Victory
Through Faithfulness
September 1, 2013
BMC- Judges 7:1-21
Introduction:
Story
Have
you ever read or heard a story that just grabbed you and wouldn’t let go? The words and the images just kept playing
through your mind. There was something
about it that called you into a deeper world like a siren’s song enveloping
you. You didn’t know what it was about
it that had captured you, but you found your mind returning to it in those
times between other thoughts, those times in which your mind was free to
wander.
Or
have you ever found yourself so drawn to a character that the words he speaks
sound like your own words and the thoughts she thinks sound like your own
thoughts? Perhaps sometimes that
character was able to put into words that which you had been previously unable
to explain, but that you too experienced at a profoundly deep or even
subconscious level. Even if you didn’t
find the answers that you needed in their experiences or the resolution you
desired in their story, you found a comfort and a familiarity in sitting with
them and dwelling in their story.
I
sometimes find myself deeply identifying with a particular Bible story or
character. Recently it has been Gideon
and the story of his victory over the Midianites in Judges 7. It is a story that I am still dwelling in and
wrestling with so I come this morning less with answers and more with questions. But I would like to invite you to join me in
the dance of discerning what it is that God has for us within this story.
Gideon and the
Shrinking Army
- Doubt
We
just heard the story read and I’m sure that it is one that is familiar to many
of you. But let’s take a step back into
the world of Gideon in the time of the judges.
The Midianites and their allies had crossed over the Jordan and were
camping out. And the spirit of the Lord
came upon Gideon, he blew his trumpet and he assembled his army. The spirit of the Lord was upon him, he had a
large army and yet Gideon doubted.
Perhaps
he doubted his ability to lead or to engage in military strategy. Perhaps he doubted his army’s skill at
fighting or their courage to hold their ground.
Perhaps he doubted his ability to clearly hear God’s words or the
firmness of God’s resolve. I too have my
doubts at times. Don’t we all? Even in the midst of a clear call from God
and a seemingly clear path forward, we can find ourselves second guessing
ourselves or doubting the path.
My
freshman year of college, I began as a double major: religion and elementary
education. There’s nothing wrong with
that in and of itself. Lots of people do
it, but I was following my sense of call to be a pastor and yet I was taking on
a second major in case this ministry thing didn’t work out. There was wisdom in doing both majors and
having both now would allow me more options in my career path, but at the time
I realized that I was creating a safety net for myself rather than trusting in
God. I was doing it more out of doubt
than out of faithfulness and within the first quarter, I dropped the elementary
ed. major.
We
as a congregation have a long history and have followed faithfully in God’s
call. We have been a haven and a
training ground for sending out people to serve God’s purposes whether that be
in pastoral ministry, the mission field or even in their chosen secular
vocation. But I wonder if we still find
ourselves doubting our call at times. I
wonder if we second guess ourselves.
- Confirmation
Gideon
had a sense of doubt, but look at what he does with his doubt. Gideon asked God to confirm this call and the
victory that he would have. In a humble
spirit, Gideon took his doubt before the Lord and sought confirmation. He sought a sign.
Gideon
placed a wool fleece on the threshing floor.
He said that if there were dew only on the fleece and the ground was dry
in the morning, then he would know that God would save Israel by Gideon’s hand. When Gideon rose the next morning, he
squeezed the fleece and wrung out a bowlful of water even though the ground
around it was dry. God performed a
miraculous sign and we say to ourselves that Gideon should have been full of
confidence that God was with him, right?
And yet Gideon wasn’t.
Gideon
still wasn’t convinced. We know how it
is, don’t we? The answer is before us
clear as day and yet these gnawing doubts enter into our minds. Perhaps Gideon thought someone spilled their
drink on the fleece over night. Maybe he
wondered if an animal had slept on the fleece and drooled all over it. Perhaps he thought, “Maybe it wasn’t really
God, maybe it was coincidence.” Whatever
his doubts were, Gideon asked for a second confirmation. But this time he reversed the test. This time he said that the fleece should
remain dry while the ground became covered in dew. And once again, the miraculous happened. This time the fleece remained dry and the
ground was covered in dew.
Gideon
received a double confirmation that God was going to give him the victory over
the Midianites. How often do we find
ourselves doing a similar thing? How
often do we ask for a sign from God and when the sign comes we doubt its
validity and seek another sign? I
certainly have. Haven’t we all?
I
was in middle school when I first sensed the call to ministry, but I found
myself in need of confirmation. And I
honestly don’t remember which came first anymore, but I remember being at
church camp when I received a confirmation.
We were going to play a game that was meant to be a simulation of the
early church. People were secretly
assigned roles. Some were Christians,
some were magistrates, some were prison gaurds and one was the pastor.
The
goal was for the Christians to have a church service by a certain time that evening
while the officials were trying to stop it.
And we all knew who some of the people were and some of us knew who some
of the people were, but there were also people that we didn’t know for sure. We didn’t know if they were a Christian or a
spy of the officials.
In
my eighth grade old mind, I said to God that if I received the slip of paper
that said “pastor” on it that I would know that God had called me to be a
pastor. That would be a confirmation for
me, and when the slips of paper were passed out, I did receive the slip that
said “pastor” on it. At first, I
received that as a confirmation.
But
as time passed, I again had my doubts and I needed another confirmation. I went in to talk with my pastor. I shared my sense of call and I shared my reservations. He listened and he raised important questions
in reply and added his affirmation to my call to the ministry. I received at least a double confirmation.
Do
we as a congregation also seek confirmation’s from God that we are on the right
track? If so, are we paying attention to
the right signs? And if we are receiving
confirmations, are we moving ahead with confidence or do we find ourselves with
more doubts?
- faithfulness
Gideon
had his doubts and he received a double confirmation, but then things got
really interesting. Gideon and his men
were camped out and the Midianites were camped out north of them. It seemed that all was set for the battle
when God said, “You have too many men. I
cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My
own strength has saved me.’”
God
told Gideon to announce to the army that “Anyone who trembles with fear may
turn back and leave.” Get this… 22,000
men left. Gideon had an army of 32,000
men. 22,000 men left and Gideon was down
to an army of 10,000. Can you imagine
what was going through Gideon’s mind at this point? With an army of 32,000, Gideon needed double
proof that God would deliver them. Now
he was down to a 1/3 of that. He had to
be thinking to himself, “What is God doing here? This doesn’t make any sense. This is crazy.” But here’s the thing. God wasn’t done yet.
The
Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin
them out for you there.” There is some
debate here and some difference in translation at times about what the test
actually was, but Gideon took them down to the water and separated them out
based on who lapped the water with their tongues as a dog from those who knelt
down to drink. Only 300 of them drank
from cupped hands lapping like dogs. All
the rest got on their knees to drink.
God
sent away those who got on their knees to drink. God sent away another 9,700 men from the
army. Gideon’s army was now one percent,
one one-hundredth, of what it had been. God said that with these three hundred
remaining that He would deliver them. It
would not be by their numbers or by their abilities that God would deliver
them. It would be through their
faithfulness to following God’s instructions, as counter intuitive as they may
be, that God would bring about the victory.
I
have shared with a number of you that I believe deep down that God has big
things in mind for Bethel. That God has
a plan for us and that we are on the verge of something big. I don’t know yet what that may look like, but
I can feel it within the depths of my very being. And yet I sometimes find myself sitting back
and asking, but if that is true then what in the world is God doing here in
shrinking our numbers?
We
know that over the last 7-8 years, our worship attendance has gone down. We know that over the years that God has
called people away. God has called them
to move elsewhere or God has called them to service. There’s no single reason why our numbers are
down and we can become despondent and ask what is wrong with us? Why is this happening? And we may even become fearful at times about
what the future has for us.
But
I as I read the story of Gideon and I hear about how God shrank the army to
bring about His kingdom purposes, I begin to ask different questions. I begin to wonder, what is God’s purpose for
Bethel? What “battle” is God preparing
us for and what victory does God have before us? How might our shrinking numbers turn our
attention to God and lead us to give God the credit for it rather than
believing that it was by our own strength or abilities that the “battle” was
won.
The
victory came not by Gideon’s ability as a leader. The victory came not by the numbers or
strength of his army. The victory came
by faithfulness to the Lord who brought about the victory for the
Israelites. It was only by God’s doing
that the Israelites had victory that day, and everyone knew it.
Could
it be that God is doing a similar thing in our midst? Could it be that God is preparing us for a
victory that will clearly be by His own doing, a victory that we will not be
able to take credit for? A victory that
requires few rather than many?
It
used to be that we grew numerically by having babies, welcoming people from
Adriel or Oak Hill when they moved to the area, or through our youth inviting
them. Yet times have changed and methods
that used to work no longer work for us.
Could it be that through the realities that we experience that God is
inviting us to faithfulness and to a reliance on Him for the victory rather
than upon ourselves?
And
notice one more thing before we return to the story. It is the fearful who are the first to be
dismissed. The 22,000 soldiers who were
scared were the first to leave. They
were not a part of the initial victory at the Midianite camp. It is natural for us to be fearful of the
unknown, but God calls us to set aside our fearfulness and to dwell in
faithfulness and trust in Him.
- An unexpected word
But
we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Gideon
had his doubts, he received a double confirmation, and then God shrank his
army. And so we may not be surprised
that on the night before the battle, Gideon was laying in his tent afraid and
doubting that Israel would have victory over the Midianites in the
morning. He had received two
confirmations with the fleece, but now for every 100 men he had, only one
remained. And God spoke to Gideon and told him that if he was afraid he should
go down to his enemy’s camp. Clearly
Gideon was afraid because he got up and went.
When
he arrived he found a vast encampment with camels beyond count. As he arrived, he heard a man telling his
friend a dream. “I had a dream. A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling
into the Midianite camp. It struck the
tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.” His friend then interpreted the dream and
said, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash the
Israelite. God has given the Midianites
and the whole camp into his hands.”
Hearing
this dream and its interpretation from his enemies caused Gideon to worship and
then to go back to his camp to gather his troops. It is interesting to me that the confirmation
that makes Gideon most confident doesn’t come from his own sense of call or his
own confirmations that he set up with the fleece. The confirmation that is most powerful for
him is the one that came from someone outside of his people, from an unexpected
source.
In
high school, people knew that I planned to go into the ministry. And you would think that those who were also
of faith would be the most supportive of that call, and yet I found that my
best friend who was an atheist was the one who was most convinced of my
call. And my high school girlfriends who
claimed to be Christians were the ones who seemed the most uncertain or
dismissive about my call.
And
I wonder as we continue to discern and seek God’s leading for us as a people,
if we too might find the confirmation or the direction that we need not within
our own circles but in the midst of the community around us, from people who
may not even be of faith. At times we
come to believe that God can only speak through people of faith. And yet here within the story of Gideon, we see
that God spoke very clearly through these Midianites and it was the word that
Gideon needed.
- Uncommon implements
Now
Gideon was confident. He divided his 300
men into three groups of 100 each. And
he gave them trumpets and empty jars with torches inside of them. He gave them instructions to follow his
lead. Not only did he have a very small
army, but also he armed them with rather uncommon implements for battle. He did not arm them with swords and shields
but with trumpets, torches and jars.
When
he and his army reached the edge of the Midianite camp in the middle watch of
the night, they stood on three sides of the camp and Gideon blew his trumpet
and broke his jar. The whole army
followed Gideon’s lead and they raised their torches and blew their trumpets. And as they did this, the whole Midianite
camp ran, crying out as they fled. The
Midianites were startled to wakefulness and in their confusion they panicked
and ran, not knowing that it was only 300 men who had surrounded them.
As
Christians we name uncommon implements for the battles that we face in life as
well. We wield the implements of love,
forgiveness and reconciliation. We
buckle the belt of truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, fit our feet
with the gospel of peace. We take up the
shield of faith, don the helmet of salvation, and wield the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:10-18)
Now
as we face a new world around us, as we engage with a culture in which the
church is no longer the center and technology is ever changing; I wonder what
uncommon implements we may be called to use in our work for the kingdom. I wonder what are our trumpets, our jars and
our torches?
Conclusion:
As I have wrestled with this story of Gideon, I have
found myself identifying with his doubt and with the double confirmation that
he received. But I have also found
myself wondering what it means to remain faithful in the midst of shrinking
numbers knowing that the fearful were not present for the initial victory. I have found myself wondering what
confirmation we might receive from those outside of our fold and from whom or
where that might come. And I have found
myself wondering what our uncommon implements may be.
But those are just my wonderings.
As you have dwelled with this story this morning, what is it that this
story invites you to wonder about? In
what ways does it invite you to imagine new possibilities? Take a moment to consider this in silence.
{Pause} {Pray}
Amen.
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