Let's be turning to Judges, Judges
chapter seven. We're going to look at the last
few verses in that chapter and then a few verses into chapter
eight. Now this is a continuation of
the details of Gideon's victory over the Midianites. At this
time, the Midianite army is on the run. They're fleeing from
Gideon and from the victory that the Lord gave to Gideon and they're
trying to get over the Jordan River and we'll see that many
of the other tribes that had originally come to help Gideon
fight the Midianites, they now turn around and they begin to
pursue the Midianite army. as does Ephraim. This is the
first time Ephraim gets involved. This is the first time Ephraim
hears about this, and this upsets Ephraim. But we see that Gideon
is given wisdom, and he answers their complaint with gentleness. And he handles it with great
care, and that soothes the pride of Ephraim. Now from this passage,
we glean, we see the victories of our savior over his enemies
and our enemies in him. We see that he gains the victory
and we're blessed in the victory of Christ. And we see pictures
of the gospel in this victory, in the blessings that we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We also see then as we go into
chapter eight, the need that we have as the Lord's people,
that continued need for the Lord's grace, because the Lord has a
way of keeping his people humble in revealing our weaknesses so
that we see our ever present need of the Lord's grace, lest
we should think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. And so when Ephraim charges Gideon
with a fault and he comes at him as though he's their enemy
also, Gideon handles the situation with great care. And it's a good
lesson for us, for myself, for my brethren. It's good to be
reminded of our need of the grace of the Lord always. So these
last remaining verses in chapter 7, picking up in verse 23, here
we see these blessings described that we share in as the Church
of Christ. Verse 23 And the men of Israel
gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and pursued
after the Midianites. If you think about it, it's getting
to be daylight now, and the Midianites can see one another better and
not turn on each other, and there's only 300 men with Gideon pursuing
this army, and it would be difficult for 300 men to rout them, even
though they're fleeing and running from the battle. Now these men
from Naphtali and Asher and Manasseh, they're likely those men who
were turned back, either for fear or because the Lord sent
them back when they bowed the knee to take a drink, but they
didn't get very far. It was only the day before when
they left and so they hear this great tumult and the army is
fleeing. They hear the army is fleeing and they now turn around
and they join in the pursuit of the enemy to destroy the enemy.
And verse 24, Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim
saying, come down against the Midianites and take before them
the waters unto Bethpara and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim
gathered themselves together and took the waters unto Beth-barah
and Jordan." So here's the first time that Ephraim hears that
this is even going on. And they get involved, because
they're probably situated right where the Midianites would be
fleeing down the river to cross over easily over the River Jordan
to get back home. You think about this, the Israelites
have an easier job. You were in the services, you
know it's much easier to face an enemy that's got their backs
turned to you and running the other way than it is to face
them when they're dug in and facing you, waiting for your
attack. And so they're pursuing this
very vulnerable army and picking up spoils as they go. The gospel
picture in this that we see that we're reminded of is that Christ
Jesus is our great champion. He's the mighty champion of his
people. And his victory is the victory
of his people. We see a picture of that with
David when he fought Goliath. If David won, then all of the
Philistines would be defeated. But if David lost, then all of
Israel would be the servants of the Philistines. But David
won. And so it is that Christ, our
champion, won the battle. He came and by himself defeated
all his foes, destroying them, and gained the victory, life,
and salvation, and forgiveness of sins for his people, so that
now we don't serve the enemy anymore. We serve the true and
living God. We have fellowship with Him. And so we see that in Gideon.
He's one man to whom the Lord spake. And we see how that the
Lord kept him weak. He whittled him down. He whittled
that army down. A picture of how the Lord strips
down this flesh and makes us to know our weakness, lest we
should depend upon ourselves and glory in what we have done
for the Lord, rather than what the Lord has done for me, a sinner,
an unworthy sinner who is weak and worthless and vile in myself,
But Christ in mercy and grace did this for me. And we're made
thankful and to rejoice in God our Savior. So it is that we
see in Christ, how did he come? As a king, he is the king, but
he came in weakness. He came in poverty. He came in
the weakness of this flesh and into poverty where men would
disown Him and disallow Him and be disappointed with Him as Christ
and the Savior. And yet, in that weakness, in
the flesh, He is the fit sacrifice, fulfilling all righteousness.
for his people and went to that cross faithfully, doing the will
of his father to put away our sins and to obtain forgiveness
and righteousness for his beloved people. And though he came in
weakness, he triumphed over our enemies, over his enemies and
ours. He triumphed over them from the place that seemed the
most improbable where victory would be won, there on the cross
is where he made a public spectacle of them and shamed them openly
before all. And we see the victory is in
our Savior, the risen Savior, who triumphed gloriously. For
though he was crucified through weakness, Paul says, yet he liveth
by the power of God. For we also are weak in him. We're made weak, that's grace,
to be made weak in Christ, in this flesh. But we shall live
with him by the power of God. That's how we live. That's how
we triumph. That's our strength, is Christ. Through Christ, I can do all
things. He's the one that strengthens us. In this flesh, I can do nothing. I'm worthless, weak, but Christ
is everything. And that's what we're made to
see here in these scriptures, and that's what we're made to
see in our experience. And the Lord is saying these
things so that we never lose hope, because it delights the
Lord. In the darkest of hours, when
there is no hope in this flesh that the Lord arises victoriously
and triumphs before our eyes and we see, Lord, you've done
this. I know you've done this. Now,
sadly, there's been many times where we look back and we see
that and we see how quickly we forget And how soon we make excuses
and think, well, maybe I misread that. Maybe the Lord didn't do
it. Oh, no, the Lord did it. And you knew it in that hour.
And he reminds us every hour. He keeps reminding us and bringing
us back to see the glory, the triumph, the power is of the
Lord. It's in him and only in him. And when I'm left to myself,
all I do is mess things up. I fail. I fall on my face. and
I'm brought to see my need of him. There was 22,000 men that
were turned away that the Lord made fearful. They probably got
there. You think, why did they go there
in the first place if they were so afraid? They probably thought
there was gonna be 100, 200, 300,000 Israelites there to defeat
this 100,000 plus man army of the Midianites. And they get
there and there's only 32,000 estimated to be there. And they
think, this is crazy, we can't do this. And so they went away. And then on top of it, there
is 10,000 left, and the Lord sends another 9,700 away, stripping
them down even further. What another picture that is.
When we think we can't go any lower, yes, we can. And the Lord
brings us even lower to see our need of Him. And Hebrews 11 summarizes
this, because God had a purpose for good. He had a purpose for
good. They didn't know what Gideon
was thinking or what the Lord was doing, but God did have a
purpose for good to glorify him in the eyes of Israel. Hebrews
11, 32-34 summarizes this weakness in this way. When Paul says, what shall I
say more? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon. And then he lists other judges,
Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and
of the prophets, all men who faced insurmountable odds, and
saw this is impossible for me. Who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, promises, stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the
edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, which is
what we're seeing right here. The enemy is fleeing away and
all of Israel is coming in, like we read in Revelation, when the
birds are called to the feast, to feast upon the flesh of kings
and mighty men. And it's the Lord bringing his
people to enjoy the spoils of the victory obtained for them
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this, in many scriptures,
we're given. They're given to strengthen our
faith, to show us don't ever lose hope in the Lord. If you're
hoping in yourself, you will fail, but if your hope is in
the Lord, he shall triumph gloriously, and it'll always be for your
good and our good. It'll always be for good. You
think of the apostles who had these scriptures, who knew these
scriptures, and how sad and disappointed they were when Christ was crucified. and they saw him die. They knew
his body was lifeless and laid in the tomb, and how distraught
and broken they were, how dark that hour was for them. And they even said this to Christ
himself, the risen Savior, whom they did not recognize or see.
They said, but we trusted that it had been him, he which should
have redeemed Israel. And then the risen Savior revealed
himself to them. Then he spoke to them and preached
Christ to his people, showing them how that Christ must suffer
these things. How that he came in weakness
and triumphed over the enemies, his enemies and our enemies.
And how he triumphs gloriously in his people. And so while we
go through trials and setbacks and strippings and they discourage
us, and while we're made weak in this flesh and our faith is
proved by God, your Lord says to you, be not faithless, but
believing. Believe Him. Trust Him. He's
given you His word of promise and He's going to prove that
word of promise to you so that you shall see it and know your
God is God and that He's your God and that He's called you
and is blessing you in Christ. And so We see how that we're
made weak, but he is strong. And he'll bring us to confess
like Thomas, who doubted. And when the Lord appeared to
him and showed him the prints of nails in his hands and the
spear wound in his side, and Thomas's confession was, my Lord,
my God. And that's what He brings you
to see, when He brings you through that darkness and triumphs gloriously
before your eyes. My Lord, my God, how did I ever
doubt you? How did I ever doubt you? You
know, when we come into the presence of the Lord, I don't, none of
us will say, I should have done less. We're gonna see the Lord
of glory seated on the throne and cry for joy. knowing he is
wonderful, how did I not do more? How did I not believe him and
trust him, the almighty God? And he'll wipe away every tear.
And he'll bless you and bring you into his arms and hug you
and love you and remove all fear and all doubt and worry. And
you shall have the peace of God and the presence of God. Now
one of the victories that were wrought is seen in verse 25,
in Judges 7, 25. It says that they took two princes
of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock
Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued
Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on
the other side, Jordan. Now these are two mighty men,
princes in Midian, and they've got a reputation as ruthless,
violent killers. They destroyed their enemies. Now, this is a type of all that
is false, the false gospel, that which destroys and rips apart. That's what these men picture
here. Their names are nicknames. They're
given these nicknames to describe their character. Orib means raven. And the raven is a large one
in the family of crows. It's probably the largest of
the crow family. They have large appetites, and
they make a mess of things, and they destroy things. And it's
where that word raven, that noun raven, it's where we get the
verbs ravenous and ravening. tearing apart, voraciously tearing
apart and destroying. And the sense is that he was
eager to destroy. He loved battle. He loved to
take men's lives from them. He enjoyed the pursuit and the
kill of God's people. And zeb means wolf. The wolf
also is a greedy, skillful predator. And we sometimes even use the
word wolf to describe how someone eats. You're wolfing it down.
It means you're just devouring it voraciously. You're just going
to town because you don't want anybody else to get anything.
You're gobbling up all the chicken wings before somebody else can
get a couple chicken wings. You're just wolfing it down,
not even enjoying it. But the sense is that these men
loved going to war. You could hear them hooting and
hollering as they're pursuing some fearful man and taking his
life. That's what they did, they loved
to do that. And they loved to destroy, so they were killers. They were just like the master
that they served, who is our adversary the devil, who has
a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. They are the false gospel, the
false way that comes in to destroy and to tear apart, to wreck the
peace and to destroy the work among the Lord's people. The
gospel picture in this, the glory, the blessing for us is that the
Lord has given you his spirit to deliver you from the false
way. to show you the truth and to
give you that discernment from that which is false, and to deliver
you from the false and evil way. Notice the description. I'm going
to read the description that Christ gives of the false gospel. He says in Matthew 7, verse 15
and 16, He said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. The raven and
the wolf, they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather figs, grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
In other words, the false prophet, it's not just a matter of their
work's good or not, it's the false prophet turns you to the
flesh. They turn you to the law, they
turn you to the flesh, which is the cursed thing that can
only bring forth thorns, thistles, bramble bushes, You don't find
grapes and figs growing on those things. They're cursed. So you're
not going to find fruit in and by this flesh. And the false
gospel turns you to the flesh. And they delight and glory in
what they get men to do in their flesh, so they can boast in your
flesh. And what they've gotten you to
do. And so they turn you to fleshly
carnaways, and from such the Lord says, turn away. Turn away
from them. Now, this brings us to chapter
eight, and here we have an exchange between brethren, between brethren,
and it reminds us of how we are to take great care for our fellowship
with one another. We're to exercise care and to
be very careful in how we speak and what we do to one another.
It's certain that we would we ought to destroy the false
way. But take great care with your brethren. Take great care
with your brethren that you don't destroy your brethren. Because
brethren can stumble. Brethren can stumble. Brethren
can do, they can commit sins, they can get angry, and they
can turn their energy against their brethren as though their
brethren are the enemy. They can do that. Now let's read
verses one through three of Judges 8. And the men of Ephraim said
unto Gideon, why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us
not when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they
did chide with him sharply. You see, Ephraim's turning his
energy now, his focus, his anger against his own brother here,
when the enemy is Midian. And Gideon said unto them, What
have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of
the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
Abiezer is the family, the immediate family of Gideon. He said, Isn't
Ephraim's vintage, their harvest better? better by far than us
in Manasseh? God hath delivered into your
hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb, and what was I
able to do in comparison of you?" Then their anger was abated toward
him when he had said that. Gideon answered these men with
a gentle word, He was very careful. He took great care in how he
answered his brethren. Solomon tells us that a soft
answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Now, sadly, we've all been guilty
of not saying something gently or taking the necessary care
to avoid stirring up even more anger. I know I have, I know
I have. And we're reminded here of just
how precious the fellowship of brethren is and how great care
we are to take with that fellowship. Now there's some history here
between Gideon and Manasseh, or rather Gideon who's of Manasseh
and the tribe Ephraim. Because Manasseh was the eldest
son of Joseph, and Ephraim was the youngest son of Ephraim.
But when Joseph brought his two boys, Jacob crossed his hands
purposely and blessed Ephraim, the younger one, with the blessing
of the firstborn. It went to Ephraim. It said,
Ephraim became the mighty tribe. You think of the two mightiest
tribes in the 12 tribes of Israel. Judah of the south, Ephraim of
the north. Sometimes Israel is called Ephraim
and referred to as Ephraim because it's so mighty. It was such a
blessed tribe by the Lord. They had great influence over
the other tribes. And so Gideon showed great wisdom
in acknowledging his place. and acknowledging his place before
his more powerful brother, Ephraim. And he did so by complimenting
their harvest and by pointing out, hey, you guys took out Orib
and Zeed, these guys who terrorized us for years. You took them out. What can I do in comparison to
you? Now, that may seem patronizing to us. You might think, is he
just patronizing them? And they probably heard it, too.
But the thing is, he acknowledged before them humility. He acknowledged
his place before them, and so they were able to move on. And
it was just quickly forgotten. They didn't belabor it any longer.
Now, that particular situation may be unique to them, but the
reality is we do see in the New Testament trials, we see fightings,
and we think, I know I've thought before, wouldn't it be great
to be in that first century church? Wouldn't that have been wonderful?
They had the apostles there, there was peace there, they were
fellowshipping in one another's homes, it was just this joyous,
wonderful place, and they didn't have all these sects and schisms
that we have today. Didn't they? They did. They didn't even know if Paul
was an apostle. They were arguing. There was
fighting as to whether they should even hear Paul. You have that
settled. You have that settled. Even churches
that are lawmongers are reading that man's epistles, whom they
accuse of being an antinomian. And every week, they're reading
the grace that God gave to that man and the gospel that he preached. Whether they understand it or
not, we have the gospel there in the scriptures, because God
is great and wonderful and able to preserve the foundations for
his people, that the truth should continue with us as it is this
day. And so there's divisions among
them, and there was all kinds of fighting going on. And they
give various warnings. And so today it is just the same
way. We see lots of divisions over
knowledge, over knowledge of doctrine. And doctrine is important. People get very passionate about
fine particulars in doctrine. They get very passionate and
they argue and they say things that they ought not to say. In
Paul's day, one of the great debates was, should we be eating
that meat? I know that they cooked it up
there in the temple as an offering to Diana or whoever it was, and
now they're bringing it down here to sell it. Should I really
be giving my money to that? Or should I really be eating
something that had been sacrificed, made an offering, so to speak,
when it was cooked to that false god? And Paul says to them, we know that there's no other
god but the true and living God. But he said, he reminds the church
about that. In 1 Corinthians 8, verses 1,
2, and 3, he said, we all have knowledge. Every one of us has
knowledge. Every one of us has an opinion
or an understanding about something. And knowledge puffeth up. It makes your head fat. You think
you know something and that you are somebody and you've got this. You know this for certain. But he went on to say, but charity.
A generous, giving love. You're just willing to love your
brethren. He says, but charity edifieth. When what we know supersedes
the love we have for brethren, divisions are sure to follow.
Divisions are going to follow. If what you know is greater than
the love you have for your brethren, there's going to be divisions
and there's going to be trouble and fighting. And so Paul said
in the next verse, if any man think that he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man
love God, the same is known of him. And so we get into great
trouble when what we know is greater than who we know. on
what we know, that what I know and believe is greater than the
one who I know, who knows me and loved me and gave himself
for me and gave himself for my brethren. He laid down his life
for them. And they're precious to him,
as my hope is that I'm precious to him. And so he fills our hearts
with love and understanding so that Whatever the issue is at
hand, we would deal with it in love and great care, rather than
in knowledge and hurting someone, not taking care with your brethren.
Paul said it this way in Galatians 6, verse one through three. Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fall, ye which are spiritual, restore
such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Bury one another's burdens, and
so fulfill the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? The
law of love, the law of faith, the law of life. That's the law. For if a man think himself to
be something when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. begin to
inspect and to pry and to get into it, there's going to be
divisions. That's why he says to you that
are spiritual, to you that know, I better take great care with
this. This has to be handled very delicately, very carefully
here because it's going to fracture and cause more problems if I
don't. The visions follow in those situations
when care isn't taken. And so that's how people say
hurtful, sinful things. But we're brethren, but we do
stumble, and we do fall, and that's how trouble comes. So
seek to handle your brethren with love, with great care. Exercise
great care. You know, things happen, but
we can learn from. We can learn and grow and beg
the Lord for mercy and reconciliation with our brethren. Seek to reconcile. Seek to make it right because
what happens is once the bone is set, once you get past that
setting of the bone, then it begins to heal. then it begins
to heal and get better. So Paul said this, he said, if
you forgive anyone, I forgive them. I'm not gonna hold over
some apostleship with them. He said, lest Satan should get
an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.
We know how he works. We know how he worms in things
and causes divisions and fractures and so on. It causes doubts in
your mind. What we have with one another
is precious. So remember, everything that we have is given to us of
the Lord, whether it's wisdom, knowledge, understanding, it's
all from the Lord. What have we done that we've
earned it or deserved it or brought forth of ourselves? We all depend
and lean upon God always. And so turn to Galatians 5, and
then we'll It will be done shortly. Galatians 5, picking up in verse
22. Because just as we receive knowledge
and understanding, we're given brethren, and the fellowship
with brethren. It's also a gift of the Lord.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy, peace, right? The way to handle it wrongly
is in the flesh, which we'll look at in the next hour. We'll
be looking at Galatians 5, 19 through 21. But here, this is
the way that we're to walk is in the spirit, which brings forth
fruits of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. So rather than hold things as
Ephraim tried to do over Gideon, remember whose you are and whose
your brethren are and love them. He goes on to say, and they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Therefore,
in conclusion, let us love as we would that others loved us.
Let us bear long with others as we would want others to bear
long with us when we're having a bad day or a difficult time. Be charitable, right? Very generous in your love for
one another. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy and your grace. We
thank you for your patience and kindness toward us. We thank
you for the blessings of the victory that we have in Christ,
that you have given us your spirit and discernment to know and to
understand the things of our God given freely, revealed fully
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to walk in love in him,
help us to have that discernment, that care, the carefulness in
handling difficult and tough situations, whatever they may
be, whenever they arise, Lord, give us that spirit of wisdom
and gentleness as we see with Gideon. And Lord, help us to
walk in that love with one another. to exercise that discernment
carefully, and not to, by all means, battle against lies and
that which is false, but not harm our brethren. And Lord,
only you can do this because you know our weaknesses. You
know our folly. You know how weak and foolish
we are. But Lord, we pray that you would
triumph gloriously in our hearts and in our midst and fellowship
with one another. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.