Helping on the down-low, and redeeming the weak
This week's study is on Judges 6:1-16:
These verses are another example of God's mercy. The Israelites had brought a bunch of problems onto themselves, and God rebukes them for their many mistakes, but still finds a way to help them. It's like someone complaining to you that they don't have any money, and asking for you to bail them out yet again so that their kids can have nice clothes. You rebuke them for taking the whole paycheck you gave them last month and spending it on cigarettes, cable tv, and hookers. But then later on you realize that you do still care for the family, so you offer their teenage son a job in your business. You've still made your point with the evildoers, but you've also helped out the people who need it.
So, first, let's look at the punishment. The Midianites were like classic bullies, showing up to steal the Israelites' lunch and destroying their stuff. Ironically enough, the whole reason the Israelites started worshiping the gods of their pagan neighbors was probably to impress people like this, so not only did their effort accomplish nothing, but it brought on the very punishment they were trying to avoid! Be careful who you try to impress...
God gives the Israelites his "You want to work for the wages of sin? You're going to get PAID!" speech, and then sends an angel out to get to work on the help he's secretly sending them. I always picture that like a kind of fiery meteor coming down, and then out of the crater steps the blazing angel. In this case, it sounds more like the angel just kind of wandered up and sat under Gideon's tree.
But put yourself in the position of the Israelites for a minute. Imagine seven years of misery. Everything you earn is taken away. Every time you try to get ahead, someone comes and knocks you back to where you started. You try to avoid your oppressors, but they find you over and over again. Nothing touches them. Think about what were you doing seven years ago. 2005. Imagine a curse like this, lasting from then until today, with no breaks. How much hope would you have at that point?
Gideon has seven years' worth of "hope" stored up. He's squatting awkwardly in a winepress, trying to thresh out some grain before the bullies find it and steal it. Compared to a proper threshing floor, it's probably not that good of a place to do that. So he's probably sore and frustrated on top of his bitterness about the seven years of bullies. That low point among low points is when the angel of the Lord shows up.
God tells him he's going to be a superhero. Supposedly, this random farm boy from a family with no connections is going to drive out these evil bullies where generals have probably failed. Gideon isn't buying it. He tells God that he's wrong and goes down a long list of why. Clearly there is no hope.
God tells him the truth again. He doesn't need to have family connections because God himself is sending him. And regardless of how or why the Midianites are laying waste to the land, God has chosen him to kill every last one of them. He's going to save the world!
If you read on, into the bonus material, you'll see that Gideon tries using science to make God prove himself. He just doesn't quit with his over-analysis and pessimism. God still uses him though, and the nation still gets saved by him and his army. When God wants to use you, any shred of willingness is enough to get started. And when God wants to help you, even the curse you brought onto yourself isn't enough to keep him out. That's good news.
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, “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 have not listened to me.”
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. ”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
“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. ”
The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
These verses are another example of God's mercy. The Israelites had brought a bunch of problems onto themselves, and God rebukes them for their many mistakes, but still finds a way to help them. It's like someone complaining to you that they don't have any money, and asking for you to bail them out yet again so that their kids can have nice clothes. You rebuke them for taking the whole paycheck you gave them last month and spending it on cigarettes, cable tv, and hookers. But then later on you realize that you do still care for the family, so you offer their teenage son a job in your business. You've still made your point with the evildoers, but you've also helped out the people who need it.
So, first, let's look at the punishment. The Midianites were like classic bullies, showing up to steal the Israelites' lunch and destroying their stuff. Ironically enough, the whole reason the Israelites started worshiping the gods of their pagan neighbors was probably to impress people like this, so not only did their effort accomplish nothing, but it brought on the very punishment they were trying to avoid! Be careful who you try to impress...
God gives the Israelites his "You want to work for the wages of sin? You're going to get PAID!" speech, and then sends an angel out to get to work on the help he's secretly sending them. I always picture that like a kind of fiery meteor coming down, and then out of the crater steps the blazing angel. In this case, it sounds more like the angel just kind of wandered up and sat under Gideon's tree.
But put yourself in the position of the Israelites for a minute. Imagine seven years of misery. Everything you earn is taken away. Every time you try to get ahead, someone comes and knocks you back to where you started. You try to avoid your oppressors, but they find you over and over again. Nothing touches them. Think about what were you doing seven years ago. 2005. Imagine a curse like this, lasting from then until today, with no breaks. How much hope would you have at that point?
Gideon has seven years' worth of "hope" stored up. He's squatting awkwardly in a winepress, trying to thresh out some grain before the bullies find it and steal it. Compared to a proper threshing floor, it's probably not that good of a place to do that. So he's probably sore and frustrated on top of his bitterness about the seven years of bullies. That low point among low points is when the angel of the Lord shows up.
God tells him he's going to be a superhero. Supposedly, this random farm boy from a family with no connections is going to drive out these evil bullies where generals have probably failed. Gideon isn't buying it. He tells God that he's wrong and goes down a long list of why. Clearly there is no hope.
God tells him the truth again. He doesn't need to have family connections because God himself is sending him. And regardless of how or why the Midianites are laying waste to the land, God has chosen him to kill every last one of them. He's going to save the world!
If you read on, into the bonus material, you'll see that Gideon tries using science to make God prove himself. He just doesn't quit with his over-analysis and pessimism. God still uses him though, and the nation still gets saved by him and his army. When God wants to use you, any shred of willingness is enough to get started. And when God wants to help you, even the curse you brought onto yourself isn't enough to keep him out. That's good news.
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