500 (This is my 500th blog all time)
By Bob Mendelsohn
Given in Moscow, Russia
3 June 2014
Our campaign is entitled “The
Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” That sounds so military, it must make some nervous and
others very comfortable. Everywhere I walk here in Moscow I see police and
military personnel who make me feel like I’m in a police state. Most of us
don’t have swords in our closet or in our homes. Most have never held a sword,
either an old weighty army sword from Bible days or the newer fencing swords
and epées used in university and Olympic competitions. So the image of a sword and God’s sword at
that, is a bit unusual. Maybe if we spoke of the rifle of the Lord, or the ‘AK-47
of God’ that would be more contemporary, or perhaps atomic and nuclear bombs.
But we are using Bible imagery and thus we will have to adjust ourselves and
not adjust the book to our cause.
Where did this phrase
originate? It’s from the story of Gideon and we will look at his adventure
today and for two more days. Then later in the week we will look at other
biblical judges like Ehud and Othniel, Deborah and Jephthah. And we will learn
some lessons from each. But today we start our three days with Gideon.
Please read chapter 6 through Chapter 8 of the book of
Judges.
The story today is found in chapter 6. It’s a very sad story to
begin. As Jewish people we don’t like to read of our defeats, and certainly not
self-causative defeat. We like it when there is ‘hatred without a cause” (Sinat chinam as we read in Psalm 69).
Later in Jewish history, the rabbis tell us that “hatred without a cause” was
the reason for the destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. We
don’t like it when bad things happen and we are the reason they happen. Why? It
means we are not so good after all. It means when evil happens to us that we
are evil ourselves and no one wants to think of themselves as needing repair
and needing to be forgiven. But reality is on us.
And that reality says in
verse 1: “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.”
Many will question whether
that’s fair. Is it right that some folks do evil and we all get punished for
that? I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly what I remember from primary
school as one of the greatest methods of sniffing out the culprit when
something was damaged in school. The teacher would say something like, “OK, if
no one will confess to doing the damage, then you will all be punished.
Everyone will miss recess (or something equally valuable)” Finally someone
would turn in the enemy of our free time and the punishment would be exacted on
the one responsible. Perhaps the Bible informed my old teachers. When Israel
sins, no matter how many that may be, and God considers it enough to bother
Him, He will judge the entire nation. To be fair, he will also judge the ones
who bring the judgment on Israel, but that’s another lesson. For now, Verse 1
is appropriate.
Then we read that God would
use the Midianites to destroy the Jewish people’s crops for years, 7 years in
fact,
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. (.5-6)
How horrible. Do you have a garden in your
backyard and have seen when certain animals come in and have their way with the
fruit and vegetables. After all your
hard work to make it nice and good. Imagine if you were the prime minister of
Israel in those days and for years every time your people had a good crop
coming in, that the enemies would invade and maraud and ruin the food supply. They
killed all the cattle also. The economy would plummet; the wages would shrink;
the trickle-down effect would be ruinous. Militarily we were a weak country
then; everything stacked against us. And worse… it was our fault!
So God sent a prophet to the people of Israel.
An unnamed prophet who reminds us of our history, that God delivered us from a
terrible fate in Egypt (v. 8-9) and reminded us of his warning to avoid the
gods of the peoples in whose land we were going to live. I’m not sure where the
prophet went, but wherever it was, nothing changed. Maybe he went to the
Tabernacle or to the leadership of the day, but wherever he went, nothing in
Israel adjusted. He told us “Not to fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land
you live.” Then the prophet says “But you have not obeyed Me.” (.10) The Hebrew (and
Russian) for this is you “did not listen to my voice.”
In other words, God is taking this
disobedience personally. All we had to do was listen to his voice. It’s not
about doing duties; it’s about a personal relationship with the Almighty. And
if we do not listen to Him, it hits him hard. He knows He is most glorified on
the earth when we listen to Him. He knows He receives glory when we are
satisfied in Him and when we enjoy His presence. That’s when everything works
best. For us and for him. But our rebellion messed everything up.
So what does God do to solve this
problem of Israel’s disobedience? He sends someone else (not a prophet this
time)-- his angel to Israel. Only where does the angel visit? The Temple?
(There was none yet). To the Tabernacle? No. To the priests? Not a chance. He
sent the angel or messenger of His life to a father and son team (Joash and
Gideon). And due to the marauding situation, Gideon is down in the stable
keeping things neat and tidy and away from the Midianites. He’s in the barn;
he’s a farmer, a country worker and is not stationed with the troops. That’s
why the opening line of the angel is so unusual, “The LORD is with you, O
valiant warrior.” (.12)
Valiant? The Hebrew word is ‘chayil’
and can mean ‘excellent’ (Prov. 31), capable, and powerful…but never does it
mean you are a good farmer/ warrior. In fact, if I read this correctly, it’s
almost an insult; like a bit of a laughing angel who says, “You, (laughing
inside) yes, you, there with the winnowing fork in your hand, you are a mighty
warrior. Oy.”
To make matters worse Gideon
responds with four doubts about God
and the situation. In other words Gideon is not even a man of faith yet, much
less war. But, and here’s the point for us here on the battlefield of Moscow,
God didn’t really care if Gideon (or if you) are a warrior already. He wants to
use people and He will use whoever is nearby for His purposes. If you are near,
and if you are ready to serve Him, He will use you. He doesn’t need Reinhardt
Bonnke or Billy Graham. He doesn’t need you to be the Apostle Paul or Avi
Snyder. He needs you to be near Him and available. Amen?
Now in today’s story Gideon starts
as a coward. Let’s see where he goes
in the unfolding story.
I said he doubted God four times. See if you can write these down and check your
own heart at times, too.
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 that 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.” (.13)
His first doubt was in the love of God. Does God allow these bad things to happen to us
because He hates us? Has God abandoned us? If God is really near and cares,
then why does all this evil overtake us? (.13)
His second doubt can be summarized in God’s
wrong choices. What? You want who to bring the message? You are choosing me?
You’ve got to be kidding. I’m nobody; I’m not even from a good family and I’m
the youngest one among them. So I doubt this is really God and if it is, I
think he’s not very good at choosing servants to represent him. (.14-18). Gideon like Moses and Abraham in
days gone by, doubted the choices of God.
Doubt #3 is found in verse 25 and following in
the altar destruction scene. His doubt was in the protection of God. He destroyed the idols in his father’s house
(which might be where the apocryphal story of Abram and Terah came from) but he
did it at night, lest anyone see that it was he who had done this. His fears of
retribution and his doubt in the protection of the Almighty were showing, if
nothing else.
The fourth and most memorable doubt is in the
story of the wet and dry fleece. His
worry/ his doubt/ his fear was that God would not really come through for him,
that is, that God would not be faithful to keep His own word which He had
uttered. Gideon doubted the faithfulness
of God.
If any of these stories is new to you, and even
if they are somewhat familiar, please read them again in light of what I’m
teaching you today, and see the wonderful and awesome faithfulness of the Lord
to Gideon (sometimes Jerubbaal)
God
did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the
ground. (Verse 40)
All together this chapter reminds me as we learn
of the cowardice of Gideon that God was not looking for champions who were
noble, who were smart, who were able… He was looking for available soldier
wannabes who could attend to His business. He’s looking for men of faith, who
want to be what God wants us to be. If that’s you, and it is because you are
here in Moscow, then like Gideon, when sometimes we get it right, and sometimes
we don’t, we can go out in the strength of the Lord and proclaim to the people
of Israel the wonderful truths of our God.
To Him and to Him alone be glory in our
community now and forever amen.
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