Introduction – The cycle begins
again. This time, in the story of
Gideon, three chapters of details will need to be considered. And once again, we will see many details are
given to us for the purpose of speaking to us of our Great Deliverer, Jesus
Christ.
The Midianites
– The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by Keturah and they become known generally also as the Ishmaelites. They
buy Joseph and then sell him to Potiphar. The Kenites are a
subset of the Midianites, from whom Jethro, Moses’ father in law is a priest. The Midianites
joined with king Balak and the Moabites in trying to
curse and destroy the Israelites, and it was a Midianite
woman who was pierced through while joined to an Israelite by Phineas in Numbers 25.
The Midianites were severely routed under
Moses in Numbers 31. Some 200 years
later, God is now using them as a scourge of chastisement upon His own people.
Terrible
Oppression (vv 1-6) – ‘Doing evil’, remember, is
the code-word in Judges for idolatry.
After forty years of rest,
“Obvious” Words
(vv7-10) – Before He sends them a deliverer, God sends them a prophet. This prophet, in essence, prepared the way
for the deliverer to come. But this
prophet did not bring any new prophecies.
He simply declared what had once again been forgotten, discarded as
antiquated religious and historical interpretations. Verse 10 again makes clear that the main
problem is not oppression, but Baalism. False worship, false gods, and disobedience
to Jehovah, are destroying the nation, not the oppression of the Midianites.
God is With You (v11-12) – God,
having declared Israel’s unfaithfulness, shows forth His own mercy in coming to
be with His people. The angel of the
Lord appears to the foot of a terebinth tree, once
again a symbol of the place where God meets man. Gideon is hiding in a winepress, trying to
secretly thresh what little wheat his father has hid from the marauding
band. All of this symbolism points to a
lack of communion with God.
The Promise of
Presence (vv12-13) - The angel declares that the Lord is
with Gideon. Immanuel has
come. Because God is with him, Gideon
will be a valiant warrior. Gideon’s
response is one of faith, for he acknowledges that the oppression is from the
hand of God.
The Promise of
Strength (vv14-15) – Gideon is declared by the LORD to
be mighty because God is sending him.
Gideon is dumbfounded. He is of
the weakest clan in a half-tribe of Israel, he is the least in his father’s
house, and he is down in an empty winepress threshing wheat like an ox. Other younger sons have been selected by the
Lord before (Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph), and others will be (David, and Jesus,
the second Adam). Strength comes from
the selection of God, leaving no room for presumption.
The Promise of
Victory (v16) – The Lord rewards this humility with yet
a third promise. Because God is with
him, Gideon’s victory will be total.
Moses was considered the meekest man in the Old Covenant, and like
Moses, Gideon now asks for a sign.
The Sign of Restored Communion
(vv 17-21) - Why does Gideon choose this
sign? What is his nagging question? It is this:
Is God with us? Have we been
reconciled to Him? Only then can we have
confidence that He will deliver us. So
He prepares an offering (a modified peace offering), and the fire that consumes
it leaves no room for doubt – Gideon has been with God.
Grace, Fear,
and Peace (vv 22-24) – Having witnessed a picture of his
or Israel’s atonement, one would expect Gideon to be filled with rejoicing and
joy. Instead, we find him scared to
death. No one sees Jehovah and
lives. This sounds so strange to us; we
have lost the sense of terror in the awesomeness of God. But if there is nothing terrifying about
God’s holiness then there is really nothing amazing about His grace. God, having received this substitutionary
sacrifice declares peace with Gideon. He
has passed the judgment. Gideon built a
memorial-altar which was visible for generations to come, reminding the people
of God’s judgment and God’s peace. In
the New Covenant, the Lord’s Supper is our reminder of God’s judgment and peace
through Jesus Christ. It is our time to
sup in the presence of Jehovah.
Another
Forerunner, Another Threshing Floor (Luke 3:3-4, 15-17) –
We are invited to see the shadows of our Great Deliverer in the book of
Judges. Once again, there are several
similarities, this time, to the prophet John, and his description of the
ministry of Christ the Thresher.
The Grace of
Speaking the Truth About Sin - There is no good
news if there is no bad news. Our
culture hates to bring up our own sin and idolatry. But ‘we have reason to hope God is
designing mercy for us if we find He is by His grace preparing us for it’ – M.
Henry. External oppression is simply
the symptom. Covenantal disobedience
(idolatry, sin) is causing the problems.
Real Peace
– Peace is not about a feeling inside your belly. Peace is about relationship; and primarily
your relationship with God. The
declaration of peace is a declaration of the restored, reconciled relationship
that we have been given, all of grace, by God (Luke 2:14, John 14:27, 16:33,
Rom 5:1). It is this covenant renewed
with Him that we share as we come to the Table of our Lord. But we must come with faith, or He will not
come to us as our peace (Matt 10:34-39).
This peace, this relationship, requires holiness.