Cowardly conquest
This week's study is on Judges 6:11-28:
I always find the story of Gideon entertaining. It's the classic story of the weakling who becomes a hero! But it's also inspiring to see how Gideon responds to God despite his fear.
Gideon's fear and cynicism at first are understandable. Israel had fallen away from God and was in a time period where their bad decisions had led to them being repeatedly invaded by all of their neighbours. There were no borders, let alone an army to protect them. No police either. So whenever the people in the other countries wanted some of the bounty the Israelites worked to produce, they'd just cross over, commit some crimes, and carry it all home with them. If one of these gangs saw you with something they wanted, they'd just kill you and take it.
So when we encounter Gideon, he is threshing his wheat in the winepress. Why would he be threshing wheat in such an inconvenient place? Because if he did it at the threshing floor, he'd be jumped by thugs, get beaten, killed, or enslaved and end up with no wheat for his family! He was hiding, basically. Eating his sandwich in the stairwell during lunch so the bullies wouldn't beat him up and take it.
The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and greets him by saying “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!” That's about the last thing any of us would have called someone doing what he was doing. But God calls him that, and when he objects, God speaks prophetically to him that he has the strength.
Gideon argues with God, but when God says he'll be with him, Gideon decides to act. Already there is a change. Instead of just coming up with more cowardly reasons not to do what he's told, he prepares a sacrifice as an act of commitment. In a land where everything not tied down is getting carried off by thieving Midianites, a goat and some bread is a pretty bold sacrifice to be making. Instead of hiding to conserve what little food he had, he makes an ostentatious display of sacrificing tasty meat.
When he sees the meat disappear in supernatural flames, he is afraid again. And when God comforts him, he again acts. (See a pattern here?) He builds an altar and basically calls it "God loves me." It's a bold statement in a land that is tolerant of any religion other than the true faith. Baal worship had taken over, and anything that went against their religion was answered with violence.
God then asks him to make a bigger sacrifice and destroy the altar to Baal that his dad had been supporting. This belief system of child-sacrifice, cultic prostitution, and pure evil was everywhere. If it was the modern day, it would have been taught in the schools, shown on the TV, required for employment, codified into law, and proclaimed all over social media. This was about more than just a couple bulls and an act of vandalism. God had basically just asked him to turn on his family, his community, and his nation.
Again, Gideon is afraid. But he's not too afraid to act. He takes his father's bulls, tears down this institution of evil, and builds God's altar on top of it, sacrificing a bull not to Baal, but to the true God. If Baal had any power, this would have been provocatively insulting to him. Imagine you're doing well, living the dream, then someone comes along, tears your house down, gives your property to your worst enemy, builds him a nicer house on your land, and then has a party for him right there, all while you're forced to watch, embarrassed in front of all of the people who used to think you're cool but now know you're a complete loser. That's basically what Gideon did. It would now be clear that there is only one God worthy of worship and Baal was not it.
In each of these three cases, Gideon doesn't do the sorts of bold "immediately obedient" moves we armchair Israelites imagine we would have done. But he still moves in his own way, as he is able. Each time he moves, he becomes bolder and bolder, until Israel was free again. In each case, even if it's done with cowardly overtones, he makes bold triumphant moves in the direction God inspires him to go.
We can use Gideon's example in our own lives. If we know God wants us to do something that seems scary and impossible to us, we can still act. Nothing says our first move has to be out of a movie. Gideon's first move was a young goat, not a bull. His first altar was in private, not on top of a hill, covered in the blood of a fierce bull, built on the rubble of his God's vanquished enemy's stronghold. The important thing was that when he saw a chance to act and to be obedient, he did it. We can too.
The Lord’s angelic messenger came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress so he could hide it from the Midianites. The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!” Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?” Gideon said to him, “But Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” The Lord said to him, “Ah, but I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.” Gideon said to him, “If you really are pleased with me, then give me a sign as proof that it is really you speaking with me. Do not leave this place until I come back with a gift and present it to you.” The Lord said, “I will stay here until you come back.”
Gideon went and prepared a young goat, along with unleavened bread made from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought the food to him under the oak tree and presented it to him. God’s messenger said to him, “Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock, and pour out the broth.” Gideon did as instructed. The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared.
When Gideon realized that it was the Lord’s messenger, he said, “Oh no! Master, Lord! I have seen the Lord’s messenger face to face!” The Lord said to him, “You are safe! Do not be afraid! You are not going to die!” Gideon built an altar for the Lord there, and named it “The Lord is on friendly terms with me.” To this day it is still there in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole. Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.” So Gideon took ten of his servants and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.
When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.
I always find the story of Gideon entertaining. It's the classic story of the weakling who becomes a hero! But it's also inspiring to see how Gideon responds to God despite his fear.
Gideon's fear and cynicism at first are understandable. Israel had fallen away from God and was in a time period where their bad decisions had led to them being repeatedly invaded by all of their neighbours. There were no borders, let alone an army to protect them. No police either. So whenever the people in the other countries wanted some of the bounty the Israelites worked to produce, they'd just cross over, commit some crimes, and carry it all home with them. If one of these gangs saw you with something they wanted, they'd just kill you and take it.
So when we encounter Gideon, he is threshing his wheat in the winepress. Why would he be threshing wheat in such an inconvenient place? Because if he did it at the threshing floor, he'd be jumped by thugs, get beaten, killed, or enslaved and end up with no wheat for his family! He was hiding, basically. Eating his sandwich in the stairwell during lunch so the bullies wouldn't beat him up and take it.
The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and greets him by saying “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!” That's about the last thing any of us would have called someone doing what he was doing. But God calls him that, and when he objects, God speaks prophetically to him that he has the strength.
Gideon argues with God, but when God says he'll be with him, Gideon decides to act. Already there is a change. Instead of just coming up with more cowardly reasons not to do what he's told, he prepares a sacrifice as an act of commitment. In a land where everything not tied down is getting carried off by thieving Midianites, a goat and some bread is a pretty bold sacrifice to be making. Instead of hiding to conserve what little food he had, he makes an ostentatious display of sacrificing tasty meat.
When he sees the meat disappear in supernatural flames, he is afraid again. And when God comforts him, he again acts. (See a pattern here?) He builds an altar and basically calls it "God loves me." It's a bold statement in a land that is tolerant of any religion other than the true faith. Baal worship had taken over, and anything that went against their religion was answered with violence.
God then asks him to make a bigger sacrifice and destroy the altar to Baal that his dad had been supporting. This belief system of child-sacrifice, cultic prostitution, and pure evil was everywhere. If it was the modern day, it would have been taught in the schools, shown on the TV, required for employment, codified into law, and proclaimed all over social media. This was about more than just a couple bulls and an act of vandalism. God had basically just asked him to turn on his family, his community, and his nation.
Again, Gideon is afraid. But he's not too afraid to act. He takes his father's bulls, tears down this institution of evil, and builds God's altar on top of it, sacrificing a bull not to Baal, but to the true God. If Baal had any power, this would have been provocatively insulting to him. Imagine you're doing well, living the dream, then someone comes along, tears your house down, gives your property to your worst enemy, builds him a nicer house on your land, and then has a party for him right there, all while you're forced to watch, embarrassed in front of all of the people who used to think you're cool but now know you're a complete loser. That's basically what Gideon did. It would now be clear that there is only one God worthy of worship and Baal was not it.
In each of these three cases, Gideon doesn't do the sorts of bold "immediately obedient" moves we armchair Israelites imagine we would have done. But he still moves in his own way, as he is able. Each time he moves, he becomes bolder and bolder, until Israel was free again. In each case, even if it's done with cowardly overtones, he makes bold triumphant moves in the direction God inspires him to go.
We can use Gideon's example in our own lives. If we know God wants us to do something that seems scary and impossible to us, we can still act. Nothing says our first move has to be out of a movie. Gideon's first move was a young goat, not a bull. His first altar was in private, not on top of a hill, covered in the blood of a fierce bull, built on the rubble of his God's vanquished enemy's stronghold. The important thing was that when he saw a chance to act and to be obedient, he did it. We can too.
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