May I please God to bless us
together as we meditate in his word this evening. Let's turn
to the book of the Judges and chapter six and we'll read verses
12 and 13. The book of the Judges chapter
six and reading verses 12 and 13. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, O my
lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this before us? And where be all his miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered
us into the hands of the Midianites. These were difficult days for
the children of Israel and yet they were days really that they
brought upon themselves And how often in the Bible do we find
many occasions when there are those things done, especially
by the Israelites, contrary to the word of God, and therefore
they find themselves in difficult situations. Indeed, in the 10th
verse of this same chapter, the sixth chapter, we read, and I
said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of
the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed
my voice. It's very interesting to realise
that the cause really of our problems individually, collectively,
as a nation, as a world scene really, is because people have
not obeyed the voice of God. Because they think it's too difficult,
or it doesn't meet their requirements, and therefore they disobey the
Word of God. And then they're surprised when
things don't go as smoothly as they anticipated. In actual fact,
they sometimes find that things go very contrary to them, in
the opposite direction. And they find their life is one
of difficulty and hardship. Well, that was the scene really
here with Gideon. But Gideon was appointed by God. to come and to deliver Israel,
which he did. If you read on in these chapters,
we won't read them tonight, but we might just mention them, the
wonderful deliverance that God granted to Israel. And it's good, therefore, if
we realise today we worship not a little God, but a great God,
a God who always has been and always will be able to do great
things. But we are told very clearly,
the Lord says, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do these things for them. We should not think that we can
just carry on aimlessly in this world and assume everything's
going to work out well. The Lord will be inquired of,
that means he will be prayed to. And what a blessing it is,
therefore, when we do pray to God and seek, the Lord will guide
us and the Lord will direct us. And then when we do get direction
and we do get direction, that we do obey the words which God
says. Sometimes we can pray for guidance
and pray for direction, and when it comes, we don't like it. So
we don't follow it. So how can we expect then there
to be a blessing in it? We must remember in our lives
that God knows all about us. And God knows the end. He looks ahead. He knows what
is planned for us. and we don't. So God knows the
end from the beginning. We only see our present situation. God knows what is planned ahead
for us and therefore it's a great blessing when we can come and
cast all our care upon our God to commit our way unto our God
and to follow the path that God graciously directs us in. And so we have this case then
here of Gideon. And we're told, the Lord spoke
to him very wonderful words. The Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valour. Well, I'm sure none of us could
really ask for a greater word of direction than that. To know
that the Lord is with us. The Lord will therefore help
us and the Lord will indeed bless us. But we read Gideon's reaction. We read how he reasons the answer. Surely we can understand his
reasoning. He says, Oh my Lord, if the Lord
be with us, why then is all this before us? Well, we might think
that in our lives. I don't know the details of your
lives, but there may be those situations in which you felt
the Lord was perhaps with you and directing you and guiding
you, and now perhaps things seem to have fallen apart. And you
may wonder, well, why has this situation come into my path? Why is this befalling us? How is it that the Lord is with
us? The Lord is with me. And the Lord permits such situations
to develop in my life. Well, here we have a testimony
of Gideon, who was a man of God and perplexed, perhaps we could
say, why this had happened, why this had come into his life. But as we have already mentioned,
the principal reason was because Israel had disobeyed God. And sometimes we don't realise
that we are disobeying God. It's because we haven't really
taken careful notice of the directions that we may have been given.
We may have assumed a certain path and assumed a certain answer,
and yet that wasn't what God would have us do. Well, Gideon
asked this question, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then
is all this before us? And where be all his miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? Well, sometimes we might be tempted
to say a very similar statement to God. Surely there were those
wonderful blessings, those wonderful favours which thy people have
enjoyed. not only the Israelites, but
down through the ages, down through the Old Testament, the New Testament,
and of course, since then, there'll be many blessings which God has
granted to the Church of God. Things which we're pleased to
be able to recall and to mention, and such things might be an encouragement
to us. But now, you see, things don't
appear to be working out like that. And therefore, that's the
reason why there's a question. Why there's a question. And where
be all His miracles which our Fathers told us of? saying, did
not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath
forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Well, that was what Gideon observed. He couldn't understand really
why that had occurred. But nonetheless, he was able
to come and bring the situation to God in prayer And it's good
sometimes when we are able to come to God in this way. You see, he wasn't disagreeing
with what God had done, he was just asking the question. So that he might have a right
understanding of why these things were occurring. How the Midianites
had been allowed to come and really destroy the land. spoil
the crops, take away the cattle. It was a very difficult situation,
especially when they believed God was with them. Why were they
having to endure this situation? Well, Gideon questioned the position
and we're then told, and the Lord looked upon him and said,
go in this thy might. And thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites, have not I sent thee. So here was
Gideon commissioned by God to go forth and be the instrument,
the leader of the battle, and that Israel would be delivered
from the hands of the Midianites. Now it's good to read the result
it had upon Gideon. He didn't stand up and say, well
of course I'm a very able person and surely this is what I would
have expected to happen. that God would commission me
to be the leader of this people and to lead them and to deliver
Israel. But no, he didn't say that at
all. In actual fact, he spoke in an
opposite way. And these things are very good
and instructive for us today. He says, Oh my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." We see how he viewed himself. Not as some great warrior, but
he traces it back to his own family, poor in Manasseh, and
he least in his father's house. Well, it's good, isn't it, to
realize these things are there and these things are true and
these things are good for us to recognize. You may remember
the life of Paul, the apostle, who indeed was a man greatly
blessed of God But he also had a good view of himself. And it's good, isn't it, to realize
he had a view like this. And in the Ephesians, the third
chapter and the eighth verse, he tells us, well, perhaps the
previous verse, seven, wherefore I was made a minister according
to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power. And to me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." The Apostle
Paul was greatly blessed of God to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ, but he thought he wasn't a very suitable person. And he tells us so clearly, doesn't
he? Less than the least of all saints. He didn't say less than the least
of preachers. He said less than the least of
all saints. And that's really very similar
to the position of Gideon that we read of here. Yes, he didn't
view himself highly at all. He says, behold, my family is
poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Now, it's good to read such accounts
and to realise that God prepares people to be leaders, prepares
people to be a blessing to others, but in that preparation, he shows
them that they are not very important, really. They are really unimportant
and they really don't deserve any notice. They're just the
least. And so it's good, again, if we
see here Gideon, therefore a man provided by God and a man obviously
prepared by God to come and deliver Israel. Well, what a blessing
in our little lives. We don't know perhaps what God
has prepared for us in our lives. But it's good if we are not big-headed
and not think that we're the greatest and not think that we're
the person that God should automatically use. But to have the same revelation,
just like Gideon, just like Paul, and not think we're a suitable
person. Do we really think we're unsuitable
person. And you may think, well, why
is that important? Well, it's important for a number
of aspects. First of all, it will mean, as
it was in Paul's case and in Gideon's case, that they were
totally reliant upon God to be with them, upon God to help them,
upon God to bless them. And that's good, isn't it? If
you and I come to that position, realizing that we don't naturally
have any wonderful gifts, any wonderful abilities in any event.
We only possess what God has given us. And as I said recently,
it's good to realize. that everything that you and
I have and possess, naturally, God has given to us. He's given
to us the abilities that we have. We should never think that it's
because of our own acumen, our own brains, that we've got to
where we are. It's because God has granted
us these abilities. And we should come back and really
say, what is it? Well, I'll tell you what it is.
It's all of grace. That means it's all of God's
free unmerited favor. And if you and I fall into that
category, you see, that's a category that God uses. Because we're
not full of pride. We're not full of our own abilities
but we desire that God will be with us and God will direct us
and God will have then the glory. We won't be able to then be proud
in our attainments, proud in our successes. We have to come
and thank God for what he's done. And thank God for the direction
he's blessed us with. It's wonderful, isn't it? To
think that here was a man, a man of God, a man raised up to deliver
Israel. And yet, as we read earlier,
there he was hiding. hiding behind the winepress to
thresh the corn so that the Midianites wouldn't see him. He wasn't confident
in his own ability, but he was confident in what his God could
do. And so it's good to recognise
these wonderful foundational truths, really, to direct us
today in our lives. We have these examples before
us and we should take them to heart because if we do then we
shall desire that God will have the honour and God will have
the glory and so then when we come to this reasoning position
we come to our God asking the Lord why is it that these things
haven't been done victories haven't been gained in the way that we
thought. Well, the victory will be given,
as you'll see in this case very clearly. but it was so that God
would have the honour and would have the glory. It's a very accurate
case, a very interesting case that we have before us here. And we might sometimes think
that God is against us. That's really what Gideon was
thinking here, wasn't he? He was thinking that God was
against us. And we have a lovely example
of that in the case of Jacob many, many years ago. Jacob,
as you know, had 12 sons. And then he thought that Joseph
had been slain by wild animals. And Joseph was his favorite son. And he was very upset to realize
that. And then the other son from his
same wife was Benjamin. Well, the position came to pass
that there was a famine in the land. And we see how God's plans
work out. Sometimes they're short, sometimes
they're long. In this case, in Jacob's life,
it was many years. because Joseph had been sent
by his father to find the brethren and find out what they were doing,
if they were faring well. And so he went and he found them
eventually. And when they saw him coming,
they weren't very happy. They said, oh, here's this dreamer
coming because Joseph had dreamed dreams. which showed him as being
important and his brethren and his father and mother not so
important. They would bow down to him. So
his brethren hated him for the dreams and they saw him coming
and they thought now they would get rid of him. Well they weren't
sure what to do and they put him in a pit and then they saw
the Midianites coming as merchants and they decided to sell him.
to the merchants, which they did, and as you may know the
account, then he was sold to them, he went down and worked
for Potiphar in Egypt, and then he was imprisoned, and he was
imprisoned for many years, until he was able to give the interpretation
of two of the king's servants, the butler and the baker, and
they were accurate, and he said to the butler, who would be restored
to his position, and not the baker, he said, when you come
back in the king's presence, remember me. Well, the butler
forgot, didn't remember him at all, but the time came when the
pharaoh had a dream, and he couldn't interpret it, and all the clever
men couldn't interpret it. And then the butler said, oh,
I remember my thoughts today. There is a man who can interpret
dreams. And they called for Joseph, and
he came. And when Pharaoh said, I understand
you can interpret dreams, he didn't claim the merit himself. He said, it's God that gives
the interpretation. And again, it's very important
for us to remember detail like that that we should never claim
glory ourselves. To always recognize that it's
God that gives us our ability to do certain things. Well that's
what happened and he did then interpret the dream and because
of that he became next to Pharaoh's ruler in the kingdom and he was
put in charge of of that situation because of the famine and he
was told to look after everything, which he did. I'm saying this
rather long account to just bring you to this position. Joseph
then recognised his brethren when they came for food and they
didn't recognise him. And he asked them about themselves
and they said they got a brother. And he said, well next time you
come you must bring your brother. so that I shall know that you
are true people. Well, that was very difficult.
Anyway, they went back and they told Jacob, their father, what
had happened, that Joseph required them to send Benjamin next time. And Jacob didn't want to do that.
And his response was this. All these things are against
me. All these things are against
me. He thought he'd lost Joseph,
and now he thought he was going to lose Benjamin. And therefore
he said, all these things are against me. But the reality was,
of course, they weren't. In actual fact, they were working
together for good. See how easily we can come to
a wrong interpretation. The same really here with Gideon. Why were these things happening?
It was because God was going to show his power. Because God
was going to bring a wonderful deliverance. Gideon didn't know
what that was. He didn't know what the future
was. But God knew. And therefore, this is really
the path that was being taken so that the name of God will
be lifted up and honoured and glorified. And Gideon wouldn't
be able to claim the glory. He'd already said he was nothing
at all, least in his father's house. But the Lord did work
gloriously in the case of Gideon. We read together this account
and what actually occurred. First of all, there was a situation
of bales being thrown down. Gideon again obeying the word
of God. Remember, his father was a worshipper
of Baal, but he obeyed the word of God. And it's good for us
to realise the importance in our little lives that we should
obey the word of our God, even if it seems wrong, even if it
seems impossible. It is that which is right. Now,
if we go on, and I won't go through it all, but Eventually, Gideon
was to lead the army against the host of the Midianites. He got together a great army
of people to go. And the Lord said, well, that's
far too many people to come. And therefore, those who were
afraid could return. We're told that 22,000 returned.
There were 10,000 left. So 32,000, 10,000 returned. Sorry,
22,000 returned, 10,000 were left. The Lord said, this is
far too many, because if they gain the victory, they and you will claim the honour
and glory. So those people were reduced
down to a mere handful and they had an interesting test. They
were brought down to the river and they were told to drink and
to drink in two ways and they were brought down the people
to the water The Lord said to Gideon, everyone that lappeth
at the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou
set by themselves. Likewise, everyone that boweth
down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped,
putting their hands to their mouth, were three hundred men. The rest bowed down. The Lord
said to Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped, would I save you
and deliver the Midianites into thine hand. So from 32,000 reduced
to a mere 300 men. And the way that the victory
was to be gained was, again, really amazing. We think they
were given actually sharp swords or something and able to pursue
the enemy, but they came down to the enemy. And again, the
Lord was very gracious to Gideon because he allowed Gideon to
go down to the camp of the Midianites at night and to hear a conversation
between two of the soldiers. and they were speaking together
and we're told there were many, many people there and they were
speaking and this is what they said. And his fellow answered
and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the
son of Josh, the man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered
Midian and all the host. So Gideon heard that conversation
and was able then to do what God had commanded him. And what
he commanded him was this. He divided the 300. into three
companies and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And said unto them,
Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the
outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye
do. And when I blow the trumpet,
I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on
every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord and
of Gideon. And so there were just these
300 men divided up into groups, and they had to blow the trumpet. And so we're told of the three
companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers and held the
lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands
to blow with all and they cried the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon. And they stood every man in his
place ran about the camp, and all the hosts ran and cried and
fled. And the three hundred blew the
trumpets, and the Lord sent every man's sword against his fellow,
even threw out all the host and the host fled to Beth Shittah
in Zerubbath and to the border of Abel-Meholah and to Tabath. Well, there we have the account
of God's dealings with Israel in defeating the Midianites.
And it was the most amazing way to think that God chose Gideon
and then God showed him how he was how small he was really,
how weak he was really, left to himself. And yet he had that
confidence in his God and believed what God had said. Naturally
speaking, you know, just imagine an army of 32,000 reduced to
300 and not to then fight with their swords, but to just call
out. the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon and that was sufficient to affect the Midianites so they
fled and God granted Israel a great victory. So we have these accounts
in the Word of God to encourage us today. What a blessing it
is that we have a God who still is the same. A God who has not
changed. God is the same yesterday and
today and forever. There's a number of very glorious,
encouraging words in the Scriptures to direct us and bless us. And David, a man after God's
own heart, speaks and tells us great and wonderful truths, how
good it is to read such words. And this is what David said. David was a great warrior. But
nonetheless, this is what he says in verse 23 of Psalm 102. He weakened my strength in the
way he shortened my days. We might think we're very strong
ourselves. Sometimes God weakens our strength,
makes us weaker. And the reason is then that when
we receive and are given the victory, we can't say, well,
Because of my wonderful abilities, because of my great strength,
the Lord weakens us so that we are totally dependent upon God. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. And that's a wonderful statement,
isn't it? can do all things and that directs
us to the wonderful ability given by God to trust in Him and to
have faith in Him and not to look at ourselves and not to
look to man but to look to God. I can. He didn't doubt it. We often doubt. We often doubt
God. Sadly, it's the evil heart of
unbelief. But as we're blessed with that
living faith, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. Those words were true when the
apostle was on the earth, and my friends, they're still true
today. And let's not forget, we have
a great God, a wonderful God, A God who deals with us, remember,
in love to our souls. That's the wonderful blessing
of it, isn't it? Love to our souls. Again, David
says in the 27th Psalm, he says this, hide not thy face far from
me. Sometimes we think he has. Hide
not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Sometimes we feel we deserve
the Lord to put us away in anger. Perhaps we've doubted God. Perhaps we haven't believed God. Hide not thy face far from me.
Put not thy servant away in anger. And then he comes and says, thou
hast been my help. Gideon knew that. What a good
thing it is if you and I know it. Look into our lives, look
back in our lives. Can we say tonight to the honour
and glory of God, thou hast been my help. God has helped us. And if that is so, David goes
on to say then, you see, here he has a confidence in what God
has done. It's wonderful, isn't it, to
have a history, to have a testimony of what God has done. Thou hast been my help, leave
me not, neither forsake me. And then he says, O God of my
salvation. Now, that's the greatest need
that all of us have. He's known that God has saved
us and that he is the God of our salvation. That's the great
need we all have, isn't it? But we see how David spells it
out. Has been my helper. And if God
has been our helper, then we can believe he is the God of
our salvation. and that he will not leave us
and that he will not forsake us. He never left Gideon, did
he? He was with Gideon. The opposition
appeared impossible. The things which are impossible
with man are possible with God. Let us not forget that. God is
able to do far more, exceeding abundantly. than we can ask or
even think. This is the greatness of our
God, and what a mercy it is to have that. And again, the Apostle
Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, and in the eighth chapter and
the 31st verse, we read probably familiar verse, words to you,
the eighth chapter in Romans and verse 31, this is what it
reads. What shall we say then to these things? If God before
us, who can be against us? A host of enemies may rise up
to fill us with dismay. But my friends, may our confidence
be in our God. Trust in the Lord at all times,
ye people. Yes, what a blessing that is
to have a God who is faithful, a God who hears and a God who
answers prayer and therefore to come tonight and as we have
this account of Gideon It's a wonderful account really. It's worth just
going over it and go home and read it and ponder it and meditate
on it and see how God worked gloriously. Even now. Even though the children of Israel
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered
them into the hand of a million seven years, we cannot trifle
with God. We cannot think that we can disobey
God and get away with it. God knows, God remembers, that
God is gracious and God is long-suffering. And God is full of compassion.
Remember, he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It may be that our sins are standing
in the way between us and our God. We can't seem to get past
them. We can't seem to get through
them. Well, let us not forget we have a God who forgives and
a God who does hear and a God who does answer prayer. And in
these things, the reality is that God deals with us and this
is wonderful, in love to our souls. He doesn't deal with us
in anger. He deals with us in love to our
souls. And in dealing with us in that
way, He brings us to glorify His name, what He has done for
us. And as we think upon that, to
realise what He has done for us, in dying to take away our
sins upon that cross at Calvary, forgiving us, washed away in
his precious blood. All these paths really are to
bring us where? To Christ. To show us what we
are by nature. to show us how evil we are by
nature, and to show us the love and mercy of the glorious God. This is a very humbling and wonderful
experience, and it is a wonderful confirmation to our very souls
to know the Lord is dealing with us in love, just like he dealt
with Gideon, just like he dealt with David, just like he dealt
with Jacob. Indeed, so many people you can
trace out in the Word of God. Yes, his love in time past forbids
me to think He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink. The promises of God are yay and
amen. Well, you may, you and I, be
able to hold fast that which is good. Amen.