So how's Gideon feeling about things at the moment?
Speaker 2:I mean kind of ranty, yeah, and he doesn't know who he's talking to, Definitely it's so one of those like they're right behind me, right. Except in this case, it's right in front of you, right in front of you, yeah, and kind of quickly threw off the little compliment he got, yeah, yeah, and just immediately went into a rant like poor pitiful us, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I can. Honestly, I can understand where he's coming from. Yes, Absolutely. I'm not saying that his response is the correct response to having the angel of the Lord appear in front of you, but I get it. Yeah, Again, he's not having a good day overall. The Israelites are cruelly oppressed at this point and he's kind of wondering what the heck. What the heck. God you just said God is with me. I'm in here beating out wheat by myself in a wine press. Yeah, Like I'm. I'm terrified that the Midianites are going to come down the hill and and kill me and take my grain.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He also does kind of misread what's said there. At some point the angel of the Lord says the Lord is with you, almighty man of valor. So it's you specifically as a person. Okay. And Gideon says well, if the Lord is with us, then why is this happening? Yeah, Well, he didn't say us, or he didn't say you as a group. He said you specifically as an individual.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so let's keep the exchanges going, starting verse 14,. The Lord turned to him and said go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do I not send you? And?
Speaker 2:Gideon reacting. So far His first response, I see. Like Moses, oh, I can't do this. I can't speak Like I'm the weakest clan of Manasseh, which is a big clan, big tribe, and our family's the weakest, and I'm the youngest or the weakest in my little family, which is how God picks things.
Speaker 1:Of course We'll definitely get into that more as we go along too. But I think we have here two instances of Gideon expressing some kind of doubt. So his initial response, I don't think of that as doubt so much. I think of that as kind of just earnest and honest questioning. I think that's not an unreasonable response. In the moment it's not necessarily the correct response, but I understand where it comes from. Yeah, but you have here first in verse 15, how can I save Israel? I'm too weak, basically I'm insignificant. I love God's response there too, because God doesn't say, no, you can totally do it. God says, of course, you can't do it, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1:I will be with you. It's the same thing he says to Moses. It's the same thing he says to Moses, the same thing he often says when people are called to do things that they don't feel like they can do. It's not the response you would expect in like a secular story, where it would be no, you can do it, you have the power was inside you all along. It's no, you can't do it, I'm going to do it, you get to be there. And so then in verse 17, gideon still doesn't jump on that response. He says, well, if I found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign. So we have kind of a second expression of doubt there. Yeah, prove it.
Speaker 2:I guess to this point, Eric, he doesn't know. It's the angel or talking to him. Who does he think this person is?
Speaker 1:It's a good question yeah, if he doesn't know it's God, or doesn't know it's it's god, or he doesn't know it's an angel, then he just thinks some random guy showed up and started talking to him. I guess, no, it's interesting and it's telling him he's a mighty man of valor and he's going to go strike down the midianites, and so yeah but he, at the same time, seems to recognize that they speak with some level of authority yes, he says well if I found favor in your eyes like show me a sign of who I'm talking with.
Speaker 1:So so he got the sense. I think that it is some sort of spokesman of God, at least Whether he knows anything beyond that, we don't know. So Gideon does go, prepare a young goat and unleavened cakes, brings it out and the angel of God tells him to put them on the rock. And then the angel of God puts his staff to the meat and the cakes and fire springs up and consumes it out of nowhere. Staff to the meat and the cakes, and fire springs up and consumes it out of nowhere. And in verse 22, we kind of get Gideon's response to that, which is Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said alas, oh, Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him peace be to you, Do not fear, you shall not die. Why do you think God says that?
Speaker 2:Because I think that's the response to so many of folks who say they've seen God that surely I'm going to die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Gideon doesn't say I think I'm going to die, but the reason God tells him you're not going to die is because he thinks he's going to die. God doesn't just say that for no reason. He says it because that's what Gideon's thinking at that point. So now we've moved kind of from doubt into fear to some extent, but it's still kind of in the same general category of emotions or behaviors where he's still, he's still afraid, he, he hasn't, it hasn't sunk in yet.
Speaker 1:What's going to happen? All right, so if you will take 25 through 32.
Speaker 2:Now, on the same night, the Lord said to him take your father's bull and a second bull, seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal, which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord, your God, on the top of the stronghold in an orderly manner. And take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him. And because he was too afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.
Speaker 2:When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built. Then they said to one another who did this thing? And when they searched about and inquired they said Gideon, the son of Joash, did this thing. 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. But Joash said to all who stood against him Will you contend for Baal or will you deliver him? Whoever will plead for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a God, let him contend for himself because someone has torn down his altar. Therefore, on that day he named him Jeroboam. That is to say, let Baal contend against him because he had torn down his altar.
Speaker 1:I love that exchange. Yes, the exchange is really cool, so we'll start with that, but there's a couple of nuggets in there beyond that as well. It reminds me so much of Elijah on Mount Carmel where he's just making fun of Baal for not sending fire down to consume the sacrifice that Baal's priests are saying Well, maybe he's taking a nap, Maybe he's asleep, Maybe he's on vacation or he's he's too busy for you guys. But yeah, it's essentially calling out why? Why does bail need you guys to help him out?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like can't, can't bail, just kill my son himself, if he's actually a God.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that Gideon wanted to do it at night Cause he feared the city and the men doing this.
Speaker 1:We're kind of counting up instances of doubt and fear here, that's number four.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's number four, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it says he does what God tells him to, but he does it at night because he doesn't want to make people mad. He seems afraid that they're going to take vengeance on him. The other interesting thing here what point are we at in the cycle here?
Speaker 2:Well, the people haven't cried out yet they have cried out. Oh, they did cry out yeah. And then the prophet came.
Speaker 1:And so now we're in the process of the deliverer being called. Okay, so we've had the sin, we've had the punishment, we've had the outcry, and now we're moving toward deliverance. Okay, but they still have an, stated even more explicitly in the story of Jephthah. But Israel getting to the point where they're crying out to God does not necessarily mean that the sin has stopped. Okay, Fascinating.
Speaker 1:It's not even like there's just an altar of Baal in the town that they just forgot to take down. There's an altar of Baal in the town and when someone takes it down, they're really mad about it, like they're going to go kill this guy because he took down the altar of Baal. If they had turned from their sin, either the altar of Baal would be gone already or they at least would be like oh yeah, we should have taken that a while ago. Let's just, we're not going to worry about it, but they're not. They're really mad, yeah.
Speaker 2:Another interesting tidbit for me is to get a maybe a picture of Gideon's household, that his father stands up for him, and then some point in this time that kind of seems surprising.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, it's interesting too, because it says in verse 25, this is the altar of Baal that Gideon's father has.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's his own altar that gets torn down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like in his backyard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right. And so it's not just like he's not standing up for his son after his son destroys the altar that was like in the town square he's standing up for his son after his son destroys his own personal altar, yeah, which he shouldn't have had in the first place, but he still. He still had it for whatever reason, but he's willing to turn and back his son over the men of the town at that point. I also love looking for times in the Bible when people get renamed, and I think it's interesting in this case that Gideon gets renamed not for doing the famous thing that he's about to do. He gets named essentially after the first step that he takes.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what was that name?
Speaker 1:Jerob Baal, which is let Baal contend with him.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:All right, so we'll get into the next step here. So Gideon has kind of taken his first tentative steps in the direction of the plans God has for him. Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet and the Abizrites were called out to follow him and he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali and they went up to meet them. That's a good, that's a good sample of the Israelites. It's a good cross section there. It's not everyone, but it's it's a lot of people, it's more than we've seen in a little bit here, Definitely in that region too. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Gideon said to God if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece. He wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God let not your anger burn against me. Let me speak just once more. Please, let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. And it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
Speaker 2:This is a famous story.
Speaker 1:Definitely so. We're at the point of getting the army together and Gideon still says well, hang on a second. I still want to check something again.
Speaker 2:I have a quote here from Dale Ralph Davis, who wrote a commentary on judges that I loved and I had set aside for this part, asking that question was it okay for Gideon to do this? And he says God says it. I believe it. That settles it, and it may be a snazzy bumper sticker theology, but it doesn't always neatly cover the struggles of a believer's experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're pretty deep into the process here, but, as you point out, gideon still has doubts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were talking about some generations not conserving what they believed about the Lord, and Gideon doesn't even recognize the Lord when he comes to him.
Speaker 1:Right, and I assume part of that is that the Lord is not appearing in his full glory and splendor, of course, because that would make it pretty obvious.
Speaker 2:Of course, but he knew some of the miracles. But I didn't get the sense that Gideon had an in-depth training and understanding of who the Lord had made himself to be.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean he's got an altar of Baal in his backyard and he's still asking hey, how come you guys, how come you're not delivering us from our oppressors, like because you got an altar of Baal in your backyard? Man?
Speaker 2:That's right, and I just think to follow up on that. God's not ashamed sometimes to stoop down and reassure us in our fears. He's patient in our weakness.
Speaker 1:Yeah and our fears Definitely, and he's patient in our weakness. Yeah, so at the moment, actually, from there we're going to jump ahead, we're going to skip over the mustering of the army and we're going to go to the night before the battle just to get all of these little nuggets in sequence. So we're right before the battle is going to take place. In chapter 7, starting in verse 9, you have that same night the Lord said to him Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah, your servant, and you shall hear what they say, and afterwards your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Purah, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. And in the next few verses you have a conversation between a couple of Midianite soldiers, where one of them talks about a dream that he's had and the other one says this dream means that Gideon is going to come beat us up.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah.
Speaker 1:But you see, there again, god offers Gideon reassurance. He says, if you're afraid, go down and listen to what these guys are going to say, and he goes down. So we have seven times Gideon has expressed some kind of fear or doubt about what God has sent him to do.
Speaker 2:Seven times.
Speaker 1:Seven times.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize it was that many, but the Lord meets him in those seven times every time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And here's the fascinating thing about this how much of what has happened was a surprise to God.
Speaker 2:None of it, none. You can pretty much always say none to that question.
Speaker 1:Right. So he knew going in that Gideon was going to express doubt or fear seven times during the process of getting him ready to do what needs to be done, and he picked Gideon anyway.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:He also did not say during the process that's too many times, I'm going to go find someone else.
Speaker 2:That's right he was calling him to something.
Speaker 2:Definitely he met's right he was calling him to something definitely he met him where he was so, yeah, this, this was gideon's work to do and I think, possibly despite his doubts, or possibly because of his doubts, he was god's choice yeah because for me it's an object lesson in what you do with doubts, when, when, god calls you to do something yeah, and I think that that's a good thing to point out, because there's a little bit, I think, sometimes a misunderstanding of Gideon's doubts, and even with believers we might even say Lord, I believe it helped me with my unbelief. There's some doubts that are all about testing God and there's some doubts where people are earnestly seeking to understand the nature of God. Right, and I get the picture that Gideon, even with the fleece, he wasn't testing God, he was trying to understand this God deeper, that he was being called to trust, right. Yeah, I think there's a difference there. You're going to experience doubt in your walk with Christ, but use it as an opportunity to pursue and understand him deeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the the key is not not having doubts, because everyone's going to have doubts. The key is what you do with them. That's right. What Gideon does with his doubts is not just store them up inside and let them affect what he does. He brings them to God every time.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm too weak.
Speaker 1:He says, well, I'm too weak, I can't do it. You know, I'm afraid I think you're going to kill me. I'll put dew in the fleece Oops, I got that backwards. Put it on the ground instead. And then God says okay. Well, you're still having fears? Yeah, because God offers the opportunity. Obviously because he's still afraid. Yeah, and he goes down and gets the last reassurance. He brings the doubts to God and God helps him work through them.
Speaker 2:This, I hear it now, Gideon, I believe, but help me with my own.
Speaker 1:Absolutely that's. That's definitely the new Testament passage I think of there's, which Eric just talked about in one of his most recent sermons. That's right, All right. So let's jump back to the beginning of chapter seven, cause I love the beginning of chapter seven.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So we have the, we have the army that Gideon is mustered up. You got we'll find out about 32,000 men, okay, which is? We'll find out the size of the Midianite army too. It hasn't been mentioned yet, um cause, it's just been said it's too too numerous to count, but we'll find out what the number is later. So I don't know why it says too numerous to count early on, but it's about 135,000.
Speaker 1:Wow, so it's about a four to one ratio here that the Israelites are dealing with. That's a huge disadvantage, but it's not literally impossible. Like you could, you could see someone winning. If you take them by surprise, if you have the right terrain advantage, if your men are more highly trained, something like that, you could see a four to one battle working out. It's unusual but it's not impossible, and God knows that and says so. We have in verse two. The Lord says to Gideon the people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hand, lest Israel boast over me saying my own hand has saved me Now, therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained.
Speaker 2:Wow, and we know this is a huge violation of their cultural norms.
Speaker 1:To some extent, although it does say in the law, people who are afraid are excused from fighting.
Speaker 2:You're right, it does.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things, that's. There's a list of excuses that you can give If you're newly married, if you just built a house, if you just planted a vineyard. I think there's a couple other ones in there, but one of them is if someone's afraid, send them home.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which makes sense from a military perspective, honestly, because the worst thing to have happen in a battle is for a few people to turn and run.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because then everyone else starts following them. So if you could have only people who are not afraid to begin with, your chances are much better.
Speaker 2:You're better off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but at the same time I suspect that they were when that was first, you know, said anyone who's afraid he can go home. They probably weren't expecting it to be two thirds of the army, yeah, but I love.
Speaker 1:I love how God says this too. It's just, you have too many men in your army who says that, who says that that's that's a weird thing to say from anyone else. Oh yeah, that is says that that's that's a weird thing to say from anyone else. Oh yeah, that is not man's wisdom, it is not. And he says why, too is because if you win with this many people, you're gonna think you did it. Yeah, I want you to know that I did it something makes me think 10 000 is still too many.
Speaker 2:I might have read this story so, starting in verse 4, 4,.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord says to Gideon Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you this one shall go with you shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say this one shall not go with you shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink and the number of those who lapped putting their hands to their mouths was 300 men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. You ever done that?
Speaker 2:I have the, the scooping up and trying to lap it out of your hands like this. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Especially when you're lapping it with your tongue like a dog. You don't have a dog's tongue. No, you don't have a dog's tongue. No, the dog's tongue is specifically intended for that. It curls under actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It like makes a scoop. Yes, my tongue does not do that. Or if you curl it up, then it's pointed upward. Yeah, I tried this when I was preparing for the class. It's not a good way to drink water.
Speaker 1:I love that you did it Like going, just going. You get a little bit of, but it is not very much, yeah, so I can. I can sympathize with the guys who are like leaning over and drinking in a way that will get you more water, because you're thirsty and you want the water, and so, yeah, only 300 of these 10,000 guys, only 300 of them decide to drink like this for some reason. I think one of the suggestions I've heard is that, like they were able to be more alert while doing that. They could look around more and see if anyone was coming. More of the guys who are like bent over and have their heads in the river, basically are not going to be able to see if anyone's going to ambush them. But I don't know why, specifically, that was the standard. I mean. God clearly has his own reason.
Speaker 2:I suspect. My suspicion is just that it was because there weren't very many people and he wanted to winnow the field.
Speaker 1:That's right, this is his means to get it to 300. Okay, and so then, to finish it up, the Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men who laughed, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go, every man to his home. So we, we started out. With how many people? 32,000. 32,000. How many do we have now? 300. We have reduced the size of the army by 99.0625%.
Speaker 2:You know, it's one sense. You kind of understand the first calling, you know, from 22,000. Hey, you're afraid they move on.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But I wonder about the 9,700 that moved on at this point what they thought.
Speaker 1:Right, because they weren't afraid.
Speaker 2:They were perfectly willing to go out and and then you got to wonder about the 300 who remain. What am I getting called to?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, at the same time, like you separate them into the groups first, and then you tell, and then God tells you which group is going to be which. So you got the 300 guys off to the side. It's like, oh, we're just getting sent home, that's fine. That's right, we'll still have a good size army over there.
Speaker 2:It's clearly not us, oh no, it's just us.
Speaker 1:We're sending all those guys home, all right, okay. So once Gideon has been reassured, for the final time he musters up his 300 men, he puts them into three groups and he gives them each three things. Okay, he gives them a jar.
Speaker 2:he gives them a trumpet and he gives them a torch. Okay, it doesn't sound like the kind of implements I would want to go fight a battle.
Speaker 1:Exactly You'd want to have like a sword and a shield and a spear or something like that. You have a jar, a torch and a trumpet.
Speaker 2:Okay, and this is Gideon's plan.
Speaker 1:It is not clear.
Speaker 2:Best we can tell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't say that God told him what the plan was. Explicitly in the text he may have. It's not stated either way. Okay, so the plan ends up being you put the three groups on, kind of the three sides of the Midianite camp, and then in the middle of the night they all have the torches lit, but under the jars so they can't be seen, and they all have the trumpets with them. So in the middle of the night, all at the same time, they smash the jars so the torches are suddenly visible. Okay, they blow the trumpets and they shout out you know, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:You, I'm just quickly. You said jar and I always imagine like a Mason's jar now, so it's always glass and invisible. This would have been. It would have been like a clay pot Clay pot, so it was hiding the light. Okay, that was helpful. It wasn't obvious to me.
Speaker 1:So what's the impression that Gideon is trying to give the Midianites here?
Speaker 2:That there's way more than 300 men Right.
Speaker 1:What he has is an army of 300 men. The impression he's trying to give is an army big enough to have 300 trumpeters. Your entire army is not usually trumpeters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be quite the sound.
Speaker 1:That would be a lot more people than just 300 in general.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we have in verse 20, the companies blew the trumpets, broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches and in their right the trumpets to blow and they cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. And every man stood from his place around the camp and all the army ran, they cried out and fled. So the Midianites just go into a complete panic. And then, in verse 22, when they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army, and the army fled, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a cool plan.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:It clearly works pretty well. But who's actually responsible for the outcome? Oh, the Lord. It says explicitly in verse 22,. The Lord set every man's sword against his comrade. So they're not only in a panic, they're turning on each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The panic is so like that's. That's not what you would do under non-supernatural circumstances. You might run away. You, the panic is so. That's not what you would do under non-supernatural circumstances. You might run away. You don't kill your fellow soldiers while you're running away, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's mass confusion, panic, disorder, fear. Definitely yeah, anger.
Speaker 1:And to an extent that their actions can only be explained by divine intervention. Yeah, at that point the 300 men have to some extent done their job. Because we see Gideon kind of muster up the rest of the army that he had and they start chasing the Midianites, and the Ephraimites get involved and the Ephraimites are not happy about not having been involved before. So Gideon kind of has to talk them out of being angry with him Again. We kind of see, even in a circumstance where they've won a great victory, there's some infighting going on there. Yeah, gideon has to be a little diplomatic and say I mean, what I would have been tempted to say is look, I started out with 32,000 people and ended up with 300. If I had brought you guys along, I would have started out with 42,000 people and ended up with the same 300 guys. Probably Like what do you want from me here? God picked my army personally. Yeah, this leaving you out.
Speaker 1:But Gideon plays it a lot more diplomatically than that, at least for the moment. And then he goes off and his 300 men are still involved in the chase and they kind of have some arguments with a few towns of Israelites who don't want to help them out. They end up killing the Kings of the Midianites, and they also end up going back and inflicting punishment on the towns that didn't help them out, and so that takes us to verse 22. Okay, in chapter eight, the Israelites are victorious. They've been delivered from the Midianites in odds that are so overwhelming that it's ridiculous to think anything other than God was responsible for everything that just happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in verse 822,. You see then, the mid of Israel said to Gideon rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. Who saved them?
Speaker 2:I mean the Lord, but the people are crediting Gideon.
Speaker 1:People are giving Gideon the credit so much so that it's like you can rule over us, right? So you go back to the beginning of chapter seven and God says I'm going to make the odds so ridiculous that it's obvious to everyone that I am responsible for this. You have too many men. You have to send 99% of your men home. Then everyone will know it was me and not you. And you come a chapter later and it's oh, gideon saved us. We're going to make him the king. Wow, it's amazing how obvious it seems in retrospect what happened and how much it was missed. And to be clear, I'm not saying I would do any better Got it? I am completely confident that I would not. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So quickly we forget.
Speaker 1:Gideon, to his credit, says no, I'm not going to rule over you, and neither is my son, the Lord will rule over you. So Gideon at least knows who is responsible. Yeah, the message seems to have been lost on the rest of the people, but Gideon, to his credit, has kept track of the score here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. He's seen the Lord meet him in his doubts many times now.
Speaker 1:At the same time he does kind of stumble in the rest of his life and he has an ephod made out of the plunder and it becomes something that is an object of worship to him and the people around him which is a problem.
Speaker 1:And so that more or less wraps us on Gideon. We do find out also that he has several wives and ends up with 70 sons. We may revisit those guys in a future story, but for the moment that's pretty much where we leave it with Gideon. He wins a great triumph in a way that was made as clear as God could make it that it was God who was responsible. And the people still miss it. The people still miss it. Gideon, at least, does not miss it in the moment. He knows who's responsible because he had had his doubts and God had worked him through those doubts and, as you, as you brought up earlier it's he was very much in an I believe, help, my unbelief situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He never actually said no to God. He said I don't think I don't, I don't think I can do it. He kept thinking that until God got him to the point where it was okay, now I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great lesson for us today. Listener, if you're struggling with doubt, don't let the doubt push you away from the Lord, but push into it. Pursueursue him even further. That's not a fun experience in the moment, but in every time in my anecdotal life that that's happened, the Lord has revealed himself even deeper to me, definitely On the other side. Yeah, all right, there's Gideon, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll continue on next week. Yeah, next week week, we will revisit what happens with Gideon's 70 songs All right, we'll see you all next week. Thank you for joining Fellowship Around the Table. If you would like to learn more, go to fbctulsaorg.
