Please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the Book
of the Judges chapter 6 and we'll read verse 11. The Book of the Judges chapter
6 and reading verse 11. And there came an angel of the
Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah that pertained
unto Joash the Abiezrite and his son Gideon, threshed wheat
by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. There is a lot of instruction
in the book of the judges and it is of course the account of
those who did judge Israel for a considerable period of time
after that Joshua died. And it was some years after Joshua
died that this account of Gideon came to pass. And we see in this
chapter that we read how that Israel sadly once again did evil
in the sight of the Lord. And it is indeed sad reading
to again and again realise how Israel, so blessed by the Lord,
and yet so very easily and so readily turned against God and
did evil. And it is a tremendous lesson
for us to consider that we do not fall in the same way that
they did. And when they fell, very often
then the Lord came and judged them in one way or another. And in this occasion, the Midianites
came and oppressed them. They came and did much evil towards
them and encamped against them and destroyed their crops and
their cattle. And so it was a very distressing
time and the effect was that Israel was greatly impoverished
because of the Midianites. Now then, what happened then?
As what happened in very many occasions in the history of Israel. And what happened was this. Then
they cried unto the Lord. What a blessing it is that the
Lord was still willing to hear their prayer. The Lord heard
their crying. They didn't deserve it, did they?
They turned their back upon God, they followed their own way,
and they had now come into a time of need. And so often it is with
the Church of God still today, and we're thankful to have a
God who still deals with his people graciously. No matter
the situation which may develop as we turn our back upon God
and we pursue evil ways, And it may not be what we might establish
as a very outwardly evil and wrong way. The devil is very
subtle at producing those things in our lives which just bring
us into opposition to the things of God, separate us from the
true faith of God, from the true liveliness of soul. And the effect
is to bring us into a situation where we become impoverished,
because we shall become impoverished if we walk contrary to the Lord. He said, if you walk contrary
to me, I will walk contrary to you. Sometimes we seem to think
that we are excused in a situation like that. It doesn't apply to
us and we can carry on as we desire to do, but the Lord has
set before us a standard. The standard is a high standard. It is God's standard. And we
should not desire to walk contrary to that. And so the Lord causes
Israel then, in the midst of this situation, to cry unto the
Lord. And what happened? It came to
pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because
of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children
of Israel. We're not told who this prophet
was. But the Lord sent this prophet
to the children of Israel, and this prophet then reminded them
of their history. He reminded them of what had
occurred. He reminded them of their deliverances. What a good thing, isn't it?
When perhaps we've fallen, we've gone backward instead of going
forward, and we've cried to God And then, as it were, the Lord
sent a prophet and has just brought back to our mind his favours,
his blessings. And he tells them, this prophet
says, thus saith the Lord God. He was God's mouthpiece. I brought
you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of
bondage. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians.
and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and dragged them
out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto
you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice."
So having set before them the truth, what had occurred? This
prophet then said, but ye have not obeyed my voice. That's why the situation developed. That's why they entered into
this position. Because they had not obeyed the
voice of the Lord. Now that's a very simple and
yet very striking statement. We need to always look into our
own hearts to see whether you and I are obeying the voice of
the Lord. Remember, the devil is a very
active foe and his concern is that we do not obey the voice
of the Lord. Go back to Genesis, go back to
the Garden of Eden, go back to Adam and Eve. What did they do?
They did not obey the voice of the Lord. And what occurred?
They fell and sin came upon all mankind because they did not
obey the voice of the Lord. Obeying the voice of the Lord
is not optional. It doesn't depend upon what you
and I think. The Lord is to be obeyed. His
voice is to be obeyed. His words are to be obeyed. Well,
the Lord is gracious. He was very gracious to Israel
on so many occasions. He was very gracious to them
on this occasion. My friends, he's been very gracious
to us, has he not? On many occasions. Can we not? I hope we can. This morning,
come back, come and give thanks for the Lord's graciousness and
his goodness and his favour. And so what occurred now? An amazing thing occurred. And there came an angel of the
Lord. and sat under an oak, which was
in Ofra, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite. And we may
say, well, who is that angel of the Lord? Well, I think it's
quite clear. We read down verse 14, and the Lord looked upon
him. It would seem clear it was the
Son of God in human form here, appearing to Gideon. And therefore we have this statement,
and there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which
was in offer that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite. Joash of
course was the father of Gideon and he owned this land and here
was the son Gideon. Now this angel came there and
what was Gideon doing? Well he was threshing wheat by
the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon was doing this threshing. The angel of the Lord was there
under this oak. It appears that Gideon was occupied
with this work and didn't notice initially anyway this angel of
the Lord there under this oak. He was engaged in this threshing
of the wheat by the wine press. Now then, remember the situation
here. Greatly oppressed they were by the Midianites. There
would have been a threshing floor. A threshing floor would normally
have been done by an oxen treading out the corn. But here we have
a different situation. Here we have Gideon involved
in his threshing himself. not in the threshing floor, but
by the wine press, so that he was not noticed, so that there
weren't any oxen trampling around and lowing and drawing attention
to what they were doing. Here was this man of God, Gideon,
threshing out this wheat by the wine press. How much it was,
whether it was little or not, we are not told, but nonetheless,
here he was doing this particular job. And we should think that
here was Gideon, he was obviously a man of some substance, as we
read further on, he took ten men of his servants to go and
throw down the idols of Baal, so he wasn't a poor man, and
he could have easily got his men to do this threshing, but
no, he took it upon himself to do. And we should therefore See
the example here that we should always be willing to do what
might appear to be a menial task. We should always be willing to
serve the Lord in whatever way the Lord directs us to. We should
never think anything is below us. We should always be willing
to do that which God may put before us. And so here we have
Gideon then, prepared to do this task here. threshing out the
wheat by the winepress. Now, this angel, he didn't appear
to Joash's father. He came and he appeared to Gideon. We see God's purpose, we see
God's sovereignty, and we see God's come to a man who feared
the Lord. It would appear that Joash, at
one stage, possibly still here, was a worshipper of Baal. because
there were the idols which were cut down. But God in his mercy
came to Gideon as he was threshing wheat by the winepress. So the
Lord comes to his people in various ways. The Lord is gracious. He came
to Gideon here when he was threshing wheat. And the Lord comes to
his people today in various positions and locations. The Lord comes
and the Lord speaks and the Lord directs. What a blessing, isn't
it, that the Lord is not limited to wherever he comes and speaks
and meets with his people. The Lord knows where his people
are. And he goes to them, and he meets with them, and he speaks
to them, and he directs them. And so the Lord came on this
occasion to Gideon. Here he was then, threshing wheat
by the winepress. So we should not think in our
lives, well, I'm sure the Lord won't come to me in this place. I'm sure the Lord won't come
to me when I'm doing this. The Lord knows where we are.
The Lord knows what we're doing. The Lord knows how to come and
speak to us in a way which will be direct and will have a good
and gracious effect upon us. Now this angel of the Lord came
then to Gideon and he said an amazing statement. He said, The
Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. The Lord is with
thee. That surely is a great blessing. Surely it's the greatest blessing
that we can really want, isn't it? To know that the Lord is
with us. The Lord is with thee. I wonder if we are able to recognise
and to know that the Lord is with us. The Lord is with us
today. We need the Lord to be with us
every day, not just on Sundays, not just perhaps on special days. We need the Lord to be with us
on every day. So here we have this wonderful
statement. The Lord appeared. He came to
him and he said, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of
valour. It would appear from that that
Gideon was a man of some consequence, a man of valour. It would seem
he was one who fought battles and won battles. He came and
spoke in this way, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon's response
was very good and very gracious and he says, 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? Again, we
may come into that path. We may ask that question. Oh
my Lord, if the Lord's with us, why? Has this come upon us? Why? Have we been called to walk
this path? What was the response of Gideon? Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with
us, why then is all this before us? We may ask those questions
sometimes. We may wonder why situations
develop. Why has this come upon me? Well, we only have to look in
the Word of God to see many occasions, don't we? when God appeared wonderfully. You think of Joseph. Joseph,
a man of God. Joseph doing the will of God. And yet Joseph sold to the Midianites
and sold into Egypt. You see what occurred in his
life. He did that which was right and
yet he was imprisoned for a number of years. And it was a number
of years before he was delivered from that situation. And what
are we told? While he was in that prison,
the Word of God tried him. That means it was tested. What
was that Word? The promises, those dreams, the
favour of God toward him. He had. God had spoken to him. God had given him those clear
dreams. And now, he was tucked away in
a prison in Egypt. How were these things to be brought
about? There seemed no possibility.
And yet, you see, God had a purpose, a divine purpose. And at the
appointed time, not a day before, not a day after, Joseph was brought
out of prison, never to return again. And then the Lord's promises
were worked out in a very singular and amazing way. And we know,
of course, even in the case of Abraham, he was told to leave
and to leave the Ur of the Chaldeas. He travelled a long way, he had
much opposition, but the Lord was with him. And in that time
of great temptation in his life, He was told to go and offer up
his only son. And it was a particular son.
It was a son of promise. The Lord had promised him. And
now he was told to go and offer up his only son. Was this really
the way of the Lord? Was this really in accordance
with God's will and purpose? Yes, Abraham, it was. It was
to test and to try his faith. The Lord brings us often into
situations to test and to try our faith, whether it is of God
or not. Gideon was really in this position. We perhaps can view him threshing
out this wheat and thinking, why have these things come upon
us? The Lord seems to have forsaken
us and the Lord has left us totally. where the Lord hadn't left them,
although they deserve to have been left, and if you and I are
honest in our hearts, we can never claim that we don't deserve
to have been left, do we? We can never say, well, I'm a
wonderful Christian. I'm sure if we're taught by the
Lord, we can never lay claim to that. Perhaps we wish we could,
but we have to recognise that we do fall, we do sin, and even
that which is perhaps not seen, that which is inside, in our
heart, we have to bow down and fall down before God and confess
our sins. And we recognise the Lord's goodness
and favour toward us in not dealing with us as our sins have deserved. And so the Lord came here and
spoke to Gideon and so Gideon comes and asks this question,
Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this before
us? It's a question that sometimes
we may perhaps ask. And where be all these miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Well, that's what it appeared.
And very often it appeared in the life of Israel, the Lord
had forsaken them, but he had not forsaken them. They deserved
to be forsaken, but he hadn't forsaken them. He had a purpose
of love toward them. Amazing, isn't it? To think that
the Lord has a purpose of love toward us today, unworthy as
we are. And the Lord looked upon him
as the Lord looked upon us. That's a great blessing, isn't
it? Here he was, you know, doing this menial task, beating out,
threshing his wheat. And yet, here was the Lord coming
to him, and here he was speaking to him, and looking upon him.
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? Here was a wonderful promise
by God to Gideon. He was to go in this thy might. Now let us be clear, that wasn't
any strength he had in himself. It really was in the same way
that the Apostle Paul said, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. There was his secret. It was
the strength of the Lord. And he went in his might, going
this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel. from the hands of
the Midianites, have not I sent thee." Now, we see the truth
of Gideon's position, how he judged himself, how he judged
himself. This is very important. We see
partly how he judged himself by doing this task of threshing
out the wheat. But we see here, he says, Wherewith
shall I save Israel? He was a mighty man of valour,
but he didn't esteem himself very great. He says, Behold, my family is
poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. The least in his father's house.
He didn't esteem himself highly at all, did he? We see again and again that the
Lord uses people who are brought to that position where they do
not esteem themselves very highly. Exactly the same with the Apostle
Paul, wasn't it? The Apostle Paul esteemed himself less than
the least of all saints. He doesn't use people who esteem
themselves as great. And do you know why? because
they claim the glory themselves. See, when we're nothing, when
we're very small, when we're insignificant, then it is that
the Lord uses us. Take the case of Moses. Moses,
you see, when he was 40 years old, and he thought all the people
would understand that he was the one to deliver Israel. They didn't understand it. Poor
old Moses had to go another 40 years in the back side of the
desert, to bring himself down to a very low place. And then
when God said to Moses, you're the person, then he made every
excuse why he wasn't equipped and why he wasn't the right person.
And it is all these cases are so that God will have the honour
and glory. It is so that we become little
people in our own eyes. little people. And my friends,
the Church of God doesn't have problems when all the people
are thinking themselves as little people. It's when those who think
they're important people, that's when the problems arise in the
Church of God. So, we have this truth, these
words, and they're good to read, aren't they? To realise what
he was able to say. Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Well,
I wonder this morning how we view ourselves. Whether we view
ourselves as somebody important, somebody that needs to be taken
notice of, or whether we view ourselves as very small, very
insignificant, less than the least of all saints, and in the
least in our Father's house. Now what will bring us to that
position? The grace of God. You won't come there yourself,
because by nature we are proud, by nature we think highly of
ourselves, but bless God for the grace of God, the unmerited
favour of God, which comes and deals with His people, in love
to their souls, so that they are made like the Saviour. We have, don't we, the great
and glorious example of the Saviour Himself. He came right down,
didn't He, to that very low position, born in that manger in Bethlehem,
insignificant life for those 30 years. My friends, you and
I, if we are a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
need to be like Gideon. We need to come down to this
low place. We need to come and acknowledge
that we are nothing really, but the Lord is our God. You see how important it is that
we have that view. The angel, the Lord said then,
the Lord said to him, surely I will be with thee. And thou
shalt smite the Midianites as one man. To know that the Lord
is with us. I am the Lord. We don't have
to worry about people, do we? We don't have to worry what people
think of us. We don't have to worry if people
think that they are more important than we are. This is what the
Lord says. Surely I will be with thee. If God before us, as the Apostle
said, who then can be against us? How necessary it is that we realise
the Lord is with us. Surely, surely you see. There wasn't any doubt about
it. Surely, I will be with thee. And thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man." Now this was a tremendous statement which was given to
Gideon, not only in encouragement to him, the Midianites were very
many. It wasn't just a little group
of people coming to fight with Israel, it was a great army.
They were there, there was reason. for him to be afraid. And yet
we have this statement which we see here. And thou shalt smite
the Midianite, says one man. Oh, here was a wonderful word. Now, sometimes, you see, we need
a word from the Lord. There comes times in our lives
when we need God to speak. There comes times in our lives
when we are brought to a place like Gideon was here really,
oppressed. All Israel, they were oppressed. And there seemed to be no way
of deliverance. They've been told about how evil they've been
and how wrong they've been. How they turned and have not
obeyed the voice of God. The situation was critical. But now, the Lord had come, and
the Lord was to appoint this man Gideon to bring about a wonderful
deliverance, a wonderful favour. And Gideon was told by the Lord
himself, And now the Lord came himself
and spoke directly to Gideon to encourage him in this way. And Gideon said, If now I have
found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talk'st
with me. Gideon wanted a sign. He wanted an encouragement. He
wanted to know that this was true. Maybe so in our lives there
come those situations which seem impossible to us. Here was God
coming and saying to Gideon, you will destroy the Midianites.
Gideon saying, oh, show me a sign that I'll talk this with me.
He wanted to know that it was the Lord. He wanted to know that
it was God. How important that is in our
lives, to know that it is the Lord who is speaking to us. It is the Lord who is directing
us. We don't want to be deceived,
do we? Well, I hope we don't anyway. We don't want to just
assume things, do we? We want to know that it is the
Lord, who is indeed speaking to us. Well, we have this wonderful
picture then, recorded here of Gideon providing his food and bringing it to the angel
of the Lord. And what the angel of the Lord
told Gideon to do, and then the angel of the Lord put forth the
end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh
and the eleven cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock,
and consumed the flesh and the eleven cakes. Then the angel
of the Lord departed out of his sight, and when Gideon perceived
that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, O alas, O Lord God,
for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. The
Lord said to him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not
die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom unto this day. It is yet
an offer of the Abiezrites. Here God heard his prayer. He
got it answered. And here then, before the deliverance
came, he now was blessed with faith to believe. He therefore
built an altar unto the Lord." He hadn't had a deliverance,
it hadn't happened, but he had faith to believe that it would
happen. And therefore he came and he
built an altar unto the Lord. It would be a good thing, wouldn't
it, in our lives. You see, he still needed faith.
And as we read on in this account, in Gideon's life, we read a little
bit about it, about putting the fleece out and being wet once
and then dry the other time. And then further on, as we know,
that perhaps he needed greater encouragement and he went down
into the camp of the Midianites with his servant and heard one
of the, or two of the people speaking together, how that Gideon
would indeed be the conqueror. The Lord was very gracious to
him. The Lord encouraged him. My friends, the Lord is still
the same today. The Lord still gives encouragement today. God
still gives direction today. We shouldn't think we worship
a God who has changed. We worship the same God today.
A God who knows about us. He knows perhaps our faith is
very small. He knows that we need our faith
to be strengthened. The Lord knows how to do that.
The Lord did it to Gideon here in this very wonderful way. My
friends, may we come then to our God, praying that He will
come and confirm to us His way, His direction. So may we come
and thank the Lord for His mercy. Well, it is good to come and
to build an altar unto the Lord and to acknowledge that it is
the Lord God speaking to us. Now, you know, it won't always
be easy because almost immediately Gideon's faith was tested in
this way. First of all, he wasn't going
to go and destroy the Midianites. He was going to go and destroy
Baal, the idol, the evil idol. He was told to go and destroy
Baal. Now, that wasn't easy, because that affected his family,
that affected his friends. He had to go and destroy them. It
was a very demanding situation. How was he to do this? Well,
we're told he took these ten men and did it by night. He did it. He did it. You know, Nicodemus, he came
to the Lord by night, but he did it. Sometimes we may perhaps be fearful.
Nonetheless, whatever the situation, day time or night time, even
faith to do the will of the Lord. And so Gideon directed in this
way and he came by night and he cast down, destroyed this
idol of Baal, this image of Baal. Well, the Lord was with him in
it. He knew, he must have known the
opposition that was likely to occur to it and yet we see The
Lord overruled it. His own father stood by him and
supported him in the act. The Lord was with Gideon. My friends, the Lord is with
us. Let us remember the truth of those words. I can do all
things through Christ that strengthens me. What does it mean? We are
to look to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to remember
His finished work. We are to remember His death
upon Calvary's cross. We are to remember His great
and glorious sacrifice for sin. We are to remember the cost of
our salvation, the shedding of His most precious blood. We are
to have the Lord lifted up in our estimation that He is the
one that we desire to honour and glorify He is the one that
we desire to serve. He is our Master. He is our Lord
and our God. And He is our blessed and glorious
Saviour. Oh, let us then remember this
morning, this example we have of Gideon. Remember, here he
was, as he started, as it appeared here, just in this very modest
way, threshing wheat behind the winepress. fearful of the enemy,
and yet doing that which was good and proper. And the Lord
came and met with him. The Lord came and spoke to him. The Lord came and gave him strength
and faith and encouraged him to do the will of his God. My friends, we have that same
God today. And let's therefore go in the
strength of the Lord God making mention of His righteousness,
even of His only. Amen.