June 9, 2019 – “Heroes of the Faith: Gideon is Faithful in Fear” by Rev. Cody Sandahl
Lay Reader = Acts 2:1-8, 12-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Introduction
We are still in our series looking at the heroes of the faith – the women and men of the Bible who had a character trait or did something worth copying even today. Last week we heard how Joseph was able to bloom where he was planted. This week we are looking at one of the most fascinating people in the Bible.
There are quite a few people in the Bible who argue whenever God tries to use them for his purposes. Remember how Moses thought he wasn’t qualified? Remember how Jeremiah thought he was too young? Gideon takes a very different approach. He is abjectly terrified. Not just a little scared, terrified. But Gideon is so fascinating to me because God allows Gideon to get away with things that others don’t. Multiple times Gideon asks for a reassuring sign. Whereas many people are condemned for that request, God grants Gideon his requested signs.
For example, in a scene that takes place in between the parts we’re going to read today, God tells Gideon that he will defeat the enemy Midianites in battle. And Gideon tells God that he’s going to put out a wool fleece over night, and if it is covered with dew, Gideon will know that God is telling the truth. That’s gutsy. And then when the fleece has dew on it the next day, Gideon tells God he’s going to do it again, and this time he wants the fleece to be dry but the ground to be covered in dew. That’s downright offensive, right? And yet God does it for Gideon.
This should come with one of those, “don’t try this at home, kids” warnings. So just remember that sometimes God lets us “put out the fleece” and ask for signs like Gideon. But most of the time God responds with, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” So let the buyer beware on this one.
So God is very patient with this terrified would-be leader. Now let’s listen for how Gideon responds to his fear and God’s assurances. In this text, the enemy are the Midianites. They are leading a coalition of other nations in a starvation campaign against Israel, and so far no one has been able to stop them.
Judges 6:11-22, 7:7-15
11Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” 15He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” 17Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.” 19So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. 20The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
7:7Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.” 8So he took the jars of the troops from their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9That same night the Lord said to him, “Get up, attack the camp; for I have given it into your hand. 10But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah; 11and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to attack the camp.” Then he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp. 12The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley as thick as locusts; and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore. 13When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, “I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.” 14And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.” 15When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped; and he returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Get up; for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand.”
Tone
Well as you know, tone matters a lot. As a parent, it matters whether your child responds to your request with, “OK Dad!” or (eye roll) “OK Dad…” Those are the same words, but different meanings, right? I really wish I knew the tone that the angel of the Lord used with Gideon in our text today. Because there is significant gap between what the angel says and who Gideon actually seems to be.
For instance, the angel says, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” Try to picture in your mind what a mighty warrior looks like. Maybe you’re picturing George Patton standing on top of a tank in World War II. Maybe you’re picturing Alexander the Great leading his cavalry. Or the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River? He’s standing at the front of the boat, looking bravely toward the future battle! That’s what a mighty warrior is supposed to look like!
Gideon doesn’t look like that. He’s hiding in a hole in the ground so the enemy doesn’t see him. He’s covered in grain. He’s armed with nothing but a pitchfork. He isn’t the great and mighty champion of his family – he says he’s the least. His family isn’t a great clan – they’re the least. So here’s a pipsqueak from a nothing family hiding in a hole.
So I wonder if the angel is trying to inspire Gideon with what he could become – “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior!” Or is the angel of the Lord kind of sassing Gideon here and pointing out how ridiculous he is hiding in that hole with his grain? “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.”
Honest With God
Clearly Gideon is afraid of the Midianites, given his hiding place. Clearly he’s afraid to fight them given how he argues with the angel. Clearly he’s afraid that God won’t deliver on his promises given how many times he asks for signs and assurances.
But do you know who Gideon isn’t hiding from? The angel! That’s crazy! Most times, angels have to start with, “Do not fear!” But the same Gideon who is hiding in a hole doesn’t need to be told not to fear the angel. He’s a complicated dude.
But that’s something that makes him a hero of the faith in my eyes. He is hiding from his enemies, because he’s terrified. But he doesn’t try to hide from God.
Have you ever tried to track a budget or track what you eat for a diet? Here’s a secret: there’s actually a neat little trick for making sure that you meet your budget – whether that’s dollars or calories. Do you want to know the secret? It’s pretty simple. If you eat a piece of cake that’s not on your diet, or you splurge with an impulse buy that’s not in the budget, you can easily recover by just not writing it down. Just lie on your budget or your food log, and you can always meet your goal! Simple!
You can do the same thing in your faith. If you want to be right with God, just lie in your prayers. Brilliant!
Obviously I’m kidding here. You can’t lie to God. That’s like lying on your budget or your food log. No matter what you’re telling yourself, the money’s really gone, the calories are really there to stay, and God knows what’s really going on.
Gideon, for all his faults, wasn’t afraid to be honest with God. That’s a lot more brave than many of us, I bet. Are you too scared to ask God about something because you’re afraid of the answer? Or are you trying to hide some dark part of your life from God’s eyes, as if that’s even possible? That’s just lying on your food log or budget. It’s not actually helpful.
So Gideon is willing to admit his fear to God. Gideon is willing to talk to God about his fear. Gideon is willing to face God honestly, not hiding. Do you need to be honest with God instead of trying to hide? Do you need to be honest with yourself? Gideon’s honesty is worth copying today.
Faithful In Fear
Have you ever heard of Llama Llama Red Pajama? It’s a very famous children’s book series about a little llama and his mama, and it has even been turned into an animated series. We just checked out the DVD from the library, and my boys were watching it this past week. There’s an episode where little Llama and his friends are supposed to go help a neighbor by cleaning the yard, but it’s the scary house in the neighborhood. They’re just as terrified of that house as Gideon is of the Midianites.
Finally they muster up the courage to venture into the yard. But they hear a strange screeching noise and they run away back to Llama’s house and hide underneath the covers of his bed. They just can’t do it. They’re too afraid.
So Mama Llama walks across the street with them. And she stays there with them, gently encouraging them even though they want to run away. Finally they ring the doorbell and meet the terrifying neighbor in the scary house! And the neighbor answers the door with a batch of cookies to thank them for cleaning up her yard for her. They couldn’t do it on their own, but with Mama Llama with them, they had just enough bravery to actually ring the door bell.
Gideon’s kind of like Llama. He’s terrified. But as long as God is with him, he has just enough fortitude to do what God tells him to do. That’s why he asks for so many signs – he’s making sure God hasn’t left him. He’s making sure Mama Llama is still standing there, backing him up.
And God really puts this to the test. Gideon is afraid when he has 32,000 warriors on his side. But God tells him that’s too many. He needs to drop that down a little bit so people will give glory to God instead of Gideon or themselves. In fact, drop that all the way down to 300. Then people will know it was a miracle. For the Broncos fans in the room, this is like that year with Tim Tebow as quarterback, where they somehow won eight games and a playoff game due to what can only be described as a series of miracles. Tim Tebow’s quarterback play wasn’t like having an army 32,000 strong, it was more like having 300 barely serviceable troops. Against the Chiefs he only completed TWO passes…and won the game! It had to be divine intervention, right?!?
That’s the effect God is going for. And remember, Gideon isn’t the overconfident leader who will gladly march off into battle knowing that he’s going to win no matter what. He’s the terrified leader. And yet, despite all those fears, he does it. He was afraid, but he was also faithful. He was terrified, but he delivered. He wanted to crawl back into his hidey hole, but he rallied the troops. Because God was with him.
Gideon’s willingness to do what God asked even though he was terrified? That faithfulness in fear is worth copying today. Where do you need to simply do what God is asking you to do, even if you’re afraid?
Shrink the Problem
I also think that Gideon was pretty smart in how he followed God despite his fear.
George and Paula’s marriage was on the rocks. Their therapist knew that there were deeply-rooted issues that were leading to their emotional distance from each other. But the therapist didn’t ask them to talk about those core issues at first. Instead she asked them to change one thing about their daily routine: don’t leave for work before giving each other a kiss. But that simple change led to other small changes. And those small changes snowballed over time into much bigger changes that allowed them to address the deeper issues. But it all started with a morning kiss. If the therapist had told them, “We’re going to need to meet for the next three years to process the patterns of emotional distance you inherited from your families of origin,” they probably would have quit. But telling them, “Try a morning kiss?” That’s a little easier to manage.
Chip and Dan Heath call that “shrinking the change” in their book Switch. Instead of trying to exercise every day for an hour, try exercising for five minutes. Starting is the hardest part.
Gideon was a master of this, I think. The first task God gave him, he was terrified (as usual). So he did what God asked, but he did it at night when no one was watching. He said, “I’m too afraid to do this in broad daylight, but I can be faithful at night when no one’s watching.” That’s shrinking the change.
I also think that God was helping Gideon out when he shrank the army. Because sometimes scale changes things. For instance, I learned to play guitar when I came here four years ago. I’ve played several times in church for our two hundred. But am I good enough for an audience of two thousand? What about twenty thousand? I would be abjectly terrified of having me, my guitar, and an audience of twenty thousand. But I’m fine with two hundred.
Gideon’s task as the general of an army of 32,000 is very different than his task as the leader of 300. And he further shrinks the problem by dividing those 300 into three groups. So really he’s only leading 100. God, I can’t lead 32,000. But I can lead 100. That’s shrinking the change.
Rather than being overwhelmed, Gideon figured out how to shrink the problem down to a size that he could manage with God’s help. Shrinking the problem so you can be faithful is something we can copy today. Is there something you’ve been avoiding or putting off because it feels too big? How can you take one step? What could you do in five minutes?
That’s why we’re starting to email five minute family devotionals so parents can do something to invest in the faith growth of their kids. If you don’t know what to do to invest in the faith of your kids or grandkids, sign up for those emails and you’ll at least get a few minutes each week. And that’s why we email out devotionals for going deeper with the sermon. If you don’t know where to turn in your Bible, sign up for that email list and you at least get a few minutes of extra spiritual depth each week. It seems overwhelming, so just shrink the change.
Summary
Sisters and brothers, Gideon was reluctant because he was afraid. Maybe you can identify with him on that. But he didn’t hide his fear from God – he was honest. And out of that honesty he was able to be faithful despite his fear. And he wisely shrank the problem down to a size that he could take at least one step, one bite, five minutes. Where might you be like Gideon, the fearful yet faithful leader? Amen.
