And there came an angel of the
LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash
the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon
threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The
LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
(Judges 6:11-12)
The Midianites had spoiled Israel of their livelihood.
- They destroyed their harvests.
- They sought to starve Israel out.
- And this went on for seven years.
- And we learn it was due to the evil
that Israel committed in departing from God.
- They brought their own trouble upon
themselves.
At first they hid away in caves, but soon began calling on the Lord., as
they should have done at the start.
- We later learn they were involved in
idolatry.
- But the idols were obviously not helping
them in their peril.
Imagine the people of Israel with all their history of the miraculous proofs
that attested to the fact that God is real.
- How could they turn to idols?
This picture of Israel turning to idols is similar to today's believers
backsliding and doing the things they know full-well are wrong for them to
do.
- It is committing sins that one knows
are wrong.
- One previously served God and loved
Him in a life of obedience to Him, but slipped away and is involved in sins
they know are wrong.
- Israel is an example of a backslidden
Christian.
Gideon was threshing grain by a winepress near an large oak tree in efforts
to hide.
- He did not thresh openly because the
Midianites were out to destroy any harvests they had.
- They would not think to look for grain
by a winepress near this old tree.
You may be like Gideon today.
- You're backslidden from where you used
to be, and are coming to the church today to hide.
- That is good!
- The Bible actually encourages it.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
(Psa 17:8)
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man:
thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
(Psa 31:20)
We come to Christ to HIDE form the onslaughts of the enemy that have come
upon us due to our neglect to do God's will.
- Rest assured, He wants us to come to
Him.
- It's good to hide in the tower in which
the righteousness come to hide.
However, when you come to hide around the threshing grain and winepress,
source of bread and wine, God can change your situation, and bring from
hiding in obscurity to valour.
You may come for just involvement in a social event at best, in your pursuit
to hide, but God wants to get hold of your life.
And the bread and wine should always be trained in your minds and faith
to remind you of a reference to the cross, for the bread and wine in the last
supper was referred to as the body and blood of Jesus that He gave in sacrifice
for our salvation.
- You've come to hide where the bread
and the wine are being prepared.
- You've come to the right place.
- You did wrong and failed God, but you
came to hide and to call on the name of the Lord which you should have done
at the start of your trouble.
- But you're here, and God will take
you from obscurity to valour.
All is NOT lost if you fail God.
- You can be restored.
- You may feel as though you will only
come here and leave again each week.
- But God is going to get hold of our
heart today.
- God never revokes his gifts and callings.
- They are without His repentance.
- You still have that calling on you.
Gideon saw an angel come to him and sought to entertain the angel with
cakes, meat and broth.
- It was not time for a picnic, though.
- The angel told Gideon he would be a
mighty man of valour and to prove it in the form of a sign, he did this:
- He commanded Gideon to lay out the
meat and cakes on the rock by the tree, and pour the broth over them.
- And the angel touched the food with
his rod and the rock burned up the food in a burnt sacrifice.
- It reminds us of Elijah's sacrifice
used with twelve barrels of water poured out to ensure the miracle of fire
from heaven was not faked.
- Imagine a man who came to hide, being
introduced to ministry similar to Elijah!
The first thing Gideon was commanded to do was to be done that first night.
- Hew down the groves (wooden idols)
of his father's making.
- That night he took an axe and chopped
the wooden idol up and took his father's beast and sacrificed it and used
the wooden idol for kindling.
- That beast was to be sacrificed to
Baal, but God wanted it sacrificed to Himself.
The next day the neighbours told Gideon's father what he had done.
- Joash told them that Baal can fight
for himself.
- Evidently, Gideon put his own father
under conviction and stirred him up to speak against Baal after having made
an idol to him.
We can influence those around us to get back to God, as well, when we commit
the first step, represented by Gideon's first night -- REPENTANCE.
True repentance destroys the idols of our lives, and commits our hearts
to God.
- It destroys the things in our hearts
that we know are wrong and should not be there.
- Like Gideon chopping down the idol,
we need to destroy any idols of other things that cause us to sin and depart
from God.
- We are not going to do those things
any longer that are displeasing to God and contrary to a life conducive to
serving God in holiness.
Night 2.
The next night Gideon asked God to encourage Gideon regarding this call
to be a man of valour.
- He asked God to cause a fleece of wool
he placed on the grass to be soaked with dew, and to leave the rest of the
ground surrounding it to be dry.
- This was naturally impossible.
- But this, God did!
The fleece is from a lamb.
- It speaks of Christ.
- And being soaked in water speaks of
water baptism into Christ's death.
- Dipping beneath water does not do anything
in and of itself.
- But baptism in Jesus' name involves
faith that Christ died as us, and we are recognizing that and enjoining ourselves
to that.
- Repentance and water baptism are items
that correspond to Christ's death and burial.
- And when we go through these steps,
as sinners, we are allowing God to save us.
- But even as Believers we need to get
back to God in the same manner.
- No, we do not get baptized in water
a second time because we have backslidden and wish to return to Him.
- But we recount our experiences all
over again in our hearts.
- We remind ourselves that we were crucified
with Christ and buried with Him, so as to restore our lives to the manner
they should be.
If you wish to get back to God after being backslidden while sitting on
a pew or out altogether, nothing will encourage you, as Gideon was encouraged,
to realize you are still crucified with Christ and were buried with Him.
- Just cut loose your ties with sin through
repentance, and realize your life is hid with Christ in God.
- Get back on track!
- Be encouraged to know you are still
His child, and you have His name upon you through baptism in His name.
- Come home, prodigal!
Night 3.
The third night, Gideon request another experience of encouragement.
- He asked God to do the reverse with
the fleece and the surrounding ground.
- Make the ground soaked with dew, but
the fleece dry as a bone.
- This God did!
- In fact, woolen fleeces usually draw
water, but this fleece was dry amidst all the ground wet with dew.
If the fleece being soaked speaks of water baptism, then the water all
around the dry fleece speaks of rising up out of water baptism into resurrection
of newness of life.
- Acts 2:38 says we must repent, be baptized
in Jesus name for remission of sins, and receive the Holy Ghost.
- Dead, buried and resurrected.
- Three steps.
- One each night.
- To bring us to the third day.
- It was the third day that Christ rose
from the dead.
- Coming to the third day in our lives
is coming to a real understanding that we truly did die and were buried
and resurrected into newness of life.
I often tell people they need to come to the third day understanding.
- What I mean by that is that they need
to realize that if they are dead, buried and risen with Christ, then they
are more than conquerors!
- That is all the experience they need
in order to conquer hell at every turn!
- To truly get that into our hearts is
to come to a place of strong faith.
- When you ponder over what God did for
you through Acts 2:38 experience, applying Christ's death, burial, and resurrection
to your life, then you will have strong faith in what you can do for God!
- That experience united you to Christ
and gave His name to you.
- And you have POWER to defeat Satan!
- Use that power!
- But you have to come to the "third
day" understanding in order to truly get that sort of faith.
People who come to hide around the bread and wine will get a third day
revelation if they pay heed to the word of God!
But there was a fourth night.
- Too many people stop at Acts 2:38.
and the three days.
- The fourth night saw Gideon told by
God to go down by the tents of the enemies, and listen.
- This he did, and he heard two Midianite
men speak about a dream one had.
- The dream was of a cake rolling down
the hill and absolutely destroying a tent.
- The other told the man with the dream
that this was a word saying Gideon the man of God is going to destroy the
entire Midianite army!
On top of coming to the third day revelation of who you are in Christ,
through His death, burial and resurrection, which took three days to occur,
you need to understand that the DEVIL your enemy is scared of you more than
you realize!
- Once you experience the Acts 2:38 experience,
Satan is absolutely terrified of you.
- His only hope is that you never fully
appreciate what God did to you and act on that.
- His only hope is that you remain ignorant
as to who you are in Christ due to the cross.
- For he knows that you're in Christ
and you have power over him now.
And this fourth night was the same night Gideon finally DID SOMETHING about
who he was.
- He took 300 men and they all sounded
trumpets and broke their pitchers to let the inner lamps shine out in the
darkness on the hillsides over the Midianite armies.
- The trumpets always speak of giving
revelation in the Bible.
- "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and
SHOW MY PEOPLE."
- You ar declaring who you are through
Christ!
- You learned about it, and now you are
declaring it IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
- And the breaking of the pitchers represents
the fact that Christ's breaking of his body in death was your breaking of
your flesh in death.
- And because you died with Christ, you
have His power within you, like light that flashes away the darkness.
- And you can defeat the devil!
Gideon's army of 300 saw the Midianites slay one another in mass confusion.
- You will send confusion to the enemy
armies of your soul when you let the light shine out of your life!
FROM OBSCURITY TO VALOUR!
- You came to hide, but you experienced
something more that you expected because you came to a place where there
is bread and wine -- real teaching from the Bible about the cross and who
you are in Christ.
Go forth, Gideon. The sword of the Lord AND OF Gideon, indicates
that you and God, together, are an unbeatable force.
- Never try to defeat the enemy on your
own strength.
- Go forth in the name of the Lord.
- The Lord and you together are a majority!
Rise from obscurity to Valour!