Judges chapter eight, we're gonna
be in verses, starting with verse four. We'll have Gideon and his
faithful 300. They cannot, nor would they want
to take credit for this battle that they have just been involved
in. Number one, they cannot because it wasn't them. And secondly,
they wouldn't want to because they knew exactly who the victor
was. And it's going to tell us here
in the scripture, but we get to. We get here to Judges 8,
verse 4, and it says, Gideon came to Jordan and passed over
he and the 300 men that were with him, faint yet pursuing
them. And he said unto the men of Sukkoth,
give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me. For they are faint, and I am
pursuing after Zeba and Zalmunna, kings of Midian." We still have,
and notice that Gideon is interested in taking care of all. the enemy. And I'm so thankful that our
Savior, when He went to the cross, He took care of all our enemies. He took care of every sin, He
took care of every enemy, and He came out victorious over them
all. And He has secured eternal redemption
for His people. So we have a picture here that
these that were involved, they are going to continue until there
was absolute, total, and complete victory. And Gideon and his 300
men will be a demonstration of that as we find the Lord is the
antitype of that. And they passed over, they come
to a place, and they ask for some bread. The next verse of scripture,
and the princes of Sukkoth said, are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna
now in thine hand that we should give bread unto the army? Have
you already captured them? Well, of course not. We're still
in the pursuit of them. Well, we're not going to help
you. We're not going to give you any bread. You know, it reminded
me in a sense about that parable the Lord used, but I think more
than just a parable, it was an actual incident, an actual story,
an actual happening. When we read about the man that
was traveling and fell among thieves and was left for half
dead. Now those two, the priest and
the Levite that came along, not only did they not want to, but
they could not. help that man that had been left
half dead. Their law would not let them
participate there. They could not touch a dead body.
And from all outward appearances, that was a dead body. So they
shied away from this man. And secondly, they did not want
to. There was no interest in them.
This guy is probably, they could walk by and say, well, he deserved
to have that happen to him. And on and on it goes. So they
could not, nor would they, help this man. But we are so blessed
when we find out that someone could. And that is the Good Samaritan. Half Jew, half Gentile, nobody
wanted to be around him. And yet we find that he is the
type of Christ and said, if this man owes anything more, I'll
be back and I'll pay for it. I'll take care of it. So I have
all this man's interest is being delivered by me. So we find here
in this incident in the book of Judges that those men would
not, even though they probably could have, helped Gideon, and
we just look at this and says, well, what makes you better than
us? And you're still pursuing, and the war's not over, and all
the excuses they begin to give. All right, and then it tells
us here, Gideon said, therefore, when the Lord hath delivered
Ziba and Zalmanah into my hands, Then I will tear your flesh with
thorns of the wilderness with briars." Now, I read a couple
commentaries and they feel like that actually happened, that
he came back there and he did rake them over the coals with
some briars and bushes. In fact, it was to the extent
that their lives were taken. They were killed by Gideon by
this activity. Now he goes to another place.
And it tells us there in Gideon said, therefore, when the Lord has delivered,
okay, down in verse eight. And he went up thence to Penel
and spake unto them likewise. And the men of Penel answered
him as the men of Sukkoth had answered him. And he spake also
unto the men of Penel saying, when I come again in peace, I
will break down this tower. Now that tower was their defense.
That tower was the walls around them, provided there were defense.
Now, Gideon gives us insight about his faith in God Almighty,
because he told both of these groups, when I return, he knew. You know, it just gives me a
thought about Abraham, when he was asked to offer his son up
on that mountain, he knew. that he was coming down that
mountain with his son. In fact, we read in the book
of Hebrews, he believed that if necessary, he'd raise him
from the dead. So he came off of that mountain knowing full
well, and he told those that were keeping the donkeys, he
said, I, or we, we shall return. So that was fulfilled. Well,
here, Gideon, he knows exactly what's gonna happen. I will return.
I will come. I will come and I'm going to
destroy your defenses and the other town. I'm going to rake
them." Well, you know, it reminds me of a passage of scripture
over in the book of Matthew chapter 21. Would you go over there to
Matthew chapter 21? Gideon asked very little. Some
bread. And he is in the process of getting
all of the army of the Midianites out of their hair. He has an
interest in removing the enemy that has come year after year
and destroyed the crops and just taken over the land. And there
in fear, even as Gideon when we first were introduced to him,
he is harvesting a little grain in a secret place, hoping that
he can get it taken care of so he can provide a little bit for
his family. Well, that's probably going on throughout the nation
there the same way. So he is given this opportunity
and a little bread, just a little bread to take care of the needs
of his men. He didn't even ask for any for
himself. He has bread for his men, and that was it. Well, they
refuse, and look over here in the book of Matthew chapter 21,
if you would. Matthew chapter 21, and we read
a statement made here. It's got a lot of information
in it about the Lord as he shares with us another parable. There was a certain householder.
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged
a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,
and went into a far country." How much did the husbandmen have
to work to get everything going? It's just like the children of
Israel when they went into the promised land. They ate grapes
off of vineyards they didn't plant. They ate fruit off of
trees they didn't plant. They were at peace and on and
on it goes. Well here he is taking care of
every bit of issue. He has planted a vineyard, he's
edged it round about, he's put protection up, he's digged a
wine press in it, he's built a tower, there's defenses here,
and he let it out to a husband and went into a far country.
Now I am convinced that they were in agreement to take care
of it. He just didn't say, I'm leaving. I believe there was
a contract made. that they agreed that they would
take care of this. And when the time of the fruit
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandman that they might
receive the fruits of it. And the husbandman took his servants
and beat one and killed another and stoned another. Again, he
sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them
likewise. At last of all, he sent unto
them his son. Now notice the finish of that
verse. It says, he said unto them, his
son, they will reverence my son. And that means because I am the
owner and I am the husband and I'm in charge here, they will
honor my son because of me. Well, we go on to find out that,
but when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves,
this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and let
us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast
him out of the vineyard, just like we find the Lord Jesus Christ
was taken out of the gate, out of the city and crucified. They
slew him. And when the Lord, therefore,
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? Now he's asking a question to
some religious people here. And he asked them, what will
the husbandman do? Well, they're going to answer
just like they would do if they were the husbandman and they
were treated like this. So he says, they say unto him,
he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his
vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits
in their seasons. And Jesus said unto them, did
you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. So they said, and
this is exactly what's gonna happen. They said, if I was in
that place, I would take those miserable, wicked men. I would
destroy those men and let out the baby to someone else. They
confessed that that's what they would do. And the Lord says,
that's what's going to happen. I will destroy them. And we find
that that's going to be fulfilled. And then it says there in verse
43, therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken
from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof.
Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but whosoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the cheap
priests and the Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived
that he spake of them. Now they had enough perception
about that. It was not enough to lead them
to repentance, but it was enough for them to understand that He
is speaking directly to them about the way they have treated
God and His Son, Jesus Christ. All right, so as we go back to
the book of Judges, chapter eight, we find out that This would not
go unnoticed. Gideon came back, did exactly
what he said he would do. And he got rid of those lousy
vineyard workers. They were worth nothing. And
so we find that with the Lord, with God, in the end, he will
take care of those who refuse, those who rejected, those who
had no interest, and then we move on. Okay, let's go over
here. in the book of Judges chapter
8 verse 14. Now if you'd travel down there
with me. Now verse 13, and Gideon the
son of Joash returned from the battle before the sun was up.
And he caught a young man of the men of Sukkoth, and inquired
of him, and he described unto him the princes of Sukkoth, and
the elders thereof, even threescore and seventeen men. And he came
unto the men of Sukkoth, and said, Behold, Zeba and Zalmanah
hath with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of
these men now in thy hand, that we should give bread unto thy
men that are weary? And he took the elders of the
city, and the thorns of the wilderness, and briars, and with them he
taught the men of Sukkot. They had a lesson coming, and
he taught them. And then he beat down the tower of Penel, and
slew the men of the city. Then said he unto these two kings
that were left, and he slew them." There. All right. Let's move
on down to verse 28 now. Down to verse 28 of this. Thus was Midian subdued before
the children of Israel. Independence Day. The Midianites had been defeated. They would not be coming into
this land. In fact, it tells us down there
they would not be coming in for 40 years. The land would have
peace. For 40 years, Gideon is going
to rule as judge, and there would be peace. Now, we know exactly
what's going to happen as soon as Gideon dies, and the scriptures
are quite plain on that, and we'll get that in time. So in
verse 28, Midian was subdued before the children of Israel
so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country
was in quietness 40 years in the days of Gideon. They lifted
up their heads no more. Why? Because their heads had
been removed. Gideon defeated them. Now, and
Zerubbabel, the son of Joas, went and dwelt in his own house.
And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his own body, for
he had many wives. And his concubine that was in
Shechem, she also bear him a son, whose name is called Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash,
died in a good old age and was buried in the sepulcher of Joash
in Orphra of the Abizrites. And it came to pass, as soon
as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again
and went a-whoring after Balaam, and Baal bareth their God." All
right, that's the problem. We're going to have 40 years
of peace. As soon as Gideon is dead, we're going to have them
off again worshiping Balaam. God of fertility, and they are
identifying themselves as this is where I got my life. This
is where I have life from, and we know that there is no life
in that. In verse 22 now, here's an incident that takes place,
and we'd like to spend the most of our time on this tonight,
that the people, the Israelites, they come to Gideon, And they
say, rule over us. Verse 22, then the men of Israel
said unto Gideon, rule over us, both thou and thy son. In other
words, we will start a hereditary kingship. Your sons will rule
after you and their sons will rule after them and so forth
and so on. We want you to rule over us. Now this statement really makes
a lot of inside view of their spiritual condition. Israel was
considered at this time a theocracy. God was their ruler. God was over them. God sent them
judges. God sent them all their needs. And when time was necessary,
he sent the Midianites into them. And then we find a judge was
raised up, and God blessed them, and those people were taken care
of. But God was to be ruling over
them. And we find that it's not going
to be that much longer here in the book of 1 Samuel that we
have the last judge. And he has the request, just
join me in 1 Samuel chapter 8 if you would. 1st Samuel chapter
8. In 1st Samuel chapter 8, we have
these words. Over here we have, we want you
to be our king. Now, I can just hear them say,
as Gideon answers, you already have a king. God is our king. I'm not being a king. God is
our king. Well, we really didn't mean it
that way. We want you in second in command.
How's that? And we want your son to be in command after you're
gone. But really, we know God's in
command. Well, they never, their heart
betrayed them when they asked, be our king, rule over us. What a statement is that? Rule
over us when they already have a king. And that is God Almighty. Well, here in the book of 1 Samuel
chapter eight, 1 Samuel chapter eight, we read in verse four
through seven, that Samuel has this issue brought to him. Then
all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came
to Samuel unto Ramah. 1 Samuel 8, verse 4. And verse 5, it says, And said
unto him, Behold, thou art old. Now they are correct in that.
but he's still the judge of Israel. And secondly, thy sons walk not
in thy ways, which is true. And, you know, we can say Samuel
should have been a little more corrective of his sons or not
put him, he put him in the ministry and not God. So they could have
been corrected, but that's true. Now make us a king to judge us
like, here's the qualifying mark, like all the nations. Now, these guys over here, they
worship Balaam, and that group over there, they worship Balaam,
and that group over there, they worship Balaam, and they all
are worshiping Balaam, and we wanna be like them, because they
all have kings, and we wanna be like them. And it tells us
in verse six, but the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, give
us a king to judge us, and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the
Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people.
in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not rule over them."
Now, we're going to find out God has purpose to have a king. He's going to have King David
come to the throne. But in this moment, they're not
rejecting Samuel. They're rejecting God from ruling
over them. And we find there in Gideon,
be our king, please be our king. And they're overlooking the very
thing that God was, go back to the book of Judges there for
just a moment. And it tells us there in chapter eight, when
we look at what, verse 28 there, is it verse 28? Let me back up.
Verse 22, be thou Rule over us, both thou and thy
son, and thy son's son also. Now notice their comment. This
is why they want it to happen. For thou hast delivered us from
the hand of Midian. What? Thou, Gideon, you have delivered
us. Well Gideon didn't agree with
that at all because he knew exactly who had delivered. And God spoke
to Gideon and to those 300 men. With these 300 men, I shall deliver
the Midianites into your hands. Now whether they heard that or
not, Gideon heard that, 300 men heard that, and this is all in
God's hands. He's the one that delivered.
And for us to say, for us to say, someone else Even ourselves
want a statement about our works-oriented religion when we say, we have
got the victory. We have believed. We have faith. We have... And when we really
look at it, we find God provided every bit of it. Or if people
are going to be saved, He does. If they're not going to be saved,
He doesn't provide them anything. Here we have, you have, we want
you to rule over us because you have delivered us from the hand
of Midian. What a statement. Rule over us,
what a statement. What a statement about their
heart condition. And then to say, you won the victory. And Gideon immediately says unto
them, I will not rule over you. Neither shall my son rule over
you. And then his closing remark there,
the Lord Jehovah shall rule over you. I will not take it. You know, when the Pharisees
came to John the Baptist, asked him if he's Christ, he said,
nope, nope, no. He must increase, I must decrease. He had the opportunity of choosing
a position, but he had Christ, he had God as his Savior, and
that was not of interest because it is God that had saved him.
So Gideon says, the Lord shall rule over you. You know, in the
days of the Lord Jesus on this earth, just in his last week
of life, in John chapter 19, those Pharisees, those high priests,
and other priests, and all the people that were in Jerusalem,
They said, we have no king except Caesar. What a statement about
their own belief that Caesar was their ruler, Caesar was their
king, not God. And here, these people are saying,
we want you to rule over us because we don't want God to rule over
us. We will not have this king rule over us. will not have God
rule over us. They are looking for a man to
do that, and we're going to find out that Gideon had no part of
it. He was not interested in becoming king. What a statement
by Gideon about his own self-interest, his own position. I'm not taking
it. I'm not going to be king. My
son will not be king because the Lord is the king. What a
statement he said about his heart. Now they identified themselves
about what they said about in their heart and Gideon identified
himself by what he said was in his heart. God will rule over
us, Jehovah will rule over us, and they said, we want you to
rule over us. Well, we find in Deuteronomy, would you turn with
me to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 17, Deuteronomy chapter
17, Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse 14. We read this, this
is, The last book, and a lot of statements
are made in this last book of the Pentateuch, the first five
books of the Bible, books of Moses. A lot of this makes a
statement about what things are going to be like when they get
into the promised land. It says here, when thou art come unto
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess
it, and shalt dwelt therein, and shalt say, I will set a king
over me like as all the nations that are about me. Moses is telling
them, this is what's gonna happen. You're gonna be so interested
in being like the rest of the nations that you are going to
ask for a king to rule over you. We don't have to wait till Samuel
for that to happen. We're in the book of Judges just
after the time of Joshua, a few years after Joshua, and we have
them asking for a king. Verse 15, thou shalt in any wise
set him king over thee, Whom the Lord thy God shall choose
one from among thy brethren, shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not be a stranger
over thee which is not thy brother. So he gives it to them, instructions
what they require. You know what, when they got
Saul, you know what the highest quality they could identify with
him? He was head and shoulders over them. He was somebody to
display strength, He was somebody to display power. And then we
go to the next king, David, and a young, diminutive young man
that had no strength like Saul did, didn't look like Saul, but
he was a man after God's own heart. We will not. Nature and natural man will share
with us. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Luke for just a moment. The book of Luke. It's no wonder that God has to really
do something for us to be like Saul of Tarsus and cry Lord. He didn't want Jesus ruling over
him. He really didn't want God ruling
over him. He's a very important person on his own right. So he
didn't need and he didn't want that, but when the Lord came
to him and gave him the new birth, his words are, Lord, Sovereign
King. His whole attitude changed. I'm
convinced he looked at Jesus beforehand as Jesus of Nazareth,
just a man. And when he was given the grace
of God in the new birth, he recognized him as the son of God. Far different. much different
than just a single view. And I think most religious people
still look at Jesus as just the Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph's stepson,
Mary's son, few brothers here, carpenter's son, and so forth.
Okay, going back over here, it says in the book of Luke chapter
19, verse 12, and he said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into
a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants,
and delivered unto them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till
I come. But his citizens hated him, and
sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man reign
over us. What a statement. Natural man.
We will not have Him reign over us. We are in a state of rebellion. We will not have Him as King.
We don't want Him as King. We will not have Him as King.
And so the Lord must impose Himself upon us. Or we will never recognize
him as king. And that relationship must be
ours if we're ever going to be saved. He must be our king. He must be our ruler. And that's
what he has to say about that. We find that the battle's hardly over. And
we have a group of people coming to Gideon and say, would you
please rule over us? We're tired of all this going
on, and we want you as king. I will not rule over us. The Lord shall rule over you.
And as I mentioned, I could just hear that crowd say when he brought
that up, oh, we forgot about that part. We'll correct ourselves. Yeah, we know that, but we want
someone else. Natural man seems to be built
to want rule over. And often the least likely ruler is the one they choose. We will not have this one rule
over us. Going back to the book of Judges
chapter 8 if you would, for just a moment, Judges chapter 8. We find that Gideon did ask for
something though. Now, I can't help but think he
probably regretted it. Now, it wasn't so much the gold
that he regretted, but what he did with that gold. All right,
let's go back over here. In verse 24 of the book of Judges
chapter 8, Gideon said unto them, and you know, one of the hardest
things for a believer to comprehend, to get acquainted with, to finally
settle down on is that the person who brought us the gospel is
a man. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. Just a man. Frail. Frail flesh. Sinner by nature,
sinner by practice, and sinner by choice. Saved only by the
grace of God. We have only one thing to put
after our name. It's not doctor. It's not master's
degree. It is SS. Saved sinner. That's all we have to put after
our name. That's our education is a safe center. So God, Gideon
said to them, I will desire a request of you. Now it was customary
in this day and time among the Eastern, these Eastern countries
that they decorated their horses and their camels and their donkeys
and anything they took into war with a lot of gold. And even
the men that went into battle tells us that they decorated
themselves with gold. They had golden earrings. And
I read several times that it was in the form of a crescent
moon, because most of them worshiped the moon. So they have all of
this gold, and they have gone back to those bodies, those 22,000
or 122,000 bodies, and they had to do something with them. I'm
convinced they buried them. But before they did that, they
stripped them of their gold. And this is part of their pay
for going into battle. And there probably was many others
besides the 300 that got involved in that part. Gideon said to
them, I would desire a request of you that ye would give me
every man the earrings of his prey. For they had golden earrings
because they were Ishmaelites. How much gold they had? Well,
as we go down through here, there's quite a bit. And they answered,
we will willingly give them. And they spread a garment and
did cast therein every man the earring of his prey. And the
weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels
of gold, besides ornaments and collars, purple raiment that
was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about
the camel's necks. brought a quite a pile of gold. 1,700 shekels of gold is what's
counted, plus all the other stuff. Now, in today's value of gold,
that's about $1,300,000. 1,700 shekels. Now, that may vary. It may be as much as $2,200,000,
depending on what measurement you go by. But what I'm saying
here is Gideon was given a lot of gold. Now, the gift of gold
was not a problem. They were willing to give that
to him. He does something that we all do. He used it very foolishly. It tells us here in Gideon, verse
27, Gideon made an ephod. Now, where do we run into the
word ephod in the Bible? In the priest's garments. Now,
I think he was probably building this as kind of a memorial to
the great victory that God had given them. He wanted to display
something that would remind them of the great victory that God
had given them there in defeating that huge army of Midianites
that had come down there and had raped the land for a number
of years. He wanted to display something
that would demonstrate God is great. Look what he's done. Maybe
he had something inscribed on it. Let him know that this is
what a memorial is. But it goes on to tell us here
Gideon made an ephod and put it in his city, even Orpha, and
look what happened. And all Israel went thither a-whoring
after it. Instead of being thankful for
what God had done for them, they began to worship this ephod. Well, what did they do with the
brazen serpent? They had that as a god. They worshiped that brass serpent
and it had to be destroyed. Why don't we have the ark? Why
don't we have the menorah? Why don't we have the mercy seat?
Why don't we have all that stuff? Because people would worship
that stuff. All you have to do is read about,
but if you're in Europe and go to some of the churches, you
find out that every church, every one of those buildings has to
have some kind of relic. Now it might be the baby finger
of some important dude, or all of the others, the mother's Mary's
milk. One of the churches has some
Mary's milk. My goodness. And that's what
authenticates that. You know what authenticates this?
God Almighty. That's who authenticates this
church. We don't have to have some relics. We have God Almighty. So I built that, they went a-whoring
after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his
house. Oh, why did I build that? Why
did I build? I should have brought some property
and built me a house right in the middle of it and kept the
neighbors all away from me. Why did I build that? It was
a snare. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel,
so that they lifted up their heads no more, and the country
was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon. And then
it tells us about his children that were born, and then it tells
us in verse 32, and Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old
age, and was buried in a sepulcher of Joash's father in Orpha of
the Abyssalites. So he is fulfilling the position
of everyone else that is ever born, and he died. Why did he die? He was a sinner.
Death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned. We inherit
it, but we also have that nature that's given to us to do it. We inherited the nature, but
it's caused us to do that. And it's the heart that produces
all the doing. It's the heart that produces
all I will do. I want a king besides God. I want a king besides the Lord.
So that's all of that stuff. And then it tells us in verse
34, and the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their
God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies
on every side. Neither showed they kindness
to the houses of Reuval, namely Gideon, according to all the
goodness which he had showed unto Israel. It went down, down,
down, and the next step we find, they started worshiping Balaam
one more. They had no change of heart.
They had no new birth. They were in rebellion all the
way through, were thankful for men like Gideon that subdued
their minds for a short time, and they quit being such rascals
for a short time. But after he's dead, we find
their nature is one more time. Now, this is probably a second
at least a second, maybe a third generation during Gideon's lifetime.
And you'd think, if anything, they'd get this all washed out
of their mind. You know, there's one time in this world's history
that if it could have happened, that people would have got better. It had been those three sons
of Noah. They knew what it was like before
the flood. They came through the flood in
an ark provided for them. And we'd say, why can't they
change and have a decent lifestyle and raise their kids right and
quit being such jerks? Because we're all related to
Adam. In Adam, all die. So we close this chapter out
with those words. Gideon has died. What a faithful
man of God. Now, when we look at his history,
he was just another Baal worshiper. His dad was, he was, and the
Lord was gracious to him. 40 years there was peace. He made mistakes just like anybody,
everybody else. But you know what? He is called
by God faithful servant. We'll stop there for tonight.