Ongoing Need for Courage (Judges 6:1-18; 8:22-35)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:05.759 I'm doing something a little differently than I've ever ever done before. I think 2 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:17.070 my my text, or my scripture reading and the wind my text is the 3 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:21.940 first few chapters of judges. Now, if I was to read that, 4 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:27.140 we might be here for a good while. So what I've done is clipped 5 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:36.729 a couple sections from those chapters. They're dealing with the way that God's people 6 00:00:36.729 --> 00:00:43.649 are blessed by him and then fall away and then call and are brought back 7 00:00:44.049 --> 00:00:49.770 and that as we see throughout particularly the Old Testament, and I wanted to 8 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:55.920 include the here, include a old testament text while I was here with you 9 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.520 all, because I think it the old testaments often neglected a lot by preachers 10 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:04.469 and we love to preach from the New Testament, of course. So what 11 00:01:04.590 --> 00:01:10.709 I'm going to do is read a couple portions, but let me give you 12 00:01:10.750 --> 00:01:14.390 that after we ask God's blessing on this reading. If we may, let 13 00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:21.579 us pray, gracious Lord, as we come before thee to seek to be 14 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:26.939 under thy word, to be guided by THY word, to live by thy 15 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:33.849 word and all that we do and exalted, may we see light as we 16 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:41.010 read, as we speak of thy word and the things that take place and 17 00:01:41.209 --> 00:01:48.439 that we might grow in our commitment to be guided only ultimately by THY word 18 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:55.319 in the issues of life on this earth. We thank thee for THY word 19 00:01:55.359 --> 00:02:01.510 and ask THY blessing upon it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, the 20 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:07.909 two portions that I want to read to set this under way and again the 21 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:13.349 as I look to the Old Testament. I wanted to have a story, 22 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:16.539 because there's a lot of stories in the Old Testament and they have a lot 23 00:02:16.620 --> 00:02:21.939 of meaning. But I'm not a very good storyteller, so I struggle with 24 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:28.259 that. But I still wanted a story and so I decided on the story 25 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:39.889 that we would land upon would be the arrival of Gideon on the Old Testament 26 00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:45.120 Heroes, if you will. But Let us first of all turn our attension 27 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:51.599 to the book of judges, Chapter Six, versus one through eighteen, and 28 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.759 I'll have one other section. then. The Sons of Israel did what was 29 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:00.229 evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the 30 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:06.990 hands of MIDIAN. Seven years and the power of MIDIAN prevailed against Israel because 31 00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:12.270 MIDIAN, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the 32 00:03:12.349 --> 00:03:16.860 mountain side and the caves and the strongholds, for it was then Israel was. 33 00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:23.060 It was when Israel had sown that the MIDIANITES would come up with other 34 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:28.370 malachites and the sons of the east go against them. So they would camp 35 00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:32.569 against them and destroy the produce of the Earth as far as Gaza and leave 36 00:03:32.689 --> 00:03:38.969 no subsistence to in Israel, as well as no sheep, oks or donkeys, 37 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:46.479 for they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they 38 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:53.360 would come like locusts, for number both and their camels were immuniate, innumerable, 39 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:58.030 and they came into the land to devastate it. So Israel was brought 40 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:02.069 very low because of MIDIAN and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord. 41 00:04:02.990 --> 00:04:08.629 Now came about, after when the when the sons of Israel cried to the 42 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:13.180 Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a Prophet to the sons 43 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:16.740 of Israel and he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God 44 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:21.899 of Israel, it was I who who brought you up from Egypt and brought 45 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:27.089 you out of the House of slavery, and I deliver you from the hands 46 00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:34.449 of the Egyptians and from the hands of your oppressors, and dispossessed and and 47 00:04:34.569 --> 00:04:40.120 disposed him from from you and gave you the land, and I said to 48 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:45.319 you I am the Lord, your God, you will not fear the gods 49 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:48.959 of the Amorites, in whose land you live, but you have not obeyed 50 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:54.350 me. Then the angel the Lord came and sat under the oak that was 51 00:04:54.430 --> 00:05:00.230 in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abbot aberisite and the Sun, 52 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:08.500 and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press. As his 53 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:12.620 son Gideon was beating out the wheat and the wine press in order to save 54 00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:16.459 it from the MIDIANITES, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and 55 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:24.290 said to him the Lord is with you, O Valiant Warrior. Then getteon 56 00:05:24.410 --> 00:05:28.089 said to him, Oh, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, 57 00:05:28.889 --> 00:05:33.250 why then has this happened to us? And where are his miracles which 58 00:05:33.329 --> 00:05:39.240 our fathers told us about, saying did not the Lord bring us up from 59 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:45.920 Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand 60 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:53.629 of mediate median Midian, and the Lord has looked at him and said go 61 00:05:53.990 --> 00:05:58.829 in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of the MIDIAN. Have 62 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:03.069 I not sense you and he said to him, Oh Lord, how shall 63 00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:11.699 I deliver Israel? Behold my family and lie and less and least in Matt 64 00:06:11.779 --> 00:06:19.250 Manassa, and I the youngest of my father's home. But the Lord said 65 00:06:19.329 --> 00:06:24.529 to him, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as 66 00:06:24.610 --> 00:06:29.490 one man. So Gideon said to him, I now have found favor in 67 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:33.680 your side. Of you show me a sign in that thou who speak us 68 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:40.319 with with me, please do not part from here until I come back to 69 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:46.160 thee and bring my offering and lay it before thee. Now from there I'm 70 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:53.230 going to move on to the second reading. In Chapter Eight, verses twenty 71 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:59.509 two, two thirty three. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, 72 00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:03.420 rule over us, both you and your son, also your son's son, 73 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:09.459 and you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to 74 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:14.300 them I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. 75 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:17.610 The Lord shall rule over you. Yet Gideon said to him, I 76 00:07:18.170 --> 00:07:23.810 would request of you that each of you give me an ear ring from the 77 00:07:23.889 --> 00:07:29.410 spoil, for they had gold ear rings because they were ishmaelites. And he 78 00:07:29.529 --> 00:07:32.959 said, we will surely give them. So they spread out a garment and 79 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:38.800 every one of them through the ear ring there from the spoil, and the 80 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:45.029 weight of the Gold Ear rings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred suckles 81 00:07:45.069 --> 00:07:49.750 of gold, beside the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which 82 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:57.230 were on the king's Omidian and Besaner, besides the neck bands at work on 83 00:07:57.350 --> 00:08:03.740 the camels. And Gideon made it into an ethod and placed it in his 84 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:09.459 city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the Harlot with it there. So 85 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:15.329 and Gideon, the son of Joe Ash, died in a right in his 86 00:08:15.449 --> 00:08:20.850 ripe old age and was burned, which buried at the tomb of his father, 87 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:26.449 Joe Ash and Ophrah of the ABEZITES. And it came about as soon 88 00:08:26.490 --> 00:08:31.680 as Gideon was dead that the sons of Israel again played the Harlot with the 89 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:37.279 bales and made biale breathe their God. Thus the sons of Israel did not 90 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.789 remember the Lord, their God, their God who had delivered them from the 91 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:48.230 hands of their enemies on every side, nor did they show kindness to the 92 00:08:48.350 --> 00:08:56.059 household of Gideon in accord with all the good that he had done. But 93 00:08:56.179 --> 00:09:01.899 let me just re remind yous. We Beg again in this that the to 94 00:09:03.059 --> 00:09:07.259 look for the differences, where God is good to his people and then they 95 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:13.490 deny him, and then this back and forth thing goes along. But their 96 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:18.769 status. At this point you have to appreciate the scene, or otherwise you 97 00:09:18.809 --> 00:09:22.250 won't, you won't make this make sense to you or me. They had 98 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:26.720 done it before and they would do it again, just as you and I 99 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:31.759 have done it before and we will do it again. Those who were no 100 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:39.750 people and had been led out of Egypt by a gracious God, those who 101 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:45.429 were no people, were now being made into people by the hand of God 102 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:52.190 alone. They, of all people, now have forgotten the Lord. They 103 00:09:52.269 --> 00:09:56.500 had fallen on hard times, they were impoverished, they lived very much like 104 00:09:56.700 --> 00:10:01.100 the South Vietnamese did in the delta area. For those of you that can 105 00:10:01.139 --> 00:10:07.019 go back as far as the Vietnam War and you may remember that the South 106 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.929 Vietnamese, who lived in the lower part of the country, when their crops 107 00:10:11.009 --> 00:10:16.529 would come in, the north northern Vietnamese would come in and steal all that 108 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:22.679 they could of what the southern people had done. This was the same kind 109 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:30.240 of thing that was happening to it. The children of Israel are God's people. 110 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:35.470 At this point, because of what they had done in forgetting their God, 111 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:46.230 they would take all the produce that they had raised for themselves, and 112 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:50.940 the Hebrews tended their flocks. They did that in secrecy. During that time. 113 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:56.179 They watched over their shoulder to be sure the MIDIITES did not come in 114 00:10:56.419 --> 00:11:01.259 again and take every living animal or anything else that they could use for food, 115 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:09.049 and they tended their flocks and they watched carefully over them. These people, 116 00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:13.809 that chosen people of God, had reached a point where they were living 117 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:20.720 in caves in the mountain side when they should have been building cities or exercising 118 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.960 dominion over the Earth, if you will, as part of the ongoing program 119 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:33.110 that God would have for his people. Now, when they should have been 120 00:11:33.149 --> 00:11:39.509 pace setters, they were recoiling in fear like hiding animals. Finally, things 121 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:46.179 got so bad they did what we do. They cried out to the Lord. 122 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:56.700 Lord, help us. They cried out to God. We cry out 123 00:11:56.779 --> 00:12:01.649 like that, perhaps in an hospital ward or in our homes, when there 124 00:12:01.809 --> 00:12:09.009 is serious problems in the family, when we have tragedies that happened to us. 125 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:16.200 We call out to God as well. Lord help us the but in 126 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:24.120 this case there was universe. It was so universal among the Hebrews that they 127 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:28.840 were unified in one thing, the crying out to the Lord, and the 128 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:35.230 cry didn't fall on deaf ears. The Lord responded, any responded, as 129 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:41.590 he repeatedly responded. In the time called the period of the judges. He 130 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:46.700 sent a prophet, a spokesman, to speak the word to the people, 131 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:50.659 to try to get the message across. And when it gets to the nitty 132 00:12:50.740 --> 00:13:00.210 gritty of these things, a prophet often has a special way of speaking. 133 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:07.730 The message was he cites the past and points to the future. The only 134 00:13:07.769 --> 00:13:15.120 way anyone ever gets away from the Lord once he's dealt with them is to 135 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:20.320 spiritually lose their memory. Let me say that again. The only way one 136 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:26.080 ever gets away from the Lord and loses that connection once he's dealt with him 137 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:31.429 is to spiritually lose his memory, that as he forgets what God has done 138 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:35.629 for him, as we do. We've done it before, we'll do it 139 00:13:35.789 --> 00:13:39.269 again. It's a nature, all all the sin that is in us in 140 00:13:39.389 --> 00:13:45.659 many, many ways. But the prophet comes and it's not a new message. 141 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:50.259 He gives its history and I don't know if you're aware, I was 142 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:54.580 surprised when, somewhere along the lawn and seminary, I guess that, I 143 00:13:54.220 --> 00:14:01.090 discovered that the prophets message, unlike most of us think about prophets, was 144 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:05.330 not in the future. It was more history that they brought than it was 145 00:14:05.289 --> 00:14:09.450 things are speaking, things in the future. Although that was there, it 146 00:14:09.610 --> 00:14:13.799 was not their primary task, and the prophets are not primarily visionaries of the 147 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:18.840 future. In that sense, their message was history. History. Don't you 148 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:24.279 remember how he took you out of the land of Egypt? Don't you remember 149 00:14:24.549 --> 00:14:28.990 his mighty power that he showed? Don't you remember he gave you the land? 150 00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:35.269 Don't you remember he described it? Don't you remember how he told what 151 00:14:35.389 --> 00:14:39.779 he what he told you to do with that land? You have disobeyed him. 152 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:45.980 That's all that's wrong. You have forgotten to obey God. That was 153 00:14:46.059 --> 00:14:50.100 the bottom lawne of the solution of this. Well, how many listened? 154 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:58.250 It is not a novel. Novel message is don't you remember how he took 155 00:14:58.289 --> 00:15:01.330 us out of here, there and elsewhere? That was all that was wrong. 156 00:15:01.409 --> 00:15:07.960 And can't you see them hoping that the Lord would tell them something new, 157 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:15.000 something that they could hope in and someone would come and get them out 158 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:18.000 of this mess, a new theory or or whatever it might be. And 159 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:24.350 can't you see how whole hoping that the Lord would tell them something new rather 160 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:30.789 than getting the message about looking back to their past. And we do that 161 00:15:30.830 --> 00:15:35.470 as well when when things come along and there's a serious problem and and some 162 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:39.500 prophet comes in, so to speak, and may or may not talk about 163 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:45.779 the history of it, but we want something new, some magic that will 164 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:48.700 get us over something, rather than doing what we should have done in the 165 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:54.289 first place. And you have all disobeyed him. That's all that's wrong. 166 00:15:54.610 --> 00:16:00.570 Was the message that they were getting. Don't you remember these things? Well, 167 00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:07.240 how many listened? It's not a novel message, and we understand that 168 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:11.240 we will often do the same thing that the God, God's people has done 169 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:17.000 through their their lifetime, and God would have to come them back and after 170 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:22.509 time they would get the message and and would be under his leadership again and 171 00:16:22.870 --> 00:16:29.590 good things would happen, but they would lose their memory again. Well, 172 00:16:29.629 --> 00:16:34.940 we want something new to come and solve our problems. The Bible says his 173 00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:40.899 people had become evil. Now what do you think it means? Well, 174 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.700 it's spelled out he had gotten just like the other people in the area and 175 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:51.370 the land of the Amorites, they worshiped gods and they made their own that 176 00:16:51.490 --> 00:16:56.570 they made with their own hands. They assass stablished little altars on which they 177 00:16:56.850 --> 00:17:00.960 laid their sacrifices. They established little groves of some kind. I don't know 178 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:06.039 exactly what they looked like, but they're they were groves of some kind that 179 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:11.079 were going that had something for the gods as well. And have, having 180 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:17.869 done all of their little religious exercises, they got themselves into very big trouble. 181 00:17:18.789 --> 00:17:22.349 They talked to God that had made, they had made, they talked 182 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:26.750 to the gods that they had made, but things would only get worse and 183 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:33.099 worse and worse. And the children, the Hebrew children, how were they 184 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:37.339 brought up in all of this? To believe in bail, not to believe 185 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:44.650 in the Lord God, Jehovah. These are the problems that came from that 186 00:17:44.769 --> 00:17:49.250 kind of of living, to sacrifice to their God that the father had made 187 00:17:49.329 --> 00:17:53.529 out and out in the front yard, not to the Lord who had personally 188 00:17:53.650 --> 00:17:59.759 escorted them from slavery to freedom and from Egypt to this point in their history. 189 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:07.519 It is like a modern parent who is faithful with his family on Sunday 190 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:14.829 and brings his his family to the churches, and then for the rest of 191 00:18:14.910 --> 00:18:21.430 the week they pretty much leave them on their own in the religious institutions, 192 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:26.109 as I like to call them, called public schools, and establish all kinds 193 00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:32.980 of teaching that negates what they learned on Sunday. Do you not often wonder 194 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:37.740 how many people hear the message when it does come? But there is a 195 00:18:37.019 --> 00:18:44.289 there was a man whose father did not believe in God, and again this 196 00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:49.609 is tucked away in these early chapters of judges as it goes along. But 197 00:18:49.730 --> 00:18:59.559 the father had made his own little bit little bail and whose father had developed 198 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:08.119 a grove and the the altar was for bail and he customarily worshiped these false 199 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:18.430 gods. And that father's name was and the son's name was Gideon. The 200 00:19:18.589 --> 00:19:23.700 Angel came of the Lord came and sat under the tree as Gideon was thrushing 201 00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:30.099 his wheet. The Bible said he was thrushing near the wine press, as 202 00:19:30.140 --> 00:19:34.700 a scripture reading that we did get through said that he might was probably to 203 00:19:34.859 --> 00:19:40.609 hide from the ones that were coming in to steal whatever they could get, 204 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:45.490 perhaps in a corner of a cave, but he was hidden away. Therefore 205 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:49.210 he feared he would be heard and the wheat be stolen. That was by 206 00:19:49.289 --> 00:19:53.759 him at that point. Do you know what it's like to produce your own 207 00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:02.160 bread and eat it and feel like a prisoner who has stolen it? The 208 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:06.279 Hebrews had kind of reached that point. They feel like they were stealing their 209 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:07.869 own bread. If they got something to eat out of the land. That 210 00:20:08.190 --> 00:20:14.390 was theirs. The Angel, the Lord, spoke to Geteon. He said, 211 00:20:14.470 --> 00:20:18.349 thou art a mighty man of valor. The Lord is with you, 212 00:20:18.950 --> 00:20:23.180 Oh valiant warrior. Again the Lord is coming back to them. Quite frankly, 213 00:20:23.220 --> 00:20:27.259 I don't think that ever occurred to Gette in that he was a valiant 214 00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:33.859 warrior. Can you remember a stranger you once met who felt drawn to you 215 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:37.369 and he told you something you never heard before, something like no, you're 216 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:42.730 really a good man. Do you know that? You're really a good man? 217 00:20:44.089 --> 00:20:48.930 Boy, you're quite a woman. You know that, and we're kind 218 00:20:48.930 --> 00:20:52.359 of surprised and taken back and we probably don't know that, but we would 219 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:56.359 like to think that we might be sure. It would like to be something 220 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:02.200 like that. I wish I could evaluate myself as this total stranger does, 221 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:17.630 somehow instinctively, you know in your heart you you were drawn, you're drawn 222 00:21:17.750 --> 00:21:19.700 to your heart in the sense that I'm not, but I sure want to 223 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:23.579 be and I wish I could evaluate myself as a stranger does, and we 224 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:30.019 wonder, what can I do? How can I restart my life? Then 225 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:33.130 the angel disclose us that he's an angel of God. Do you know what? 226 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:40.769 Giddy and ask this Angel of God why? Why is all this happening 227 00:21:40.930 --> 00:21:45.529 to us? Have God's miracles stopped? Why is he permitted this to happen, 228 00:21:47.089 --> 00:21:52.079 meaning to me and those I love, those with whom I'm concerned? 229 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:56.319 Why is God doing this to us, which was part of our text as 230 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:00.710 well? We read in the Scriptures, and this is what we so often 231 00:22:00.990 --> 00:22:06.789 say as well. Not Sorry for doing wrong, can I get back on 232 00:22:06.950 --> 00:22:14.630 the team, but why is God doing this to us? But the angel 233 00:22:14.789 --> 00:22:19.539 disclose that he was an angel of God, the one that came to get 234 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:26.859 it. And you know what, Gette and ask the angel of God just 235 00:22:27.099 --> 00:22:32.970 what we do, as we mentioned, why are all of these things happening 236 00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:37.609 now? I hear that all the time as as a pastor or when I 237 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:41.609 was active as a pastor and you go to people that are in trouble and 238 00:22:41.849 --> 00:22:44.960 often the first thing is saying, why is God doing this to me? 239 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:48.960 Well, they haven't been in church for several months or not, don't hardly 240 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.920 remember who they are or things like that, and we all have that in 241 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:00.349 us, or most of assured. As I know people and as I know 242 00:23:00.509 --> 00:23:07.109 myself, they forgot the history. Never once do they stop to think that 243 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:11.980 it is addicted drugs or alcohol that is their own doing, or that she's 244 00:23:12.019 --> 00:23:18.380 pregnant out of wedlock by an illusit love, not by God, or that 245 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:22.420 the family is falling apart because they chose to ignore how God says to run 246 00:23:22.460 --> 00:23:27.089 a family, or that they are in flagrant disobedience of God every day of 247 00:23:27.170 --> 00:23:33.529 their lives and wonder why this happens. Their cry is, what did I 248 00:23:33.730 --> 00:23:37.250 do? Why has God let this happen to me? And thank God, 249 00:23:37.529 --> 00:23:41.160 many of us cry out to God, even if for the wrong reason. 250 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:48.319 God, what are you going to do about it? And we really ought 251 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.079 to be praying that God would do something about it in usket. You know, 252 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.269 Gideon was a lot like an American in some ways. Most people are 253 00:23:56.309 --> 00:24:03.269 the same. If they have the opportunity to act in certain circumstances. You're 254 00:24:03.390 --> 00:24:08.150 an angel of the Lord, he asks of this Messenger. Well, wait 255 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:11.539 a minute, he says. He goes and gets an offering that would be 256 00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:18.579 appropriate under oriental curiosity or courtesy. He wants the angel to prove that he's 257 00:24:18.619 --> 00:24:22.779 an angel of the Lord. So he lunch. If I'm talking to the 258 00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:27.289 Lord, I want to know it before I go venturing out on some venture 259 00:24:27.730 --> 00:24:33.289 on behalf of God. The Lord loves a pragmatist, I guess he thinks. 260 00:24:33.809 --> 00:24:38.680 Anyway. So getteon comes back bringing broth and other foods and he puts 261 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:45.880 all of this food on the altar and the angel says, now pour the 262 00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:49.480 broth out, and Geteon does as he's told. Put all the food on 263 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:56.069 the altar and put the put the broth over it, and Getteon does all 264 00:24:56.150 --> 00:25:00.470 that he's told, and suddenly the food is consumed by fire, just like 265 00:25:00.630 --> 00:25:07.059 that. And geteon was pretty much confessed at that point. Oh okay, 266 00:25:07.099 --> 00:25:11.660 the angel now gives a message. Get rid of the altar of bail. 267 00:25:12.660 --> 00:25:18.819 This is the one his father made. Get rid of this grove which was 268 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:22.930 grown to bail. Take the wood that has been a built to a false 269 00:25:23.049 --> 00:25:27.769 God and put it in an orderly fashion. After you cut it down and 270 00:25:29.009 --> 00:25:34.690 make an altar for the Lord God Jehovah. There must have been a stirring 271 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:40.680 n Gideon's heart when he first heard the words of the angel you are a 272 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:47.119 mighty man of valor. Surely he wanted to do something that required valor. 273 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.670 He was told what to do and he said, man a lot, that 274 00:25:52.869 --> 00:25:56.869 does require valor. I think I'll do it at night and not in the 275 00:25:56.950 --> 00:26:03.109 daylight. Well, that's okay. He got ten others to assist him in 276 00:26:03.029 --> 00:26:11.819 this destruction he was to do, and the eleven men went out at night, 277 00:26:11.539 --> 00:26:15.099 cut down the grove, destroyed the altar, constructed an altar to the 278 00:26:15.299 --> 00:26:22.369 Lord and made sacrifice. And you know what they say about small towns, 279 00:26:22.730 --> 00:26:26.329 or I sair do. I grew up in one of them things. Get 280 00:26:26.329 --> 00:26:30.369 around in a her you do something, the other side of the town knows 281 00:26:30.369 --> 00:26:37.359 it pretty quickly. By noon the next day everybody knew what Gideon had died. 282 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:42.359 He would home and demanded that his father. They went home there and 283 00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:48.029 demanded that his father, Joe Ash, who had built the altar, who 284 00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:52.750 was a bail worshiper, and who was a Hebrew, bring his son out 285 00:26:52.869 --> 00:26:57.910 that they might slay him. In the Far East there's a saying no one 286 00:26:57.950 --> 00:27:03.900 who is a carpenter of God's ever worships the God, and no one who 287 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:11.339 makes Buddha seeings is a Buddhist. Well, the father built an altar and 288 00:27:11.460 --> 00:27:15.450 the father prayed there, and the father would have known the results or lack 289 00:27:15.569 --> 00:27:26.170 of results. Would have known what the results would be of them tearing down 290 00:27:26.369 --> 00:27:29.250 what he had told them to do or what the angel had told them to 291 00:27:29.329 --> 00:27:34.160 do. We'll gideon if he's done damage to bail, and bail is God. 292 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:40.640 It was said. Well, Bay, if bail is God, let 293 00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:45.069 bail kill him. Let him settle the score, if bail is God. 294 00:27:45.190 --> 00:27:48.309 And since they also see it, say they believe in bail. They said 295 00:27:48.349 --> 00:27:52.190 that's not a bad proposition. Okay, they said, let's that make sense. 296 00:27:52.630 --> 00:27:57.150 We won't kill him, let bail kill him. But of course bail 297 00:27:57.190 --> 00:28:03.420 couldn't kill him because bail is like every God that's ever been created. He's 298 00:28:03.500 --> 00:28:08.339 dead. There's no life in him and it's a worthless thing. Now, 299 00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:15.970 then, Gideon is told to rouse the troops and go through out of the 300 00:28:17.049 --> 00:28:22.930 MIDIANITES midianites out. Lord, I want to be sure you're with me. 301 00:28:22.529 --> 00:28:27.839 How first of all, I'm going to put out a fleece and I want 302 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:34.640 it to be wet in the morning and everything around it dry. All right, 303 00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:40.200 the Lord says. The next morning the shore and lamb's wool was wet, 304 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:45.789 everything around it was dry. Gideon, squeeze the Fleece and out enough 305 00:28:45.910 --> 00:28:49.950 water to fill the small blue bowl of water. Full of confidence, Gideon 306 00:28:51.190 --> 00:28:56.259 asked God, then would you mind doing that again and reverse? I want 307 00:28:56.380 --> 00:29:02.460 the fleece to be dry this time and everything else wet. Well, the 308 00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:07.339 next morning the fleece was dry. God is doing all kinds of things for 309 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:14.769 his people after they complained about why he hasn't helped them, and they're on 310 00:29:14.849 --> 00:29:23.289 their way to getting themselves in the mess again. But incidentally, Gideon, 311 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:29.519 you've got too many men, says the Lord. You've got thirty twozero men. 312 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:33.599 Why don't you tell those that are faint hearted and don't want to go 313 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:38.190 to go on home? Well, that got rid of TENZERO men. You 314 00:29:38.309 --> 00:29:41.549 still got too many, the Lord said, because I know you. The 315 00:29:41.670 --> 00:29:48.150 tendency of man is to boast when he accomplishes something and to put his confidence 316 00:29:48.190 --> 00:29:51.950 in the things that he boast about, which are himself and what he's been 317 00:29:52.230 --> 00:30:00.059 able to do. Why is it that we feel so secure in ourselves when 318 00:30:00.059 --> 00:30:07.140 we think we're on a roll? Well, these problems go around. Why 319 00:30:07.250 --> 00:30:11.009 is it we feel so secure a quarter of a century ago? We felt 320 00:30:11.049 --> 00:30:18.250 very secure in that generation or generation a half ago about the pill, and 321 00:30:18.450 --> 00:30:23.960 there were more unwanted pregnancies at that point in American history than ever before. 322 00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:33.119 And yet we that boastful about the pill. We trust in things that should 323 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:37.950 not be trusted. It's hard to find an area and which we don't feel 324 00:30:37.509 --> 00:30:47.150 secure. We look as as as people in the political realm of worrying about 325 00:30:47.309 --> 00:30:51.900 world events and whether wars in the picture or not and whether we can fend 326 00:30:51.980 --> 00:30:56.140 off all of the enemies of might be against us or not and how that 327 00:30:56.299 --> 00:31:00.900 will all break down, and all kinds of things of that sort. And 328 00:31:00.099 --> 00:31:04.809 yet what is our confidence in the United States? Nuclear Power, missiles, 329 00:31:04.849 --> 00:31:10.849 high tech REP weaponry, and the most fearful nation of the nuclear power I 330 00:31:11.490 --> 00:31:15.690 understand, is the United States. I don't want you to boast, says 331 00:31:15.730 --> 00:31:23.680 the Lord. He tells Gideon to separate those who drink water in the fashion 332 00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:26.920 of a dog, I guess. It comes around and kind of just slops 333 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:32.279 it up in some way, and those that drink on the run, going 334 00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:34.750 along and just grabbing the waters, they go and can really do something, 335 00:31:34.829 --> 00:31:41.069 and that separate in that narrowed it down to three hundred members. Good enough, 336 00:31:41.109 --> 00:31:45.349 that's good enough. The Lord says. That way, I get the 337 00:31:45.509 --> 00:31:53.220 credit. You see what's going on. God knew who would take the victory 338 00:31:53.420 --> 00:32:01.769 in their honor if they succeeded. I will not rule over you. Get 339 00:32:01.849 --> 00:32:07.769 in responded in all of this. Haven't you got the message yet? The 340 00:32:07.930 --> 00:32:13.210 Lord will rule over you. But backing up, what what did he do? 341 00:32:14.009 --> 00:32:22.319 The hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen were eventually slain by God's grace in being 342 00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:25.200 on their side. And then they said to Gideon, that what you would 343 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:29.720 expect them to say. Why don't you be our king? Your son can 344 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:31.390 be a king after you, your son and the sun can be a king. 345 00:32:31.829 --> 00:32:37.230 Will set you up in the king's business if you will. The and 346 00:32:37.829 --> 00:32:40.549 my son will not rule over you. Getting said, I will not rule 347 00:32:40.630 --> 00:32:45.180 over you, the Lord will rule over you. Gideon had the message at 348 00:32:45.220 --> 00:32:51.740 that point. Haven't you got the message? Yet he told his people, 349 00:32:52.940 --> 00:32:55.660 but he had an afterthought. Remember, Gideon is a lot like an American 350 00:32:55.740 --> 00:33:00.890 here. I would like an ear ring from each of you from among your 351 00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:05.289 spoils of the battles. I wouldn't mind having the reminder of how well we 352 00:33:05.450 --> 00:33:09.009 did on these things, and I'd like an ear ring from each of you 353 00:33:09.089 --> 00:33:14.920 from among the spoils from the battles, which they presumably got from the spoils. 354 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:20.440 And Oh my, they said they threw down an ear ring, or 355 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:23.240 let's give you an ear ring, a golden ear ring. They were ready 356 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:27.829 to do that because they were thankful for what they were getting from him. 357 00:33:28.869 --> 00:33:34.029 They went further than he asked. They actually took golden neck pieces from the 358 00:33:34.109 --> 00:33:37.829 camels and pitched them in the pile and gave him purple robes and all kinds 359 00:33:37.869 --> 00:33:43.539 of finery. Now, one of the interesting things at that particular point was 360 00:33:43.779 --> 00:33:51.539 were was that those came from things that people wore, robe types of robes 361 00:33:51.700 --> 00:33:57.930 that people wore, and it was a kind of finery. And Gideon, 362 00:33:59.089 --> 00:34:02.329 they were called e thoughts, getting made what was called an ethod, which 363 00:34:02.609 --> 00:34:10.360 was that kind of clothing that commemorated certain things and at that time what that 364 00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:16.760 was used for in God's world was that it was worn by a priest of 365 00:34:16.840 --> 00:34:22.920 the Lord God Almighty. But apparently in this case it was made in the 366 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:29.710 it of something to symbolize or memorialize the victories of battle. It is like 367 00:34:30.190 --> 00:34:35.789 the hall of fame for Giddon. I confess to that I might be called 368 00:34:35.869 --> 00:34:39.059 a sports nut, at least in some areas, but the idea of a 369 00:34:39.139 --> 00:34:45.179 hall of fame amuses me a bit. I Hear Hall of fame for basketball 370 00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:52.099 and I remember sweaty shirts and a hall of fame of football and I think 371 00:34:52.179 --> 00:34:58.570 of dirty old uniforms and the worship being or memorializing such thing. And buildings 372 00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:01.730 a hall of fame so you can go in up look at these things and 373 00:35:02.250 --> 00:35:07.360 take pictures of them and maybe even have a Selfie with it. I confess 374 00:35:07.559 --> 00:35:13.960 of being amused quite a bit by those things, but we understand are built 375 00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:19.639 in thing to one a memory of something that you did right, particularly if 376 00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:22.630 you're like like some of us that don't do very much right. But something 377 00:35:22.670 --> 00:35:29.789 happens on the wall or whatever and we get attached to the things and they 378 00:35:29.869 --> 00:35:32.469 become God's to us. So often, and that was certainly the case there, 379 00:35:32.789 --> 00:35:38.940 in that environment, the ethods became a God, the one that Getton 380 00:35:39.099 --> 00:35:43.980 made from the the gold and the other things that he had been given, 381 00:35:44.780 --> 00:35:50.650 and apparently they established a place where those could be seeing and the people went 382 00:35:50.809 --> 00:35:58.289 there and they revered such objects as are commemorated in such places. The Bible 383 00:35:58.449 --> 00:36:04.559 tells us that the e fodd became a snare and God's words, he says, 384 00:36:04.599 --> 00:36:09.440 those became a snare, and what you want went was well, the 385 00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:15.199 our leader wasn't around anymore, but we can worship this ethodd and it can 386 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:22.469 be our God. That's essentially what it was, because people became spiritual adulterers 387 00:36:22.710 --> 00:36:30.030 over it. They did prayers or whatever bring bring their sacrifices to these manmade 388 00:36:30.230 --> 00:36:37.659 things rather than follow the eternal God it was. It was crazy, and 389 00:36:37.780 --> 00:36:45.420 yet that's what we crazy people do in one way or another. Remember the 390 00:36:45.539 --> 00:36:51.250 breast serpent the Moses made in the Wilderness. The people did evil in the 391 00:36:51.329 --> 00:36:54.849 side of low fought of the Lord. They later worshiped it instead of God, 392 00:36:55.769 --> 00:37:01.440 who gave them in the healing they need. They started worshiping again this 393 00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:08.480 will, what they referred to as a God, basically, and later as 394 00:37:08.519 --> 00:37:15.480 they worshiped it if the idol and the that needed to be destroyed. And 395 00:37:15.909 --> 00:37:21.750 bottom line of this peculiar episode is found in a few verses later, in 396 00:37:21.909 --> 00:37:28.429 Chapter Eight, in verses thirty three and thirty four of judges Chapter Eight. 397 00:37:29.789 --> 00:37:35.539 That just eight, Chapter Verse Thirty Three and Thirty Four. And it shall 398 00:37:35.659 --> 00:37:38.340 be at she'll come about in the morning, as soon as the sun goes 399 00:37:38.380 --> 00:37:44.690 up, that you shall rise early in the in the rush up on the 400 00:37:44.769 --> 00:37:49.130 city and behold, when he and the people who are with you come out 401 00:37:49.409 --> 00:37:58.639 against you, you shall do to them whatever you can. The e Fod 402 00:37:59.079 --> 00:38:04.800 became a snare because it began to be worshiped, and the success that it 403 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:12.000 symbolize isn't that's what's wrong in our lives. We so often worship the creation 404 00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:15.309 rather than the creator. Do you want to give me courage about the future 405 00:38:15.349 --> 00:38:23.309 site the past? Looking back, God, could God have been more gracious 406 00:38:23.630 --> 00:38:30.340 to us in our lives? Looking forward, isn't there stirring within you that 407 00:38:30.500 --> 00:38:37.980 you can be a courageous man for God if you seek his help? Stop 408 00:38:38.179 --> 00:38:43.570 Worshiping Symbols of power, of our power, our wealth, our influence, 409 00:38:43.690 --> 00:38:49.010 and covering as though you were an animal and hiding when things go bad. 410 00:38:50.050 --> 00:38:54.920 Men of God stand tall because they know they're very small without God's hand. 411 00:38:55.599 --> 00:39:01.000 The Biblical episode is a divine history lesson of our nation. We can on 412 00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:07.320 trusting ourselves and and what we have done. We can trust our government and 413 00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:10.989 our educators and our leaders to give morality where it's lack it, where we 414 00:39:12.070 --> 00:39:15.829 are lacking. We can worship our success, our wealth or power, and 415 00:39:16.070 --> 00:39:22.349 God will withdraw his blessings, as he did with Israel how many times, 416 00:39:22.429 --> 00:39:24.900 as you read to the Bible, and Israel did evil in the side of 417 00:39:24.940 --> 00:39:31.019 the Lord. Before long you getting them healed again and Israel did evil in 418 00:39:31.099 --> 00:39:37.059 the sight of the Lord. They weren't very good back then and I don't 419 00:39:37.059 --> 00:39:43.130 think we're necessarily any better, but God wants us to be. He will 420 00:39:43.210 --> 00:39:47.289 help us. He brought good get in out for a purpose, but it 421 00:39:47.409 --> 00:39:52.570 has his faults. We all do that. I think the lesson that we 422 00:39:52.730 --> 00:39:58.360 see here is that the bail us are worthless and we understand that, but 423 00:39:59.320 --> 00:40:04.679 we need to understand we have our own variation of God's at times that can 424 00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:07.510 be so and it's something we need to work on all the time. And 425 00:40:07.909 --> 00:40:12.829 maybe we have the courage to stand tall by putting ourselves on our knees, 426 00:40:12.869 --> 00:40:17.789 as it were, and men of God can stand tall because they know they're 427 00:40:17.829 --> 00:40:23.340 very small without God's hand, but with God we can. We can go 428 00:40:23.539 --> 00:40:30.860 out and see God's kingdom built and see our children on our families prosper and 429 00:40:31.019 --> 00:40:38.530 the Church of God grow and do well. In these matters and in the 430 00:40:38.650 --> 00:40:45.809 Old Testament there's so many evidences of these things and there are so many examples 431 00:40:45.969 --> 00:40:50.599 of our variation of it, and I just hope that we all can keep 432 00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:55.079 this in mind as we think about the come and go all this Old Testament 433 00:40:55.239 --> 00:41:00.039 story. And there's many more back there that have stories that will be much 434 00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:05.110 fuller told, and I could do tonight. I told you I wasn't a 435 00:41:05.150 --> 00:41:09.510 good storyteller. I think I proved it. But we need to see what 436 00:41:09.750 --> 00:41:15.190 God does in these different situation and what it says speaks to us, and 437 00:41:15.349 --> 00:41:28.659 may God give us the ability to do that. Let us pray, Oh 438 00:41:28.780 --> 00:41:37.530 heavenly father, as we think of our sin, as we think of ourselves 439 00:41:37.650 --> 00:41:44.730 as being men of Valor Women of Valor at times, as we want to 440 00:41:44.889 --> 00:41:54.559 enjoy and sometimes put too much enjoyment in something we've accomplished, give us and 441 00:41:54.800 --> 00:42:00.510 even road to go, that we might not go down these paths of evil, 442 00:42:00.590 --> 00:42:05.269 but that we might stay on the things that God would give us to 443 00:42:05.349 --> 00:42:13.230 do. And father, help us in seeing thy kingdom established and forgive us 444 00:42:13.349 --> 00:42:19.940 and keep us in the wisdom what our Old Testament fathers new and learned and 445 00:42:20.900 --> 00:42:25.420 carried through to our new testament days and what Jesus exemplified. In the ultimate 446 00:42:25.539 --> 00:42:34.050 thing of the way of victory, there is no other but Christ in him 447 00:42:34.050 --> 00:42:40.489 alone, who is very God and Very God and the Holy Spirit and the 448 00:42:40.570 --> 00:42:46.440 Lord God Almighty. May He bless us, forgive us and keep us and 449 00:42:46.679 --> 00:42:51.559 hear our prayer for his sake. Amen.